poison ivy

I took super hot showers to release the histamine. Boy what a rush that is. Lasts for only a few hours though but very little itching.

Wipe with damp washcloth, asap after contact. Best with soapy washcloth. But the important thing is FRICTION with the damp washcloth. Poison ivy leaves a grease on your skin that is VERY hard to remove. Soap alone will NOT remove it. Damp washcloth within 8 hours, but sooner is better.

...COOL water. Warm or hot water will open pores of skin, resulting in some of the poison getting in.

That sounds horrible. I've never seen poison ivy.

Go see an Allergists ASAP. I've been there, done that. A good Allergist will have you good to go in3/4 days. Or you can suffer until poison ivy runs its course, a week to ten days.

I had it all over the place like you describe. I went to my Allergists. He asked me "How soon do you want to be well?" This was on a Monday. I told him I had to be a Groomsman at a wedding on Saturday. No problem he said. He gave me a steroid shot in the right glute, gave me a prescription of steroid pills and a can of steroid aerosol to spray on the blisters. By wedding day you could never tell I'd even ever had Poison ivy.

Good luck with your problem.

P.S. I'd never used steroids before. By the time I got back to my vehicle, I felt like I could pick it up and carry it home. Now I know why some people use steroids for performance enhancing.

P.P.S. DON"T touch Mr. Johnson until it clears up.

Please don't do the hot showers, and definitely not the *friction* with washcloth suggested by some in this thread. Do soap yourself thoroughly with lukewarm water to remove any excess toxin still on the surface of the skin.

Next, go to the doctor and try to get them to prescribe a course of prednisone. I find that I start feeling better within hours. Without predisone you're probably looking at a week or more that's pretty miserable.

In case it's relevant, I believe prednisone is on the in-competition banned substances list, but I don't think it's banned outside competition. FWIW I felt great running when I was on it.

Lastly, throw out any clothes that may have been contaminated with the toxin as you can reinfect yourself later.

The damp washcloth vid is by a phd who spent 25 years studying inflammation of the skin. Don't dismiss it. Watch the vid.

The video shows how hard it is to remove dirty automotive grease from skin. Poison ivy stays on skin just like that, only you cannot see it. Plain soak and water does a piss poor job of removing dirty auto grease from skin. Wiping with damp washcloth will remove grease and oil very well.

If you are running trails with poison ivy often, do you want to have to go to allergists for steroids every time you get poison ivy on you? Learn to wipe it off. Corticosteroids come with a crazy list of possible side effects. Bulging eyes, diminished libido, muscle weakness...

There are things you can do immediately after known exposure or when the very first signs of itching appear. You are past that point. See a doctor. Get a steroid shot. One steroid shot isn't going to cause any health problems.

In the future, you can prevent poison ivy rash by acting to wash the invisible oil off your skin. Regular soap will NOT do it. Dawn dish detergent WITHOUT moisturizers will work, but the best soap is Fels Naptha. It's an old timer laundry soap in a bar. You can buy it at Walmart and some supermarkets in the laundry soap shelves. It'll cost about $2 for a bar. One bar will last all summer even if you use it on your legs and arms every day.

Wet the area with cool water. Rub the soap into a lather over the affected area. Rinse with cold water while continuing to rub the area back and forth with your fingers. It might take 2-3 applications, but eventually you'll be rinsing the soap off and your fingers will just... stop moving! You'll have rubbed all the oil off your fingers and the affected area. At that point, you hopefully have removed all your natural skin oil and the offended poison ivy oil.

If it still burns after this, do it again. It might take 2-3 applications.

Now, if you've put hot water on it or if you've sweated since exposure, your pores have opened up and the oil can get under your skin. At that point, you probably need to use Zanfel.

Zanfel comes in a tiny toothpaste tube and has a grainy consistency. You apply it following the directions VERY CLOSELY and it will stop the itching and remove the oil.

The reason I didn't mention Zanfel first is that it's expensive AND you must follow the instructions closely or it won't work. I hate to say this, but some people are genetically wired to ignore instructions. If... if... you can follow the instructions, Zanfel will work. Now, since the OP has a rash around his eyes, he shouldn't try either of these options. He should get to an urgent care center and get a steroid shot.

Even though Zanfel is pricey, it's cheaper than a visit to an Urgent Care center. I keep a tube handy just in case the Fels Naptha doesn't work. I run trails and get poison ivy 2-3 times a month. I keep a bar of Fels Naptha in the shower and use it on my legs after a trail run.

I've gotten poison ivy a few time, not as bad as it sounds like you have. What helped out a lot, as another poster said, was Zanfel. Make sure you follow the instructions! I also keep a spare tube handy.

A few shots of Jack Daniels also helped out, it kind of dulled the itching some and made it at least a bit more tolerable.

Easier said than done, but try not to scratch, it will spread the oil to other parts of your skin.

Get a blow dryer and blow hot air on it. Trust me. It feels amazing and stops the itch for a few hours. Seriously get a blow dryer, you’ll thank me later

WAY too late for that.

Go to the doctor and get some Prednisone.

This is the answer. Not only will it cure the rash you'll feel like Superman for six days.

I once took a dump in the woods and wiped with poison ivy. Not good…absolutely miserable until i got steroids. That’s all that helps me. I’ve gotten it a couple times since then. Just keeps spreading until I take them.

Get calamine lotion (available everywhere) and that will soothe the itching. Poison ivy, or oak, is actually an oil that spreads by touch. If you got it on your eyes it means you rubbed you eyes with your hand after your hands touched an itchy infected area, the more you scratch the more you spread the oil around.

My wife got severe poison oak when visiting the Canada Rockies with our daughter. To help her sleep she and I rubbed calamine lotion on her from head to toe. She was able to sleep fine while wrapped in an old bedsheet to keep the lotion from soiling the bed.

He is an instructional video, featuring Cartman, using an extreme solution for his poison oak/ivy. (Poison ivy in the eastern U.S., and poison oak in the western U.S.)

Corticosteroids will certainly help, but despite the common misconception they are a very different class of drug from anabolic steroids. People get a huge placebo effect when they hear the word steroid.