Poison Ivy and Pride. . .

I've always been a little prideful about the fact that I'm "immune" to poison ivy. I never really saw it growing up and until this summer, I didn't really know exactly what it looked like. I was pretty much convinced that my body just didn't react to it because Kevin would get it and I'd never even have a spot on my body. Well, this summer I had not only one, but two cases of poison ivy!! Seriously, I'm not just a little sensitive to it; I am horribly allergic to it! About 3-4 days after I had been working in our back yard, we were in Moundridge for harvest. My arms had been itching a little, but it wasn't until I really paid attention that I realized I was covered in a red rash! Random bumps appeared and blistered and oozed. It was painfully itchy and very annoying. I honestly wanted to cut my arms off!

This is just the beginning!! It got so much worse by the following week that I finally went to Urgent Care. He said yes, it was a pretty bad case and immediately prescribed me some Prednisone. Within about a day, the itching had subsided considerably, although I was still scratching myself throughout the day. I had 6 days of the meds to take. On the third day, I woke up itching all over my body. I thought maybe it was just coming back but then I lifted up my shirt to see little welts all over my belly and back. Hives. It suddenly hit me that the itching I had felt during the previous few days was different than the poison ivy itching! I was having an allergic reaction to the Prednisone! I stopped the meds and suffered through about another week of itchiness, although it was much better than the first few days!

My home remedy. . . baking soda and water! It actually took the severe itch out of the wounds and helped to give me some relief!

After the middle of July, Emma and I went to Wisconsin to visit some friends at their lakehouse. We took a little walk through their woods to see the new trail that had been made. I was wearing flip flops and shorts. I asked a few times if there was poison ivy on the path and she assured me that she and her family hadn't had it yet and they were pretty certain there wasn't any on the path. I felt like I could feel the oils creeping onto my skin. I was hoping that maybe I was just being paranoid. Unfortunately, two days later, the nasty red rash made its appearance and I suffered through three weeks of severe itchiness again. I probably could have taken something or tried to use some other form of home remedy, but I ended up just scratching my legs all day long. Let's just say I've learned my lesson on poison ivy:) Hopefully that's the end of our relationship!!