Poison sumac

[spro]

I'm in silent rage about vegetation which are determined to kill me. This latest bout had my arms swelling, blisters across the forearms running to my arm pits , across my chest and other parts. I was covered but that shirt I used again. It is in my jackets everything needs washing. I hate this stuff to a degree that there are different measures. Around and into my eye socket across my face ....and I washed, scrubbed after cutting and tearing out vines. They masquerade as regular climbing ivy now.
I've tried weed killers. I'm going to measure across the one that penetrated between my fingers and another pos and charge them up!

[NP317]

Bummer! Get better soon, and STAY that way!
Try fire? Or does that spread the oils as aerosols, like burning poison oak?

Sheesh! You need to stay in your shop making railroad stuff!! Doctor's orders.
~RN

[Russ Hanscom]

DO NOT BURN. If you think contact is bad, the smoke is much worse, gets in the lungs and other places.

There is a special soap, Tecnu, that works fairly well if used soon after contact. Also most good detergents, but not soaps, will get it off.

As one who gets it easily, I sympathize with your predicament.

[SteveHGraham]

Tough break. Keep some nitrile gloves beside the toilet.

[spro]

I really do appreciate you guys' sympathy. I don't mean to be a "whiner" but I was in a rage last night. It started around Tuesday and I hadn't had any direct contact with it days and two showers before that. I have and used the Tecnu soap and the anti itch stuff. I have 3 containers of Calamine Plus solution here.
It was like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" for awhile. I was turning into one big red oozing blob with the air conditioner on. Wrists swollen and measureable heat coming off my skin. I didn't anything Noble which often returns this and it isn't anything really. And yes, Steve G, it Does happen. I don't know how and it's a prickly subject So there it is EXCEPT ! Mind racing, I recalled a bag I used to carry with meds. I found it and My Spare Methylprednisolone packet !! Things are going better now after 8 tablets. I would otherwise have set something afire in the middle of the night.
I could see the headline " Man sets garage on fire seriously burned" They wouldn't believe I was burned before the fire.

[spro]

Before logging out, something else. I've been here before with the poison ivy and oak. This was different and totally unexpected. I believe that we don't know if we have some little fibers which are actually miniature thorns, in our skin. These little thorns are continually aggravating the immune response of our body. PTL I have that or would be dead long ago. It is these tiny penetrations of poison. At one point my left glove was off and I ripped a root. It was stronger than I thought and cut between two fingers. That is where the blisters started and actually as I type this............ I dug a little thorn out of that area. It is bleeding now and that is good.

[spro]

Update: I finished the last tablet yesterday and things were calm for awhile. It then came roaring back . Itching everywhere, changed Tee shirts 3 times. Applied Calamine , Tecnu spray and even Cortizone-10 . I'm not complaining. I cannot complain about an irritant in the knowledge of actual burn victims. In the midst of so many who have suffered pain, severe pain from burns and wounds.....
I am a fool to speak about a poison plant ? So here it goes. Our skin is constantly shedding dermis and regenerating it from the inside. My skin had blisters and some were large. Gentle cleaning is one thing but scabs are another. When the blisters subsided the scabs were present and only hours ago did I peel them off. At that point, they were the repositories of the poison. See how this works. With burns, tearing off the blisters opens the body to infection and loss of those fluids to rebuild the outer layer. So, I had scrubbed and cleaned but allowed the scab to form. The scab contained the poisonous fibers. I was laying in bed itching and then pulled off various scabs. Very quickly, I wasn't itching from stem to stern. You see; the only area of the dermis which wasn't shedded, was the scab areas , and it had the poisonous fiber barbs. So the poison trigger to the immune response would continue. Anyway it is going away, as am I goodbye.

[10KPete]

That just sounds horrible, spro!! I'm very sensitive and had a couple of roaring cases as a kid, then one as an adult. But never, never, as bad as yours sounds... My heart goes out to you.

Pete

[spro]

Hey Pete. So much going on and don't give a piece of your heart to me. I was a tad sloppy some weeks ago. It was a serious mowing, weed whacking sort of thing around normal looking "English Ivy" . Nothing really. Fast forward. The stuff is receding and raking loads of leaves, I grab these gloves which I discarded weeks ago. They are black "mechanics" gloves and almost immediately I realized they may have been the ones I had used then. So the wrists start to Itch ..I won't mention it anymore but I am not unique about the sensitivity. Don't trust climbing ivy or any of the stuff.

[EOsteam]

Here is a website with plenty of photos and info on the entire Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac family. I live in a dry part of the West but we still have Poison Ivy and this was helpful for identification.

http://www.poison-ivy.org/

HJ

[spro]

Thanks EOsteam! When I had a serious problem with this some years ago, I thought I had seen all the relevant sites. At that time, I had been cutting 1" thick vines off a tree and got a thorn stuck right into a wrist vein. Poison ivy rash exploded all over me and had to see a doctor. ( I have had severe allergy to grass/ tree /plant pollen since my youth) and used to need shots to suppress it).
The packet of tablets, suppressed the intensity at some cost. If we look at the site provided and the "Hall of Fame" pics, I can identify with some of them. This is nasty business and everything I wore or touched before I knew I HAD IT, has to be washed 2 or three times. As I type, I have rash up both forearms and across the chest to top of legs. Not blisters anymore but super sensitive itchy rash. Shirts or robe I wore when suppressed are the beginning of another irritant. I can't take those tablets anymore.
This is something which is similar to a disease in a way. People don't know why you are not at the top of your game but you can't tell them you haven't had four hours straight sleep in a month. Then when I think of OUR DEAR SOLDIERS &MARINES, it is nothing but an irritant.
So anyway, if one looks at those pictures, they see how it can be and why it must be DESTROYED !
And That may be why this has to be eradicated. All too often our Best come back from the worst situations and be slain by some pestilence at home. I will KILL this with impunity for it is not two legged.

[Nelson]

This happened to me a couple years ago. I learned tecnu is just mean green scrub in a tube. You can buy a whole tub of mean green on amazon much cheaper.

After that, I bought a sprayer, and a gallon of Ortho poison ivy killer and used it straight on them till they were saturated. In a week, they were dead.