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Ugh! Afflicted With Poison Ivy


lowracer

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I used to be able to roll in the stuff, now just reading the forum topic is making me itchy! I've tried just about everything over the counter and prescription steroids too. The best thing I've found is Zanfel. At $35 -$40 a tiny tube the stuff is expensive, but it works for me (YMMV). I have even taken to buying the stuff off of e-bay, scored some for $15.

When I used the stuff on a bad case of PI after a quick trip to Texas it didn't work! I thought I got ripped off with fake Zanfel, turned out to be chiggers! And I thought poison ivy was bad... :)

 

Zanfel... try it out.

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After a recent caching trip, I came home and somehow gave my wife poison ivy. It must have somehow gotten in my nails and I must have been scratching her back when I gave it to her. She had a really nasty case of it--this was confirmed by her doctor. He gave her some steroid cream (which I had to apply) and it went away eventually. For some strange reason I wasn't affected at all; I must be immune to it.

 

To make up for the incident, I bought my wife a Kenny Chesney CD. I think she's forgiven me by now.

 

Another time she went caching with me and ended up with two really ugly tick bites, and she didn't even go into the woods! Now she won't go caching with me unless it's on a concrete slab or in an office building :)

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Jamie,

Your hedge trimmer story gave me flashbacks--baaaad! ;) When we moved into our first house, there was a huge overgrown privet-appearing hedge along the entire border of our yard. So there I was in 95 degree weather, in a tube top and shorts, doing major swaths on this monstrosity that was taller than I with the trimmer---fully touching the hedge with about every inch of me. Well, what was inside of the hedge (not visible until the new leaves began growing back--and I was verry ill) was poision oak! Found out the hard way that I was also very allergic to it...it took 8 weeks prednisone to get mostly over it!

 

I am religious about not caching in shorts, watching where i decide to go, etc---have only been 'caught' by it once since then, which was actually this summer (only 5 weeks of pred this time :P However, I had it coming this time....I was in the area of a cache one day that had eluded me on -5- prior visits (a d4/t5 one), but I couldn't resist stopping when I had an 'ah-ha' monent about that one...so shorts and all I tromped right thru to see my goal, all the while saying to myself 'Gee, I don't SEE anything bad here.....' WRONG! The bummer is I can't even LOG that one yet, cause I promised I wouldn't actually get it till my nephew comes back to visit later this fall, since he was there for all the previous tries! Arghhh! Hahaha

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I am an odd one, alright. PI grows all over the place here (MN). I see it all the time when I am 'caching. I know lots of people who've gotten nasty rashes from the stuff. I don't know what's up with the likes of me, but I have had a lot of contact with this stuff- broken-off leaves, plant stems, etc. in contact with my clothes and skin - and I have yet to break out in a rash. I don't get it.

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I am an odd one, alright. PI grows all over the place here (MN). I see it all the time when I am 'caching. I know lots of people who've gotten nasty rashes from the stuff. I don't know what's up with the likes of me, but I have had a lot of contact with this stuff- broken-off leaves, plant stems, etc. in contact with my clothes and skin - and I have yet to break out in a rash. I don't get it.

I was the same way. I have spent much of my life in the woods and in poison ivy and never got it. But let me just say, one day, you might and it might not be pretty. I am finally pretty much healed, just a few more red marks. I will say that is not something I want to go through again. I still refuse to wear long pants and shirts in the heat, but I will surely buy some barrier cream next year.

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I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I have never been affected by it. I've done a lot of hiking, camping, and also have spent weeks in the field with the army where other got it regularly. So now that I have said that, I better go buy some stuff to fix it huh? Sorry guys, I feel your pain, just not from PO or Ivy.

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I used to be able to roll in the stuff, now just reading the forum topic is making me itchy! I've tried just about everything over the counter and prescription steroids too. The best thing I've found is Zanfel. At $35 -$40 a tiny tube the stuff is expensive, but it works for me (YMMV). I have even taken to buying the stuff off of e-bay, scored some for $15.

When I used the stuff on a bad case of PI after a quick trip to Texas it didn't work! I thought I got ripped off with fake Zanfel, turned out to be chiggers! And I thought poison ivy was bad... ;)

 

Zanfel... try it out.

Oh now chiggers are a different story. Man those things suck. I got them one time under my bra straps (was out playing war games). Talk about misery!

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