Poison Ivy

There's a lot of interesting things we've learned about poison ivy lately... Ricky and I are both having reactions from pulling some up. I started noticing HUGE poison ivy leaves coming out from every which way all along our driveway and chicken house area. I was impressed I noticed what they were. We cleaned them up on Sunday, I wore gloves but Ricky didn't. 

Did you know you can get rashes, blisters, Etc. anywhere, not just where the plant touched you? And you actually don't spread the rash to other areas of your skin, or to others by scratching or touching your rash/blisters. 

Did you know you can "break out" for a week or longer from it? I've had new small itchy spots start to rash up several times a day everyday for the past three days. I thought: you get exposed, you get a rash, it sucks, the end. NO! Not so. You can go days or over a week (or about ten days -but as long as several weeks) getting new rashes or blisters that itch like crazy. Two days after exposure I thought I was in the clear, not so!

Did you know many people don't react the first time they are exposed? Apparently the more you are exposed the worse the reaction each time. Ricky thought he was immune all these years, but it turns out he is not. 

Genetics play a role in how severe your reaction may be.

You can have headaches and a general feeling of unwellness (and diarrhea, nausea) from exposure. You may have to see a Dr. if swelling occurs or if the reaction gets progressively worse. (Ricky has the headaches and doesn't feel well, he also has a slight flat bumpy rash starting on his face) This can also be a sign on a systemic reaction that may need treated. 

Kids under 3 don't generally react to it (although I see two spots on baby Everett). Some places online say kids under 11 don't usually react too strongly to exposure. 

I'm glad we just have rashes, not any fluid filled blisters. Some of the raw bleeding looking photos online look scary! I look more like I've scratched tiny chicken pox marks on my body. Ricky has a very flat non itchy rash. He doesn't itch at all, only me.  Still, on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the WORST reaction possible) I rate this a 2. Maybe a 3. But I'm pretty tough. 

Poison ivy is weird!!!

UPDATE 1:
Ricky did have take allergy pills, it seemed to provide some relief for a while. Two weeks after exposure rashy spots that had started to fade started to come back in full force, and this time with with warmth and more swelling. He went to the Take Care Clinic at Walgreen's (so fast and easy and they are so nice there) where he was prescribed steroids. He is on the mend, but it has been pretty sucky. He can't go outside because for more than 15 minutes or makes the rash flare up.


Update 2: He had to get on a 9 day steroid medication. He went to Walgreen's Take Care Clinic and they prescribed him that because the swelling was not going away. It's now been a week since he's been off steroids and all is well again. The swelling started going away at one point, but then came back...so it was time to go in.