I know I can get poison ivy even in the winter. The worst cases I
have heard of come from burning the stuff on logs while camping. I
do find that when dressed for winter, I am less likely to get the oil
on my skin than during the summer when the stuff is in full leaf.
During the winter, I can "usually" walk through the empty vines along
a river and not get enough oil on my pants and socks to get the
rash. The same areas during the summer are no go areas for me and my
skin.

OK, enough on this rather non letterboxing topic. I will post no
more on rhus dermatitis.

<

--- In letterbox-usa@y..., "MARTEL" wrote:
> If you don't want to have to worry about this, come letterboxing on
Mount Desert Island - we honestly do not have poison ivy here. I
have to be really careful to remind myself to watch out for it when I
am off island, as I'm not used to worrying about it! (Lots of boxes
to be found in these parts too!)
> Memlili
> Rick, and others boxing 'without foliage'
> You CAN get Poison Ivy even in the winter. It is the sap and not
the leaves which do you in. Please be careful no matter when you
go. My brother had the worst case ever one winter after a camping
trip.
> cherieph

I have to agree with Mary Manatee. We don't have poison ivy, but we
certainly have a great abundance of poison oak in Oregon, which, I am
highly allergic too. When I get poison oak and it seems to go away, it
will reappear again for no apparent reason. It is very frustrating and
annoying!

The only thing that has ever worked for me is over-the-counter Benedryl
pills to stop the itching and then a trip or phone call to the doc for a
prescription topical cream which pretty much goes right to work and gets
rid of the rash and any trace of it. I don't know if we have Jewel weed
in these parts. I had never heard of it till now.

Best regards,

Amanda Briles
The Paisley Orca

Greetings fellow letterboxers & poison ivy, oak & sumac allergic
types---

ZANFEL, ZANFEL, ZANFEL...

I suffer the similar plight of being highly allergic to poison
oak, ivy & sumac--most cases require prescriptions of prednisone to
bid it farewell! I recently heard about a product called Zanfel
that is supposed to work immediately on cases of poison oak, ivy &
sumac (even on the rash regardless of what stage of 'ooze' it is in--
pardon me for the gory details but that's usually the normal chain
of events for any & all cases I get of this stuff).
My sister (non-letterboxing one) in Northern California who is
similarly 'nuclear' reactive to this stuff heard about it recently
from, of all places, Paul Harvey, and immediately made it her
mission in life to find it & try it. Soon thereafter, she came home
with another case of poison oak and now she swears by Zanfel!!! I
think she said she found it at Rite Aid but it should also be
available at those other drugstore chains, too. I think, however,
it may run quite expensive, though. But personally speaking, I'm
willing to spend $60 a tube for anything that will rid me of that
torture!!! And that says a lot coming from an EXTREMELY frugal
person....

Hope this renders some comfort to other letterboxers out there...

dvn2r ckr
DuPont, WA

Hey, it even has its own website:

http://www.zanfel.com/

Enjoy!

dvn2r ckr

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "dvn2rckr"
wrote:
> Greetings fellow letterboxers & poison ivy, oak & sumac allergic
> types---
>
> ZANFEL, ZANFEL, ZANFEL...
>
> I suffer the similar plight of being highly allergic to
poison
> oak, ivy & sumac--most cases require prescriptions of prednisone
to
> bid it farewell! I recently heard about a product called Zanfel
> that is supposed to work immediately on cases of poison oak, ivy &
> sumac (even on the rash regardless of what stage of 'ooze' it is
in--
> pardon me for the gory details but that's usually the normal chain
> of events for any & all cases I get of this stuff).
> My sister (non-letterboxing one) in Northern California who
is
> similarly 'nuclear' reactive to this stuff heard about it recently
> from, of all places, Paul Harvey, and immediately made it her
> mission in life to find it & try it. Soon thereafter, she came
home
> with another case of poison oak and now she swears by Zanfel!!! I
> think she said she found it at Rite Aid but it should also be
> available at those other drugstore chains, too. I think, however,
> it may run quite expensive, though. But personally speaking, I'm
> willing to spend $60 a tube for anything that will rid me of that
> torture!!! And that says a lot coming from an EXTREMELY frugal
> person....
>
> Hope this renders some comfort to other letterboxers out there...
>
> dvn2r ckr
> DuPont, WA

Oh yeh.

First official trip of the summer to go letterboxing in glorious New
England.

Found the first box.

Had a bit of trouble finding the second box. But did find a little
toad who hopped off the path. My 6 year old said, "hey a toad. I
think it went in here in the plants."

OH MMMAN!!!!!!

So I said, "Just slowly step away from the three-leaved plant
climbing the tree. I will Technu you when we get to the car just
don't . . . scratch your face. . ."

OH MMMMMAN!!!!!!

"Don't touch anywhere else, just put your hands to your . . . STOP
SCRATCHING YOUR FACE!!! No, I don't want to hold your hand at this
moment. Ahhh, get away from me!!!! RUN AWAY!!!!!"

First day out. Poison ivy. On the face and neck, of course it doesn't
appear for a day after the event. He wakes up in the morning and his
eye is all puffy and little red blisters start appearing on his
cheeks. My brother says my wife is going to fire me from the Stay-at-
home-dad thing. He suggests I should look into severance pay.

Team Randalstik

I hope you heard the thousands of groans of understanding that went right
along with your narrative. You would probably have quite a few volunteers
willing to testify at your wrongful termination hearing....
--
Barefoot Lucy
"It's not about footwear, it's about philosophy"


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Keep at it with the Tecnu though, it really will lesson the severity of the rash. Hey, if you get fired as a stay at home husband I'll hire ya. My stay at home husband isn't much of a housekeeper. Neither is his wife!

Team Randalstik wrote: Oh yeh.

First official trip of the summer to go letterboxing in glorious New
England.

Found the first box.

Had a bit of trouble finding the second box. But did find a little
toad who hopped off the path. My 6 year old said, "hey a toad. I
think it went in here in the plants."

OH MMMAN!!!!!!

So I said, "Just slowly step away from the three-leaved plant
climbing the tree. I will Technu you when we get to the car just
don't . . . scratch your face. . ."

OH MMMMMAN!!!!!!

"Don't touch anywhere else, just put your hands to your . . . STOP
SCRATCHING YOUR FACE!!! No, I don't want to hold your hand at this
moment. Ahhh, get away from me!!!! RUN AWAY!!!!!"

First day out. Poison ivy. On the face and neck, of course it doesn't
appear for a day after the event. He wakes up in the morning and his
eye is all puffy and little red blisters start appearing on his
cheeks. My brother says my wife is going to fire me from the Stay-at-
home-dad thing. He suggests I should look into severance pay.

Team Randalstik






---------------------------------
Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs.Try it free.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Team Randalstik wrote:

> First official trip of the summer to go letterboxing in glorious New
> England.


As if the statistics weren't already enough, a researcher at the Woods
Hole Marine Biological Laboratory has found evidence that poison ivy
will continue to get worse!

http://www.mbl.edu/inside/what/news/features/feature_ivy.html

phyto

I had read that article. It also mentions that the plants will produce
more urushiol and become even more vigorous in a higher CO2 world.

Be careful out there!

LB


--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Phyto" wrote:
>
>
> As if the statistics weren't already enough, a researcher at the Woods
> Hole Marine Biological Laboratory has found evidence that poison ivy
> will continue to get worse!
>
> http://www.mbl.edu/inside/what/news/features/feature_ivy.html
>
> phyto
>

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Phyto" wrote:

> As if the statistics weren't already enough, a researcher at the Woods
> Hole Marine Biological Laboratory has found evidence that poison ivy
> will continue to get worse!
>
> http://www.mbl.edu/inside/what/news/features/feature_ivy.html
>
> phyto
>

Phyto,

Do you suppose we could attribute the same "Carbon Dioxide" problem to
the spread and increased population of Ticks??? LOL

Man, was in kennenbunkport after searching for a box, My wife, my
daughter and I stripped down to our skivies wilst picking off all of
those little buggers, ewww!! Collectively we removed close to 40
between the 3 of us, AHHHHHHH!!!! << nightmares>>>> LOL

Any insight as to why there are so many of them? Winters not cold
enough? Global Warming? Population Control? <-- Opps how did that one
get in there??


-BuxtonFFEMTI

Took my kids letterboxing last Friday and I got a good dose of poison ivy
all over my face (yes, one eye ended up being swollen shut from it), neck, chest
and arms. Luckily me two little ones did not get it. I saved for one year
to have a special 5 year anniversary dinner at the Four Seasons in Boston
with my husband and boy did I look like something from the black lagoon!

At dinner, my husband says, "So will this (the poison ivy episode) slow down
your letterboxing plans this summer?" My answer..."No way!"

My doctor put me on steriods for 21 days and not that I would suggest such a
strong tactic to rid yourself of poison ivy, if you have it near your eyes ,
it is the way to go.

Happy Summer and box hunting.....GlobeBear


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I heard you have to be written up at least three times before you're fired from that job.

~The Ram~
----- Original Message -----
From: Team Randalstik
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 9:26 PM
Subject: [LbNA] Poison Ivy


Oh yeh.

First official trip of the summer to go letterboxing in glorious New
England.

Found the first box.

Had a bit of trouble finding the second box. But did find a little
toad who hopped off the path. My 6 year old said, "hey a toad. I
think it went in here in the plants."

OH MMMAN!!!!!!

So I said, "Just slowly step away from the three-leaved plant
climbing the tree. I will Technu you when we get to the car just
don't . . . scratch your face. . ."

OH MMMMMAN!!!!!!

"Don't touch anywhere else, just put your hands to your . . . STOP
SCRATCHING YOUR FACE!!! No, I don't want to hold your hand at this
moment. Ahhh, get away from me!!!! RUN AWAY!!!!!"

First day out. Poison ivy. On the face and neck, of course it doesn't
appear for a day after the event. He wakes up in the morning and his
eye is all puffy and little red blisters start appearing on his
cheeks. My brother says my wife is going to fire me from the Stay-at-
home-dad thing. He suggests I should look into severance pay.

Team Randalstik





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]