I'll confess. I had some on little dsiets when I went skinny dipping as kid w/ friends in a river and I tossed my underwear into the wrong bunch of plants.
I did go on steroids but the whole washing thing w/ cloth and soap and scrubbing should have been the first defense.

I've had it a lot. I used to follow loggers and cut the tops to sell for firewood but I never even had it anywhere close to that bad. Never went to the Dr with it but I would for that!

And we won't tell the neighbor...

I worked with a guy who could break off a piece and chew on it with no effect. Some people almost die if they get within spitting distance of it. Most people fall in between to varying degrees and there is only one way to find out where you stand on that scale... The hard way.

Here's a short video that helps visualize what dsiets is mentioning:



Link to original video: https://youtu.be/4oyoDRHpQK0

Hope it helps going forward. For what you have now, go to minute clinic, urgent care, or Dr., and get on steroids. You also need to make sure clothing (belt) and tools are cleaned off or risk future outbreaks.

This stuff help me last time I had it.

https://www.amazon.com/Stop-It...y-Soap/dp/B07CVK844V

I would wash it morning and evening in the shower and rinse with cold water as warm water intensified the itch.

I inhaled some that was burning nearby when I was a teen. After it showed up in my blood and I got a rash all over...ears, mouth, nether parts..mom took me to the doctor.

He gave me some kinda shot that knocked me out and had a steroid. Mom fed me Benadryl for about four days until the steroids worked...don’t remember much of that week as I was knocked out.

Take away.

Dawn and a good rag

Don’t breath smoke when people are burning brush...

A humorous memory of Navy OCS was when two of the candidates snuck out and got it on in some weeds, which were probably poison ivy. The blister patterns indicated that they used the missionary position.

Damn, dude! That's brutal.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Including some on little ramius.

In high school, one of the guys on the wrestling team had to sit some practices out for a while. He and his girlfriend had gotten their freak on in the woods. In a patch of poison ivy. He assured us (and we naturally took him at his word) that he had it everywhere you don't want it. He was better off than his girlfriend, his exposure was only external. She didn't come to school for about a week.

Hope you heal up fast, man.

I'm highly sensitive to poison ivy. Every time I get it, it gets worse. I've had it three times. Don't remember much of the first time, as I was quite young. Second time was from, ah, recreational activities in some thick undergrowth near a state park beach. That was as painful as it was embarrassing.

Last time, I was collecting firewood across the road from the cottage. The next morning, the back of one leg and the front of the other looked like OPs pictures. By Day 4, the skin had fallen off. By Day 7, the exposed flesh was mostly necrotic (as in gray) and it looked like an infection was setting in. Off to the urgent care I went.

After asking me repeatedly if I thought I'd been bitten by a brown recluse (uh, they aren't known to be this far north, buddy), the doc asked if he could bring in the medical staff, as many of them were interns and this was a very unusual case. Said, "Sure, I'm happy to do my part to further the medical arts." Room filled up with maybe a dozen or fourteen young people in white coats. They all took turns examining, gently prodding, asking me all the same questions the doc had asked. Including the brown recluse question. Repeatedly.

Once they'd had their fun they all just stood there in a group staring at me. Doc finally says, "I'm going to give you a pretty hefty cortisone shot." I said, "OK." He said, "Well, you need to drop your pants." I looked around, nobody moved to leave. So, I dropped trou and leaned over the examining table. He very dryly commented, "Well, you maybe didn't need to drop them that far." I wish they'd started taking the souvenir pictures before the shot was administered.

He also prescribed some antibiotics and industrial steroid cream. That was a bitch to apply. Started noticeably healing, though, maybe three or four days later. To this day, I avoid any low-growing thing with three leaves, regardless of shape, size or color. OP has my deepest sympathies.

Poison Ivy will stay with you...

I always liked the Cramps. Bikini Girls with Machine Guns

I get it bad also. Now if I even think I’m exposed to it I wash with Fels Naptha soap. Has worked for me.

Yeeouch! Leaves of three, let it be.

There's poison ivy all over behind the shop I work at, and substantial amounts of tall climbing poison sumac along the fence line behind our other building. Sucks, because our employer has decided to save money on lawn care by having us do mowing, edging, etc.

The ivy doesn't intimidate me too much, as most of it is low and can be handled with a string trimmer. The sumac... That stuff gives me the willies. It's a good 8-10 feet tall, and as I'm riding a 24HP/60" cut mower, I gotta remind myself to keep the discharge chute pointed away from it. Don't want to aerosolize the oil!

quote:

Originally posted by wildheartedson0105:
Yeeouch! Leaves of three, let it be.

There's poison ivy all over behind the shop I work at, and substantial amounts of tall climbing poison sumac along the fence line behind our other building. Sucks, because our employer has decided to save money on lawn care by having us do mowing, edging, etc.

The ivy doesn't intimidate me too much, as most of it is low and can be handled with a string trimmer. The sumac... That stuff gives me the willies. It's a good 8-10 feet tall, and as I'm riding a 24HP/60" cut mower, I gotta remind myself to keep the discharge chute pointed away from it. Don't want to aerosolize the oil!

Weed and brush killer?
Hell, diesel fuel and epsom salts! (I'm kidding)

Seriously that's some nasty stuff!

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I inhaled some that was burning nearby when I was a teen. After it showed up in my blood and I got a rash all over...ears, mouth, nether parts..

This happened to me in about 2003. Helping a buddy clear some land, one of his friends was throwing brush onto the burnpile and it was mostly poison ivy. We didn't know it. I was breathing it. Same as you: Blood infection.

Now, each spring I get a rash randomly over my body. Mostly arms and legs without coming near it. I'm also allergic to all types of ivy. Creeping Charlie is similar to poison ivy and we have tons of it in our natural areas.

I've been reduced to steroid creams.

Roundup or 2-4-D. Apply as needed. To the plant, not you.

Meh!! That is nothing!!
I got my entire body covered once had my eyes swell shut and I looked like I had red and purple jelly beans growing off of my. Dr. gave me a prednisone 7 day pack and a bunch of sterilized hypodermic needles to pop all the big ones.
I laid on my basement concrete floor for 3 days as the light text of the floor and the coldness was the only thing that gave much relief.

If I start to get the little bubblies now I immediately grab a rough wash cloth and straight bleach. Scrub the area pretty harshly, the call the Dr. to get the prednisone prescription ASAP.

Years ago, when my wife was new to motorcycling, she entered a curve a bit too fast.

No serious injury, but while we were waiting for the truck to come and pick up her motorcycle, somebody in our group said, "Uh guys, am I the only one who noticed that we are sitting in a patch of poison ivy?"

I used to get poison ivy if someone talked about it within earshot and it would spread even if I never scratched. I still get it but age may have at least reduced my severe reaction to it. I recommend bleach. I smelled like the stuff all summer each year in my youth. It was hell growing up playing in the woods with a severe allergy.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Steroid shot is the only thing that works for me.

I'm one a those. Except with me it was an oral Prednisone course both times. That steroid gave me insomnia from hell too.
There was a product, IvyBlock, that my dermatologist prescribed, that can mitigate the effects by applying it prior to contact. Like if you knew you were being affected whenever you were in a certain place, which is what happened to me two years in a row. Mine was coming from some other plant's oils (urushiol), not poison ivy, which I know how to identify. It was classed as contact dermatitis.

IvyBlock was taken off the market at some point and I forget why.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Steroid shot is the only thing that works for me.

I have had good luck when my doc has prescribed Prednisone. Never tried the steroid shot. I've got to believe the shot works better.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Roundup or 2-4-D. Apply as needed. To the plant, not you.

Call in a napalm strike on your fence line. Or nuke it from orbit to be sure.