::snork!:: ::splutter::
WhaddizzthisIdon'even.... Oh.
Mornin'.
Um, I seem to have oversleeped, which is both good and bad:
A) Good: I rilly, rilly needed the sleep.
B) Bad: Have I mentioned that I walked through a patch of poison ivy, breaking into Mom's with the EMT's? I did. I did not notice it. I was wearing short sleeves. No one in my family is highly reactive to the stuff (which is good) but I'm not at the center of that bell curve.
Seems that I picked it up mostly on my left hand (where the urushiol only got through my hardworkin' thick skin at one point), transferred it to my right elbow and forearm, right knee, and right hand (thus far unaffected and thus we realize The Blessings Of Manual Labor), and thus back to the left elbow and knee, plus a little blob on my face, right across my lips at the left.
I did not realize what was going on until about 18 hours later, which was a little late. Fortunately, that "low-reactive" dealio means it's just well-scattered itchies in the affected areas and two kinds of itch cream help a lot. Generic once-a-day OTC antihistamine helps even more -- when I take it on time. I was about four hours late today. This is, as I suggested, somewhat suboptimal.
My wife is HORRIBLY senstive to poison ivy, the result being she has learned how to handle it. I'll pass along several thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWe used to live in St. Louis, where it was endemic. I used to do a bi-weekly patrol of our yard carrying a squirt bottle of Roundup mix. Birds would drop seeds and it would sprout up right in the middle of the lawn. The edges of the property were fenced it by it.
She would lather up with a preventive goop before venturing forth to her gardens (which is what she lives for, methinks). Then she would clean up with an ivy-specific soap afterwards. It helped greatly; she would have simply stayed indoors without it. When it hit, she had some really effective sprays to stop the itching.
Bottom line: You might want to ask your doctor. There are ivy-specific remedies that can really make a difference, more than just off-the-shelf antihistamines. The intertubes might cough up something even better.
I've had it only twice (I'm remarkably insensitive; it took hours of direct contact to get it), but I sympathize with anyone who gets it. I wouldn't wish it on someone I don't like.
A quick tip for an hour of relief or so is to stick the skin affected under a spray of the hottest water possible. This cause your body to "use up" all your histamines or antihistamines or something all at once and then you get your pain free hour or so.
ReplyDeleteI can deal with the pain myself, it's just the itching that I uncontrollably do in my sleep that drives me crazy.
Yeah, the last 24 hours or so have been pretty bad.
ReplyDelete