Poison Oak Skin Rash

by Amanda

I recently got poison oak, this is my first time ever getting anything like this. The reason, cause I went into a field with a friend to shoot a movie, and got poison oak all over my legs, thighs and gential area.

I'm on my sixth day, already and just now is it barely feeling a bit better. Day 1, started with a small itch, behind my knees, day 2 was scary itchy, I couldn't stop, that's all I thought about over and over, like an obsession, it attacked, I didn't want to eat, sleep, watch tv, talk to anyone, I'd itch till I was raw and tore my skin. I tried everything from the drugstore, "Benadryl cream", "Itch X", "Cortison
cream". "Zanfel", none of these worked! (for me) cause I was sooo desperate, anxious and wanted this off of me, I did home remedies.

I tried rubbing down with prepared oatmeal with lots of salt. Put it on your poison oak blisters/rash, while it's still warm, let it dry, then wash off. But I finally found something that worked for me. I do the prepared oatmeal with extra salt, just follow the directions on your oatmeal package, get in tub, rub the warm almost hot oatmeal all over for poison oak rash, let it dry-about 15-30 minutes (this will be messy so have a towel ready to clean up the oatmeal that
falls off.) Wash oatmeal off with hot water (the hottest you can stand) this opens up the pores and lets anything you put on it in, (the oatmeal), then, wash with Dial antibacterial soap, next, wash with the Zanfel (following insturctions), then, you wash that off with COLD WATER, this closes the pores, leaving all medicines in to kill the poison under your skin.

NOW, (my favorite part) ahhhh, get ICE as much as you can, go back to the tub and rub, all of your poison oak down with ice, this will numb all the pain and itch. Let yourself dry. I rubbed down with ice for about 5 minutes. But numb as much as possible. This seems to work the best for me, then I sit back and open up a beer to help me forget it all.

Hope this helps anyone out there. Poison oak, is seriously the most damaging uncomfortability mother nature can give you. No one can understand this, I 'd tell my boyfriend and he'd touch my legs, when I'd stricty tell him not too, and thus the itching would start back up. Wrap your most damaging blisters with guaze bandages and medical tape, don't wear jeans, but pjs, silk if you have them. or Stretchy pants, the workout kind. And most of all Don't itch! I know it's hard NOT TOO, BUT, you'll prevent infection and prevent popping your blisters with your fingernails. Just try your bestest notto friend. Poison Oak is a powerful plant and part of the cashew family (so intersting) try to find out information about poisonoak/sumac/ivy. You'll find out how beautiful nature is, and how deadly it can be. This is just a brush of it, some people have ingested it or gotten it in thier eyes so be grateful.

Gonna have another beer, now. Good Luck, The longest poison oak will last should be about 2 weeks, there's nothing you can really do about poison oak, but wait for your blisters to heal. (depending on the severity)

Another thing, you will be sleep deprived, the itch will be waking you up about 3-4-8 times throughout the night. Just please, don't itch, Oh, and take Benadryl allergy pills to kill off the infection. Hope this helps in any way.
Take Care,
xoxoxox-Amanda