Friday, Michelle, Evelyn, and Stacie came to visit us in Pittsburgh, and we had a girls’ day at the spa. It was fabulous. It is always wonderful to see my girls and catch up. The spa gave us the opportunity to do so while we got pampered. Then we had a great dinner at Casbah, and topped the whole thing off with ice cream at Burkees.
Dave and I slept on the futon on the sun porch so that the girls could split up among the guest room and our room. This was fun, as our futon is comfy, and the breeze was nice.
When we got up, we made coffee, and we were all sitting around out in the porch. I noticed some bumps on my left leg – a slight rash. I wasn’t terribly concerned. I thought maybe the lotion they put on me during my pedicure was not agreeing with my leg, so I put a little cortisone cream on it and went about my business.
I’ve been sorting pictures on the computer, and I spent several hours doing this after the girls had gone home. We have 16,500+ digital photos. It’s nuts.
So later in the day we were getting ready to go over to Dave’s parents to eat dinner and watch the Steelers. I noticed that the rash had not really improved and seemed to be showing up over more of both of my legs. I decided we needed to stop at the drug store to get some Benadryl. The bumps were starting to get itchy.
I didn’t think much more about it, as the itching subsided. We watched the first half of the game and then got sleeping, so we headed home. I was examining the rash and taking the Benadryl when a thought occurred to me. I had been trying to figure out this rash all day. Where did it come from? I didn’t understand. It was up my legs now, and they hadn’t put lotion farther than a few inches past my feet when I got the pedicure. What was the story here?? And then it hit me.
When we slept on the sun porch, we slept on my sleeping bag. We opened it up and covered up with a blanket. This seemed easier than putting on sheets, etc. for just one night. What occurred to me was that the last person to use this sleeping bag was William, my nephew, when my sister and her family had visited. And I remembered talking to my sister after this visit. She had told me that William had gotten poison ivy. There it was. I had essentially laid in poison ivy (well, the oil from the plant) all night.
I took another Benadryl and covered the rash in more cortisone cream, and I went to bed. This morning it was feeling quite itchy, and it showed up on my feet. Before going to sleep, I had read some things on poison ivy. Remarkably, I’ve never had a bout of it before. It turns out that once you wash off the oil, you can’t spread the poison. But it can take up to 3 weeks for a rash to show up. Ugh.
Dave was kind enough to go to the Giant Eagle this morning to get me some stuff more targeted to poison ivy, as well as some bagels and juice. (I’m so lucky!) After eating breakfast, I showered and tended to my poisoned legs. I slathered this stuff on thickly, as they recommend, and since that time, no itching. I have what look like Barbie legs though—that weird colored shiny plastic. Not attractive, but neither was the rash.
Unless this stuff (it’s called Ivarest for any other sufferers out there) is as effective at healing the rash as it is at stopping the itching (oh I hope so!), it looks like a trip to the doctor before our vacation is in the cards for me. So sad, but at least now I don’t feel bad about getting my toes all prettied up!
