Poison Ivy?

Poison Ivy? (trigger warning: old phart's ramble follows)

Twenty years back, when we moved to the old family ranch, I started clearing long-neglected trees and fences of a multitude of strangling vines. Despite long sleeves and caution, I ended up with the horror of my youth, poison ivy rash, all down my left forearm. Itching, running, spreading fast, just as bad as it ever had in my woodsier early years, when I could end up bed-ridden for days. Yes, Mom slathered us with that useless pink paste and we were told "don't scratch." Ahhhgggg.

Milady and I had been trying homeopathy out for a while, with surprising success (especially under our homeopathic MD back in Chicago). I took this as a chance for experimentation.

Took the poison ivy remedy. For the first time in my life, the pustules dried up and disappeared, the itching lessened, and the redness began receding, in a little over a day. Normal recession, really, just accelerated.

I was impressed, but then disappointed because there was just one small patch left that, while not pustulating, was still red and itchy. I mused to Milady the Healer, you know, this (the remaining afflicted area) looks like poison oak. So, I took the poison oak homeopathic, and that rash went away, too.

Repeated for several years since. Started taking a maintenance dose in the Spring, and my ivy reactions never came back as bad. Haven't had any in a while, although I haven't been out in the green as much in recent years.

Yeah, yeah, I know, homeopathy. Could all be explained by my more adult tolerance and then developed immunity and the sugar pills do nothing like the skeptics insist. Whatever. Not making a recommendation. Just reporting the anecdotal experience of one long-suffering ivy victim.

If it's all placebo effect, I don't care, as long as it works, right? Apparently psychosomatic auto-healing works for animals, too, per homeopathy's success on several cats' brown recluse bites.

FWIW, reporting from the field - field full of poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and a world of things to make me scratch and sneeze and bleed and ooze.