Zack Morris - Story of My Life

Well I am on my second day of the oral steroid prednisone. I woke up yesterday and couldn’t hardly open my eyes, so had to go to the doctor. I got poison ivy during our annual Bruneau Canyon camping trip on September 22nd. So I am coming up on 5 weeks of rash, which will probably end up being 6 weeks and is unusual. I was almost healed and then vaguely remember scratching this dead looking patch on my right inner elbow, and I think it released a pocket of the ivy resin under the skin, kind of like bruising a tattoo or something. Anyway it went into my system and my head swelled up like a pumpkin! Also washed the sheets almost that same day, so I think some resin got on the pillowcase. I have elephant ears now too.

So I’m just going to list what to do and not to do:

1. DO scratch the rash right when it develops. Scratch the hell out of it till it weeps. Then scrub vigorously twice in the shower with hot soapy water. Then put Caladryl on it to suck out the resin:

http://www.pfizerch.com/product.aspx?id=377

I buy the expensive stuff over generic, because I need all the help I can get. I avoided scratching my rash the first week, so it formed pockets of resin under the skin that were released later, which is why I continued to relapse instead of scabbing over and healing. The Caladryl prevents infection, which is very important since bacteria are what cause scarring. If you do this right, it will only itch as you are scratching it, so you get this kind of orgasmic nirvana from it, and then you preempt it itching next time by applying Caladryl 3-4 hours later like clockwork. And I found that I can only reapply it once after it has dried (so 2 times total), and then it gets this itchy quality as a kind of secondary reaction, which is why I have to wash off in the shower before applying again. I think the skin may need to breathe.

2. DON’T use zinc acetate for more than one week. IVY-DRY is a miracle drug and the spray will stop itching that nothing else will:

http://www.ivydry.com/

But after a week, it gets tempting to spray it on yourself over and over, especially at night, but this causes a rebound that makes the rash worse.

3. DO use hydrocortisone cream, but only on the most severe rash areas. You can tell a difference, the severe original rash is where the resin got you and will be red and raised all of the time. The secondary rash around it is just bumps that look like a soccer ball and go down 15 minutes after you stop scratching. Those transient bumps just need to be protected and numbed by the Caladryl. If you put hydrocortisone on your whole arm, you are just wasting it, and you’ll find it doesn’t work nearly as well as the pink stuff. I had to put the cream on my ears and around my eyes though, because the reaction was just so severe.

4. DON’T wait around more than 2-3 weeks for the rash to heal. If it’s not healing by then, you are just wasting time. Go spend the $80 at the doctor and get the oral medication, because since the rash is still in you (and not on your clothes anymore), you can’t heal it with skin treatments. But, don’t go rushing to the doctor before 2 weeks either. If you use steroids too early, your body won’t be done doing it’s thing and you’ll just relapse when you stop.

5. DO press ice packs against any swollen areas. My right arm swelled up twice as big as my left and had this bag of fluid in it when I shook it. I only found out just today how well the cold works to numb it, now that the friggin rash is almost over haha.

Anyway, those are the big things I can think of off the top of my head. My allergy to poison ivy is so severe, that I’m going to treat it like an allergy to bee stings from now on. I’m probably going to buy throw-away pants from the thrift store next year to burn or bury in the canyon, and put bags over my shoes. I went to all of the trouble of washing my clothes in vinegar this year, which did NOTHING to help. I am so sensitive at this point, that I’ll break out with a few parts per million of oil, and probably just from the vapor of being around the ivy, and any other plants that got ivy rubbed on them from animals. I’m going to try using Ivy Block next year also:

http://www.ivyblock.com/ivyblock.php

My arms were every bit as bad this year as this guy’s, I should have gotten a picture So the best strategy is to prevent getting it in the first place. I must have gotten into the ivy this year by walking around so much at night, and then it rained which put the resin into solution and magnified the exposure.

I haven’t tried the baths in baking soda or oatmeal, so don’t know if they work. Really the only thing that works for me is Caladryl. Apply it liberally, and when you get too dried out from it, alternate with hydrocortisone. Then when you get too moist, use the Caladryl to soak up the weeping again. When you hit the one month mark, it’s time to start going without creams and let your skin get back its vigor.

Oh and benadryl tablets did nothing for me, but they did help me sleep. I am on free samples of claritin and I can’t tell that they are doing anything, but sometimes health is more about a lack of symptoms than magically feeling all spiffy, so I’m going to use it for 4 days to give me that last 5% and kick the rash.

Well that’s all I can think of, now maybe I can get back the week of programming I probably lost this month due to this crap