"Get your hands OFF MY STUFF!!!!!"

The morning was clear, and my husband's voice carried all over the neighborhood.  We were standing outside my son's home loading up our car.  We had spent the weekend in Southeast Kansas, visiting family and friends, and my husband had also spent some time deer hunting.  It was the early season for black-powder guns, and he was dying to get back out there, since he hadn't gotten a deer last year.

I was slightly concerned about his outburst, wondering what the neighbors would think.  This was the second time Mike had told me to not touch his stuff.  The first time it was just, "Don't touch that."  I didn't realize he gave his strict admonition because he was concerned for me. 

You see, I am highly allergic to poison ivy, and he had just spent two days wandering through a jungle of hot, wet, lush ivy.  If he had just said the first time that he was concerned about me catching poison ivy from this boots, I certainly wouldn't have touched them!  I had been concerned about him bringing chiggers into the car, and it hadn't occurred to me that he might bring something worse...the dreaded poison ivy!

We jumped in the car and headed home, and I immediately forgot all about my "exposure" to my personal "bane."  A day or so later I noticed I was extra itchy.  I kept scratching my forearms and lower legs....and couldn't understand why I was itching so much.  Then I saw "it".  The tell-tale sign.  A bump.  I immediately screamed to my husband...."I HAVE A POISON IVY BUMP!!" 

You may be thinking...A poison ivy bump?  As in ONE??  Yep!  And for me, that can be the start of something devastating!  If, when I find a bump or two, I STOP the scratching and dry up the bump, I find I can usually nip my ivy in the bud...or at least keep it from spreading.  And I learned that the hard way!  =o<

I used to catch poison ivy on a regular basis...until I quit touching my husband and sons camping clothes.  Even then I caught it once from the outside of the washing machine.  I've gotten it from petting our cat...and from touching a coat stored in the barn that hadn't been worn for a YEAR.  I have even caught poison ivy in the dead of winter on what appeared to be a lone, dead twig, sticking up out of a field.  That particular case left my arm looking as if I had been burned.

This wicked stuff is very mysterious to me, so a few years back I began to do research on poison ivy and came up with some interesting facts.  I thought I had to touch the plant myself to break out...which I soon found out was wrong.  What makes poison ivy so wicked?  It's called urushiol, and it's an oil in the sap of poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac.  In order to get it, you need to be exposed to the oil that has oozed from a broken plant root, stem, or leaf. 

And here is the kicker....the oil can stay active for up to five years on any unwashed surface, including pets, tools, sports or camping equipment, tennis shoes, shoelaces, rugs...even dead plants!!!

I heard a guy say once, "I can catch poison ivy by just walking by it!"  This was years ago, and I must admit, I thought he was a doofuss!  How could anyone get it by just walking by?  Well, it appears he was right!  My research showed that when the air is humid, the oil can "hang" in the air....we've all been in weather where it was so humid it felt like we were breathing cottage cheese.  (You haven't?  Try southeast Kansas in the summer!) 

And a person can catch poison ivy by being in the smoke where the vine...OR its oil...is on wood that's being burned.  This can be especially harmful because it can cause the person to break out on the inside, as well as the outside.  This actually happended to one of the scouts in our Boy Scout troop.  He caught it on a campout when there was 6 inches on snow on the ground.  The scouts burned wood that had poison ivy on it, and our camper had it in his eyes, nose, throat...can you imagine???!!! 

Some experts say that the more exposure you have, the less you will break out.  Others say, the more exposure you have, the more susceptible you are the next time...that you become more sensitive with each exposure.  I can only go by what I have experienced...and that is, I have become more sensitive to it over the years.  Plus people I know who NEVER had it before, suddenly break out in  adulthood.  Makes the "more exposure, more sensitive" theory extremely plausible to me.  Although, I do admit every person is different.  Not everyone on the face of the planet will react as I do.  Therefore I will concede that some may acquire immunity with more exposure, while others become more sensitive to it.

Since every person is different, the treatments would also be different, don't you think?  Some say that washing with warm or hot water increases swelling and spreads the oils, and that cool is best.  Yet I have read where people with poison ivy have used hot water to relieve their swelling and itching.  For me it was trial and error, but I found cool water was best.  No hot tub soaks or showers for me...I would just be itching even more!  One of the best things I can do is to take liquid soap and gently rub it onto dry skin, to help the itch and the spreading.  If done early, it really seems to work. 

There are about as many poison ivy treatments out there as there are people.  Here are some "interesting" ones I read about on line:
Scratching the rash with detergent until it bleeds.  Scraping the blisters with a wooden popsicle stick and pouring rubbing alcohol on it.  How about this one...wipe your own pee on the blisters!  Someone said to use Portland Cement on the rash, another uses WD40, and one swore by camphor and moonshine.  (I think the person used the camphor to dry up the blisters, and the moonshine to keep the affected person from "drying up"!) 

Another person recommended spanking or smacking it.  I will admit...I actually have "spanked" mine before...but it itched SO BAD and I was trying to keep from scratching it!  And scratching around the offending area (not on it) doesn't work either.  It only causes a NEW outbreak the next day in the very places I had scratched the day before, sometimes in long streaks, literally following the path my fingernails took as I scratched!  

So...I am very grateful my husband is so committed to keeping me out of dangerous situations.  So when he yelled, "Get your hands OFF MY STUFF!!!!!",  I knew he was trying to keep me safe.  But it was rather embarrassing....especially wondering what the neighbors thought!