November 14, 2014
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A Rash
Isabel had a bit of a rash Thursday morning, from her ear down to her shoulder but no fever, so my wife rubbed some benadryl (diphenhydramine) ointment on it and sent her off to school with instructions to go to the nurse if it got worse. Of course, a couple hours later, while my wife was in her own college class, she got a call from the nurse. It was really bothering her. Tina picked her up at school and took her to the doctor, just in case. Turns out it was a reaction to a poisonous plant. If it were summertime, we would have thought of that, but it's November for Pete's sake! Where would she have come in contact with what we assumed would be poison ivy? The doctor showed her a picture of the three most common plants in our area that can cause that reaction. Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. Immediately her eyes lit up and she pointed to the picture of poison sumac, "I picked some seeds from one of those plants. We were walking through the cemetery and I saw the plant and thought it was pretty, so I picked some seeds and put them in my pocket, so I could plant them when I got home." Luckily for us, she forgot, and they were still in the pocket of the jeans she had been wearing that day. After three years, I've finally (I hope) gotten rid of the poison ivy on our property. I don't need a new pestilent plant to fight!
If, like me, you'v never seen poison sumac (toxicodendron vernix), here are a couple examples so you can say you learned something today.
Comments (6)
I'm glad the rash wasn't worse -- the Dir of Public Health where I grew up pulled the poison oak out of her backyard barehanded, and ended up in the hospital with the rash.
I wish for Isa a quick healing from the rash . It is painful. In France I do not think we have this species which lives in North America . We have enough with the nettles .
Thanks for the documentation
In friendship
Michel
RYC : About the trade boat-motorbike , I think you made a good deal .
Soon you will taste the joy of the sailing.
Sorry to hear that---never heard of it before.
I was going to say poison sumac... you can find its toxic nature even after a deep freeze. Poor Isabel. I hope she is beginning to feel better by now.
Now I can say I learned something today. I wonder if we have poison sumac in our woods. I don't think I am going to go looking.