Alive and Itchy

Actually, I'm much better now. I should be considering it has been two freaking weeks since I did battle with the ivy.

The ivy won, in case you were wondering.

Black Friday while everyone else was out shopping, I stayed home and did yard work. I had both girls fetching and carrying garbage bags. I can get SO much more accomplished if I don't have to break stride to carry bags to the curb. I had on long sleeves and gloves. I only handled the vines with the gloved hands.

I still got poison ivy. Or oak. Whatever.

The retired pediatrician says Viriginia Creeper looks a whole bunch like one of the ivys. That's got to be the case, as I only saw Virginia Creeper and English Ivy.

I stripped off my work clothes by the washer and walked upstairs to wait for The Boy Child to get out the tub. (He had been in charge of Earthworm Relocation... and played more than worked, as goes his usual help with yard work.) I was standing with my hands on my hips, contemplating Life In General, when it occurred to me that I had not scrubbed up with Dawn dish detergent yet. (Side note: my hips are one of the places I DO NOT have ivy rash. Go figure.) I hopped in the shower and scrubbed all body parts several times. I noticed a bug bite on my right calf.

For about one day I was fine. Then all hell broke loose. As usual, I had managed to get scraped in two places by the ivy on one arm. The scrapes began to get histamine bumps around them. A rash appeared on my left shin. Apparently I scratched the bug bite in my sleep. The bug bite area started looking like poison ivy rash. After that I dressed up to go to bed so I wouldn't spread it any further. I was a mess. Long pajamas, gauze, and various creams were my nightly routine.

I gave it a week to get better, then dragged myself in to see a doctor. I wore shorts and a short-sleeve shirt (under my regular clothes) to show off my boo-boos better without needing to undress. It was still dang cold in the exam room. The doc prescribed prednisone and sulfur-drug antibiotics. The spot on my leg (the original bug bite) continued to get worse. I began to wonder if some bad spider had gotten me.

Finally, Hubby (My Hero!) handed me the cream he had been prescribed for ivy rash. In one night my leg went from bright, angry red to a healing pink.

My arms still itch. It was too hot yesterday to be wearing long-sleeves, but I did anyway. Applying that cream to my arms seems to have helped them a bit, too. But I still itch.

I'm tired of itching.