Jun 26, 2019 3 min read

Summer has finally officially arrived, and it ushered in some sunshine over the weekend. With all of the rain we experienced during the early part of June, I hadn’t gotten around to doing much yard work in the way of cleaning out flower beds, mulching and weeding. That all changed around two weeks ago as I got my gardening gloves and tools out of the shed and set to work.

The first order of business was to start trimming the hedges, which had grown to epic proportions during what seemed to have become tropical rain forest conditions throughout May and early June. I learned the hard way a couple of years ago that this is not a one-day job no matter how young and energetic I still feel in my head. Using the electric trimmer is fun, and I could totally buzz through the whole brigade of bushes in a couple of hours … but then comes the cleanup. That’s what takes so much time and breaks my spirit! Trying to finish the whole bunch and clean up in one day is a sure fire way to be too sore to move the next day.

After I finally finished, I stood back and admired my work and felt a huge sense of accomplishment. They’re not perfect, but they sure do look better than they did! A day or so went by until I started feeling the after effects of all of my work. No, it wasn’t sore muscles – it was itching and redness. Poison ivy! Or was it poison oak? Sumac? I don’t know the difference, but I had been burned by this same little evil weed once before a few years earlier when trimming shrubs. This time, the struggle was real. One little area of rash on my wrist soon spread up my arm and then somehow across to my other wrist and elbow. Inexplicably, there were also spots on both of my shins and one calf and possibly one knee. I tried calamine, cortisone cream and even rubbing alcohol, bleach and cold and warm compresses. I tried covering the blisters with bandages to keep them from seeping or getting wet. Nothing worked.

Finally, I gave up and headed to the doctor’s office for help. The doctor laughed and said that since it was widespread and not going away anytime soon, she’d hook me up with an oral steroid. That did the trick! Within two days, the rash and blisters stopped itching, oozing and spreading, and I am almost clear of this misery. I found it interesting that she said the blisters breaking don’t spread the rash and that the source is only the original oil from the plant.

My pruning and mulching are done for no, and I washed, threw away and decontaminated everything I could imagine had touched the poison ivy. I’m nearly rash-free and learned my lesson. Next time, I’m wearing long sleeves and pants.

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.