Give it some perspective...

As the blisters rise and fall like the ocean tides, Casey, my "obsessed with the egg" best friend, (blister number two, on the top, has been dubbed "the egg" - based on it's uncanny resemblance to an egg yolk) felt it was important to put things into perspective a bit.  Although be pictures are worth a thousand words, it's hard to know what we're actually dealing with if you don't understand the sheer size of these beauties...

POP GOES THE WEASEL!

The big one popped, is there something under it???  The picture was taken about 2 hours ago, it's already almost full again even though I have stayed off my feet! :-(

Let the pictures tell it all...

Maybe I will continue to narrate, but for now, since I'm almost 2 weeks since the contact, I think the pictures are worth a thousand words...
AND NOW, one of the big blisters popped and I think that there's something hard and dark under the remaining fluid...can it get any grosser?!?!
I also went back to the doctor for a follow up, I have been told to stay on the steroids for ANOTHER 3 day, so now it will end up being a total of 10 days of steroids (50 mg every day!) and 5 days of antibiotics to avoid infection.
I just want it to go away!

The first day it got bad, 6/5

6/6

6/7 in the morning

6/7 in the night, compared to my pinkie nail

6/8 in the morning

6/8 in the night

6/8 the same one compared to the pinkie again

6/8 both legs

6/9

6/9 in the afternoon

6/10 in the morning, the big guy deflated a bit

both legs, notice the blisters are growing

6/10 morning, the big guy has a friend above him!

His friend is growing

6/10 in the afternoon

6/10 afternoon

6/10 night

6/11 morning

Who would have thought trying to be "green" could get so red?...

In an attempt to "go green" (well, just a little green), my husband and I decided to completely clear-out the entirely overgrown patch of "garden" at my parents house in Connecticut.  My previous memories of this garden are running barefoot through the yard to the 12X8 foot growing spot to pick freshly sprouted snap peas from their stalks, bright red cherry tomatoes and other such wonderful summer delicacies.

That memory has now been shattered and replaced with red streaks and yellow blisters and an itch that is very close to unbearable.

Growing up I never had a reaction to poison ivy, despite several run-ins with the three-leaved plant, so I had always assumed I was not allergic.  My husband, being from outside of the US, was unfamiliar with it so had no concerns of the rash.  Nonetheless, I was very strict about him being careful when going near the overgrowth in the (formerly known as) garden and made sure that he was very careful not to touch anything.  He used a rake to uproot the jungle of "weeds" while I picked up the piles of intertwined mess and placed them into garbage bags.

"Any reaction you may have to poison ivy would show up within 10 minutes," said my father, a "seasoned gardener".  We waited about 10 minutes, no reaction, so we gardened on!  MAN, OH MAN...was he wrong.

Let me take this time to be very clear, this blog is in NO way medical advise - just some details about this interesting experience that I have had following my encounter with poison ivy.  I would also like to say, despite my "woe is me" attitude about the poison ivy, I think that this is actually kind of funny - it's really not THAT big a deal.  I am fortunate enough to only have reactions on my arms and legs - there is nothing on my face (in that case I would be upset), nothing on my bottom (in that case I would be really sad), and THANK GOODNESS nothing in the other place where the "sun don't shine" (in that case I would be totally devastated...I simply don't know how people can survive with a poison ivy reaction there, if you search it, you will find the stories...if that's you, I am SO sorry!).

The gardening day occurred over Memorial Day weekend and for the 6 days following Memorial Day life went on as usual, no itching, no marks, just a happy person awaiting the outcome of the beautiful planting that had been done over the holiday weekend.

I will continue with the progression of what happened next in the following post.