Posts Tagged ‘rash’
Poisoned Again
I’ve gone and done it again. I got a new poison ivy rash on my arms just as a previous outbreak was reaching the end of its healing process. You’d think I would know better, but my vigilance tends to be inexplicably cursory. Why is that? I have no idea. I wear a seatbelt when in a car and a helmet when I ride my bike. Why would I behave so cavalierly when it comes to this poison that grows all over our property and to which I am so sensitive?
For one thing, every time I research what the plant looks like, I get so many variations of leaves of 3, all looking frustratingly common and innocuous, that I gain little to no confidence that I could know it when I see it. I suppose I could try behaving as if every growing thing around here were hazardous.
Actually, I probably just give up too easily. After looking at pictures for a couple of hours last night, I believe I may now be able to recognize enough key features that I can identify it when I see it. Seeing it becomes the challenge. Honestly, there are so many things growing all over the place here that it tends to boggle my mind.
Speaking of my boggled mind, I have no idea how I have been able to avoid getting a rash after the number of times using the power trimmer when I have been sprayed head to toe with wet green shrapnel of the growing things being mowed to the ground. It makes no sense that I have somehow been lucky enough to not have trimmed places where poison ivy was present. It is pure hubris that I have forged ahead carelessly with this and gotten away with it.
Last Saturday, in a rush to try to finish clearing brush from the last section of our northern property line, I scrambled to cut and clear a wide variety of unidentified growth, both on the ground and as small vines and trees. With arms bare and wearing a t-shirt, I dragged through the undergrowth to cut and pull anything that stuck up. I grabbed piles of brush and branches in my arms and hauled them a short walk away to toss on a pile. It was hot, I was sweaty, and I worked hastily in a rush to finish before showering for a visit to the Walker’s bonfire gathering.
A day and a half later, I knew the rash on my arms was going to be bad. It was so head-slapping-D’oh obvious, it was embarrassing. Of course I put myself at risk with that thoughtless behavior. And I was just getting over a rash, probably from the same dang project when I started it a couple weeks before.
I’ve been treating the rash with my favorite method of super hot water, as hot as I can stand, on areas of rash to release histamine from the cells. It feels great at the time, and then calms itching for hours. In the past, doctors have treated me with the steroid, prednisone, which works really well, but I hate the side effects I experience. To avoid that, I have been taking an antihistamine, per one doctor’s suggestion, which seems to dry up the worst areas which would otherwise be oozing. Other than that, it’s simply a matter of enduring the 1-2 weeks it takes my skin to heal.
Ultimately, avoidance is the best way to deal with being sensitive to poison plants, so I intend to up my game of knowing what my nemesis looks like, and take prudent precautions when it is likely that my activity will put me at risk.
Obviously, simply trying to avoid hugging Delilah has not been a sufficient plan for keeping my skin from being poisoned again.
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Itchy Dilemma
I’m grateful that I enjoyed 10 months here without this problem, but that time is over and now I face a new challenge that needs to be managed: Poison Ivy. I am sensitive to it. Cyndie says, “That’s an understatement.”
It has been a few years since I have had any serious reactions, so I was beginning to hope my sensitivity was waning. I would most often come in contact with the troublesome urushiol, the sap of the plant, up at our lake place in Hayward, WI. One of those exposures caused such a severe reaction that I had outbreaks of rash all over my body and required medical intervention to control it. I was told that I had likely breathed smoke from one of our outdoor fire pits, where wood with the oil on it was burning.
If I have a cut, or any break in my skin, and the oil gets in there, I will have a systemic reaction, and the rash can appear anywhere and everywhere. So far, with today’s infliction, the rash is limited to my arms and hands. From the location of the affected areas, and the timing of the reaction, we believe that I came in contact with the oil when touching our dog, Delilah, after we finally allowed her to run free on our property.
It is highly unlikely that we would be able to eradicate the poison ivy plant from our 20 acres of fields and woods, and will be impossible to keep Delilah from brushing up against it, so I am facing a new dilemma of how I can avoid exposure. It is dreadful to think that I won’t be able to touch our dog again. We had plans to let her roam inside our house. That seems risky to me now.
It’s really sad for me, because I was so enjoying seeing her run free. Now I have the perspective that the more she runs, the more threatening she becomes to me.
I have some time to think about this, and what I will do about it, because the rash tends to last about 1 – 3 weeks. It has me itching to find a solution for this dilemma.
Relative Something 