"Uh-Huh, sure honey (little voice in my head "I don't get poison ivy")
Well the next day I smugly told him that I had cleaned the flower beds and voila! no poison ivy (just as I thought, HA!)
Unfortunately what I didn't know is that poison ivy sometimes takes oh......say about 48 hours after you say you don't have it.....to show up (bummer....I hate the taste of my own words!) Anyway, I got it....the first time ever. Everyone has given me advice about it, the most common being encouraging words like "You know once you've had it you get it more easily than ever!" Gee Thanks friend! : )
Guess what? It itches! Terribly! Another piece of advice I got? "Don't scratch it because it will spread and be worse than ever" Oh,.....thanks again, wish you'd told me that yesterday.
So with a terribly itchy, ugly (now I understand the meaning of the words "an angry red rash), oozing mess on my arm I find myself constantly surfing the internet in search of self-help regarding stupidity, I mean poison ivy. Most of the advice I've already heard, and tried but then I find a gem....something that miraculously works!
Up till now my chief complaint has been the constant itching no matter what I put on it but I find this little tidbit on a website...."Try the hair-dryer treatment, it truly is the only thing that works to relieve the itching". So I begin my treatment, setting the hairdryer on medium and focusing the air on my tender but very itchy forearm. Immediately my arm begins to itch more than ever (luckily this was covered in the website so I continue), and get awfully red. It felt like a million little scratching fingers all over my arm, (I think I started to purr!), after 5 minutes the itching was completely gone! It lasted almost 4 hours! I did it one more time before I went to bed last night and didn't even wake up once to scratch......I'm so relieved! Ha Ha!
I have to say this method was 1000 percent better than some of the others I read about (and dare I say tried?......hey I was desperate)
- slap the itch till you can't stand it any more
- use a mixture of bleach and soap to wash it...after the initial sting it doesn't itch as much
- take a freezing cold shower then apply ice to affected areas (note: they forgot to say the ice may actually stick to wet skin......ouch!)
- chew a crushed poison ivy leaf to trigger your body's own immune response (duh!.....I don't think I'm trying that you idiot!)
- Rub affected area with rubbing alcohol, nail polish, nail polish remover, windex (hey, isn't that from Big Fat Greek Wedding), hairspray, denorex shampoo.....(the list goes on and on....obviously people are trying anything!)
- Apply duct tape to the area (this obviously controls the scratching, I wonder how you get the tape off?)
And last but not least I discovered the "Poison Ivy Rash Hall of Fame Slideshow".....not for the faint of heart but definitely made me feel better about my own relatively minor case!
4 comments:
Hey Bright One! I'm thinking you should have tried the duct tape. According to every male in my family (and most all males in southern families) duct tape is the cure for everything. I am just not surprised that it made the poison ivy list!
I am so sorry about the poison ivy! What a pain! At our house we put a dab of the paste toothpaste on mosquito bites to relieve the itch. I wonder if it would work on PI.
Ooooo, I'm so sorry. That is my nightmare! I've never had it, but I HATE ITCHINESS. I've had chicken pox 3X (I know, I'm a freak of nature). Hope you feel better soon!
Oh, I'm so sorry! I am DEATHLY allergic to poison ivy, so I have also tried almost everything. The scalding shower method (very similar to the hairdryer stunt) was the only thing that worked for me - because the heat draws all the histamines to the surface and gives you a little relief until they have a chance to build up again. Of course during the shower, you want to rip your own skin off and scream loudly.
For the future, you might want to buy a bottle of Technu. It is really expensive most places, but Duluth trading company (on-line)has it for a reasonable price. You shower with it when you think you have been exposed, or when you see the first sign of a rash coming. It smells nasty and is really oily, but kills the oils that cause the rash. I haven't had anymore outbreaks since I've started using it (and I've been exposed a bunch). I tell you, it is a miracle. Every home should own a bottle.
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