The Dreadful Poison Sumac and Ivy

Early this summer my mum and I decided to do yard work. What a bad idea that was for us! I've had poison ivy before, never had sumac though. Oh boy! What a fun month of June we had! I continued to keep the rash for a few months, it was here and then gone. Then it came back. I had it all over my left arm, left shoulder, down my stomach and both of my legs. The last bit of it started to crawl up my neck before the last of it went away. When we both developed the rash, we immediately went to the doctor for a cortisone injection. Our doctor gave us slightly more because of the severity of our rash. It really didn't help much for us, we do believe it may have helped speed up the process. My mum's poison sumac did clear up sooner than mine did. I had many sleepless nights and the urges to scratch (which feels sooo good:). I went through many products and looked up numerous cures to INSTANTLY get rid of it. Bah! Nothing really instantly gets rid of it. No product really dries it up in a day. I believe it has to run through and you have to ..try to grin and bear it. In this hub I'm going to let you know all about the lovely plants and what I have used to try and relieve the insane rash.

 Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) looks like a small shrub or tree. The whole plant contains a resin which is called urushiol. Which is the reason we have reactions to the plant. The rash will start to develop in about a day or two. The first signs of the rash are curved lines of red, itchy bumps or blisters. Usually poison ivy has three blisters in a row. If it's in a line, yep, you got it! Depending on how much of the oil you have on your skin determines how bad your rash will be. The blisters DO NOT contain any oil so you may think it's spreading because of that. It is not. You don't want to pop or irriatate the blisters, it is hard but it may cause an infection when you open them. Some blisters do seep. I had a large patch on my shoulder that I had to constantly have sterile pads or fabric on because it wouldn't dry up.

There are some myths about poison ivy and sumac.

1. The rash is contagious! Wrong! It is not. You can only spread it if you have the urushiol oil on your skin.
2. The plant is dead it's okay to touch! Wrong! urushiol oil stays on the plant (even if it's dead) for FIVE years.
3. If your allergic, you will always be allergic. Everyone's sensitivity changes, if you were allergic as a kid, you may not be as an adult or vise versa.
4. There are no leaves left on the plant, it can't cause a breakout. Wrong! The whole plant does contain oil.BEWARE!

Tips to relieve your itchies..

Remember these will not CURE it. It only helps subside the itch.

• The first thing is to take oatmeal baths about three times a day. Cut off some pantyhose and fill with oatmeal. Soak in tub for 15-20 minutes. Or you can buy the powdered oatmeal which I think Aveeno sells and probably off brands. It's cheaper to just buy a thing of it and pantyhose.
• Use a hot blow dryer and hold it on the rash for as long as you can. I did this and loved it. Burning never felt so good..
• Blazing hot water over the rash also feels good. Seems to stun it.
• I used calamine and caladryl lotion and would hold the hair dryer over it. Did this before bed and it seemed to help for awhile.

These were the main things I did, after trying numerous products heat was the best thing for me.

Here are some of the products I did try :

• Benadryl Itch Stopping Cream Extra Strength
• Benadryl Itch Stopping Gel
• Benadryl Itch Stopping Spray
• Cortaid Anti-tich cream
• Cortizone 10 Cooling Gel
• Ivarest
• Lanacane
• Cortaid Poison Ivy Scrub (I did buy this and it is grainy, letting it set for awhile and using really hot water I liked it)
• Calamine
• Caladryl

There is a plant called Jewelweed that grows close to poison ivy. If you are out and you are exposed to poison ivy, find jewelweed. Slice the stem and rub it's juice on exposed skin.

Also health food stores do carry pills that are the actually made from the plant. You can take them and build up an immunity to the plant. Haven't tried this but do check out the nearest health store.

It could be some of these will work for others and some won't. Most of these didn't do anything and I really just used the calamine and caladryl. Seriously try using a hair dryer, I think it's one of the best things. I do think after having poison ivy and now sumac so bad that my skin sensitivity has changed. I wouldn't wish it upon anyone..so be careful out there and don't go rolling around in the woods!! Stay non..itchy my friends.

DO NOT BURN THESE PLANTS! DO NOT BURN THESE PLANTS!

My mum and others have had severely bad reactions to it and have been hospitalized. Your lungs can swell and you may not be able to breath. Saw a story on tv about two kids who smoked poison sumac, thinking it was pot. They died soon after.