Eric Polk wrote:
>Oh! It just gets better and better! I didn't get any letterboxes but I
>DID get poison oak!!
>
>Eeek! Itchy! Itchy!
>
>Any relief advice from the veterans?

Just as with poison ivy, the best relief comes from calamine lotion or
spray. I like Band-Aid Fast Relief Calamine Spray, which has benzocaine in
it to quickly cool the itchy area -- and without making you rub lotion into
your skin. Other treatments, like Bactine (which my mom always used on us
as kids for everything from bug bites to poison ivy) or hydrocortisone
anti-itch creams won't really provide much relief from the itch of poison
oak or poison ivy.

I have an article about poison ivy on my site, along with photos, but I
don't have any photos of poison oak or poison sumac (which manufacture the
same chemical, urushiol, as poison ivy, but aren't generally found here in
the Northeast). I did encounter some poison oak in CA last fall -- well, I
didn't actually "encounter" it myself, I only identified it as my
letterboxing partner was searching through a patch of it. Of course, she
was a little miffed that I hadn't identified it a few moments sooner, but
fortunately (for both of us ) she didn't catch any! And I didn't even
have my camera with me at the time, so I could have taken a picture (of the
poison oak, not the stern look on her face).....






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