Fun with Poison Ivy

[DougPaul]

Another thing to watch: cutting/mowing Poison Ivy (again, not the person ). When cut, the juices can sometimes get in the air (especially when mowed). If you think it's bad on the outside, imagine it in your lungs!

Burning is another "good" way to deliver the oils to one's lungs...

Doug

 

[KMartman]

You might be thinking of shingles -- caused by the same virus but in adults. However, people who get shingles had chicken pox previously. Shingles is extremely painful... or so my mom says, who was unfortunate enough to have it in her eye (as well as elsewhere.)

- Ivy

Yeah Shingles..thats it...but I did think that you got it as an adult when you DIDNT have chicken pocks as a child...least the people that ive know that have gotten were... ?? oh well...

I know its not good.

M

 

[Dugan]

Burning is another "good" way to deliver the oils to one's lungs

My Grandma has done that.

but I did think that you got it as an adult when you DIDNT have chicken pocks as a child

Just the opposite - you MUST have had chicken pox in order to get shingles. Grandma's done that too.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/list_varicl.htm

 

[DougPaul]

Yeah Shingles..thats it...but I did think that you got it as an adult when you DIDNT have chicken pocks as a child...least the people that ive know that have gotten were... ?? oh well...

Shingles is a re-emergence of the chickenpox virus after it has lain dormant in the spinal cord. http://hcd2.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/Mosby_factsheets/shingles.html

Doug

 

[audrey]

Last week Pat came down with a huge rash on the backs of his thighs a day after we returned from Utah. The doctor didn't think it looked like poison ivy, but I'm not so sure. He prescribed triamcinolone, and the rash is fading but it's been almost 2 weeks!

I saw none of those toxic plants out there, though one of my books does mention that it grows near the Escalante river. Either that, or it was lunch at the Pink Taco in Las Vegas, or the airplane seat...

 

[Jasper]

Another option for Poison Ivy

Great Threat and very timely.

For years I have been using a very hot wash-up with Fels-Naptha Soap to reduce the effect of exposure to poison ivy. Fels is an old time bar soap for laundery. You work it up into a good lather and apply. Let the exposed area air dry and when rewash. Works for me.

 

[dRitter]

It's kinda hardcore but I've found slathering the area with straight bleach seems to work the best for me, other than that, a hypo full of cortisone is all that works to get rid of it.
Don't bank on your immunity, for years I had no problems with handling it, walking through it with the lawnmower, etc., and then one time while kneeling in the stuff to work on a broken water line my immunity took a vacation. Now all I have to do is get near the stuff and I'm doomed.
Damon

 

[DougPaul]

For years I have been using a very hot wash-up with Fels-Naptha Soap to reduce the effect of exposure to poison ivy. Fels is an old time bar soap for laundery. You work it up into a good lather and apply. Let the exposed area air dry and when rewash. Works for me.

The "distilled wisdom" (urls in my post #18) advises washing in cold water to avoid opening one's pores. Haven't tried hot or cold myself, so I don't have any personal recomendations.

Doug

 

[BrentD22]

Steriod Shot Caution!!!!

During a party I stumbled into a patch of ivy or sumac. I got a rash that covered my hole right leg and up on to my stomach and everything in between. It covered every inch from toe to belly on my right side. It was terrible!!!!

I went in to see my Dr. and he suggested that I go to the local hospital and get a steriod shot. So I did... After getting the shot my hip directly where the shot was given hurt badly. A week later I went in to my Dr. for a follow-up visit. I said that my hip really hurt. They checked me out and I found out that the steriods got into my hip joint and "did something bad". Of course they used other medical terms that I can't remember. All I know since then I've had pain of all sorts in that hip during hiking, trail running, and playing basketball.

I've heard I could sue, but thats not my style. It doesn't hold me up it just hurts. I've also been told it will only get worst with time.

Lesson to be learned is be patient and avoid the quick fix shot.

 

[paul ron]

It does feel good. Histamine is not heat stable so once you've tolerated the scorch, it doesn't itch for awhile.

 

[Dugan]

I am appreciative of the earlier hot water explanation, but right now I don't care *WHY* hot water works so well and feels so good. After getting covered from the knees down last weekend, I am just glad that it does. Clued someone else into it too!

Yay - hot water!! <aaaahhhhh>

 

[Amicus]

After getting covered from the knees down last weekend, I am just glad that it does.

Was that on the hike I had to miss? That's some consolation to me. On a trail near Harpers Ferry two days ago, I saw something I hadn't before - a wooden "Warning - Poison Ivy!" sign atop a bank flanking the trail. The Ivy was thriving but the sign worked and I'm itch-free. I'll try hot water the next time.

 

[Artex]

I am appreciative of the earlier hot water explanation, but right now I don't care *WHY* hot water works so well and feels so good. After getting covered from the knees down last weekend, I am just glad that it does. Clued someone else into it too!

Yay - hot water!! <aaaahhhhh>

Alright! Yet another demented masochist out there.

 

[SilentCal]

Yes, Amicus, that is the hike you missed. My guess is that somewhere in the Hockanum Flats is where everyone stumbled into it. How I did not get it is beyond me????????

 

[Dugan]

What do you mean, just you? PoisonIvy was ironically free of poison ivy also.

Alright! Yet another demented masochist out there.

Yes!!! 15 minutes with scorching hot water and a shower massage and I am a happy hiker.

 

[Rols]

One more plug for jewel weed. I've taken jewel weed plants and boiled them in water than used this solution to soak a cloth to bathe the affected area. This dries out the poison ivy quickly. Indians have long used jewel weed for the treatment of poison ivy.

 

[Barbarossa]

What is it about jewelweed that makes it such a great thing? I've never heard of it...then again I'm not allergic to poison ivy

yet


I know this because I remember eating it when I was 3 or 4 years old....yes eating it. I distinctly remember my mother freaking out and calling the poison control. All I know is, nothing happened to me. Maybe it was all the grass and other leaves I was eating that day..... Ahh to be 4 again.

grouseking

Salad, anyone? You are the second lunatic I have encountered that claimed to eat poison ivy. The first was a high school drafting teacher. He said he showed off to other kids, but the immunity wore off later in life.

I've never gotten a rash, but I only eat store bought greens.


Just to keep things off topic, chicken pox as an adult is no fun. Waves of fever, pustules literally head to toe. The pustules on the soles of my feet actually hurt, so they were more bearable than the ones that merely itched.

What kind of dressing do you want on that salad?

 

[Dugan]

Hmmm... there's tons of jewel week flowering beside the driveway... a big tub in the master bath... bottle of red open in the kitchen...

One way or another, I'll sleep!

 

[Pete_Hickey]

Too bad some of you are bothered by that stuff. So far, it never bothered me. In fact there was one night.... rolling around in it....Well, I don't want to give details, but I wasn't the one that got it.

 

[DougPaul]

Too bad some of you are bothered by that stuff. So far, it never bothered me.

You're lucky. However, from what I have read, one can become sensitive without warning. And, of course, you can spread the oil onto someone who is sensitive. (Dogs and cats can also do this.)

Doug