[pct-l] Poison oak

[Julian Plamann]

As someone who is highly allergic to poison oak (e.g. hospital/steroid shot
time) and who lives and hikes in an area filled with it, I thought I might
pass on two techniques that have worked miracles for me:

The first is to simply rinse the area that may have been exposed very, very
well in cold water within about 2-3 hours of exposure. If you catch it quick
enough, the urishiol won't have penetrated the skin yet (or at least will be
limited to a few tiny areas). This method alone has prevented me from having
any outbreak whatsoever even after accidentally literally crawling down the
side of a hill covered in it. This, of course, requires being aware that you
were exposed to it in the first place

If I do find a rash somewhere, I simply immediately cover it with however
many Band-Aids are necessary and don't remove them other than to change them
out every day or two. When changing them, I dab the area with rubbing
alcohol to dry it out. I usually keep the bandages on for at least one to
two weeks. This merely prevents me from scratching the rash with my
fingernails. When you see terrible, open-sore, leaky looking poison oak that
takes forever to heal on people, it's usually more a result of secondary
infection from scratching with unsanitary hands. I've found that a band-aid
covering the rash even allows you to gently "rub/scratch" the area without
infecting it if you need some temporary relief, though this still isn't
really good to do.

I feel confident enough with these methods that I don't plan on carrying
Tecnu or anything like it on my thru this year. Band-Aids I will carry
already for obvious reasons and isopropyl alcohol serves double duty as
something that can be dabbed on the underarms, groin and inner thighs every
night to kill odor-causing bacteria (this works really, really well!... try
it) and prevent any possible chafing from becoming more inflamed/infected.

Happy Trails,
Julian



On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 6:50 PM, Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com <
diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:

>
> On Jan 25, 2009, at 2:14 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> > Ever hear voices in the water?
> Yes, I hear them all the time. It always sounds like singing. Like a
> choir. Freaks me out.
> > All I am worried about is the poison oak in N.Cal.
> Most of the poison oak people were in holy terror of was not poison
> oak at all. It was squaw bush. I mentioned that to someone and he
> dared me to prove it by rubbing it on my face. Well, he had vanished
> by the time I found some squaw bush to rub on my face, but Cuddles,
> if you're reading this, I actually stopped and rubbed it on my face!
> It was not poison oak!
>
> I have a web page with pictures of poison oak, if you are interested.
> It has many different looks. I ought to have a picture of squaw bush,
> too, but I don't. Ray Jardine has an illustration in his PCT Hiker's
> Handbook (don't know if it's in Beyond Backpacking or not.)
>
> Here's the link: http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/gorp/poisonoak/
>
> Poison oak isn't something to be too terribly concerned with. Learn
> what it looks like and watch where you are going. If you're unsure,
> just don't rub up against it.
>
> If you get it, it's just a rash, not a death sentence. Don't scratch!
> If you scratch the first time, you'll know it's poison oak because it
> will feel orgasmic and painful at the same time. This is a signal to
> stop scratching. No matter what, do not scratch. It WILL subside and
> go away. HOT HOT water applied to the skin will bring you relief
> enough to fall asleep. Benadryl can help, too, if you don't mind side-
> effects. But the best thing is to not scratch. The itchiness WILL
> subside.
>
> By the way, some may not know this, but poison oak has an escape
> clause. If you are ever so lost and tangled in the brush you have to
> climb through it to get out, it will let you off without a rash. This
> won't help you on the PCT, though.
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