My poison ivy experience

 

So I just moved to Decatur, Georgia. A small metro area outside of Atlanta. And I love gardening and cooking and art. And yoga. And home remedies for ailments of any kind! 

This first photo was taken a few days after working in my garden, and I thought I got attacked by ants. (Because I'm from Utah and we don't have poison ivy in Utah for the most part.) I think?  And I sent this to my Dad who is a doctor and he was like "yeah looks like ant bites take an oatmeal bath." 

 This was a few days later and at this point the rash had spread to my thighs and even my upper arms. I was so confused! And I was like this can't be ants! So that's when I started to look up poison ivy rash pictures and it looked the same as mine. And it also included puss filled blisters. GROSS. And my dad at this point was like "yeah, now it looks more like poison ivy. You should still take an oatmeal bath." 

And so I did. And the oatmeal bath DID help but only for a few hours and a little bit after and then I was losing my MIND with itchiness. Again! And itching while I was sleeping, my fiancé told me, I had no idea! 

 So this photo was again a few days later and it was itching like crazy!!!! And the oatmeal bath wasn't enough. My dad then suggested I just go get a shot of a corticosteroid which would make it go away almost instantly. But I just moved to Georgia and just lost my health insurance from my job so that wasn't an option. Also it's my opinion that medical steroids aren't the greatest for your body so I try to avoid them if I can. But the itching HAD to stop. So I scoured websites with home remedies. My mom suggested a lotion, which I got from CVS it was called Aveeno anti itch. And this helped for a few hours at a time like the oatmeal bath by drying out the rash. But the rash would get moist again and the itch would return. 

So after 6 days of itching myself crazy I found this site 👇🏽 

Poisonivy.aesir.com/view/care.html 

🙏🏾

And it talked about using a hair dryer and I was like huh?? But it works!! It took away the itching instantly. But I couldn't stay home and blow dry my legs all day so it also mentioned using clear nail polish over the rash to keep it dry and to keep it from spreading. 

 

This is the nail polish over the blisters. And after 3 or 4 days. The rash started to clear. I am not sure if the blow dryer and the nail polish "cured" it. I'm not saying that but it kept me from itching. (And losing my mind) so it helped it go away! 

And this photo is today, and it is almost gone completely. 

So mainly I want to say what worked for me was the blow dryer and the nail polish. But I also live in Georgia so it's super humid here. If you live in a drier climate you might find that the oatmeal bath and lotion ( a more moist approach) works better. 

Thanks for reading!