Poison ivy . . . home or medical treatment

[Deleted]

I really didn't do any yardwork worth poison ivy as a punishment. I dug two small holes because we were trying to fill in a gap in the monkey grass.  After I got home from the Urgent Care clinic today, I saw it was hiding behind the monkey grass next to one of my holes.

Medical treatment consisted of a trip to the Urgent Care Clinic, a steroid shot, and a cream.  I really thought it was shingles, but shingles doesn't create three different rashes on your body.  I spent $36 in treatment. 

I'm not even sure whether I am going to do a second topical treatment.  A lot of it is basically on my face (forehead and under jawline into the ear lobe . . . all on the left side).  He told me to use as little of the treatment as possible on the face area because it is basically too strong.  I was to dot a little on, which I did.  It isn't yet itching again so I'll wait.  Maybe I will treat the thigh again.

So do you guys get medical treatment for poison ivy?  Mine was prompted by the idea that it couldn't be poison ivy (no contact, I thought) so it must be something serious.  Still, treatment was cheap on my end for $36.

Of course, it I had gone to the ER last night when I wanted to cry from the itching . . .   tloonya , I thought of you when DH offered to take me there at 2 a.m.  Well, actually, he offered to drive me to the doctor, but that's the only doctor up at that hour.  I passed.''

I bet Looney has a good home remedy for it. 

[Deleted]

I always get medical treatment for poison ivy. In general I enjoy fantastic health, but once I get any poison ivy it gets into my system and I end up itching in places that were never exposed. The itching disturbs my sleep night after night. Over-the-counter treatments are useless.

So I go to the Doc in a Box and get treatment. Well worth it.

[JustLurkin]

Mine won't clear without steroids.  The itching and spreading will eventually stop, but the rash will remain.  Once, I went to the doctor for what I thought was a couple of infected bug bites.  She smiled, put on gloves, wrapped her hand around my arm and said apparently my son wasn't allergic--her fingertips lined up perfectly to the 4 "bug bites". 

[justme]

I haven't, but my mom didn't react well so my dad promptly kills and poison ivy that dare try to grow.

We've always made sure to wear long clothing when we might come in contact and my dad, who apparently is immune, takes off the outer layer to wash on special soap while we go use the special soap on exposed skin.

But we don't do hikes like that often. I don't think I've ever had poison ivy, if I did it wasn't super bad

[Sharon]

I ended up needing prescription treatment for poison oak once.  It was on my face and then spread into my eyes.  Both of my eyes were swollen shut about a week before Christmas.  I had been out with the church youth group getting mistletoe to sell as a fundraiser.  They gave me a steroid cream.  I was in middle school when this happened and was so happy to get the steroid cream instead of the calamine lotion that we had been using to treat it.  Several girls gave me crap about wearing way to much makeup and that I had applied it all blotchy.

[mroped]

I'm immune to all of that poison ivy or oak. I can handle it with my bare hands and nothing happens.
 Prety much everybody else that I know, gets it as soon as they have skin contact.
It could be handled safely with gloves while wearing long sleeves and if necessary a respirator(or at least a face mask). Some people get it if they breath around it too close.

Cortison creme might be helpful if there wasn't much contact. 
Jewel weed if the reaction isn't to bad!

[yogiii]

www.amazon.com/Mean-Green-Power-Hand-Scrub/dp/B00CZIG1MQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465212518&sr=8-1&keywords=mean+green

[Apple]

Tecnu.  My exh used to get poison oak pretty bad, and this stuff worked well (they have soap for when you are exposed to get rid of the oils before you have issues, as well as lotion to help the itching).

I've weed whacked the crap out of poison oak, and was immune, but used the soap as a precaution.  I try to avoid poison oak though, especially since I've learned that more exposure does not provide more immunity, but actually decreases it and you can get it eventually.  Not something I want.

[tractor]

Jun 6, 2016 9:33:55 GMT -5 Apple said:

Tecnu.  My exh used to get poison oak pretty bad, and this stuff worked well (they have soap for when you are exposed to get rid of the oils before you have issues, as well as lotion to help the itching).

I've weed whacked the crap out of poison oak, and was immune, but used the soap as a precaution.  I try to avoid poison oak though, especially since I've learned that more exposure does not provide more immunity, but actually decreases it and you can get it eventually.  Not something I want.

I carry a bottle of this in my work truck, it's great to have available. I used to get poison ivy just by looking at it. One thing that works well is Benadryl, since the rash is an allergic reaction. Now that I take daily allergy meds, I don't get rashes quite as bad, although I always have a few spots on me. The worse case you can get is if you come into contact with the sap, usually by cutting the roots and sticking you hand into a recently dug hole (like in a garden).

[midjd]

The worse case you can get is if you come into contact with the sap, usually by cutting the roots and sticking you hand into a recently dug hole (like in a garden).

I learned that recently. In late April, I ripped what looked like a dead vine off a tree with my right hand. I then (apparently) proceeded to wipe my forehead, nose, and left arm with that hand. Took a few days for the rash to show up and then another week before I figured out what the heck had happened. Six weeks, two rounds of prednisone, and about $150 later, my arm still looks like I'm recovering from third-degree burns. The itching was so bad I wanted to die. SS, you have my deepest sympathies, it is the worst. 

To answer the OP: I get it so badly that prednisone or a cortisone shot is usually my only option. I tried to stoic my way through it this last time because I thought it would get better eventually, but it kept getting worse and I was afraid I'd end up with cellulitis. The next time I won't hesitate to go to Urgent Care as soon as spots pop up.  

Also: this is a remedy I had not previously used, but if you run super super hot water over the itchy part, it will feel unbearable for about half a second but then should stop itching for an hour or two. Most of the red spots left on my arm are probably from boiling the skin off, but it did help at the time!

[alabamagal]

I would try benadryl first before going to the doctor, but I have never had a really bad reaction.  People react differently, so you have to know how bad you will react (based on experience) to determine if you need to go to doctor.

Was your husband working in the yard also?  You can get a reaction even if you don't touch it if some else does.

To me this is just the type of problem that urgent care was meant to address.

And if you are worried about shingles, the rash/reaction you get from that will almost always be on one side of your body, generally coming from your spinal cord and extending to one side along a nerve.  Mine was on back of neck gong around on nerve to my jawline.  When DS had it, it was on his back going toward one side (his pediatrician said there was no way he had it when I talked to him on the phone, but when I brought him in he confirmed and said I was correct).  I highly recommend the vaccine - I had mine before the vaccine.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Try Allegra or whatever generic equivalent you can find.    I got hive recently based on who knows what, I think  it was something I worked with in the lab.  It would NOT go away and for some reason decided to make an appearance in a circle around my waist. .. wearing pants was very miserable.

I went to Walgreens on the way to work and asked if there was anything I could take besides Benadryl that might work.  Benadryl does jack shit for me when I have hives.    The pharmacist recommended I try Allegra.   He said he swears by it, that's what they use at his house.

It was expensive but worth it.   Itching was relived within hours and the hives started going away 24 hours later.

[swamp]

cold compresses and cortisone cream.

[Deleted]

Jun 6, 2016 10:03:34 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

I would try benadryl first before going to the doctor, but I have never had a really bad reaction.  People react differently, so you have to know how bad you will react (based on experience) to determine if you need to go to doctor.

Was your husband working in the yard also?  You can get a reaction even if you don't touch it if some else does.

To me this is just the type of problem that urgent care was meant to address.

And if you are worried about shingles, the rash/reaction you get from that will almost always be on one side of your body, generally coming from your spinal cord and extending to one side along a nerve.  Mine was on back of neck gong around on nerve to my jawline.  When DS had it, it was on his back going toward one side (his pediatrician said there was no way he had it when I talked to him on the phone, but when I brought him in he confirmed and said I was correct).  I highly recommend the vaccine - I had mine before the vaccine.

Yes, he was working in the yard, too. Maybe that was the source.

The reason that I was worried about shingles is that the rashes were all on the left side.  One followed my jawline perfectly, and one ran up my thigh.  I thought the third, along my hairline, was something else since it never itched.

I took the shingles vaccine as part of a clinical trial about ten years ago.  The purpose was to see if it was effective for people in their 50s.  The vaccine does not always prevent shingles, but it does mean that you will have a lesser case.  So I wondered if that was what was happening.  However, I have found out now that shingles doesn't cause multiple rashes at the same time.

I also found out that I need to retake the vaccine.  The immunity it provides lessens after five years.  I'm not sure insurance covers a "retake," but since they didn't pay for the first vaccine, I just won't tell them. 

[happyhoix]

I don't get it, but DH does, and he has to go to the doctor for steroid shots. Sometimes he will fool himself and try to treat it with topical creams, but it gets into his blood and soon he has it popping up randomly all over his body.

Poor thing gets it from just looking at it, I think. I try to pull up any that I find in the yard, but we have a big yard and that stuff is aggressive.

[Deleted]

It is sort of ironic, but the one shot of steroids with maybe the one application of the cream pretty much did it. I didn't even have to reapply it today because it didn't itch. That is good because this 2% stuff is apparently too strong for my face.

However, I couldn't sleep last night because of the steroid.  I am super energized . . . except I am too tired to do much  So I did stuff like write the thank-you notes/sympathy cards that needed doing, set up three doctor's appointments for me, etc.  I bought groceries at two places, too.

Why can't I have this energy when I am not physically tired?

Sigh.

[verrip1]

I was in middle school when I got my worst case of rash from urushiol oil from poison oak (same toxicant as poison ivy).  I was on a two day backpack trip through no-trail thick stuff on a warm spring weekend.  By the time I got home and was able to shower, I already had the rash.  Soon I had it from head to toe.  It was EVERYWHERE from scalp to between my toes from the sweating during the hike.  My dad's remedy of a blazing hot bath with wormwood leaves attacked every cell I had, but didn't help the rash at all.

There was actually something much worse than all the horselaughs at school.  Pain.  When the rash started to weep lymph, it soaked into my jeans and shirt while sitting in class, and ripped off my skin every time I got up out of my schooldesk.  By the time I got home in the afternoon, my levis could stand up by themselves.  Every morning I had to put a hot washcloth over my glued-closed eyelids for 5 or 10 minutes until the hardened lymph dissolved off my eyelashes - that problem lessened when all my eyelashes were finally pulled out from being adhered to my eyelids.  Removing my shorts was ... insanity, but a very necessary, frequent home routine.  All my used clothes were yellow and stiff.  Yet another source of horselaughs.  OTOH, I did get off gym class, without a note, even.

I finally got to the doctor and received daily cortisone injections over 6 days, followed by steroid pills.  Side effects?  You're kidding, right?  With the pain I was in, any side effects that existed were dwarfed by my primal priorities.

As this was quite a memorable event, I soon looked into how to avoid this in the future.  What I found and what worked for me was finding Poison Oak Extract through a pharmacy.  As directed, one drop diluted in 8 oz water per day swallowed for the first week, increasing gradually to 15 drops per day and maintained for two weeks.  It took me three years of annual dosages before I had the nerve to field test its efficacy in the field.  Dayum, it worked!!!!!!  Then I exposed myself to a blazing red, waxy plant leaf one spring without having any of the drops and found that the immunity was still working.  I've never had poison oak since.

So, I don't know of any cures once you get it (wormwood, however, doesn't do anything), but if you want to prevent it for the future, look to see if there are still extracts on the market.  They worked for me.  Permanently.
 

[Deleted]

DH is extremely sensitive and reacts to someone over in the next county cutting down poison ivy.  We have absolutely zero on our lot, but he blew up with gigantic weeping blisters after sitting on our rear deck several weeks ago.  It's a miracle I didn't get it b/c he said "it's just mosquitoes' for about a week before he got his rear to the pharmacy for a poison ivy med.  Can't fix stupid.

[Bonny]

Jun 6, 2016 9:33:55 GMT -5 Apple said:

Tecnu.  My exh used to get poison oak pretty bad, and this stuff worked well (they have soap for when you are exposed to get rid of the oils before you have issues, as well as lotion to help the itching).

I've weed whacked the crap out of poison oak, and was immune, but used the soap as a precaution.  I try to avoid poison oak though, especially since I've learned that more exposure does not provide more immunity, but actually decreases it and you can get it eventually.  Not something I want.

Yeah, that was my situation. Grew up in So. CA and my brother and I would wander the canyon behind my parents' house. He would come down loaded with poison oak and I never got it. Fast forward 25 years later when DH and I bought our first house in the SF Bay Area and we took friends for a walk in the park near our house. We both came back loaded with poison oak. Subsequent hikes had me get it so bad I was pull sheets of skin off.

I told my hiking buddy at the time if you hear me say "It looks like there's a trail over here" you are to grab me by the scruff of the neck and pull me out!

[Tennesseer]

Jun 6, 2016 20:34:02 GMT -5 verrip1 said:

I was in middle school when I got my worst case of rash from urushiol oil from poison oak (same toxicant as poison ivy).  I was on a two day backpack trip through no-trail thick stuff on a warm spring weekend.  By the time I got home and was able to shower, I already had the rash.  Soon I had it from head to toe.  It was EVERYWHERE from scalp to between my toes from the sweating during the hike.  My dad's remedy of a blazing hot bath with wormwood leaves attacked every cell I had, but didn't help the rash at all.

There was actually something much worse than all the horselaughs at school.  Pain.  When the rash started to weep lymph, it soaked into my jeans and shirt while sitting in class, and ripped off my skin every time I got up out of my schooldesk.  By the time I got home in the afternoon, my levis could stand up by themselves.  Every morning I had to put a hot washcloth over my glued-closed eyelids for 5 or 10 minutes until the hardened lymph dissolved off my eyelashes - that problem lessened when all my eyelashes were finally pulled out from being adhered to my eyelids.  Removing my shorts was ... insanity, but a very necessary, frequent home routine.  All my used clothes were yellow and stiff.  Yet another source of horselaughs.  OTOH, I did get off gym class, without a note, even.

I finally got to the doctor and received daily cortisone injections over 6 days, followed by steroid pills.  Side effects?  You're kidding, right?  With the pain I was in, any side effects that existed were dwarfed by my primal priorities.

As this was quite a memorable event, I soon looked into how to avoid this in the future.  What I found and what worked for me was finding Poison Oak Extract through a pharmacy.  As directed, one drop diluted in 8 oz water per day swallowed for the first week, increasing gradually to 15 drops per day and maintained for two weeks.  It took me three years of annual dosages before I had the nerve to field test its efficacy in the field.  Dayum, it worked!!!!!!  Then I exposed myself to a blazing red, waxy plant leaf one spring without having any of the drops and found that the immunity was still working.  I've never had poison oak since.

So, I don't know of any cures once you get it (wormwood, however, doesn't do anything), but if you want to prevent it for the future, look to see if there are still extracts on the market.  They worked for me.  Permanently.
 

Yikes and ugh. Horrible case you had.

[weltschmerz]

I used to get poison ivy rashes all the time when I was a kid.

My mom applied cold milk mixed with salt. Worked great!

[weltschmerz]

Use Milk to Shake the Itch

Dr. Sommer also recommends a cold milk compress, especially if you have poison ivy on your face, which can be irritated by vinegar. “You take a clean rag and soak it in whole milk. You need whole milk for the fat,” he says. “Place the damp rag—damp, not runny—on the rash. Leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes. The cold stops the itch, while the fat lubricates the skin.” Dr. Sommer says to rinse off the milk with
 warm water.


Use the Ocean as a Lotion

Peter Brassard,M.D., a family doctor on Block Island, Rhode Island, says that a good sea bath can work. “Just the act of wading in the ocean will wash your sores,” he says. “And the salt water will help dry them out.”


yankeemagazine.com/article/resources/poison-ivy-cure#_

Hey, look! It's a thing. Evidently, there was a method to her madness.

[Deleted]

Jun 6, 2016 20:34:02 GMT -5 verrip1 said:

There was actually something much worse than all the horselaughs at school.  Pain.  When the rash started to weep lymph, it soaked into my jeans and shirt while sitting in class, and ripped off my skin every time I got up out of my schooldesk.

How awful! It brought back memories of one case I had when I was working in a full-business-dress environment in the late 1980s. I had it on my legs and taking off my pantyhose at the end of the day was miserable.

One primitive technique I've used when the itching kept me up was to keep a bowl of ice cubes and a towel near the bed. If an itchy patch was driving me crazy, I'd run an ice cube back and forth over it till it was numb. No doc has ever recommended that but so far I've managed to avoid frostbite.