I seem to have brought home an unexpected souvenir from Georgia. Two of my worse dreaded words in the medical dictionary. POISON IVY!!! I generally seem to contract a case at least once a year. It seemed as though every time I would go out and work in the yard at the house in Georgia, I would ALWAYS get a case about 4-5 days later. So, after arriving back home in Wyoming, one day I realized that I had begun scratching a couple of places on the top part of my left foot and thought it was mosquito bites. The next day I noticed little red rash bumps and began to realize I might have poison ivy. Later that day, the itching began to feel like fire ants running marathons on the top part of my foot while at work. I ripped off my sock and shoe and knew I was going to be in trouble! The following day I knew for sure it was POISON IVY when more rash began again on another part of my leg - my knee!
Where in the world did I come up against the "plantly" culprit, I wondered? It's not like I don't know that I'm allergic to it! I always take proper precautions when I'm outside. Lord knows I've had plenty of exposure and time with the stuff. Then I realized it was when I was in the old home yard happily scouring my gardenia bushes for clippings. That's where I had to have come in contact with it. It was like deja vu all over again!!! So here I sit with an itchy leg, taking medication, trying not to scratch and thinking "my gardenia clippings better take root and survive here in Wyoming after getting another case of poison ivy!
(BTW...that's not my leg, but just a good representation of how it has looked in the past when it gets waaaay out of hand (or leg). And, I'm also told by the locals, don't worry about poison ivy out here - it's the snakes and the ticks I need to be wary of! Great.
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