The fact that I have poison ivy on my ass.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

And I always seem to get it there, too. I guess if I was a nudist, I could understand.

I think it comes from the fact that when I stoop down, I tend to sit on my upthrust heel for balance. Do that in hikers and you're asking for it.

Nice. Fortunately, it's only two little patches the size of quarters...so far. Nothing serious.

Sigh.

[Greenday]

That's pretty impressive. I've never heard of anyone getting poison ivy on their ass. That could make for serious complications with certain...person-to-person interactions.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I've had it all over me, including my ass, before. It was very, VERY sucky then.

It's sort of over near my hip now, in two little small patches no bigger than quarters. It's certainly not terrible, thank God.

I'm hypersensitive to it. I've ended up in the ER before, due to the severity of the reaction to it. So I guess I'm counting myself lucky this time. No breathing problems or anything. And I know how to control the itch so that I'm not really suffering at all.

I just hate that I got into it again.

[guywithashovel]

When I was a little kid, I used to get poison ivy really bad. Almost every year I'd have at least two or three bouts of it throughout the spring and summer. My parents always got that pink calamine lotion for me. I don't remember getting it in any really unusual places, though. It was usually just on my arms, legs, neck and face.

I've heard of people getting sunburned on the bottoms of their feet and on their butts, though. One time back in high school, a friend of mine managed to get a bee sting on his left testicle.

[Boozy]

I appear to be relatively immune to poison ivy, if that's possible. I only recently discovered that the trail where I walk my dogs is covered in poison ivy. I was never taught to recognize it.

It wasn't until I saw the signs (with pictures) that the city parks officials put up that I figured it out. I'd been walking it for months. Apparently that's why that particular trail was always so peaceful. No one else used it.

Looking back, I did notice very mild itchiness on my calves when I wore shorts, but otherwise, nothing.

[Teysa]

I used to have a friend who could practically make a bed out of the stuff and not suffer from any ill effects. I, on the other hand, can look at a picture of poison ivy and break out in a rash.

[DesignFox]

I don't seem to react to poison ivy much. Been through it many times in the woods, at the farm, out in the various horse parks. *shrug* It's not like I purposely go traipsing through it, (I do know what it looks like) but I don't necessarily kill myself trying to avoid it, either. I just haven't ever noticed any ill effects after brushing up by it.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Some people are not allergic...however, be aware that you can BECOME allegic at any time. Just because you didn't get a rash last time you were exposed does not mean you won't get one if you get exposed again. Sometimes it takes a few doses to make your immune system go haywire.

Also be aware that even if you are not allergic, you can pass the oil to someone who is and give them a rash. If you are exposed, wash regardless. You handle the stuff and then don't wash, then go put your hands on the doornob or something, and you could give someone a real problem.

Which, now that I think on it, I wonder if I sat on something someone accidently contaminated with urushiol? I managed to eradicate the poison ivy out of our camp at Pennsic, but since I had been gone for several years, it s starting to sneak back in a little. I wonder if someone got exposed and then touched something I sat on in shorts? The area I got it on would suggest that. One of the spots is more like on the back of my upper thigh.

I'm allergic to everything in the Rhus family. Which is why I won't even allow cashews in my house or van. Someone eats a cashew and then rubs their oily little hands on, say, my steering wheel, and the next thing I know is that I'm at the doc's getting pumped full of steroids. Not cool.

[DesignFox]

Oh yea, I agree with that RK. Whenever I know I've been walking around and may have stepped in it, I make sure I don't track it around my house! That would be so rude!

I know where the stuff is around our farm, so I make it a point not to go traipsing through the vines, or petting the cat that may have been rolling in it (Our one cat Checkers likes to do that and then come weaving around your legs or begging to sit on your lap! XD)

The one time I was at the local horse park, I knew I probably had been in the stuff, so I made sure not to touch the area of my pants the stuff got on and as soon as I got home, those clothes got separated and put in the wash...and I got a shower. I wasn't allergic, but the person I was living with at the time was.

Man, that must be tough being allergic to cashews...I'm so glad I don't have a nut allergy (I was however allergic to just about everything else throughout childhood. Only a series of injections over the course of the years "fixed" most of the food allergies. I still suffer from pollen, dust, dander and perfumes...especially perfumes...)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I didn't used to be allergic to cashews. It was an allergy I developed over time.

I got a severe exposure to Poison Oak when I was a kid. Had it on most of my body. You get a reaction like that first time out of the gate, it can set you up for some terrible hypersensitivity, and it did. The cashew allergy developed in adulthood, as my sensitivity to Rhus grew worse and worse.

In fact, about a decade ago, I got a sumac rash across my torso. Sumac is particularly virulent. My skin literally split open and I started actually having an anaphylactic reaction. It was just crazy.

Everytime it happens, it's worse. So I have to really watch myself. This last bout is just about gone and was never bad at all to begin with, thank goodness. Just a little inconvenience this time. I'd just scald the skin twice a day and it hardly even itched.

[Arcade Man D]

And I always seem to get it there, too. I guess if I was a nudist, I could understand.

I think it comes from the fact that when I stoop down, I tend to sit on my upthrust heel for balance. Do that in hikers and you're asking for it.

Nice. Fortunately, it's only two little patches the size of quarters...so far. Nothing serious.

Sigh.

You're lucky you aren't like my dad. Any time he gets poison ivy, it gets systemic. Any time.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm not entire sure the sumac episode I had didn't. I mean, I was sick. And it was beyond just an itchy hide. I needed help walking.

[Arcade Man D]

I'm not entire sure the sumac episode I had didn't. I mean, I was sick. And it was beyond just an itchy hide. I needed help walking.

Yeah, that sounds like it was systemic. The first time my dad got it, he had the great idea to take a weed whacker to the plants growing up our back yard fence. He didn't know they were poison ivy at first, though he did figure it out quickly.