[pct-l] Re: pct-l-digest V1 #693

["William M. Stenzel" <manjovin@jps.net>]

Poison Oak Boy:

   Thank you all for the advice on poison oak. I collected a lot of gruesome
stories and facts about the noxious weed -- by the time I received them, I had my
shot of prednisone, and the swelling was already going down. Side effects are
reletively significicant -- my heart raced, I got mood swings and an upset
stomach. But it was that or two weeks of blistering face, eh?

Okay, I got this thing by crashing around in some brush in the evening and night
and then sleeping using my fleece pants as a pillow. This is stupid of course,
but it let me to think of what an awful situation it would be to get such a case
in the backcountry. There you are, maybe three days from help, and your whole
face ballons. The sun, roasting down, makes mincemeat of the tender area and you
can barely see from swollen cheeks. Lesson -- keep away from poison oak and be
very careful with your clothes and bare skin.

I got a little extra ingestible prednisone to take with me on the hike --
methinks it would help a little bit. Also got some flagyl just in case. I'm a
fucking pharmcutical boy this year. It depresses me to rely on the medical
"establishment" but I'm too damn white and soft to do anything else, it seems.

will

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