Prednizone and Poison Ivy

Region, none of those pictures in your link were particularly good. The one of the bush looked most like what we get, but the photo was small enough that it's just an undifferentiated mass of green, can't tell much from it.

This is a pretty good pic:



The leaves aren't always serrated, though. Sometimes they're more like:



This time of year, the developed leaves are a matte deep green, and the brand-new ones are shiny and sometimes reddish.

Phoenix and soz,
thanx again for your help and advice

i'll be on the lookout for this 3-leaf demon plant, as well as any weird side-effects next week...

(I'd clicked five photos on your link, they happened to be the wrong ones -- "it climbs," "it creeps," and "where it grows" are all pretty good.)

Good luck!

One thing that I learned from http://poisonivy.aesir.com/ is that Virginia Creeper (which we definitely do have) can cause some allergic reactions, too. I'm not saying that we don't have PI, but there's definitely VC and it also, er, creeps.

Oh, and, ahem.

Poison Ivy (Lieber/Stoller) She comes on like a rose And everybody knows She'll get you in dutch You can look but you'd better not touch Poison ivy, poison ivy Well late at night when you're sleeping Poison ivy comes a creeping all around She's pretty as a daisy But look out man she's crazy She'll really do you in If you let her get under your skin Poison ivy, poison ivy Well late at night when you're sleeping Poison ivy comes a creeping all around Measles make you bumpy and mumps'll make you lumpy and chicken pox'll make you jump and twitch A common cold'll cool you but whooping cough'll fool you but poison ivy's gonna make you itch You're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion You'll be scratching like a hound the minute you start to mess around Poison ivy, poison ivy Well late at night when you're sleeping Poison ivy comes a creeping all around Measles make you bumpy and mumps'll make you lumpy and chicken pox'll make you jump and twitch A common cold'll cool you and whooping cough'll fool you but poison ivy's gonna make you itch You're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion You'll be scratching like a hound the minute you start to mess around Poison ivy, poison ivy Well late at night when you're sleeping Poison ivy comes a creeping all around La la la la La la la la

maybe the stuff creeping up the west side of the house is virginia creeper...

We have virginia creeper, too, VC and PI seem to like the same conditions...

thing is -- i've been dealing with this creeper for 11 years, but this is the 1st time i've had a reaction like this.

could it be more potent this year because of all the extra rain?

prednisone, day 5: spots are vanishing, no itching... all is well

I don't believe that the potency of poison ivy changes due to more rain or other environmental events but your degree of allergic reaction does acording to subsequent exposures.

does that mean i'll gradually build up an immunity to it?
hope so.

i'm done taking the stuff.
it appears to have been a success.

unfortunately, further yardwork beckons

Other 'way round, unfortunately -- it gets worse each time.

Wish I lived down the block and could go take a look for you, I can spot poison ivy at 50 paces by now. (Always possible that it wasn't actually poison ivy, though it does sound like it.)

ok, thats it.
no more yardwork for RP...

soz, me too... instead what i'll do is grab a camera, shoot a few suspicious lookin' suspects, and post the evidence here.

stand by -- it'll take a few days...

Excellent. I'll look forward to it, hope I can help.