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[personal profile] tanaise
Being as I'm still poison ivy girl, I did a little web checking just to be sure I'm not being atypical. And yes, it can take a week or two to get at all better, and the fifth day can be really nasty, which is why it's been a week and I'm still scratching and still oozing. And for that matter, still getting new patches of it. At least so far the new patches are mild. I'm still worrying about my face and/or eyes. meh.

I'm reading this stuff, and poison ivy ends up sounding like an evil alien. The allergen in it is urushiol (which to me sounds like a character in Anime), and it's like the cockroach of the plant world. The urushiol is present in all parts of the plant--leaves, branches, stem, root, etc--including smoke particles if you burn it, and dead or decaying plants. (the site doesn't mention that it works on a runner system, where it sends off shoots which touchdown elsewhere and grow into fully evil plants there, so when you're weeding, you may get part of the plant, but you're really not likely to get the whole thing. And even if you use roundup on the root, you can still end up getting it x months later as you pull the random root you don't know what it's from out of the ground without realizing it's now-dead poison ivy.) The urushiol is easily transferable from pets or tools, and can linger places for up to a year, or maybe longer. And it can take between 4 hours and 10 days to show symptoms. Also, it's in the same family of plants as the cashew and the mango, and people can get the same reaction to a certain type of Japanese lacquer that's made using some related wood product.

Man. If that isn't just crying out for a mystery novel, I don't know what is. Imagine a doorknob made of a wood that does that? Most people aren't really allergic to it, and if they are allergic enough to get that reaction, it probably would kick right in, but imagine poisoning someone and having it take 10 days to take effect? Or just giving people rashes randomly, both temporally and physically, as different people react differently to it, and you can easily transfer it from your hands (not so likely to get it) to other parts of your body, or other places--from a doorknob, to your hand, to the wall or window or chair.

Date: 2003-07-05 04:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] malinaldarose.livejournal.com
My mom once got the rash and all the wonderful accompanying symptoms from the smoke from a fire she was well away from. She's really allergic, though.

Date: 2003-07-05 07:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] joemorf.livejournal.com
The real lesson here is: Wash your hands really, really thoroughly before you masturbate.

~j

Date: 2003-07-05 10:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tanaise.livejournal.com
I sense an untold story that had better freaking stay untold, at least in my journal. Dirty boy!

Re:

Date: 2003-07-06 12:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] joemorf.livejournal.com
What, what, what did I say?

;)

~j

Date: 2003-07-05 10:41 pm (UTC)
podling: (lego me)
From: [personal profile] podling
Yeah, whenever someone says they're very allergic to poison ivy, I generally say, "so are you allergic to mangoes too?" and then caution them against peeling them and eating them. See, my plant science degree does have useful practical applications.

Date: 2003-07-06 11:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crowyhead.livejournal.com
Well, that explains how I once ended up with poison ivy on my face in the middle of February...

Date: 2003-07-07 08:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sidruid.livejournal.com
We have a tree in our yard, it used to be completely covered in poison ivy. For years i've been immune to the stuff (i used to run through fields of the stuff without a bump), so i decided that the PI needed to go from the tree and i'd have to be the one to do it. I started with Roundup (a plant toxin that kills the leaves, but wasn't systemic enough to really kill the plant), then i moved on to sharp objects.

A week in advance, i sprayed all the leaves up the tree for about 6 feet to make space for me to work. Then, using a pair of rose clippers, some gloves, and a bit of determination, i cut big spaces in all of the vines. I got all but two vines it appears (two came back), so i'll have to go kill those. But i also got some PI on my arm. Guess it was resistance, not immunity. I heard that rubbing dust on the oil helps get it off - the oil sticks to the dust instead of you.

-si

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