Worst case of poison ivy ever

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Brian S sends along these pictures he found when researching poison ivy online. 

They’re pretty gruesome – Not for everyone.

The nice person was trimming her friends hedges, which were full of poison ivy. By cutting the ivy, she was releasing lots of the plant oil; then she was scraping her bare arms along the top of the hedge, which made little scratch in her arms, allowing the oil faster access. Second picture is one week later.

YIKES!

Thanks Brian


Mother-of-all-rashes

Mother-of-all-rashes 2

That HAD to be completely miserable.

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38 thoughts on “Worst case of poison ivy ever”

  3. I once had a very bad case of poison ivy, but not close to that. Mine was largely confined to my hands. I learned that by letting the spray of a super hot shower hit the blisters, that it actually felt really good because it released some kind of endorphins. It also made it stop itching for hours. It took about 2-3 weeks to heal but I kind of missed it when it was gone. I was taking two or three hot showers a day.

  7. I have a cousin who along with one of his friends, who, while playing, decided to pretend to chew tobacco. It was poison ivy and they just about bought the farm. The folks in the ER had to put tubes down their throats to keep their airways open. This went on for five days. Once they had recovered, my grandmother punished him but making him cut the grass. Not with a mower, but a pair of scissors!

  8. Yo can call them rednecks, but farmers always use shirts with long arms covers… They know why.
    Hope this guy have a fast recuperation.

  9. That was shopped. I really have no idea if it was, or it wasn’t but I think for the sake of all those who plan to have supper tonight, we should allllll agree this is not real, it never happened, and if we ignore it, most stuff will come and soon we will just forget it ever happened at all.

    Well, that’s how the federal government works, isn’t it?

  10. OMG! Been there, done that. This girl needs a $12.00 prescription called a DEXPAC. It’s steroids and the only thing that will stop this miserable thing. I’ve done this many times while clearing property, but not that intense!

  11. I don’t know, that looks really cool to me. Not that I want that to happen to me, but that’s freakin fascinating.

  13. when young my mom patted outbreaks down with alcohol swabs— YIKES!!!
    after using remedies such as Fels-Naptha soap, calamine lotion, comet paste, steroids (from Dr. of course), and shaving crean; I’ve found that salt water works fastest… not just a bath – I go straight to the beach and soak as much as I can. In and out to air dry; then back in; then out – Repeat… This offers immediate relief, dries the blisters –AND– offers a reason to take a day off

    WIN WIN

  15. …never had posion ivy as we don’t have it here but oh the posion oak…can say the blisters I had were not like that but they were gross…worse case I ever got was in the spring hiking in the hills above a friends house…a branch slapped me across the face breaking skin…I looked like Charley Brown’s head for over a week…had to get shots in the butt…it got into my eyes, inside my mouth…and that dose not ever go into the itching…

  18. On a positive note, I just found a good excuse to miss work for a week. I’m gonna gank these pics for future use. Haha.

  22. My face ended up looking like that once, from poison oak. A week later I had to go to my wife’s 30th high school reunion. Her classmates were wondering what kind of monster she had married. The swelling has gone down since, but I think my wife still wonders what she married. :^)

  24. I am very allergic to Poison Ivy. One fall when I was a teenager we were were burning leaves and dried lawn trash, and some of it included dried poison ivy vines. I only got into the smoke, but I had blisters breaking out all over my body and my face swelled up and my eyes swelled closed for days. I still think this might be worse!

  32. My son went hiking on a Thursday, 12-10-09. Came home for the Xmas holiday on Sat. By Sunday, itchy w/ “bug bites”. By the following week-end: 3 urgent care visits, 1 shot in the butt, 1 IV push steroid, Prednisone therapy, Pepcid for the stomach and Atarax for the itching. The rash is worse on his arms, esp the left which is still hot, very swollen, red, scaly, patchy. Rt arm, not as bad. Stomach, ankle and left scapula affected, too…anywhere he may have itched/touched during the hike. Change bedding each night for a week, do not let others come in contact w/ the affected skin for about that long, as well. Oils may still be on the skin that long. This is day 12 and by the looks of things, he will have this for another 2 wks. If he’s lucky, he won’t scar.

  33. I had a case nearly as bad as this on my foot. It started out small but within a couple days covered my entire foot, making it hard to walk. When I finally got to a doctor, he said it was good I came in because if it had gone much further, the blood circulation would have been compromised leading to an amputation! The treatment was oral steroids, which is a common treatment for skin problems.
    In response to a few comments: you can pop them or not. It’s essentially a blister. If you decide to pop it, you need to keep it clean so it doesn’t get infected. Depending on how you popped it, the blister may seal itself with dried fluid and fill up again. The liquid is lymph fluid. It cannot spread the poison ivy to anyone else, and only if it became infected would I call it “pus”.
    If you think you may have come into contact with poison ivy, wash with soap & water as soon as possible!
    And in response to Barbara Santa: usually the oil has been absorbed into the skin by the time the rash appears. Of course, any clothes should be washed to remove any leaves or oil. Of course, your son’s case sounds pretty extreme, and changing the bedding will be necessary just because of the oozing.

  34. I am nine years old and i just had my first case of poison oak. It was horrrrrrrrrrible. I could not walk for three days. I did not like it at all. I had to take salt water baths and oatmeal baths and i remember i sat in an oatmeal bath for five hours straight because i didn’t want to get out but i still think that lady had it worse.

  35. We had great success treating nine year olds bad case of poison oak with the following: daily oatmeal or baking soda baths (do not use soap of any sort–just a lot of baking soda), oral Benadryl at night, acetaminophen during the day, topical Benadryl spray, calamine SPRAY (rubbing anything on painful, itchy rash is guaranteed to aggravate it). After the blisters dried up, we slathered Noxzema on every day to keep skin moist and aid the healing of skin. It soothes and prevents itching, which, when scratched, will make it flare up again. A note about the calamine…I didn’t find any in a spray bottle. I used a travel size spray bottle and put the calamine in it. It was messy, but much better than trying to rub it in. For the face I used hydrocortisone cream…no sprays. Hope this helps.

  37. I’ve had poison oak for over a month and a half, i’m starting to lose it. I tried prednsone but it made me hallucinate shadow people and hear voices. Not chill. The best thing for the itching is fresh aloe vera. Works better than calamine, and all the other random creams and remedies. Chlorine is really good for it too. Next time i’m gunna try the Dexpac. To all you poor bastards with it, you are not alone. My heart goes out.

  38. im wondering what would happen if you popped the puss bubbles and it got infected. and how could you prevent if you went out to the wilderness is there an ointment to prevent you from getting that

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