Help!:bad case of poison oak
 

Gentlemen:

I am sorry to bother everyone but I was wondering if anybody has any advice when it comes to treating poison oak. I am covered in the stuff (literally; the only places I don't have it is on my feet, hands and parts of my face) and I am in desperate need of advice. I (stupidly) went bushwhacking on a run and ended up wallowing in it so it is pretty much everywhere. I am currently using a cortisone cream and using calamine lotion. I was wondering if there is anything else that I could be doing to stop the itch and speed recovery. Any advice/folk remedies would be much appreciated.

I don't know of anything outside of what you're doing but I have one statement.

I hope you forgot to name a couple of places here.

Been there. For do-it-yourself, Benadryl will help w/ the itching and will help you sleep. Going to the doc, topical betamethasone creme, a synthetic steroid, often helps. If it's as extensive as you say, a steroid injection may be in order.

I didn't:(

Yikes. My aunt used to have us kids bathe in a lukewarm oatmeal bath, IIRC it was Aveeno, and lots o' calamine lotion. Worked pretty well.

Good luck!

And I have to reluctantly mention, this has worked for me in the past for the itching but it's a bit intense. Try high-dose Benadryl first.

Fill your tub with hot, and I mean just shy of second-degree-burn hot, water. Japanese bath hot. If you can put your foot in the tub comfortably, it's not hot enough. Put towels/bath mats down around the tub.

Submerge yourself as quickly as possible and hold yourself under. The heat will cause the mast cells in the dermis layer (mast cells produce and release the histamine which causes the itch) to simultaneously and immediately dump all their histamine. You will experience what the medicos describe as "exquisite pruritis" for about a full minute. Hint: when medicos use the word "exquisite", it doesn't mean what you think it does.

If you have a dose of poison oak/ivy/sumac as bad as you describe, you will briefly go insane with the itching. You WILL thrash around. (You did remember to put down those bath mats?) But as quickly as it starts it fades, and then you'll have about 4-5 hours of relief before the mast cells build up the supplies of histamine.

The keys are hot water, submerge quickly (or the leg you put in will itch so badly that you'll never get the rest of your body into the water), and be willing to experience 5 hours worth of itching in one minute.

Good luck.

In the future, have a bottle of Technu in the house. If you wash any potentially "infected" areas within a few hour period it will prevent or greatly diminish those symptoms that you are currently experiencing.

+1...Oak'n'Ivy Brand Technu Outdoor Skin Cleanser to be exact...i won't say i swear by it, but it seems to work...follow the directions...i don't seem to react as badly as some, but i've been in it up over my head and after washing off with Tecnu, had no reaction whatsoever...of course, it helps if you can get into some clean, dry clothes immediately after bathing...and of course, you will need to either burn the clothes or wash them thoroughly several times before you wear them again...

to help with the itch, i got some anti-itch gel that is 2% diphenhydramine Hydrochloride...

Benadryl - go about 75mg - and be prepared to be sleepy. make a paste of baking soda and calamine -use liberally. SEE a Doctor. Mug's method is good, it'll allow you to get 5 hrs of comfort, and after a few repeats might keep you from being able to father children for a while...

Gentlemen:

I thank everyone that responded, I am now much less itchy for the time being.

Mugwump: I tried the hot-bath and it worked, the intense itchiness was unpleasant but now I am much less itchy. I will see if I can rustle up some Benadryl tomorrow. I don't think the cortisone shot is needed at the moment (I haven't broken out in pustules yet, I'm just red, splotchy and itchy).

Gypsy: I will try out the oatmeal bath as soon as I can get some more oatmeal (my dad will murder me if I use his breakfast in a bath)

Booker & Iksteve: I had a bottle of that stuff but it disappeared a while ago, I've used it before and it has worked quite well for me (I think I might buy a case of the stuff to avoid a repeat of today).

x SF med: I will try the paste tonight and the Benadryl as soon as I get some.

Again, thanks to all of those who responded.:)

Just my .02, but I don't think a 17 year old in high school should be planning to have a family for while, regardless.

I also have to wonder how a student managed to get poison oak over areas of his body that should have been covered by clothing, especially in February.

TR

if his profile is correct, he lives east of Oceanside CA...and he alleges he was running...

and if i recall being 17...well, let's just leave it at that...:D

TR:

I live in Southern California so its not too cold at the moment (it was in the high 50s to low 60s yesterday). I was running (wearing only shorts and shoes) and during the run me and two of my teammates decided to bushwhack down a steep hillside to get to a trail we spotted. I guess some of the bushes that we utilized as crash pads turned out to be poison oak. I admit, it was very stupid of us (but, in our defense, poison oak doesn't have leaves this time of the year). Stupid should hurt and in this case it didn't hurt, it made me itchy all over.

RE: the oatmeal bath..............

Gypsy mentioned Aveeno, which is a good product.

Also, if you are near a mall or plaza that has a Bath and Body Works store......
they carry an oatmeal bath made by C.O. Bigelow (and apothecary that has been in NYC since the mid-1800's). It is in a silver can with black lettering. I saw one woman buy 9 cans of it for her husband because whatever he swore by it.

Man I used to get that stuff all over me when I was a kid. Had my eyes and ears swollen shut many times. That steroid shot will knock it out in just a couple days... it's amazing.

I might have outgrown the allergy. I'll get a spot or two every once in a while, but not nearly like it used to be. It could also be that I always washup with cold water and ivory soap anytime I think I might have been exposed to it (within a few hours). Safety precautions learned in chemistry gave me that idea. This might explain how you got it in some "odd" places. If you took a hot shower after your run, you might have spread the stuff all over without realizing it. It takes some scrubbing, and a good soap to cut through the oil.

FWIW, Zanfil is a good product. Expensive, but I've used it and had good results. Works for several days after initial exposure IIRC. I keep a tube of it in my trailer at hunting camp. Zanfil is a wash that has a grit to it like Go-Jo. The coarse grit helps to disconnect the oil that causes the rash from the skin. I think they recommend initially using cold water too.