poison ivy
05-24-2011, 06:48 PM
#81
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Woodbury, MN
Posts: 1,027
My hubby had a horrible case of poison ivy about a year ago. Nothing seemed to help - he was miserable. One thing he said that soothed it a little bit was taking baths in the Aveeno oatmeal bath stuff. It comes in packets. He said don't take hot baths.
For him it was the Prednisone that finally helped but I know you said you can't take that.
I feel sorry for you.
For him it was the Prednisone that finally helped but I know you said you can't take that.
I feel sorry for you.
05-24-2011, 09:08 PM
#82
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Portland, OR via Hawaii
Posts: 1,342
I dont' know if this will help, but have you done a Google search?
I many sites but picked the following as an example of some info............but you probably know all about it from experience.
http://www.poison-ivy.org/html/faq.htm
I've only seen once case and it was horrible looking! I'm from Hawaii, and although I have lived in the midwest, I still wouldn't know it if I sat next to it!
Get better soon.
I many sites but picked the following as an example of some info............but you probably know all about it from experience.
http://www.poison-ivy.org/html/faq.htm
I've only seen once case and it was horrible looking! I'm from Hawaii, and although I have lived in the midwest, I still wouldn't know it if I sat next to it!
Get better soon.
05-24-2011, 11:04 PM
#83
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Port Lavaca, TX
Posts: 1,276
Originally Posted by Barbm
I've had a nasty case of sytemic poison ivy for 10 days. I've had 2 steroid shots (I'm allergic to prednisone) but still continue to break out, although not as severe.
I've tried:
Avenno showers 2 x a day
hydrocortisone cream from dr.
tried vinegar one night- think the poison ivy said yummy and was worse than ever.
Now using lye soap. It seems to calm my hands the best.
I have it:
both sides of neck- started at sides and met in the middle, right ear and side of face and around eye
left side of face at hairline
left shoulder
inside my left arm (where I draped the shirt I was wearing over my arm to take to laundry room) which is now up to my shoulder and I have stripes (like a cat scratched- 3 stripes) inside my left wrist
left hand- ring finger and middle finger, knuckle of thumb.
right hand- all over the back of the hand, index finger and middle finger are so swollen I can't close my hand, ring finger and the tops of all 4 fingers are stripes. It all started on the side of my right hand with a strip about 1/2" wide by 3" long. There was a scratch there and the poison ivy probably used that to get into my blood stream.
I also have it under the bra, around the front of my waist, at my left hip and across my fat roll about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long.
This morning I have 4 dots on the top of my right leg each about 3 inches apart. I am sure they will play connect the dots soon.
Any more ideas? I don't like to take drugs but I'm thinking I may need another shot.
(I am left handed but you don't realize how much you use the opposite hand for everything- no gardening, no dishes, hurts to handle fabric. All I did all week end was put together an adirondack rocking chair.)
Thanks!
Barb
I've tried:
Avenno showers 2 x a day
hydrocortisone cream from dr.
tried vinegar one night- think the poison ivy said yummy and was worse than ever.
Now using lye soap. It seems to calm my hands the best.
I have it:
both sides of neck- started at sides and met in the middle, right ear and side of face and around eye
left side of face at hairline
left shoulder
inside my left arm (where I draped the shirt I was wearing over my arm to take to laundry room) which is now up to my shoulder and I have stripes (like a cat scratched- 3 stripes) inside my left wrist
left hand- ring finger and middle finger, knuckle of thumb.
right hand- all over the back of the hand, index finger and middle finger are so swollen I can't close my hand, ring finger and the tops of all 4 fingers are stripes. It all started on the side of my right hand with a strip about 1/2" wide by 3" long. There was a scratch there and the poison ivy probably used that to get into my blood stream.
I also have it under the bra, around the front of my waist, at my left hip and across my fat roll about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long.
This morning I have 4 dots on the top of my right leg each about 3 inches apart. I am sure they will play connect the dots soon.
Any more ideas? I don't like to take drugs but I'm thinking I may need another shot.
(I am left handed but you don't realize how much you use the opposite hand for everything- no gardening, no dishes, hurts to handle fabric. All I did all week end was put together an adirondack rocking chair.)
Thanks!
Barb
05-24-2011, 11:04 PM
#84
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Port Lavaca, TX
Posts: 1,276
Originally Posted by Barbm
I've had a nasty case of sytemic poison ivy for 10 days. I've had 2 steroid shots (I'm allergic to prednisone) but still continue to break out, although not as severe.
I've tried:
Avenno showers 2 x a day
hydrocortisone cream from dr.
tried vinegar one night- think the poison ivy said yummy and was worse than ever.
Now using lye soap. It seems to calm my hands the best.
I have it:
both sides of neck- started at sides and met in the middle, right ear and side of face and around eye
left side of face at hairline
left shoulder
inside my left arm (where I draped the shirt I was wearing over my arm to take to laundry room) which is now up to my shoulder and I have stripes (like a cat scratched- 3 stripes) inside my left wrist
left hand- ring finger and middle finger, knuckle of thumb.
right hand- all over the back of the hand, index finger and middle finger are so swollen I can't close my hand, ring finger and the tops of all 4 fingers are stripes. It all started on the side of my right hand with a strip about 1/2" wide by 3" long. There was a scratch there and the poison ivy probably used that to get into my blood stream.
I also have it under the bra, around the front of my waist, at my left hip and across my fat roll about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long.
This morning I have 4 dots on the top of my right leg each about 3 inches apart. I am sure they will play connect the dots soon.
Any more ideas? I don't like to take drugs but I'm thinking I may need another shot.
(I am left handed but you don't realize how much you use the opposite hand for everything- no gardening, no dishes, hurts to handle fabric. All I did all week end was put together an adirondack rocking chair.)
Thanks!
Barb
I've tried:
Avenno showers 2 x a day
hydrocortisone cream from dr.
tried vinegar one night- think the poison ivy said yummy and was worse than ever.
Now using lye soap. It seems to calm my hands the best.
I have it:
both sides of neck- started at sides and met in the middle, right ear and side of face and around eye
left side of face at hairline
left shoulder
inside my left arm (where I draped the shirt I was wearing over my arm to take to laundry room) which is now up to my shoulder and I have stripes (like a cat scratched- 3 stripes) inside my left wrist
left hand- ring finger and middle finger, knuckle of thumb.
right hand- all over the back of the hand, index finger and middle finger are so swollen I can't close my hand, ring finger and the tops of all 4 fingers are stripes. It all started on the side of my right hand with a strip about 1/2" wide by 3" long. There was a scratch there and the poison ivy probably used that to get into my blood stream.
I also have it under the bra, around the front of my waist, at my left hip and across my fat roll about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long.
This morning I have 4 dots on the top of my right leg each about 3 inches apart. I am sure they will play connect the dots soon.
Any more ideas? I don't like to take drugs but I'm thinking I may need another shot.
(I am left handed but you don't realize how much you use the opposite hand for everything- no gardening, no dishes, hurts to handle fabric. All I did all week end was put together an adirondack rocking chair.)
Thanks!
Barb
05-25-2011, 07:51 AM
#85
Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 127
Originally Posted by Barbm
I've had a nasty case of sytemic poison ivy for 10 days. I've had 2 steroid shots (I'm allergic to prednisone) but still continue to break out, although not as severe.
I've tried:
Avenno showers 2 x a day
hydrocortisone cream from dr.
tried vinegar one night- think the poison ivy said yummy and was worse than ever.
Now using lye soap. It seems to calm my hands the best.
I have it:
both sides of neck- started at sides and met in the middle, right ear and side of face and around eye
left side of face at hairline
left shoulder
inside my left arm (where I draped the shirt I was wearing over my arm to take to laundry room) which is now up to my shoulder and I have stripes (like a cat scratched- 3 stripes) inside my left wrist
left hand- ring finger and middle finger, knuckle of thumb.
right hand- all over the back of the hand, index finger and middle finger are so swollen I can't close my hand, ring finger and the tops of all 4 fingers are stripes. It all started on the side of my right hand with a strip about 1/2" wide by 3" long. There was a scratch there and the poison ivy probably used that to get into my blood stream.
I also have it under the bra, around the front of my waist, at my left hip and across my fat roll about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long.
This morning I have 4 dots on the top of my right leg each about 3 inches apart. I am sure they will play connect the dots soon.
Any more ideas? I don't like to take drugs but I'm thinking I may need another shot.
(I am left handed but you don't realize how much you use the opposite hand for everything- no gardening, no dishes, hurts to handle fabric. All I did all week end was put together an adirondack rocking chair.)
Thanks!
Barb
I've tried:
Avenno showers 2 x a day
hydrocortisone cream from dr.
tried vinegar one night- think the poison ivy said yummy and was worse than ever.
Now using lye soap. It seems to calm my hands the best.
I have it:
both sides of neck- started at sides and met in the middle, right ear and side of face and around eye
left side of face at hairline
left shoulder
inside my left arm (where I draped the shirt I was wearing over my arm to take to laundry room) which is now up to my shoulder and I have stripes (like a cat scratched- 3 stripes) inside my left wrist
left hand- ring finger and middle finger, knuckle of thumb.
right hand- all over the back of the hand, index finger and middle finger are so swollen I can't close my hand, ring finger and the tops of all 4 fingers are stripes. It all started on the side of my right hand with a strip about 1/2" wide by 3" long. There was a scratch there and the poison ivy probably used that to get into my blood stream.
I also have it under the bra, around the front of my waist, at my left hip and across my fat roll about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long.
This morning I have 4 dots on the top of my right leg each about 3 inches apart. I am sure they will play connect the dots soon.
Any more ideas? I don't like to take drugs but I'm thinking I may need another shot.
(I am left handed but you don't realize how much you use the opposite hand for everything- no gardening, no dishes, hurts to handle fabric. All I did all week end was put together an adirondack rocking chair.)
Thanks!
Barb
05-25-2011, 10:24 AM
#86
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: East Texas
Posts: 3,021
What a "B". The doc always gives my DH a shot of something (kenalog) I think & a pill pack where you take 6 pills one day & work down to the final one. There is a medicine you can buy called Ivyarest. I think all the stores carry it. Walmart does. It has calamine & benadryl & some other stuff. Best I ever found for it. My poor mama & Dh suffer real bad with it. You might check into Tea Tree Oil. It helps a lot of skin irrations. Stay cool & hope it heals fast.
05-25-2011, 04:51 PM
#87
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Farmington Hills, Michigan
Posts: 5,626
When I got PI I was really sick, so off to the doc I went. WEll two shots and three scripts later I found out I was seriously sick not just itchy. IT was effecting my breathing too. So I was off work for 10 days and on meds the whole time. Man, and I never even touched it. It was in my neighbors yard. I had no way of knowing accept by seeing the bags of greens by the steet for pickup......so we had a little talk and they agreed to tell me when they were going to do this each year and I would go to my brothers for the weekend.......I haven't had it since.
05-25-2011, 05:04 PM
#88
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Jefferson, MA
Posts: 137
I didn't read every single one of these messages, but I do want to recommend "Borough's Solution." You can get it at the drug store. It comes as a packet of dry crystals that you mix with water. Then soak strips of fabric in the solution, and place on the poison ivy spots. It seems to dry them up.
Having never had poison before, I spent one Memorial Day weekend pulling it out of my hedge with bare hands! Well, I got it, but good: my hands swelled so much that the cracks between my fingers began to bleed. Never, EVER, again will I be so stupid!!
Jory
Having never had poison before, I spent one Memorial Day weekend pulling it out of my hedge with bare hands! Well, I got it, but good: my hands swelled so much that the cracks between my fingers began to bleed. Never, EVER, again will I be so stupid!!
Jory
05-25-2011, 06:02 PM
#89
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Posts: 521
OK, here's my next suggestion :D Since you run your own business, I am going to assume you don't have a couple days to spend in the chlorinated pool! So, to get two birds with one stone, how about filling the tub up full every night and putting in either epsom salts or a cup of chlorox and soaking away a little stress whist easing some itch and drying some rash?? :-D :-D .
I'll have to say, I don't get it nearly as bad as I did as a kid. I have memories of my mom dressing and feeding me when I was 6 because my hands were so raw and swollen I couldn't hold a fork :cry: I will say, the elastic waist bands on my corduroy pants was the best itcher ever! But I haven't had it in years, maybe because I'm not sensitive to it anymore, maybe because I'm not out running around in the woods anymore!! I did get rid of a huge patch out back year before last and I don't recall any blisters. The Round-up made for woody brush will kill it, just remember, even dead plants still have the oil..so kill it and find somebody else to clear the dead plants away!! Whatever you do, DO NOT BURN IT. The oil is carried in the smoke and will affect anyone who comes in contact with the smoke, even a mile away! Eyes, lungs...it can put you in the hospital.
Try to keep some humor..this too shall pass.
I'll have to say, I don't get it nearly as bad as I did as a kid. I have memories of my mom dressing and feeding me when I was 6 because my hands were so raw and swollen I couldn't hold a fork :cry: I will say, the elastic waist bands on my corduroy pants was the best itcher ever! But I haven't had it in years, maybe because I'm not sensitive to it anymore, maybe because I'm not out running around in the woods anymore!! I did get rid of a huge patch out back year before last and I don't recall any blisters. The Round-up made for woody brush will kill it, just remember, even dead plants still have the oil..so kill it and find somebody else to clear the dead plants away!! Whatever you do, DO NOT BURN IT. The oil is carried in the smoke and will affect anyone who comes in contact with the smoke, even a mile away! Eyes, lungs...it can put you in the hospital.
Try to keep some humor..this too shall pass.
05-25-2011, 06:13 PM
#90
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: inland part of Virginia Beach
Posts: 2,655
Barb I am actually alergic to poison ivy so I am crying for you. I had a case so bad last year that I had to go on meds for the itching - worst I have ever had.
One thing that helps me is to "wash" with Technu by Tec Labs. A EMT told me about this stuff and it works. It actually "grabs" the oil that is causing the rash, and makes it so it will wash off the skin (and clothing/fabric and pets) when rinsed off with water.
Not the total cure but it really helps to stop the "cross contamination" as the blisters form and break.
Keep checking in with your doctor too.
One thing that helps me is to "wash" with Technu by Tec Labs. A EMT told me about this stuff and it works. It actually "grabs" the oil that is causing the rash, and makes it so it will wash off the skin (and clothing/fabric and pets) when rinsed off with water.
Not the total cure but it really helps to stop the "cross contamination" as the blisters form and break.
Keep checking in with your doctor too.
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