I am blissfully lucky enough to not be allergic to the oil–knock on wood. However, growing up near the Shawnee, my friends often came down with dreadful cases of the stuff. (Dogs can carry it on their fur as well, watch out.)

Here’s what I recommend for attempting to relieve the itch:

-oatmeal and milk baths
-ibuprofin for a few days (it’s an anti-inflamatory)
-it sounds ghastly but once the wounds ooze, pouring rubbing alcohol over them will dry them out. it will also burn like hell, so maybe you’ll want to use vodka–then you could at least swig off the bottle between pours

other than that, all you can do is wait.

try not to itch (i know that’s like saying don’t think of pink elephants). it will go away faster if you don’t.

:( sorry about that! poison ivy sucks.

Make sure you add a grease cutter like lestoil or just plain hardcore grease cutting dish soap to the laundry.

My dad loves to tell the story of the time his grandfather was burning the leaves and bush in the back of their place in South Carolina. He was running through the smoke and playing. Turns out he was burning a lot of poison ivy, and my dad ended up getting the inside of his throat covered with the stuff. He ended up in the hospital for it, one of the hundreds of times he went as a child. So realize that it could be worse :-)

Oooof – yes, at least I didn’t ingest it! That must have been terrible. Thanks for the tips, Jess. Once I start oozing, I’m all over the vodka :)

I’m feeling better today than I did last night, and blowing a hair dryer over the bumps has been the most helpful method for relieving the itch. I’m getting married in less than three weeks, so I’m praying I won’t look like the walking wounded when I’m in my dress. At least it didn’t spread too badly – it’s mostly on my arms. I’ll be wearing long sleeves for a few weeks so I don’t scare anyone off.

Mindy- It makes me itch just thinking about it! I’m glad the hairdryer technique is working and that the wedding isn’t this weekend! I’m sure you’ll be back to normal very soon!

Alex–Eesh! I’ve heard of that killing people. Glad it didn’t in that case! I always wonder in the fall–more often than not I hold my breath because you never really know…

Mindy–had no idea it was so soon! Congratulations!!! (We’ll get to see a pic on the website, right?)

Yikes! We supposedly have poison ivy along the north side of our house, but I don’t know what it looks like. I guess I should find some pictures on the net so that I can avoid it.

I am currently itching from the first skeeter bites of the season. I’m trying not to scratch because they swell up to the size of marbles if I do.

Run to your local drug store and get some Benedryl Itch Stopping Gel. You should be able to find it somewhere near where you found the Technu. It’s a small bottle of liquid HEAVEN! The itching was driving me so crazy one time that I literally started opening packages and trying everything right there in the store. The Benedryl stopped the itching IMMEDIATELY.