Oh that's terrible. I have not touched any in years but when I was younger I was not allergic to it, neither was my father. We unfortunately have several places here with it. A big vine has wrapped itself around one of our huge pines. I am going to get the garden guy to saw it at the bottom and saturate the cut stem that has worked pretty well. Just spraying with the round up does not always work. I put it in like a Mustard plastic bottle with a seal able pour top it makes it easy to squirt it right on the cut area. We had one that started climbing on the stone of the house. He did that and it's never come back.

My poor neighbor is so allergic to it. I bought her some really nice garden gloves that go above the elbow. She loves them.

I have a light case right now, and HATE IT! Got it from one of the pets as it's been too hot for me to work in the yard.

Sorry to hear this. My mom was very allergic. She would invariably get it on her face, too, with water bags under her eyes, I felt so sorry for her. I don't remember what she did for it other than once when she was much older she got a shot from the doctor that really helped.

I use RoundUp for Poison Ivy to kill plants I find. I know it's all a part of nature, esp. in areas that are left..well...to nature; but I still hate the stuff and will try my best to kill it. Once it gets a foot hold, it can become a monster.

I dumped some yard trimmings in the woods and got one dot of poison ivy on my ankle. That one dot drove me crazy for ten days.I avoid the stuff like the plague.

I'm severely allergic to poison ivy too, which I realized that after I had spent some time in the woods helping clearing space for a cabin. The result wasn't a pretty sight! I try to be vigilant about avoiding it, but I am caught by surprise sometime when I unknowingly touch something that had been in contact with PI, even while wearing protection such as a jacket.

My remedies for poison ivy are cucumber slices and J cloths soaked in apple cider vinegar applied to the rash (not at the same time).

Don't mess around with a severe allergy, especially near the eyes, Lucille. Getting to a clinic is something to consider.

I didn't used to get a rash until one summer in 1998. I was pulling vines around a pine tree. and poison ivy was mixed in. Since then I do get a rash. I had one about a month ago and I thought I was careful.

I was pulling weeds again today and before I knew it, there it was! This time I tried something different. I rinsed off with water, but no soap. When I finished I cleaned my arms with alcohol and then took a good shower. Then clothes went straight to the washer for a hot wash and double rinse.

So far, no itching. We shall see if it works by tomorrow.

Lucille, I second and third the advice to hit the doc-in-the-box since it is around your eye. I might even consider checking with an allergy doctor.

I worked in the garden in June and ended up with a bad case as well -- and I didn't see it either -- and I know what it looks like so if I see it I avoid it. I round up when I can and I NEVER touch it. So I feel your pain! I've finally gotten rid of it and I still can't find any in my garden.

We wash after gardening with Dawn dishwashing liquid. It has excellent grease cutters and it's the oil on the plant that causes the issues.

We have poison oak in So. CA, and I had it several times as a hiking teenager. It can fool people here as it can appear as an attractive green shrub, a red-leaved shrub, a vine. I got it once too when I had no contact with foliage. Not sure how that happens.

Annie, I use Dawn also. I think my problem was that I washed well with Dawn and washed all the oil off and then went back to pulling weeds. Since I had no oil on my skin and the pores were open....

My husband uses a product called technu when he gets into the poison oak and says it helps a lot with the rash and itching. He tries to use it as soon as he knows he's been exposed. Maybe it would help with poison ivy as well.

Sounds miserable!

Technu works for PI too. Miserable rash, you have my sympathies, Lucille!

Technu is great. Both my grown children are VERY allergic to poison ivy and poison oak. They had major outbreaks many times when they were younger - it's everywhere on the Vineyard and also in Northern MI where there father has a vacation house. Poison oak from a dog on the school grounds in LA just about did my son in when he was 13. At one time, there were allergy shots for PI but no longer available.

I had it once in my late 40s, doctor said everyone, if exposed long enough, will be sensitive to it. I didn't ask if that meant as you got older and had been sensitive when younger that you would outgrow it. Only seems fair! It's very miserable.

I have PI currently (this is why I am awake at 4AM today!) Itching. I usually use OTC topicals except when it spreads to the eye area. GO to the doctor Luciille. My doctor prescribes a steroid.

Hope you are feeling better today. Poison ivy is no fun!

Thank you. My eye area is purplish and baggy but my eyes can open, woke up around 3 times for Caladryl last night. And to add insult to injury when I was putting out the garden trash for garbage pickup this morning, something stung me. I was so aggravated that I spent some time fantasizing about selling my house and finding a cute apartment in Galveston where I wouldn't have any yard, but then I remembered that sometimes on the beach there are these stinging flies (and of course jellyfish in the water). You can't win.

Maybe tomorrow when I feel a bit better I will take a squirt bottle of Roundup and go looking in the area I usually see the poison ivy.

We pull a lot of poison ivy in my job. It's really the only way to get rid of it. Roundup will kill it, but then you have dead PI. Every part of the plant carries the oil, the leaves, stem, vine,and roots. My boss read that it can still cause a rash up to 5 years after it's killed, so dead plants on the ground are still a problem.

If you're highly allergic, get someone to pull it.

I heard jewelweed is good for poison ivy. We have lots of that growing around our area. My DH had a very bad case of it a few years ago. The doctor gave him some kind of lotion that helped. Wish we would have know about the jewelweed back then.

I remember as a child hearing the story of a neighbor burning off brush and inhaling poison ivy smoke. Someone said it got into his lungs? I don't know if that was true, I was just little, but it still lingers in my memory.

ETA: you should go get a shot, it will really help.

ETA again: and I don't mean a shot of whiskey, or maybe that would help too. ; )

You need to spray with Brush Killer Plus by Bayer. It is made to kill tough weeds like poison ivy or poison oak, which is what we have here. My DH is very allergic to both.

He uses the Brush Killer full strengh on the plant and when it is dead, digs it up and buries it 2ft deep. You can't put it in the green waste trash can or burn it, so that is how we get rid of the plant. We live on 2.5 acres way out in the woods and have been fighting it for 31 years. I don't know how but it keeps popping up.

schoolhouse -- yes, inhaling PI smoke can be very bad. My aunt's neighbor burned some decades ago and she was severely affected internally. Didn't kill her, but she wished it had! Never, never burn the stuff.

I have only ever had a couple of minor spots of poison ivy rash, but I think that is more because I have sharp eyes and a keen awareness of what it looks like and what I am doing when it is nearby, rather than my being less allergic to it.

I have heard several people say "all I have to do is look at poison ivy and I get it" but they cannot recognize the plant to avoid it. A couple of members of my wife's family were helping out in the yard at our new house and one of them said he got poison ivy quite badly, and merely glancing at the lilac bush he was pruning I can see small healthy vines all around the base.

My brother once got it very badly after his young son unknowingly walked through a large patch and later sat on my brother lap playing video games swinging his legs and rubbing the oil from his shoes all over my brother's legs.

Technu is AMAZING!!! My husband is very allergic and uses this if he thinks he may have been near poison ivy or oak and it has really helped him and other members of our family. The same compound in poison oak is also in the skin of avocados and mangoes, he can not touch them or he breaks out in a rash. Technu has an interesting story as well. Look it up, the history is fascinating. I have to spray often to get rid of all the poison oak and ivy on our property. I sprayed yesterday and I will again today. It's everywhere on our land.

Licille, my sympathy. I have not read all of the thread, but want to say that I have had good luck donning nitrile gloves, two disposable plastic bags or shoppers, and with the bottom section of the plastic shopper, encompassed the bit of poison ivy and after teasing out the weed, disposed of it in the same double thickness plastic shopper. Just turn the bag/s inside out.

Then I go to a bathroom sink and with cold water and so at wash my hands and arms well, then use paper towel to dry. Much faster than brush killer or that Monsanto product. Darn, I dislike that stuff.

TO TREAT ITCH:

Benadryl has an EXTRA STRENGTH CREAM THAT IS GREAT FOR ANY ALLERGIC SKIN REACTION-- tick and insect items, as well as contact dermatition from poison ivy like plants.