Day 255- Thankful for Benadryl

A couple of beautiful days ago, I was scouting the lawn for dead branches fallen from the trees we have growing there. On the far side of the pine tree I found that poison ivy had taken root. It didn’t seem too bad yet, so I donned a pair of nitrile gloves and used shopping bags to grab each plant, folding the bag around the plants and encasing said bundles in a larger trash bag.

Unfortunately, I ran into an unexpected complication. I did NOT know that poison ivy is one of those plants that sends out runners and then pops up a new plant somewhere else. So, when I would pull up a poison ivy plant, I had to keep pulling and pulling as the runner disengaged from the ground. This made it more complicated to get the plants bunched up into the shopping bags. When I turned the bags inside out with the plants inside, some bits kept trying to escape from the bags. There were several small poison ivy plants under the pine tree, most of them connected by runners.

Because of these complications, I must have slipped up in my efforts to be so careful, because I got a small patch of poison ivy on my forearm.

The good news is that it seems to be staying in one place, not swelling much, and not spreading. I’ve actually had it so bad in the past that the blisters looked like someone had poured hot oil over my forearm and I had to get steroids from the doctor. So, this is a mild case.

Last night it was starting to itch, so I went looking for my anti-itch cream. After doing a little research on google, I discovered that the active ingredient in the cream was the generic term for what I know better as Benadryl. This reminded me that I actually had a few more Benadryl capsules in the house. So, for the last 24 hours, I stopped taking my regular antihistamine and opted instead for the Benadryl + the Benadryl itch cream. It has been working great at keeping the itching down to a bare minimum!

One funny thing that neighbors who don’t know that I’ve got poison ivy may be laughing about when I’m outside is that I’m wearing long sleeves because the weather is a bit cool, but I have to keep one sleeve rolled up to keep it from aggravating the itching. Oh well, haha! 😀

Hopefully the poison ivy will go away soon. But in the meantime, I’m very glad that the itching is under control.

Today I’m thankful for Benadyrl.

I’m thankful that I only have a mild case of poison ivy.

I’m also thankful that I already had the medicine I would need here in the house.

I’m thankful that the itching is under control.

And I’m thankful for the beautiful weather that I’ve been able to enjoy!

What about you? What are you thankful for today? Is the weather where you are pleasant? Are you allergic to poison ivy?

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