Last weekend I wanted to give my yard a final afternoon of glory before the summer is over. As leaves are already beginning to fall in my region, and the nights are growing colder. I set out to tidy up my yard, and enjoy the warm glow of the sun one more time this season. My task included trimming hedges and tree limbs, as wee as removing fallen tree limbs. To my dismay, the next morning I woke up to find, I was itching, and covered with poison ivy. I was immediately taken back to childhood summers of itchy misery. It had been nearly twenty years since I had been so unfortunate as to have an encounter with poison ivy. The itching nearly drove me mad within the first hour. It is so difficult to resist the urge to scratch my inflamed skin, so therefor, I did scratch and the poison ivy and my discomfort has spread.
In this article I will offer insight and suggestions on how to overcome the dreaded poison ivy inflammation and find relief.
First of all, forget about Calamine lotion. It is a waste of your time, effort and money. Applying Calamine lotion will offer you relief from your poison ivy for maybe five minutes at a time. You will be left an itchy and funny looking pink doted mess.
Cleanse your skin with a natural colloidal oatmeal soap or possibly an Aveeno product like Aveeno gentle skin cleanse, or an anti itch formula or shower gel. Anything that contains some natural colloidal oatmeal will provide some form of relief. If you find that you are desperate to get rid of your poison ivy, run a warm bath, and add one to two cups of chlorine bleach that is unscented. The bleach will dry out the poison ivy quickly. If you are going to use this bleach bath method, avoid contact of water and your eyes. Also make sure you don’t have any open wounds. An afternoon or two in a chlorinated swimming pool will provide relief and results.
As for the terrible itching you should invest in a box of Benadryl. It will offer relief, in my opinion, Benadryl is a wonder drug that is affordable and available over the counter. Benadryl offers relief of many allergy like symptoms, and will make you sleepy. Don’t take it if you plan on driving. If you must take it and you will be driving a motor vehicle, take a half of the recommended dose to offer relief and hold you over until you can safely take a full dose of Benadryl.
You will also want to invest in a tin of Petro Carbo Salve, which is wonderful on burns and skin irritations such as poison ivy, and bug bites. This is an item you should consider keeping in your first aid kit. Watkins offers a petro carbo salve that works wonderfully.
These methods should help you experience relief from your poison ivy. If you catch yourself itching put a pair of cloth gloves or even socks on your hands to offer a step of protection from the itching and spreading of your poison ivy.
