Poison ivy/oak sensitivity

[MaxTheKnife]

I'm really hurting here. I get poison ivy/oak at least two or three times a year. This year was different because I'm really pushing the exposure envelope since I'm sawig down trees for a living. That dang poison ivy/oak really seems to like cedar trees for some reason. Most of the cedar trees are totally infested with it. I try to wear a long sleeved shirt when I'm in the woods but sometimes it's just too dang hot. Oh well......

I think my sensitivity goes back to my childhood. My Mom used to give all of us kids an elixer from a glass ampule that was supposed to stop us from getting poison ivy/oak every spring. I don't know why she did that now that I look back on it. We lived in the city and rarely or never came into contact with that stuff. But now, as an adult, any time I get near the stuff I break out and suffer terribly. Especially in the heat with all the humidity around here. I'm suffering right now. It's horrible. I can't work because if I do the rash will just spread while I sweat. I can't help the sweating. It's hereditary. I have it on both forearms and it's slowly spreading to my upper arms. I don't know why it spreads after all the washing and scrubbing I've done. I guess it's just an allergic reaction. But I sure am misreable. It makes me feel like I have a really bad case of the flu. Anyway......

The main reason I posted this is because as a prepping site, we need to always be on the cutting edge of keeping healthy. I have my own way of dealing with poison ivy/oak but it's not seeming to help this time. I'm a sick puppy and haven't been able to work for the past few days as a result of this stuff. It gets in my blood and really messes with me. What will you (I) do if this becomes a problem during a SHTF scenario? Do you have a home remedy that will cure it? I sure don't. I have a physical remedy but it's pretty gruesome. And once it gets to the stage it's in on me now, it's no use. I have that stuff on over 10% of my body now and it's growing. Heck, when I was just a young kid I got it so bad down in Mississippi that it almost killed me. If you're allergic to poison oak or ivy you need to know what to do if you get it. I'm open for discussion here. It got plumb away from me this time and I've resorted to taking Benadryl maximum strength. It seems to be helpig but I dang sure can't work while I'm taking it. Makes me all loopy and out of sorts with myself. But it does seem to be drying the stuff up on my arms. Tell your poison ivy/oak stories here. I hope we can all learn alot about how to deal with it. For people like me, it's a serious consideration. So please share your experiences.

 

[Freeholdfarm]

Max, I don't know if this will help you or not, but it did help my son-in-law when he got a really bad case of poison ivy. My daughter made poultices of comfrey (lightly steamed) and applied them directly to his arms. The areas she was able to cover healed much more quickly than the ones that weren't covered, so I think it really did work. I feel for you. I don't get poison ivy, and neither does my ex, but two of our daughters are quite susceptible (and now the SIL) so I've had to deal with it a number of times, and it is miserable. I hope you are able to get some relief.

Kathleen

 

[Susan4]

Hmm.. Comfrey sounds like a good idea, I'll have to try that.

I noticed that the more I've been exposed over the years, the more I now seem to react to it. I'm not to the point of some folks who just barely walk past it and get a rash, I pretty much have to come into direct contact with oils from the plant to get it.

The last bad batch I had was also on my forearms. I would run hot water over the rash in the shower, as hot as I could stand it for as long as I could stand it. This opens the pores and releases histamine and provides itch relief for 6-8 hours indoors, less if you'll be sweating outside. There's not much help I can think of for it if you have be back out in the heat and sweating with active rash...it's just gonna be miserable.

Topical Benadryl works so-so, use the spray rather than the cream for best results. An on-line product called Zanfel that you use to scrub the oils out feels good but doesn't seem to decrease healing time for me. Technu is too fussy so I tend not to use it. Calamine is a bad joke.

If you feel that you've gotten it into your bloodstream Max, you should go in to the doc for a steroid shot. Had to do that once myself for ivy and a couple times for bad reactions to huge chigger episodes. It helps but you don't want to have to do that too often if you can help it.

I have a buddy who uses and swears by straight chlorine bleach to dry the rash. I mention this only to tell you to avoid this advice as itch relief is not worth poisoning yourself! (This same fellow came down with two tick borne illnesses last year and his liver enzymes still arent right...I wonder if it was the erlichiosis or the chlorine?)

Susan4

 

[Camasjune]

I, thankfully, no longer live in poison oak country. When I did live in it, I drank raw goat's milk from goats who ate poison oak. We were rather immune to it. I only had it once and that was a year after I stopped drinking the milk. I sure was miserable!

 

[rhughe13]

Poison Oak & Ivy

I've been lucky so far not to be allergic. I know the touch-me-not plant juices will rid the oils and rash, from your skin. Although I haven't seen the plant in the wild for many years, it supposedly grows close to the poisonous plants.

Let us know how your trial and errors pay off.

 

[Para36]

Max, as one who has had numerous bouts of poison ivy over many years I know what you're going through. I didn't miss work much but poison ivy was my most frequent reason. I never tried any of the natural remedies; we have some jewelweed around but I could never fiind it when I needed it. No topical remedies ever provided me much relief. But for my last encounters now some 15 years ago my doctor prescribed an oral corticosteroid and it worked wonders. I forget the name but I remember taking something like 6 tablets the first day, 5 the second and so on. I had substantial relief in just a day or two.
I have seen some recommendations to immediately wash with soap and water but I have had better luck washing suspected areas first with isopropyl alcohol ( rubbing alcohol ) to get rid of the active oil, urushiol. This appears to be the current advisory of the FDA as well ( from their poison ivy site ). They state that initial use of soap and water tends to spread the oil around more.
The only other very strong suggestion I would make is to be sure to thoriughly wash all possible contaminated clothing, bedding, everything. Both myself and my wife have gotten some from clothes I forgot about, especially gloves. The worst I have had was from chain sawing through a large poison ivy vine attached to a tree in winter and having the sawdust accidentally blow in my face.
In a shtf fan future scenario I would treat people with the alcohol / water wash/soap and water and isolate all clothing that was worn. Hopefully that and time would do the trick but the previous suggestions certainly sound good if one has the plant materials and resources on hand.

 

[pkchicken]

jewel weed works to neutralize the poison ivy if used immediatelly after exposure We use it if we even think we might have been exposed.

http://www.luminet.net/~wenonah/hydro/jewelwed.htm

http://altnature.com/jewelweed.htm

what''s interesting about this plant is that it usually grows where poison ivy grows

If you're gonna be exposed alot, try to find a patch of jewel weed and keep some with you.

good luck

pk

 

[pkchicken]

last night I had a dream

I dreamt I was weeding and looked down and saw a clump of poison ivy in my bare hand eeeekkk.

I ran to the creek to find some jewel weed but it was gone!!!
Finally found a scrawny jewelweed plant and mangled it and spread the juice allover my hands as I was shouting oh crap OH crap!!! I woke up.

What a nightmare!@

pk

this is the poison ivy from my dream:

 

[Brooks]

pk, that is indeed a nightmare!

Max, I'm so sorry, hope you're doing better now. I was mugged while doing yard work this spring. It may have been in the bark mulch. It was quite bad, up and down both arms and legs, before I realized it was PI. I was in denial because I knew I hadn't gotten into any (apparently there was something wrong with that assumption), so it was pretty well set by the time I reacted.

Zanfel definitely helped with the itch, but I went through nearly 4 tubes of it because the rash covered so much. Boy is that stuff expensive!

Ivarest is a combination of calamine (14%, which is much higher than calamine or caladryl lotion, go figure!) and benadryl. That definitely helped as well.

I have since become familiar with Wiseways Herbals (www.wiseways.com) which has a salve specifically intended for poison ivy, the main ingredient of which is jewelweed. My PI was gone by the time I received this, so I don't know how effective it would be. I think their All Heal salve might be even more useful, and that one has helped me in the past.

There are quite a number of homeopathic remedies, but they depend on very specific symptoms. If your rash feels better for being in extremely hot water, then Rhus Tox might help (but if it is the wrong remedy it might aggravate your condition if you use it too many days). Apparently I'm a Graphites gal, but I didn't know that at the time of the PI rash either.

The following website has lots of information about particular herbs, including an explanation of why comfrey might help. (I'm not qualified to know how accurate this website is, but it seems pretty comprehensive.)

http://www.treasuredlocks.com/ingredientswhy.html

 

[Opus Dei]

FWIW, I understand if you eat the new leaves starting in the spring, it will confer immunity on you-not unlike CJ's goat-milk therapy. Supposedly Indians did this, and they are not know to be immune on a large scale, perhaps individually.

 

[Deena in GA]

Our yard is surrounded by trees and brush, and at the edges there is lots of poison oak. It has never bothered any of us and we've lived here for 24 years. Until this year that is. My husband tried mowing through some of it (without thinking). He's never mowed it before and never will again. He wound up covered in poison oak from the shoulders to his feet. Funny thing is he only had two blisters - none of the rest of it blistered up. He's having to stay inside as much as possible now as the heat and humidity really bothers it. I'm going to look at some of these alternatives. Thanks for starting this thread, Max!

 

[Amazed]

Poison Ivy is one of those things that you can come in contact with 10 or more times without a reaction and then one day BAM - it gets you. I've never had it but my son has had it many, mnay times. The thing that gets rid of it with him is to take him to the ocean and get him in the salt water. I also bring a bucket of the salt water home with me. It clears him up every time.

 

[MaxTheKnife]

Well, I'll tell you what did the trick this time. When it was at its worst I got the idea to try a hot soak in epsom salts. I put as much as would dissolve in a dish pan and filled it up with steaming hot water and soaked my poor arms in it for about 10 minutes. It hurt so good! After that I just kept rubbing it down with Absorbine JR. horse linement a few times a day. All that's left now is scabs and dry patches of skin. I've had a few new outbreaks since then but I get the Absorbine JR horse linement on it right away and it just comes and goes. I'm hoping to have a bit of inferred immunity for the rest of the summer but I'm not holding my breath!