You can also get it from firewood, and from the smoke produced when burning wood that it grew on. At least it goes away after a while! Hang in there!

Henry, you're as human as all the rest of us. I think it's funny that you called yourself out! :lol:

:) Force of habit. :)

Hot bath with some oatmeal in a cheesecloth, calamine lotion, benadryl and some mittens. Oh, and some quilting mags...or a trashy novel. :)

I read some where that the inside of a banana peel rubbed on the affected areas will work wonders.

If you have a severe case, sounds like going back to the doc is the thing to do. When it is so bad you can also wind up getting a secondary infection. Hope you feel better soon!

strange how that stuff works. My grandmother was allergic, Mom is not, and I am. When I would get it as a kid Mom put me in the bath and :shock: used a scrub brush and a bar of lye soap. Once she broke the blisters and scrubbed me with the lye soap...it cleared up. I really wouldn't recommed this today....the lye soap really burned. Years later when she moved, Mom found that old bar of lye soap and asked if I wanted it. Ummmm...NO THANK YOU!!! I still have enough vivid memories of those baths.
You do, however, need to clean the dogs collars and anything else that they have come into contact with.
(If nothing else...someone got a chuckle out of this I'm sure.)

I've never had poison ivy, but I am very allergic to poison oak. I can get it within 20 minutes of contact. Whenever I get it I have to go to the DR. and get a shot of steroids and oral steroids. I also up the inhalers and only take cold showers. One time I got it so bad that I had to have my sister take me to the ER and when I went in the blisters were so bad that all the nurses came running out in a panic because they thought I had been badly burned. After I told them it was poison oak they started laughing at me and brought everyone else out so they could see. I had to take a month and a half off work till I got rid of all the blisters and swelling.

Yea I have gotten it in winter, from my dog. He loves going up into the woods. Then in the evenings, he lays on the floor in front of me, and I rub him with my feet. Yup, you guessed it, poison ivy on my feet. I am very sensitive to it, you mow it near me, I have it. I once got it from a camp fire so bad I had to go to the emergency room twice. My eyes swelled shut. My dad could eat the tiny leaves, he said that was his immunization for it. But I refused to try it, I always had it bad.

I know Aveno makes a great oatmeal bath that works for chicken pox (which I caught at 30). It is extremely soothing if nothing more than the few minutes you can lay down in it. Wish I could help we dont have poison ivy here and I have been thus far able to avoid poison oak.