Poison Oak - I thought I was immune. You?

Ah, well.... Maybe this year's poison oak rash will be enough to make me immune for the rest of the year. Thank goodness for benedryl and calamine lotion. My face feels like it's going to burn off. What are your remedies for poison oak/ivy itch? A cool, baking soda bath is good, but no tub.

Poor 4paws. I used to spend my childhood slathered in calamine lotion. I would have thought that there would be something better on the market by now. I've heard the juice of jewelweed is a good remedy,but none grows here yet. I've used aloe, but it doesn't touch the itch. I wish I had an answer for you.

The strongest cortizone creme you can find in the stores. This is the only thing that helps my son, who gets poison ivy every summer.

I hope that this bout will make me resistant for the rest of the year. With all the dogs, there is no way to avoid it. Mornings are the worst. Thanks for the sympathy.

Do you think this is where I might have picked it up? This is Fred next to one of the poison oaks - this one killed the oak it's next to. That tree is coming down Monday.

Sending a prayer your way 4paws. I hope you get better soon.

When I was a child I use to get poison ivy and oak really bad even in the winter time . I had to have shots to reduce the swelling. I was told when people burn wood you can get it that way in the air. I don't know if that is true. I wonder if that is possible?

My son is very allergic to sumac. It almost killed him,because he had internal and external swelling. He has to have IV steroids.. His doctors said he has never seen such a bad case. Thank God I was listening to his lungs, because he started to fill up. This all happen with in a 24 hour period.

Patti

My word, 4paws, is that big trunk next to the tree the poison oak? We don't have that here, but tons of poison ivy. So far I have never had a rash from it, but do have a 'fuzzy' itchy feeling on my face when exposed to it.

Yep, Marianinark, that is poison oak. I had no idea. That's the neighbor's place over the fence and she told me what it was. It's possible I breathed some accidentally, as we were clearing that area and burned lots of brush. We thought we set aside any poison oak stuff. Now that I know what it looks like, I've found another one on another fence line. Maybe we should leave it for invaders...lol

I am doing well - thank you for your good thoughts, Patti.

4paws, try and see if you can find a brand of soap made by Burt's Bees. They make a poison ivy relief soap that is made with jewel weed. You can find it just about anywhere over here but mainly in places that sell organic items and natural food stores. I think even GNC sells it but dont hold me to that one.
I havnt tried it yet myself but havnt heard anything negative about it. I do plan on buying some this year for the kids.

Patti, that is really scary. I'm glad you were there for your son.

It's true you can get it from the smoke. Smoke carries the oil droplets.

Is it true you can build up an immunity? I doubt I can because I'm so sensitive to it. My Dad and brother wet a bar of soap, rub it on the itchy areas and let it dry. They never have much of a problem with it. I'm the one who likes to get up wood and I don't dare touch the logs anymore.

Thanks Billy. I think if you get slight reaction you can build up immunity . In my son and my case it too dangerous to try.
Patti

Patti, did the doctor suggest a way to prevent a reoccurance other than avoiding it? How were you listening to his lungs? How old was he when that happened?

Dravencat, I am familiar with the Burt's Bees label - the next time I'm in town I'll look for it. Or maybe plant some jewelweed?

I am a nurse so I have been trained to listen to breathe sounds.
He was either 8 or 10 when that happen. I was told to avoid it all together. It's hard when people burn wood that has been poison ivy or oak on it in NJ. Now I don't have to worry about it here in Houston Tx.
Patti

When I was a kid I used to have poison ivy so bad every year. There was an old homeopathic doctor in a nearby town. We went to him and he poured some herbal concotion over these tiny little white pills. We called them sugar pills. You'd eat a few of them every day for a week or so. The poison ivy would go away and I stayed immune for 12-15 years. Now days I have to take the steroid shot. I'm sure you could find a homeopathic in your area. Your local health food store could probably reccomend one for you.

Shirley

Good suggestion - there's probably an elder around who has some memory of treatment from old times, since this is their native homelands and poison oak is part of it. Very good thought, Shirley.

Actually, I'm getting used to it. I take one benedryl in the am and one at night and wear baggy clothes to not irritate it. That's my normal anyway, but the cuffs on my turtlenecks are kind of irritating, and on my hands when doing dishes.

I'll stay alert about accidentally burning it as noted. I hadn't considered it before now.

Your dogs may be the culprits bringing it to you. The sap/oil gets on their coats and then gets passed on to you. I am terribly allergic and have been hospitalized a couple of times when it has been burned and I have gotten it on the inside. The spray calamines that they have now give you the advantage of not having to touch the affected areas. Good luck. Spring and fall are the worst.

Shirley, I wish your doctor had given you his secret. When my Grandparents had cows in the timber, they never had poison ivy. I could run free. It also wasn't overgrown. You could wander all over. Both are gone and the farm sold last year. Dad got up wood, but he had to take the tractor and mow paths. The people who bought the timber are harvesting the old oak trees. It's a huge shame! They pile the trees close to the road and I can see them when we go down the highway.

the poision in the oak/ivy is a chemical irritant and immunity is not possible. Though the response is usually lessened with age. Some of us can play in it and not react at all and others get bad. Cortisone (pills) is what I give animals that react to it and it goes away fairly well. Cortisone cream and Benadryl work ok. I always wash Immediatly the area I suspect has been exposed and cover the area with clay. So a roll in the mud in the wild works pretty well when you scrub it off.

Mud works great for lots of things in the wild.

If not reacting isn't immunity, what's it called?
My husband is not affected. I only got it once last year - the first time, and considering the number of dogs rubbing on it and me, I thought that wasn't bad.

Seems like it is improving. I didn't get the cortisone pills this time or last. I did take one benadryl twice a day until yesterday. I'm figuring it's one of those facts of life for me around here.

You are allergic to the chemical and or overresponsive to the irritant. Usually an allergy. Then you keep scratching and then the secondary bacterials take over. You grew up in the city, not on a farm.

Cortisone pills are the only thing that works for me. I've had it itch so bad I stuck my (hand,arm) under water that was so hot it felt cold.

No, actually, I grew up in upstate NY on 88 acres, but never had any problem with poison ivy for all the time I spent in the woods with my dog.

I did react to poison oak in 1982 when I ran into it for the first time in Boulder Creek, CA. After that "creature from the deep" episode (I took a sauna, and the heat and sweat spread it like crazy; eyes swollen, etc), I didn't seem to have much rash reaction. I always had a little behind my right ear where my dog Tootie nuzzled me (sigh*) in the car and around the tops of my ankle socks. I figured that was from where I hung out my laundry.

Not a city kid. Never a city kid. lol

Unfortunatly, if you don't wash it off in time, It spreads internally.

No the farm thing is the new theory of immune developement. If you are exposed to cows and manure at early age your immune system develops to fight bacterial and viral challenges. If you have little bacterial exposure your immune system developes hyperreactive T Cells. Who knows.

It seems like the more poison ivy I've had, the worse it gets. I got my sensitive skin from my paternal Grandma, I guess. My other Grandma never had a problem with it. My dad doesn't have a problem with it. Funny huh?

Hmmm...makes sense. Guess I need to get around more manure. We got lots of manure from the farmer my parents traded with for use of a tractor before they got their own. Didn't have cows of our own, however.

Now that I've been talking about this again, I'm getting more itchy...lol

Miss targeted T lymphocytes. too much activation of eosinophils and histamine. Poor you. Scratch, Scratch..... I got stung but a whole colony of yellowjackets when I was 7 years old. my shoe (wooden orthopedic) was stuck in a root of a tree where there were a nest of buzzers. They stung me until I passed out. I lived and have never had an allergic response, swelling, or reaction to any venom since.

Oh Soferdig! That must have been horrible! Seven, I can't even imagine.

Wow-what an experience! How did you get your foot stuck in the first place?

I thought digging up the stinging red ant hill at about the same age was a good story, but I didn't pass out, and my mother heard me screaming from on top of the hill and put me immediately into a tub of water.

I really wanted to find that queen for show and tell! hmmm! Did a number on the hill, however.

4paws, I took a multilegged hairy centipede that fell off our ceiling to show and tell. No one ever saw anything like it.

lol
Off your ceiling? Where did it land?

I took a bat. It flew in our house. It was a Sunday night and I was already in the house, just before Ed Sullivan. I had my foot up on the back of the couch and this thing came in and landed by it. Before you know it, commotion everywhere while my Dad caught the bat. He put it in a jar with holes in the lid and I got to go around to all the classrooms and show it.

Then my dad squished it. Sad. Rabies was a worry then.
Actually, is now. A fox with rabies was killed in the next town. DH wants me to get a rabies preventative vaccination 'cause of all the strays I can't seem to keep my hands off of.

It just fell on the living room floor while we were in the room.
I had a cinnamon brown bat on the walnut tree. She had a baby hanging on to her and a larger baby beside her. I was babysitting at the time and didn't want the kids to mess with her, so I got a stick and gently pried her off into my sun-tea jar. DH took her out to the country and let her go. He broke the jar so no one would ever use it for anything.
I posted a rabies story on another thread. Don't know which one at the moment.

I was out picking huckelberries in Michigan and I had just gotten Orthopedic shoes to make my arches higher. Well the sole was wood and when my toe stepped in the root hole and my heel got stuck. The yellow jackets flew and crawled up my pant leg and shirt and kept stinging me until I passed out. Fortunately my parents heard me and off to the hospital. I don't remember much but screaming.

Ah show and tell. My daughter used to help me with surgery in my veterinary clinic. So after watching several cat neuters she went to show and tell that day. The teacher called me and asked if I knew what my daughter shared in show and tell. I of course said no. Well " She taught us all how to take thingies off boy cats!" I was so proud of my daughter. And the best thing is she explained to all of them a confused birds and bees that I had told her when we were doing surgery.

That's pretty fun, Soferdig. How old was your daughter?

I don't kill bats now, billyporter. In fact, yesterday, after I hung blue bird houses, I was looking for a bat house.

GRRRRR I survuve posion oak and posion ivy. I get eat up with cow itch vine. GRRRRR
Got lawn mower fixed or so i thought, ran up under Holly Tree Sunday and has cow itch behind it. Yesterday I started breaking out today my arms are covered.
Love the orange blooms but dang.


Lavina

Cow itch vine...boy, I never heard of that one. Poor you! I'm nearly "cured" but tomorrow we're taking out that bad boy in the photo above.

My DD was only 6 when she told the class about the birds and bees. After all I explained all the anatomy to her as she watched my surgeries and that allowed me to show her where the girl part comes from and where the babies grow in the uterus not over here in the stomach....... She actually knew what she was saying but the teacher and students didn't. Oh well. Never too young to learn about B&B but always too young to participate.

lol
I can just imagine the teacher's reaction.
Always too young? Uhmmm...well, never mind.

I'm speaking as a father. I also during those times told my daughter the best age to start dating is 30. Hee Hee

i use zanfel. its really expensive but it seems to help get rid of it faster. you can use it even while you have it. seems to asorb the poisons and you wash it away. you use it in the shower.

you can buy it almost anywhere where they sell calamine lotion now. gosh i break out really bad with it when i get it. someone told me about this product on here a year or so ago when i was misable with it. i went to the doctor and had to take prednisone i was so bad.


i hope it gets better for you.