Rash Encounter #2
Second and perhaps last edition of the Ivy Saga.
It’s actually been three weeks since I went to InstaCare about four miles from where we live. Our doctor couldn’t get me in for another few days and since it was close I decided to skip insurance and go. The staff and the lady, a physician’s assistant I believe, were all very nice. I’ve been told that in some places niceness is a great cover for incompetence. Just saying. I would have been okay living in the same neighborhood as any of the folks there but I’m not sure I’ll go back anytime soon.
After looking at some of the rashes that had gotten pretty ugly four days after my encounter with the invasive ivy, she, the PA, wrote me up a quick prescription. I was to take 3 20mg tablets of Prednisone daily for 5 days, which I did. There was no tapering off to smaller doses and it was only for the 5 days. I’d never had any allergic reaction before and didn’t have any probing medical questions. I had read up on poison ivy exposure as far as home remedies before the visit and had tried a variety of things from calamine lotion, vinegar and baking soda, bentonite clay, Ivanitch or something like that (Ivarest), alcohol, witch hazel and probably a few other things. A good friend suggested bleach and I just about tried it, until I didn’t. I took the 15 prescribed tablets as directed and they seemed to help, though I was trying so many home remedies simultaneously that I couldn’t be sure what was doing what.
About two days after the meds ended the sores began to return, with a vengeance. We were in Pennsylvania and would be leaving the next day. D called our Dr. and made an appointment for the day we’d get back. Meanwhile, that morning, two days before we got to Georgia, I was gently rinsing off the sores on my left and right wrists and and watched my left wrist begin to swell, bubbles forming under the skin, 1, 2, 3…30+. It wasn’t slowing down. I envisioned the bubbles bursting with hundreds of alien spiderlings cascading onto the floor. I was being violated, invaded and new sores were sprouting out in all sorts of places: gunk. I’ve included a little clip at the end of the post of my left arm that morning for anyone passionate about pustulates: gunk ‘n’ gunk.
I finally made it to my doctor’s office and was seen by her PA who was also very personable but she seemed to get that I was miserable and I got a steroid shot in the right cheek * and three prescriptions: Prednisone 105 tablet 5mg each, 28 500mg Cephalexin tablets and 20 25mg Hydroxyzine tablets. I am not used to prescriptions and have never taken so many in my life. I’ve been the one or with someone who always thought they were a last resort, like suicide. D has been of the same mind to a point,; however, she is practical and concerned for both of our health. She sometimes coddles me as if I were…a plant or something important (See Rash Encounter #1).
I’ve included galleries above that shows when the rashes were at their height and how they have improved. All the above pictures were taken within 7 days of each other. The gallery below is of things I used beyond the prescriptions. I’ve already mentioned some of them. Tips and things I didn’t mention that I think were actually helpful include:
Hydration, lots of water, clear and flavored. We use a Berkey as our water filter;
Cold tub soakings with oat milk and Pure-Castile soap;
Honey and yogurt poultices;
Comfrey salve which a good friend concocted for me a few years ago; and,
Some Carrot & Stick repair formula for my face, 70 years too late.
It appears that there will not be any permanent scarring or discoloration, which is fine with me but at a certain point, what ya gonna do?
I have heard that our immune system changes as we age and some have suggested that the vaccines we’ve been taking over the past couple of years are doing their dirt on our immune systems as well. I’ll not get into the conundrum of conspiratorial double speak that will ensue from that conversation.
Rash returns without Alien Spiders
Anyway, I’m essentially off FaceBook, just posting links to these types of updates for whomever. Hope something I said here has value for someone else. It’s therapeutic for me.
* What’s up with shots these days? I waste all the energy getting into a mental space that can accept the pain and then there is no pain anyway. It’s over before I can worship me for being so Zen.