Reply to Poison ivy spreading?

Forum Index » Health and Medicine

Reply to "Poison ivy spreading? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Anyone had this happen? It’s been 2.5 weeks since I’ve touched it. The rash started on my hands and arm, but I’ve been getting random itchy rashy spots across my body, under clothes where the plant wouldn’t have touched, over the last week. My derm (who originally diagnosed it) doesn’t have an opening until next week. Urgent care gave me oral steroids because I was in such bad shape.

[b]The internet is saying you can have a systemic reaction[/b] but the original rash was super localized and not terrible, so I’m pretty confused. This happen to anyone else? How long did it take to clear up? [/quote]

No. 
It's urushiol oil that causes the reaction. It's like sap, clear but turns black when oxidized by the air.

The amount that would fit on the head of a push pin is enough to cause a rash in many people.

You are simply "re-exposing" yourself to the oils that got on your clothing or other objects. Clean everything with DETERGENT or ALCHOL as you must use those to get that sap off things.

Wash yourself in the shower after you clean/launder anything you might have exposed to the ivy or touched since then, and when washing in the shower use some laundry detergent to wash your skin with to remove any residual oils you re-contaminated yourself with during the cleaning.

PRO-TIP, in the future, learn to identify the plant (there is both ivy vines and a shrub/tree version) and when you are exposed to it, wash IMMEDIATELY with DETERGENT and you won't get a reaction. It takes a few hours for the stuff to stay on your skin to get a reaction. The larger the amount, the quicker the reaction and worse it is.

And NO, it DOES NOT get in the "system" and spread via the blood or anything. That's an old wives tale. Some doctors still repeat that nonsense. Doctors are mostly very ignorant.  :shock: [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics