Rampant poison ivy - no one but me seems concerned.

July 29, 2022 3:21 PM

Poison ivy keeps spreading and nothing helps! What should my next move be?

I've never had bad poison ivy before, so maybe this is just... what it does?

So this past Friday (one week ago) I did a lot of yardwork and stupidly did not cover up. Two days later (Sunday) I developed poison ivy all over my legs, neck, and face. Monday, it was much worse and itching like insanity. I went to urgent care and they said "yep that's poison ivy" and gave me an 8 day course of prednisone, that gradually tapers down over the 8 days.

Next day, Tuesday, was much worse. I spoke to an ER doctor who suggested a shot of decadron and a shot of IV benedryl. We did this. I felt immediately so much better. The itching went from a 10 to a 2 and I thought I was heading in the right direction.

Unfortunately thought, it keeps spreading. The itching is still down, but the bumps are spreading so fast I can practically see them emerging. I have been documenting with pictures and you can literally see changes from hour to hour. Today is the most widespread its been and is now emerging in brand new places like my feet and hands that were never there before. I am really freaked out!

i just went back to urgent care and waited two hours but finally went back home because it was clear I was not going to get in any time soon. I will try again in the morning.

I tried speaking to my Primary Doctor on Monday, but instead got one of his associates who told me "oh just keep taking the prednisone and you'll be fine." I tried calling my doctor again today and again got a nurse in his office who said "oh that sounds so bad! I'll have him call you" and he never did.

Everyone else in my life is basically telling me I'm overreacting, everyone gets poison ivy, just be patient, la la la. Which is awesome to hear when you're scared!

I have already tried: Cortisone 10, Aveeno HCI, Zanfel, Benadryl both in pill and topical gel form, oatmeal baths, oatmeal scrubs, probably some other stuff i'm forgetting. I've washed EVERYTHING multiple times, including my bedsheets, comforter, clothes, shoes, bag. I've washed down surfaces with rubbing alcohol and covered my couch and chairs with clean sheets.. And yet it KEEPS SPREADING.

So my question to people who have had poison ivy before, is this just what it does? Gets worse and worse even though you've washed everything and could not possibly still be encountering the poison? Everything online says once you get on the steroids it starts getting better and drying out, but mine is getting worse. And why would the itching be gone but the bumps still get worse? I'm at my wits end.

posted by silverstatue to Health & Fitness (19 answers total)

silverstatue: So my question to people who have had poison ivy before, is this just what it does? Gets worse and worse even though you've washed everything and could not possibly still be encountering the poison?

Yes, unfortunately. That's exactly what it was like when I had it. The way my dermatologist explained it is that your skin is one organ, so the rash can spread to parts of your skin that the urushiol didn't actually touch. Prednisone did eventually clear it up for me but it took about 7-10 days.
posted by capricorn at 3:50 PM on July 29, 2022 [7 favorites]

I should add - it was also very frustrating and scary for me. I hope yours clears up soon!
posted by capricorn at 3:51 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

So there's two things that can happen:
1) "spreading" which I believe is really just some places reacting slower to the initial exposure, and
2) re-exposure, where you're still in contact with something contaminated (clothes, tools, pets, car, whatever).

IME it ramps up over the first week, and then starts tapering off, but YMMV depending on your exposure and your sensitivity to it.

It absolutely sucks, and I'm sorry you've got it really bad. It is mostly a process of riding it out and just being miserable for the couple weeks. Of course if you have like trouble breathing or something like that, don't try to ride that out - seek additional immediate medical assistance!
posted by aubilenon at 3:53 PM on July 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

When I had a patch of poison ivy on my leg, I was at the derm for unrelated reason and she immediately said that would take forever to heal and gave me a topical foam to apply (some kind of steroid?) that made everything less itchy right away. I don't know if you could apply this type of topical product to your entire body though, applying some products including hydrocortisone/benadryl to entire body can be toxic, question for your doctor.

My spots will continue to appear for a week. I think as aubilenon said that some places are reacting slower than others to the initial exposure.

It is important to note that there are different reactions to poison ivy, some more serious than others. Getting worse on steroids seems a time to continue to seek medical assistance.
posted by RoadScholar at 3:59 PM on July 29, 2022

My brother and I react like you do to poison ivy and if there's any on a mountain and were hiking... we'll somehow find it.

This is what works or at least helps for me:

1) Treat all your clothes as if they were covered in with like radioactive dust when you work around it in the future.

You should see me after east coast hikes, I put on gloves, strip to undies, bag every bit of clothing including shoes (they are seperate since they aren't washable, same for pole tips), wash my hands, remove gloves, wash hands again and then slather hands in coconut oil (or I get itchy in anticipation).

2) dump washables into washer without touching the inside of the bag or any item, put the contaminated bag in the bottom of the trash (brings me pain to throw away a perfectly good bag! Keep reminding yourself "radioactive dust"...), throw yourself in the shower, wash head to toe, every inch with a LOT of soap, no skimping here, this is another place to go excessive. I'd suggest 2 or 3 head to toe slathered in suds washes but I'm paranoid about the evil stuff!

3) throw your post-hike clothes and shower towel in the wash, and I usually re-wash the hiking clothes with the shower/"semiclean" clothes.

4) After drying those, put everything from the dryer into a bag and set it aside for at least two weeks, ideally longer, until you're sure you weren't exposed or the primary exposure has fully developed and you're certain nothing in your environment was contaminated.

I wish I was kidding.

If I get it, I always manage to smear it all over m y face (wiping sweat...) and in my eyes. It sucks. My brother and I have running competitions on what doses of steroids our various docs prescribe. Last time he won because he got a shot of dex in the butt and I only had high dose oral pred.

I can't recommend DIY oral desensitization because OMG the risk of disaster is so stupid high, but when I hiked more on the east coast, I'd start taking this stuff daily in late winter/ early spring, ramping up my dose to something large (a capful?) twice a day as I approached the week of my trip. Don't stop until at least a few weeks post-exposure.

The risk of doing this isn't to be sneezed at - seriously, I wouldn't recommend it, but I've done it. I used 'oral ivy' - https://www.amazon.com/Prevents-Symptoms-Poison-Homeopathic-Natures/dp/B0001APXWY it makes me cranky that it says "homeopathic", because it's not. But it works so I try to ignore that.
posted by esoteric things at 4:49 PM on July 29, 2022 [5 favorites]

My mom gets it like this, she is so sensitive that one exposure makes her whole body react. When she is exposed to unrelated irritants her body acts like she waded through poison ivy and she breaks out in a copycat rash. Some people react just that strongly.

Watch your breathing, take your meds, and seek additional treatment if it’s still active when your steroids are done. It’s awful!
posted by Lawn Beaver at 5:24 PM on July 29, 2022

For future you, there is a product now out from Cutter, poison Ivy wipes. To remove the oil. I haven’t tried it bexsuse to my knowledge I am still not allergic to poison Ivy. And I live in a place where I am extremely unlikely to encounter it.

But because this is truly the way the rash develops for many people (either you touched parts of the skin with a contaminated item later than others OR it just migrated along the skin organ OR both) you may want to be able to pre-treat yourself with as many methods as possible. (These new wipes, full body soaping, treat potentially exposed items and garments as completely contaminated).
posted by bilabial at 6:39 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Corticosteroids are known to cause emotional side-effects, including anxiety, so it's possible that some of your anxiety is chemically-induced (along with the entirely-rational anxiety caused by the constant itching and pain and the fear that it's getting worse!). I mention this because knowing it might make the experience less scary.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:45 PM on July 29, 2022 [6 favorites]

I had poison ivy about 15 years ago for the first time. It was taking forever to go away, so I saw my doctor. He told me that skin issues are slow to heal with diabetes and he asked me if I had ever been tested for it. I said no. With no other symptoms presenting themselves, I discovered that day that I am a type 2 diabetic. I was lucky to have had poison ivy.

I am not suggesting you have diabetes. I am, however, suggesting you get tested.
posted by flarbuse at 7:03 PM on July 29, 2022

Yep. The rashes just take a long time to do their thing. 2 weeks if you treat it, 'bout 14 days if you don't. Sorry.

Learn to identify it. That's your best defense.

Keep a bottle of Technu in the shower. You have a pretty long window, a couple of hours, to get the oil off. If in doubt, use the Technu. You'll be more sensitive now.
posted by Dashy at 7:07 PM on July 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you for all the advice so far! And thank you for the heads up about diabetes, flarbuse. Ironically I JUST got bloodwork done a few weeks ago so I know all my levels are good.

Interesting that the steriods can cause anxiety, because I am definitely spiriling right now! I will go to bed and hope for some improvement in the morning, or least not any more spreading/worsening.
posted by silverstatue at 7:35 PM on July 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yes, Prednisone can absolutely mess with your emotions and ramp up anxiety. It can also make you very uncharacteristically angry (is this related to "roid rage"? Maybe!?) so give your loved ones a heads up. My husband has had similar reactions to poison ivy and I have sympathy, it really does suck for much longer than feels fair. One trick he learned is that very hot showers can bring some relief--the hot water will tell your skin cells to fire off all of their itch receptors at once, and then you'll get some period of itch-free time because it takes a while for those receptor sites to reset.
Sorry you are going through this!
posted by Jemstar at 9:30 PM on July 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

I had a childhood just miserable with poison ivy. Every summer, without fail, for years. The rash probably isn't "spreading" in the way you mean unless you've missed washing an object contaminated with the resin, like your shoelaces or something. Also, if you have an animal that goes outdoors, wash them. Cut your fingernails, too. Assuming you've washed everything and aren't re-exposing yourself to the resin, different areas of your body will react more or less quickly to exposure. I would instantly get bumps all over the tops of my hands and the insides of my elbows and wrists and the backs of my knees, but I wouldn't see rash on my palms or feet until a few days later. My mom thought that breaking open the the bumps while scratching caused the rash to spread so she would wrap me like a mummy, but the pediatrician told her to stop doing that because that wasn't how it worked. It always took about two weeks for the rash to completely clear up. Calamine lotion and that sunburn spray helped some (lanacane or something like that?) but they weren't itch cures by any means.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 12:08 AM on July 30, 2022

As another data point: the first time I ever had a reaction to poison ivy (and I had definitely been exposed previously) was almost two weeks after my exposure, after I attended an outdoor music festival in a farm field and absent-mindedly scratched the resultant mosquito bites on my forearms that evening. Rash showed up on my arms the next day, and on my legs a day or two later. (Fortunately it didn’t spread from there and was still relatively mild as poison ivy reactions go.) So yeah. Yours sounds like a very extensive and painful reaction, which is understandably worrisome on its own. But poison ivy rash can spread after the initial part appears, for all the reasons folks above have noted, so don’t be too worried about that aspect of it. I hope it starts getting better soon!
posted by eviemath at 5:49 AM on July 30, 2022

Prednisone's a rollercoaster. Not merely does it make me anxious and angry, but it also messes with my temperature regulation, so I'll drip with sweat but still have regular body temperature.

I'm surprised the urgent care didn't recommend a regular antihistamine, especially if the benadryl shot worked so well. As one who frequently comes out in monster hives for no obvious reason, my first response is antihistamine to stop them spreading. If that doesn't cool them off (which it usually does), then it's one of my prescribed prednisone tablets and six hours of grumpy scared sweats. Even a basic generic OTC loratadine helps me a lot. Diphenhydramine (benadryl) works too, but knocks me out.

Seconding esoteric things' approach of treating it like a contamination. Urushiol will stay on fabrics and other surfaces until it's cleaned off, and will trigger hives again and again. A friend's dog must've charged through a patch of poison ivy on a walk once, and while the dog was fine, everyone who petted it kept getting the worst hives until we bathed the dog.

Some of the most bloody miserable times of my life have been during a hives breakout, and the whole world can feel decidedly lacking in empathy. This will pass, I assure you.
posted by scruss at 6:37 AM on July 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also be prepared to feel like crap when you stop taking the prednisone. Sigh. So sorry you're dealing with this.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:59 AM on July 30, 2022

I know two people who have had really bad poison ivy experiences like this - it spread all over the body and was just awful. In both cases, they were prescribed prednisone and had a miserable week - from both the rash and the prednisone - but it did clear up with no lasting effects.
posted by maleficent at 8:54 AM on July 30, 2022

I too have had PI badly enough to need steroids. It's awful, but yes, it's just what it does, not anything that you need to be scared about -- as long as you stay on top of any developments as others have pointed out. I'm posting to say that the one thing I find stops the spread in its tracks is jewelweed. I'm far from an herbalist medicine type normally, but this has worked for me. Jewelweed tends to grow where PI does. I pick fat-stemmed ones, crush up the juicy stems, and apply like a poultice until the juices start to dry. Doing that doesn't stop the PI itch for me, but it does halt the spread right away.

Either way, I hope you get real relief very soon.
posted by daisyace at 3:07 PM on July 30, 2022

Coincidentally, I just read this article about mental health side effects of prednisone. Which is not to say that you shouldn't take it (I've had poison ivy, and I remember the relief it brought being absolutely necessary!) but to agree with others upthread that the source of the anxiety may be exogenous.
posted by eirias at 8:52 AM on July 31, 2022