Posion Oak is killing me- Help!!!

Been there - I do know how you feel. I've had the shots and the prednizone. If you were given the prednizone then hang in there with it. It will work very fast. Usually the doctor will prescribe a 10 day program. I don't know what your directions are but follow them and you will feel better very soon. Don't scratch, it will only make it worse. Don't worry about side effects. You will not be on it long enough to be concerned with this.

Tomorrow will be a better day

Ben

Many people I work with swear by "Zanfel" for relief once they get poison oak. It comes in a small tube like toothpaste, but is quite expensive. (something like 30 bucks a 1 oz tube).

Good luck.

This stuff works. worth every red cent so far. The Wife said her jaw dropped when they rung it up. Would have Hocked the kids :)Thanks Frank

Go to a health food store and get some French Green Clay powder in the bulk herb section. Put some in a bowl and drip water into it and mix it until it gets to be like thin mud. Slather that on and let it dry. It will form a hard crust that will draw out the oils. It will also create a shield so you don't scratch it in your sleep. Scratching it will make it worse. I usually add some Chinese herbs to the mud to stop the itching, but you would have to get them in Chinatown. Even the plain mud will help a lot, especially for the raised oozing areas.

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100mg a day and dont taper til you're out of the woods, usually 10 days or 2 weeks The dose packs are useless but that's all most docs will prescribe
That's because most docs know the substantial risks associated with using too much prednisone for too long--hence the rapid taper down so as to avoid suppressing your immune system and adrenal function. 

If you use enough steroids to suppress your adrenal function, and you then stop the medication too quickly it can throw you into adrenal crisis which can even result in circulatory shock.  This has been known to occur after as little 20 mg daily of prednisone or its equivalent for at least 5 days.

Steroids are very potent.  They can rapidly relieve the inflamatory response  and swelling in many conditions such as asthma, ulcerative colitis, head trauma, rheumatoid arthritis...and of course poison ivy.  Besides immediate symptom relief they can cause a euphoric sense of wellbeing.  But they also have very serious, sometime long-term side effects.

Yeah, get the shot!

 Thanks for starting this thread Frank,

  Lots of great info and rapid response, nice to see skygreen

  I got the shot once when I was a young buck, worked great and kept me immunized for a year!!!

  They would not give it to me the next year though.

  Thanks Marmite for a great explanation of how steroids go wrong.........Danglin

Thanks Frank. If I KNOW someone who has it I get it. I better start the Aveno bath now.
The worst I ever saw it was when my friend used a handful of leaves for toilet paper.
You guessed it. Talk about one miserable dude!
I feel for ya bro.

You might want to purchase some Tecnu soap which is designed to remove poisin ivy/oak oils from your skin and clothes for the next time you find yourself in a poisin oak area.  I believe if you can remove the oils fairly quickly you can save yourself a lot of pain.

Technu works WONDERS  my buddies and I swear by it, you can pick it up at Rite Aid or Longs for future outings it only a couple of bucks. The label says to take a shower and rub the liquid soap on let it sit and then rise it off but we usually just rub the stuff on right out of the bottle (dry skin)and then rise after about 10 minutes it seems to work better this way.It pulls the oils right out of your skin.It will be the best 4 bucks you ever spent especially if your camping somewhere for the weekend!

I've had Poison Oak dozens of times and stopping the itching is very easy.  You just apply hot then cold which shocks the histamines and stops the itching for hours.  Take a damp paper towel and heat it in the microwave (make it hot but not enough to damage skin) then hold it on to the affected area for about 10 seconds, remove and quickly apply cold (such as a piece of ice or use some ice water) for about 10 seconds.  This works on insect bites also.  For your hands, you can just use the hot water from a faucet.  Hold your hand under the hot water until it becomes uncomfortable then pull it out and pour some ice water on it.  This really works so try it! 

If you got it in your eye you might have gotten it in your blood and a resulting systemic attack.  If you have to keep applying zanfel repeatedly and cleaned everything to avoid re-infecting yourself, you should probably see a doctor for steriods.  That's the only cure if urashol gets inside you, other than a couple weeks of scratching all night.

My dad poked his eyeball with a poison oak twig and his eye turned completely red and he had outbreaks all over for weeks.  I've been visiting the plants on my land with roundup and brush-b-gone and a shovel for small ones, and hope to have at least the near-house area clear soon. Farther back up the hill there are poison oak bushes the size of my van, I emptied a 4g sprayer back there and only got about 1/4 of the plants.   I also put out a big bird-feeder in an area where nothing can grow to provide the birds easy pickings so they don't go carrying around the poison oak berries.  So far my son and I have been relatively unaffected, but other relatives got it bad.  My uncle never wants to come to CA again because of poison oak...

I do the 'hot water blast' and the steroids. but haven't had it in a long time.

the 'hot water blast' basically causes it to itch like hell while the water is blasting
on it, but then your itch-nerves are just plain overloaded and it stops itchcing
for awhile, maybe a few hours.

this may not be so good on the face, might be better for the legs.

the steroids really fry your skin, I don't like them, but they do work.

J

OK - you have had two full days of posts . After reading all of these, which are all good, should have at least taken your mind off the itching, the medication should be taking affect and you should be feeling better . Next, the swelling will go down and you will look 100 years old and your wife will laugh at you  Hang in there.

Just hope you didn't take a leak after touching the PO or your wife will already be laughing at you.  Some forms of 'natural male enhancement' have too high a price...

Nothing helpful to add except sympathy. My dogs have given it to me, and I do what jmairey does; really hot water, and open handed, vigorous itching\massage. The cream doesn't work for me, neither have deals with the devil. Never had the shot...never had it on my face either, though. 

First, of all thanks for all the great feed back and nicities that you folks posted during my initial anguish. I did let the prednisone 50 mg run its course and think that it will be what finally defeats the oil.Many of you posted alot of things that diffenitly had an immediate and temperary relief. The
Zanfel was at the top of the list. Although this required putting out some money I found the relief fast and the longest lasting. I haven't experienced this type of agony since I was a kid with one of the worst cases of chickenpox in Union City. Which also was relieved by constant deeps in the bath.
One other quick fire temp. relief method was in fact applying vinegar to the inflammed area(s). Something about the acid helps relieve the itch. Kind of smelt like Adobo (Filipino dish) but I can live with that. 
Most of the creams were a joke but for immediate short term releif Caladryl Clear but again it was a constant application early on in the agony.The triamcinolone cream was a bit longer lasting however, was best applied as soon as itching occured but prescribe to be used only three times a day,
Tecnu will be a constent in my traveling supplies for those just in case situations that I may have but not sure wash.But from now on i'll try to keep my nose to my own business. Thanks again crew some great input that helped me through the tough times of this rash.

Sincerely not suffering as much, Frank