Kristi's Adventure with Poison Ivy
All of the following pictures were taken Thursday evening, May 4, 2006
This is my weeping wound, weeped through bandage and shirt.
Here's without the shirt, but with bandage.
And here's under both. This goes from elbow around. This was the initial area to be infected, and now makes it very painful to bend my right arm.
Lovely find, to wake up to it on my left palm. I didn't realize I could even get it on my palm!
The big deformity on my left bicep.
This photo isn't the clearest, but I've got it up one side of my neck to my chin, and I also have it just under my bottom lip (not pictured).
My left arm before my shower. I took a cotton ball to both these blisters, and lots of honey-like stuff came out.
Here they are after my shower, filled right back up.
Sorry for the blurriness, here's my right arm, swollen and deformed after my shower.
And finally, on my forehead, a nice little scratch mark. The white stuff is dried calamine lotion.
I also have one little spot right next to my inner left eye, two spots on the back of my neck, several spots on the back of my right hand, one spot on my right deltoid, a cluster on my right hip, and a large cluster on my right calf/inner knee. Showers are the worst, pain so bad it makes me shake.
:(
ADDENDUM: May 5, 2006 3am:
After posting these pics, and having my doctor friends at work review them, I was advised to go to the emergency room for further treatment--especially since things were getting worse, not better. I was whisked right in, thankfully they weren't too busy. I was seen by a Physician Assistant who said he was surprised I didn't come sooner. Glenn, the house supervisor, stopped by at my ER room to say "hello," and to get my "off work" slip from the doctor. My friend Bertha, the housekeeper, had gotten me a nice warm blanket while I was there too. I was given 60mg Prednisone by mouth, and an IM injection of Vistaril 100mg. That shot hurt like all hell. My left butt cheek and leg are still aching from it! The nurse said that she hears the most complaints from that particular injection. The nurse then bandaged my arms back up. They told me that I needed to have a ride home, so my friends Kim and Jackie came down from the unit to see me and drove me and my car home. Now I'm supposed to rest, not scratch, apply calamine and hydrocortisone cream, and get a prescription for Prednisone to take daily for 5 days. I'm also supposed to take Benadryl every 4-6 hours. That shot was supposed to knock me out, but I don't feel sleepy, I just feel like I'm wearing lots of hats. lol.
ADDENDUM: May 5, 2006 7pm
Today I have one new spot on my right wrist, grrr. Some spots look better, some look worse--more weepy. Overall I feel a little better. My shower was as painful as it was 3 days ago, but not as bad as the last 2 days. Here's some updated pics from this afternoon:
Back of my right hand.
My right leg (calf) and a little under my knee.
My left bicep (sorry this is close and blurry, hard to take picture of yourself here).
Left arm and inner elbow-- this is the one that was super weepy last night, it's still going.
The "mother spot" on my right arm, the site of the initial breakout.
Right arm tilted, you can see the raised boils along the edge of my arm at the top. This site is more weepy today than yesterday, and this was the area that was weeping through my dressing and shirt already.
I'm still taking prednisone, benadryl, and calamine lotion. My left buttock/leg is still achy from that Vistaril injection, but that's ok. I'm thoroughly pissed that there is a new spot, even if it is one little spot. Thanks everyone for your encouragement and kind emails. :)
Update May 6, 2006 10pm
This is the first day that I am truly able to say that I can see the poison ivy getting better. There is still a lot of itching and pain, but definitely improvement. My left arm has sores now where those big blisters were, and those are quite painful. My left buttock and leg are still very sore from that shot.
Big improvement on my neck and chin.
My Right leg is a little worse, but hopefully that just means it is going to get better soon.
This is really hard to see, but this is my left bicep/underarm. There is a big patch of poison ivy here, but I am sensitive to the band-aids and tape I've been using to cover this stuff, and I've got skin breakdown around this patch from the band-aid. I wrapped this in gauze and a piece of tape for tonight.
Here's my left arm at the inner elbow. This is what is very painful right now.
I don't know why this is so blurry, but this is my main patch on my right arm. It's still pretty bad, but getting better.
Here's the same arm, just rotated to the elbow more.
Thanks for checking out my progress. :)