[pct-l] poison oak

[blisterfree at isp01.net (Brett)]

I tend to be extremely sensitive to the toxicodendrons, and 
have developed poison ivy rashes on most of my Appalachian 
Trail hikes over the years. Growing up in the East, I've 
been exposed to this plant all my life and am just as 
vulnerable to it today as when I was 12 (and breathed in the 
burning plant at a 4th of July picnic, resulting in a month 
long internal/external rash!)

That said, I had no problems with poison oak, or any such 
plants, during the vast majority of my time on the PCT. In 
'99 and '00, I had no reaction whatsoever, despite a general 
lack of familiarity with poison oak and its variant forms, 
and surely having had encounters with the plant as a 
consequence of my ignorance. Not until 2001, well into 
Washington, did I finally develop an urishiol rash, and 
there I wonder whether the culprit was more likely poison 
ivy than oak. The rash was fairly vigorous, weeping and 
spreading far and wide (probably I slept with the oils still 
on me at the time of encounter), and slow to heal. Slower 
than most poison ivy cases of yore, but still I'm left to 
wonder that my immune response to these plants might 
delineate either based on chemical differences between the 
oils of ivy and oak, or simply the newness of poison oak oil 
upon my immune system.

Are those of us who are most likely to have run-ins with 
poison oak in fact the least likely be adversely affected by 
it? Anyone care to scratch this philosophical itch?

- blisterfree