If it’s August, I must have poison sumac. I must have poison sumac so badly that I require a steroid shot in the butt along with strict warnings from the doctor to get myself to the hospital if my tongue starts swelling. I totally look like Ralph Fiennes in the English Patient.
So, why the hell am I compelled to blog? Because.
Apt. 11d 
So, I’m pretty good at recognizing poison ivy. And also when I’m on the West Coast, poison oak. But I just didn’t have a mental image of sumac, maybe because you mostly only see it where it’s swampy or wet. For a while I thought Virginia creeper was sumac–it had that nasty look to it.
So the other day I’m collecting flowers for these stereomicroscope pictures I’ve been working on and I pick these nice little white-bud flowers off this plant. Next day, I start to see really serious, really bad-news signs of heavy urushol exposure all over my hands and upper arms. I’m thinking, “I KNOW I didn’t touch poison ivy…” Then I think, “Time to finally see what sumac looks like.” Then I look at pictures.
Then I go “Oh, shit” and go get steroid cream from the doctor. But the pictures were nice.
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heh. It’s like a CSI plot.
BTW, Tim, I’ve been loving the pictures that you’ve been posting. Especially liked the fuzzy one of your daughter.
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Sorry I didn’t see this sooner. I live in Poison Oak Heaven. If there was a way to make money off the stuff, I’d be richer than Gates. When I moved to this property, we took out a whole dumpster full of the stuff. I paid Ron the Poison Oak Guy mucho buckolas to do the work; it took a Bobcat to get the biggest patch dug out.
Also, some times I just get a little rash, and sometimes my whole body blows up like a balloon.
This stuff really works to get rid of the rash pronto, even with a whole-body reaction:
Zanfel.
http://www.zanfel.com/
” It is the only product known to remove urushiol, the toxin responsible for the reaction, from the skin after bonding, enabling the affected area to immediately begin healing. After using Zanfel, the itching and pain are the first things to be relieved, usually within 30 seconds.”
Now, it is expensive, but less expensive than a visit to the doc and steroid treatment.
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Poison Ivy Poison Oak Poison Sumac Treatment – Its All about Urushiol
What causes poison ivy rash. Plain and simple, its urushiol. How can you treat poison ivy? Get rid of the urushiol.
That nasty oil from the Rhus Toxicodendren plant that binds to the skin, seemingly till death do us part isnt that easy …
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