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Poison Ivy survey

A

ArcheryIA44

PMA Member
Iowa Whitetail Team,

I have a question/survey. I'm one of the lucky people that has at least one (usually more) poison ivy reactions during the course of a year (hiking, hunting, working the property). I would be VERY willing to get a shot in the arm if it could prevent a poison ivy reaction, even though my reaction is not considered serious.

If there was a preventative vaccine on the market (and let's say that you would have to get this once per year to be completely protected), would you be willing to get the shot for:

$25/shot?
$50/ shot?
$100/shot?
 
I never got poison ivy until I was 23. After that I got it multiple times per year for more than 15 years. I used topical and oral steroids and was miserable. I would have paid anything to prevent it. I could look at it and get it. For some reason I haven't had it for two years now even though I find myself in and around it all the time. Could it be that I have finally developed an imunity to it? I'm not gonna roll around in it to test it out but I sure am hopeful.

Back to your question, I would have paid $100 per year for anything that would have prevented it!
 
I contracted my worse case this year in mid-late August. Still have crappy looking legs as I type this but they have dried up for the most part.

My treatment this year consisted of:

1) Zanfel - THIS STUFF WORKS. over-the-counter surface treatment which removes the oil associated with the spread of the rash. $35-40 a tube - approx. 10 applications per tube for an area the size of a human face. Highly effective in my case.
2) Prednizone - steroid prescription from the Dr's office. - $25 co-pay so I can't tell you exactly what the costs were for this.
3) One other med prescribed by the Dr for controlling the itch. This crap cost me $60 since my insurance did not cover it. Didn't really need it as the Zanfel applications took care of the itch very well and most of this med will probably end up in the trash unfortunately.

My case covered almost all of the areas between my knees and ankles this year - I looked like a leper honestly. Lots of stares at X-Country meets the past two weeks. :D

All told - approx. $125+ of meds and after about 2 weeks it's almost gone.
 
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Knock on wood,I've never had an outbreak from it and know that I walk through it every year mushroom hunting and doing stand work. I honestly don't even know for sure what it looks like other than the old "leaves of 3, leave it be". My buddy gets it every time and hates me for it when we both come in contact and it doesn't affect me
 
bigbuckhunter88 said:
Knock on wood,I've never had an outbreak from it and know that I walk through it every year mushroom hunting and doing stand work. I honestly don't even know for sure what it looks like other than the old "leaves of 3, leave it be". My buddy gets it every time and hates me for it when we both come in contact and it doesn't affect me
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FYI, I am not sure how old you are, but when I was in my teens, I couldn't get the stuff if I tried. Perceiving myself to be immune and also thinking like many youngsters, that I was bulletproof...I didn't pay any attention to it or try to prevent exposure, etc.

Well then in mid 20's I started to get a mild rash from it sometimes. No big whoop.

Then in my 30's I had a couple of pretty strong rashes from it, although I doubt I looked as bad as BJohnson described above! :D :D Sorry about that cheap shot! :D Hmmmm.

In my 40's...I could get it if I was seemingly in the same zip code...and long story short, I one time ended up the hospital overnight taking a strong dose of intravenous antibiotics to fight off a particularly bad case of it. Stupid me!! And believe me, my wife agreed with that assessment! :D

Now wiser, battle scarred and in my 50's, I take prevention much more seriously and will wear protective clothing (jeans, long sleeve shirts, etc,) so as not to get it, and I rarely do.

So...young guys...particularly those that think they are immune...be smart and avoid it early, because repeated exposures combined with changes to your body as you age could lead you from a state of immunity to getting it by looking at it. It is mostly annoying, but can get bad enough to cost you some real time and money to put it down.
 
Hmmm, thats very interesting. I also never had a problem from it until just this year (28 years young) and I scratched my arms for 2 weeks. Up until now, I just figured that I was just never exposed to it that bad but maybe I always have been and I'm starting to feel it? To the question, I'm cheap and if I just itch for a couple weeks I guess I wouldn't pay anything!
 
I didn't get it until I was 18, I'm 29 now and can't remember a summer without multiple trips to get a steroid/ anti inflammatory shot and a pill pack.
I would pay 1,500 every year without batting an eye if it truly worked.
I've found that the scrubbing every square inch that may have contacted the oil has helped me out alot the last few yrs. View the oil as invisible grease that you have to fully scrub off
 
Like the rest of you, I'm 27 and this is the first year it's ever affected me. It started out on my arm and went EVERYWHERE. It even got up around my right eye and it swelled shut for 2 days. I purchased a product called Technu now that I rub on me when I come out of the woods. It's worked thus far as I know I've bumped into so PI. I would pay 50 for the yearly shot.
 
I always get it. I would give my left nut to never get it again. I think I got in early summer and haven't been able to get rid of it. I am pretty cautious but I always get just enough to be a hassle.
 
$ a lot 10-20 years ago.
$0 now.
Betamethasone Dipropionate cream. About 200x more potent than cortisone cream (which does nothing pretty much & you can google how potent Betamethasone is). Problem solved! I get PI worse than pry anyone I've seen. Blast it with Betamethasone and it stops it almost instantly. WAY WAY faster & better than oral steroids which has lots of nasty side effects. Betamethasone has almost none of those same side effects. (I think worst one is if u used it all the time, way overboard it could thin ur skin. U can read label but it's mild vs prednisone which i hate.). No brainer. My poison ivy is a non-issue, period. Little bumps start, hit with cream until it's gone, non-issue. I have not had bad outbreak since using Betamethasone. Been a decade since I've had bad PI.
 
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I'd pay up to $50 or so if there was such a thing. I'm like most guys on here, I could roll in the stuff when I was younger but I'm starting to lose my immunity to it now. I'm 29 now and I've had it 3 times this year, but before that I'd only had it once in my life. I'm one of the lucky ones that gets a dot here and there when I do and it's pretty minimal. The second time I got it this year I got it from wearing a pair of pants that still had the oil on it. I've learned to wash up really good after trips to the woods and isolate the clothes as soon as I can. Getting old sucks... Haha!
 
I'm closing in on 40 and I've never had a reaction from it. I don't go looking for it to prove a point, but I don't necessarily avoid it either.
 
Of course my $1,500 statement would make me completely immune for the year.....like superman powers. I would expect to be able to go to the most covered tree in the forest and hang treestands....without a shirt. Then when I got tired I would want to make a soft poison ivy pillow and take a nap. :)
 
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Combo poison ivy/parsnip shot and I'd pay $100/year. If it was just a parsnip shot; $100/yr. I have a long line of parsnip blisters down my right arm from last weekend. :mad:
 
I should add that I don't go looking for it and any time I'm mushroom hunting or trimming sets in the spring,summer,early fall I'm in jeans, knee boots and a long sleeve to prevent nettles,ticks and other plants. I've done plenty of reading that prolonged exposure makes it worse and once you get it the next time will be worse... if I had reactions like my buddy I'd gladly pay 100 to not have to worry about getting it.
 
JNRBRONC said:
Combo poison ivy/parsnip shot and I'd pay $100/year. If it was just a parsnip shot; $100/yr. I have a long line of parsnip blisters down my right arm from last weekend. :mad:
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Only problem with that is parsnip isn't an allergic reaction, it's actually a chemical burn from the fluid inside the plant reacting with the sun.
 
Rich77 said:
I've found that the scrubbing every square inch that may have contacted the oil has helped me out alot the last few yrs. View the oil as invisible grease that you have to fully scrub off
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I'm older than dirt and everyone on here so far except Fishbonker maybe. I've been scrubbing the last two years with a washrag and liquid Dial soap. So far so good. Also being careful with the clothes. Got it really bad when younger and not so bad the last times. There no way to avoid it if you step in the woods around here.
 
At 55 years old never had a reaction yet! But I knocking on wood that it never happens.
 
I got it bad once when I was in 7th grade but that was the only time in 31 years. I'm confident that I'm in that lucky small percentage of ppl that it doesn't effect.
 
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