Have you ever heard the saying, “No good deed goes unpunished?” Well, I feel like a living example.
Two weeks ago while working on a Habitat for Humanity project I helped out by pruning back some overgrown vines off a fence where we installing a new gate. I must have come in contact with poison ivy or some kind of urisol oil producing plant. I didn’t notice it at first and so didn’t think twice about using a new herbal salt scrub I recently purchased to clean the dirt off. In the process I opened the pores and let the stuff in. What a hot mess!
It started as a few itchy spots and I wasn’t sure what it was. But within a few days the rash spread into some pretty impressive red, leathery patches on the left side of my neck and down the inside of my left arm. My rash was so impressive I have not doubt that if I were living in Biblical times I’d have been exiled to some far off leper colony.
And, if the ugliness of the rash weren’t enough, the itching has been relentless. It has taken unbelievable self-control to not just give in and dig into the stuff! I’ve tried a combination of products based on the common knowledge of my friends and have come to the conclusion that the best course of treatment is to keep washing myself, my clothes and bedding with detergent to remove any residual urisol while applying hydrocortisone to my spots and taking regular doses of diphenhydramine.
While I realize this is a temporary condition, I hate the most consumes so much of my attention. There are many things I’d rather by thinking about and doing. Instead, I am trying to determine what surfaces I many have touched that need cleaning, all the while keeping myself distracted so that I don’t focus too much on the itchy ugliness of the stuff.
When I was a kid in Catholic school, the Sisters used to suggest we “offer” these things up to the Lord. I have never been clear what that means or why I would want to try to hand this off to anyone else. It hardly seems fair to pass off itchiness to someone who is supposed to love you unconditionally.
Ugh…have only had it once in my life and it was awful. That saying, by the way, is one of Jim’s favorites! Hope you feel better soon. I had to go get shots as it happened to me a week before I was leaving for Europe.
Yes it is awful! But I now have an arsenal of information from my friends! Thanks!
I am so sorry you are going through this! I recently wrapped and wrapped a vine of what I thought was weeds around my hand and ripped it from the ground then dumped it in the trash. Wrong- not weeds! Yes poison ivy. When I realized what I had done I quickly went inside and vigorously washed with Dawn dish washing liquid for several minutes. I had read something just the week before on FB that said if you encounter poison ivy this is what you should do. It said friction was the key. Fortunately for me it worked! In your case you were unaware but I thought I would share this tidbit. I learned this from my sister “Leaves of three, let them be!” That’s what poison ivy is, three leaf plants.
Thanks DJ. I have the lesson burned in my brain now! I think I’m on the mend now but wow, what nastiness!