I'm 34 years old and I didn't get Poison Ivy, Oak, and/or Sumac until last week. I was brush cutting the back part of my yard in t-shirt and shorts knowing that I had probably all three of the nasty plants. Since I never had it before, I was arrogant assuming I was immune to it. Half way through the job, I had to go to the store and get a new spark plug for my weed eater. As I'm driving home, I look down on my arms and see red splotches. Even worse I look up in the mirror and see the same splotches on my face! The splotches on my face were from plant matter spraying in my face from the weed eater, (I wore eye protection, thank God).

While still driving, I called my doctors office on my cell phone, they called in a script for steroid creme, and when at the pharmacy I bought tecnu and Ivy Block lotions. I peeled off my clothes, threw them down into the basement, and took a cold shower scrubbing my body. I'm grateful the pharmacist advised me to take a cold shower and not a hot one, (hot water opens your pores).

That incident is the whole reason I created this thread in the first place.

Strange enough, by the following day you could barely see the splotches on my skin, and the following day they were gone. I told my neighbor about the incident, and she said last year she was cutting brush along the fence line and got it so bad she was practically bedridden for 3 days!!!

I learned a lesson. I'm not "Ivy proof".



Tom