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Yes, I had just finished the medicine for spider bite and wore flip flops out to the backyard to dump veggie scraps into compost bin when I discovered I had trapsed through poison ivy growing out back. The good news is I caught it early enough & already had cortesteroids running around in my system.
There's a product called proteck-x: a poison ivy oak and sumac cleanser that actually works very well if you can get it on immediately. My neighbor handed me the bottle, said he bought it in walmart. I used it yestorday and expected today to be nightmarish. So far I've only got a few bumps, which considering the dramatic exposure and instant reactions I was having, it's more than well worth having the stuff on hand just in case.
The homemade version would be a mixture of aloe vera, mineral spirits, almond oil, and a dozen or so essential oils that have anti bacterial/fungal/viral properties as well as cutting down/binding the urishol culprit.
Here are other suggestions and info I found handy. http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/cures.html
After the fact exposures: The most common sense thing I heard in that link was to go swimming in a chlorinated pool, followed by sunshine, to speed up healing. Ocean water doesn't apply to WV but that works too. Perfect sense to me.
After the fact treatment I've had success in the past with a liquid product called ivy dry for getting blisters to heal up cleanly. Aveeno oatmeal baths work well for a little while. They also recomend after all the oil is off you to treat with hot water showers to manage the pain/itching.
Prevention- the oil from poison ivy can remain active for over a year. This means anything that came in contact with that oil (a rake, a shovel handle, your laundry, your gloves, your pet) will be smearing this oil around everywhere creating new outbreaks. Once you know you touched poison ivy, be sure to decontaminate things and yourself properly or risk giving it to your whole family or reinfecting yourself for months. Your sores aren't contagious, but spreading the oil around is how it hurts everyone. If you have rubbed your eye with a hand contaminated in ivy, best you get to a doctor immediately or risk long term damage. ****Do not EVER burn poison ivy/oak/sumac or you'll be in a hospital dry drowning from lung lesions.
When I was a child growing up in Southwest VA, I had several bouts with poison ivy and one thing that I found that worked really well for me was camphor and moonshine. Camphor and moonshine is home concoction used in place of alcohol. Smells terrible but very effective,especially if you burst the blisters and dab, not rub the mixture on. It dries it right up in a day or two. My problem the last few years is finding canphor blocks to mix with moonshine(I have also mixed canphor and alcohol which worked just as well).
--"Lonnie Frye"
Drink Heavily
I have had Poison Ivy for over two weeks now because I am a terrible golfer and went ball hunting. Everytime it shows signs of clearing it comes back with a vengence. The only acceptable remedy I have found is to drink Highland Scotch on the rocks until I can no longer stand. I then fall to the ground and begin intermittently bashing my face off the floor while drinking more Scotch. The relief is temporary, but very effective. Not recommended for sufferers under 21!!
--"GILL McCARTHY" (gillmac@NOSPAMyahoo.com) submitted 26/Aug/2002
Editor: Do you have to bash your face though to make this effective! :-)
Drywall Joint Compound
There are two things I used to clear up the rash in 3 days, the 1st thing I use joint compound, sheet rock past, I covered the affected area and let dry onto skin at about 1/8th inch, later rinse with hot water then I put the juice and jell of the comrey plant to relieve the itchy feel, this works really well and is twice as fast as other cures.
--"Bill McMillan"
Good 'ol ivory soap and a really, really hot shower will do the trick too. Wash up as soon as you think you've been overly exposed.
If you happen to get it bad, really hot showers will also provide temporary relief, as the body will naturally release large amounts of histamines which will curb the itching.
And exposure to the sun (good old UV) helps to dry that stuff out too.
yes they mentioned that in the link too, but I've never actually seen that soap. is that like pine tar ointment (aka ichthamol), or pine tar soap?
the stuff my neighbor loaned me was awesome btw. cleaned everything very well, barely noticable case of poison ivy now as a result.
It's used as a laundry soap and usually found around the laundry soaps, It comes in a bar with a red wrapper I believe, and it's kinda yellow in color.
also you can use it down at the creek when your washing your laundry.
Benadryl (or Zyrtec) and steroids. You can only get the topical stuff like hydrocortisone over the counter. If you know someone who can write an Rx, get some prednisone....that'll cure what ails ya...
x1x- yes, I'm an uppity high faluttin spoiled princess with a washing machine. I accept that.
wvu pharm I was medicated in advance from the spider bite- i had just finished the prednisone & was still in my system when I got exposed, so I think I dodged a huge bullet here. That cleaner my neighbor loaned me was invaluable to say the least.
Now, anyone have a goat I can borrow to clean up my yard? I'm dreading wearing tyvec in june to get rid of this ivy. hahahahaa
H/B could lead that goat in a parade ot two...It would have a feathered hat for sure..am I on topic here?
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