I have had some terrible times w/ PI! There was only 1 product I ever had that worked, and when it ran low and I couldnt find it I called the # on the empty bottle and the co had stopped making it!!!!!!!!!
After that I read up on PI and how it works:
1. it doesnt affect @ 10% of the pop.
2. the first time you contact PI plants nothing happens cus your body has not made the antibodies for the plant chemicals, it makes it thru this first contact, thereafter you break out worse as you get sucessive contact. (FYI: they tried making a chemical weapon out of PI plant oil!)
3. PI reaction is created by touching the plant and transferring oil to any exposed skin (so fine an amt you dont even feel it)
4. animals dont break out but can carry the oil. (They dont have human antibodies in their systems.)
5. PI reaction is your bodies antibodies fighting a foreign substance in you - the itch/blisters/weepy pusules are the result of your own antibodies at work. (bigger blister better antibodies at work I guess!)
6. There are several thoughts on the following: when the PI oil touches you and your antibodies make the blisters, the water in the blister also contains the chemical substance of the plant oil - there is a chemical reaction and your antibodies are turned into the plant chemical ) and as you scratch it and rub the water around it spreads the stuff over greater body surface, which just makes more antibodies come to the area and make more blisters. (some professionals say yes, some say no, personally I think this is true)
7. (also, if you try to burn the plant stay out of the smoke, smoke carries the oil and you can get this reaction inside of you, too.)
So, here is what I do/did.
1. First recognize the plant everywhere u r. keep pets out of it, use agent orange if you have to to kill it! some places its growing 3 seasons a yr.
2. if you think you touched it, you have @ 1/2 hr to get the oil off or it will get into your skin. wash w/ something like dawn dish soap. wash in the shower! all over. cold water!
3. if you will be out in brush there are some things at the drug store you rub on first, (I forget the name) it s clear and feels funny, sticky/dry, but it makes a barrier on your skin. when you come in from being outside, again wash up w/ dawn liquid.
wash in cool/cold water! warm/hot water opens the pores of your body making the oil get in you faster rather than wash off.
4. it wont go away any sooner than it takes your individual body to respond to the oil chemicals. for me its nearly 2 weeks.
5. use plain old fashioned calomine lotion! you will itch but this keeps drying up the blisters your body is making. twice a day, every day I did this: unwrap loose bandages, scratch like a fool and break open all my blisters, wash broken skin in dawn, then blot w/ paper towels, MAKE SURE ANY PART OF THE PAPER THAT TOUCHED A BLISTER DOES NOT TOUCH ANY OTHER PART OF YOU! Keep soaking up all the ooze as it comes up. put calomine on all blisters, keep going back and soaking ooze up, until the blisters crust over, then, more calomine, wrap very loose in gauze so if they break open the ooze wont get anywhere else on you. Take tons of benedryl to knock you out at nite so you can sleep. take benedryl during the day.
6. this will spread from your body to your clothes, too so be aware of what you touch and if you think a blister has touched clothing immediately get dawn on the cloth to lift the oil.
7. this from experience - everywhere the ooze touches will take the same 2 weeks to heal if you get a new blister in that spot, make sure you put calomine way out past the area of the first blisters.
I got PI so bad the first time it showed up and I was on a business trip. someone told me vit E would help so I was putting vit E oil from capsules on me and everywhere vit E oil went I spread PI oil!! I didnt know. by the time I got home I had PI up both arms, behind my knees, up my legs, going up my sides, around to my back! what a mess and I had to fly that way.
The next time i got it I read up on the plant in a medical book and I contained it better. The last time I got into the plant I immediately washed up in dawn and ended up w/ 3 blisters on my hands. I was rabid in containing these 3 blisters! and scraped them open twice a day and scratched myself silly under running cold water and sucked the ooze w/ pcs of TP, calomined my whole hands and it never spread and was done in under 2 weeks! share t (hope this helped anyone out there)