After contracting poison ivy over 2 weeks ago and not realizing what it was and repeatedly spreading it across my body, this is my new outfit for weeding around the bases of the trees. After discovering we had an enormous amount of PI and Virginia Creeper (VC) in the north wooden area where the burning site is, Craig went on a massacre with weed killer and I always wore calf high socks and long pants when I was out. One day I wore ankle socks with no intention of getting close to our crop. Somehow I managed to get some toxin on my right ankle. I get weird rashes on my skin all the time. It didn’t really occur to me that it could be PI. I only had PI once as a child. While I had Tecnu scrub, Calamine lotion, anti-itch spray, I used topical steroids and spread it around. I am on day 6 of a 16 day course of oral steroids and am still a paranoid mess about spreading it. I take lava and Tecnu scrub showers twice a day and am doing enormous amounts of laundry so no clothing touches my skin more than once.
I am nearly done with my weeding and Craig has done a second round of PI/VC spraying so hopefully I will get beyond the paranoia soon. About 10 days into this experience I recalled my mom using lots of cotton balls to apply the Calamine lotion very carefully to prevent spreading it. I wish that memory would have surfaced earlier.
Tamara Unleashed 