{"id":173,"date":"2008-06-25T03:26:15","date_gmt":"2008-06-25T03:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/?p=173"},"modified":"2008-06-25T03:26:15","modified_gmt":"2008-06-25T03:26:15","slug":"poison-ivy-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amperzen.com\/blog\/poison-ivy-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Poison Ivy Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/a>Last weekend, we worked on getting that rest of the gardening done.\u00a0 Sunday, we got a lot done and then started to weed out around the fruit orchard.\u00a0 Last year we didn’t do much in that area and it has gotten rather overgrown with weeds and baby trees and stuff.<\/p>\n

I’m highly allergic to poison ivy.\u00a0 In Maine and most of New England, I know exactly what it looks like and avoid it like the plague of destruction it is.\u00a0 Last year, I ended up with poison ivy (going systemic) twice.\u00a0 I got some gardening gloves from FoxGloves<\/a>.\u00a0 I got a pair of the ones that go up to the elbow.\u00a0 I also have some regular gardening gloves — you know the generic kind that just go about 3 inches above your wrist. I also have a pair of leather ones that\u00a0 go nearly to the elbow.\u00a0 Last Sunday, I was wearing my regular gloves and a long sleeve shirt made out of a gauzy material to let air in and keep bugs off type of material.<\/p>\n

Monday, I noticed bubbly dots on my arm.\u00a0 My right arm.\u00a0 The arm with no lymph nodes due to breast cancer surgery 6 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 Rather than waiting until I was really, really sure it was poison ivy — I played it smart and called my allergist.\u00a0 I got in today.\u00a0 Yup, poison ivy.\u00a0 As of today, it’s a half dozen spots on my arm and one on my stomach.\u00a0 We’re hoping to get it in check without going for the big guns.\u00a0 So, now I’ve got an extra antihistamine and a steroid cream. Tonight I have a few more spots.\u00a0 If it doesn’t clear up by Thursday, I call about the big guns.<\/p>\n

Now, you’d think after last years P.I. woes, I’d learn to recognize this sucker.\u00a0 But here in Maryland, I’m not seeing the poison ivy I know and detest from New England.\u00a0 No shiny three leaved thingies.\u00a0 In the area I weeded, I saw 5 leaved vines, three leaved vines and stand alone bushes (none shiny and all with big honking leaves and serrated edges), and a variety of vines with and without thorns.\u00a0 There were even some run away raspberry vines.\u00a0 But nothing that I recognized as poison ivy.\u00a0 How can I avoid what I can’t identify.\u00a0 Guess it’s time to buy a field guide to poison ivy<\/a>. This is so frustrating.\u00a0 And so is the fact that it went through my shirt.<\/p>\n

So, next trip to the weed patch, it’s the elbow length gloves under the leather gloves\u00a0 with a cotton long sleeve shirt.\u00a0 I may melt but hopefully I won’t get poison ivy again.\u00a0 Of course the weeding may need to wait until I get the present case of blistery bumps under control.<\/p>\n

Just in case you’re interested, Burt’s Bees Poison Ivy Soap<\/a> and Domeboro<\/a> are great for starters to control it and for those who aren’t hyper-sensitive (like my hubby)[ [Hyperion: I can only apologize so much for being damn near perfect \ud83d\ude42 ]. But always check with your doctor for actual treatment — poison ivy, with the way it spreads, is not something to mess with.\u00a0 If you use over-the-counter stuff and it doesn’t clear up in 48 hours call a doctor, you may also be hyper-sensitive.<\/p>\n

Now if I can only figure out what it looks like down here in Maryland with the heat and moisture.\u00a0 I’ve checked out several websites with pictures and just about everything thing in the woods matches one picture or another even some I know aren’t poison ivy.\u00a0 Why can’t Mother Nature put little labels on the plants for us? It’s the least she could do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend, we worked on getting that rest of the gardening done.\u00a0 Sunday, we got a lot done and then started to weed out around the fruit orchard.\u00a0 Last year we didn’t do much in that area and it has gotten rather overgrown with weeds and baby trees and stuff. I’m highly allergic to poison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-medicine","category-hearth-and-home"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t