Ooh, I itch!

[mysid]

Poison ivy has invaded my backyard, and being the good(ish) mom that I am, I decided that I really ought to get rid of as much as I could before my kids accidentally encountered it. I donned long plants and long rubber gloves and journeyed forth to do battle. I ripped out as much as I could find, stuffed it in a plastic garbage bag, and then immediately went inside to take a shower. (My clothes went straight into the washing machine.)

The next day, a few spots of rash appeared here and there on my arms just above where the gloves had protected. "Not too bad," I thought, and I dosed the rash with anti-itch gel when it began to bother me. The rash got worse as the days went by, but my handy anti-itch stuff always did the trick.

Today--days later--I awoke to find the tops/insides of my thighs covered with the distinctive blistery rash of poison ivy. How the hell did it get there? I was wearing long pants! And now my left breast is getting itchy too. I swear--I haven't had sex outdoors in years!

All that I can think is that when I showered that day, my washcloth spread the poison ivy oil from my arms to other areas of my body. [Grumble]
.

Comments

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

UGH, that sucks! I don't have any personal experience with poison ivy myself (*knocks on wood*), but my SO has gotten it several times and he always uses jewel weed (http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/hydro/jewelwed.htm) to clear it up. We have a little grove of trees near our apartment where both poison ivy and jewel weed grow (they tend to grow near each other in the wild), so every time he gets P.I. he goes out to pick the jewel weed and then crushes it up to form a paste.

Sounds like your anti-itch gel is doing the trick, but just figured I'd mention this as a possibility too. Hope it clears up soon!

[mysid.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I don't know of any jewel weed growing nearby, but there is a lot of it where we go on vacation in August.

I read the article and found it interesting that it's supposed to help with eczema as well. I might give it a try on my son's eczema.