Poison Ivy: PART THREE - Tips! Tricks! And personal recommendations!

PART THREE: Treatment recommendations from Anja

In Part 1 of this Poison Ivy series we talked about what poison ivy is, how to recognize it, and how it’s spread.  In Part 2 we talked about treatment and steps to take after discovering that you have been in contact with poison ivy. Now in Part 3… my tips, tricks and first-hand recommendations. 

If you follow me @Glamping.Essentials on social media, you will no doubt be aware of my plague of poison ivy in the spring of 2024. Getting overzealous in my fight against an invasive vine in my side yard distracted me enough to let my guard down against this three-leafed rash-maker, and boy did I pay for it. Now that all the irritation has healed and my legs are back to normal, I can share some tips on how I dealt with the rash, blisters, and resulting irritation.

But first – A victory story! Out paddling with my youngest daughter, we were feeling adventurous (and maybe a tad too curious) and we paddled over to an unknown island to explore (I’m sure you can see where this is going). Of course I found myself ankles deep in poison ivy. But this is a victory story – I was paying attention this time, noticed what I was standing in, and quickly left the scene, encouraging my daughter to do the same.  We immediately returned to the water and washed/scrubbed the areas of skin where the poison ivy had been touching, using the fresh lake, water right away. I scrubbed the area again once we paddled back to the beach, and then wiped the area with a baby wipe for good measure, once we returned to our campsite. I watched and waited, and low and behold – no poison ivy skin irritation whatsoever. Woot! Woot! For the first time ever, I beat the urushiol oil!!

Now, back to the time that urushiol oil beat me… 

If you recall from Part 2, the first thing you should to do treat your poison ivy rash or reaction is to wash the area, but if the urushiol oil has already been on the skin for a while, washing won’t help reduce the rash, but it will help to keep the area clean to prevent infection and promote healing. I recommend either a clean water rinse away; or a mild soap wash while in the shower.

To dull the itching, what worked best for me was the Equate Calamine lotion. My spots were so itchy, and covered such large areas, that I pretty much just poured the calamine location straight from the bottle onto the affected areas, and tried to keep it from running all over the place while it dried. Alternatively, I also used hydrocortisone cream (not pictured) which was also the Equate brand and was effective at both reducing the itch as well as the swelling, and made the areas a little less angry red. 

I mostly kept my angry skin covered, in part to protect those around me from having to look at it, and part to help me keep my mind off of it. I used a variety of bandaids and gauze dressings as the sites spread, changed, and eventually cleared up.  These are my top performing bandaids:

• Band-Aid’s Skin-Flex (teal blue box) was my favourite small-time bandaid. They go on really smoothly, are kind of soft to the touch and stayed put very well. The adhesive also didn’t bother my skin, which was a real bonus. The only shortfall was that they come in only one size (or at least I could only find one size) and quickly become too small to provide enough coverage.
• Equate’s Strong Strips (dark blue box) were my favourite large coverage bandaid. Compared to Elastoplast’s Flexible XL and Band-Aid’s Water Block, Equate’s Strong Strips had the largest sterile, non-adhesive, area… which was very important to me. The adhesive stuck very well and didn’t leave adhesive glue marks when I took it off, which was a win.
• Band-Aid’s Water Block (light blue box) does get an honourable mention for being water tight. They guys are like if duct tape and a bandaid made a baby. Unfortunately, the sterile, non-adhesive area wasn’t very large.
• Nexcare’s Duo (red, white & blue box) boasts that it “holds strong” for up to 24 hours (which it did) and had “pain-free removal” (which it also did). These also have a very large non-adhesive area, but for about $2 per bandaid, I couldn’t justify using them as much as I would have liked.  They become my “special occasion” bandaids.
• Elastoplast’s Flexible XL (red and white box) was the biggest flop of the bunch. The sterile, non-adhesive, area was very small considering the size of the bandaid, and the adhesive really bothered my skin, so I didn’t use these in favour of the Equate Strong Strips.
• When bandaids just wouldn’t fit, I found success with the old medical tape and gauze squares method. This took me right back to first year nursing school wound care. As you can see, I used three different types of medical tape: 2” hypoallergenic, 1” waterproof, and 1” regular tape. My skin liked the hypoallergenic tape best, so that’s what I stuck to. Get it, stuck to?

One other thing missing from this picture is my tube of Polysporin. I used a regular, nothing fancy version, and would apply it right to the bandaid before applying the bandaid to my skin. PRO TIP: Don’t apply the polysporin straight from the tube to your skin, that’s a quick way to ruin a whole tube of antibacterial cream.

The last thing in the photo to discuss is the small silver dish. This is Shiva's Delight Herbal Everything Balm is made from olive oil, candelilla flower wax, organic castor oil, organic virgin rosehip oil, organic tamanu nut oil, chammomile oil, calendula oil, arnica oil, helichrsyum italicum oil, organic tea tree oil, vitamin E, andiroba oil, lavender essential oil, organic sweet almond oil, organic sea buckthorn berry oil, and organic jojoba oil. It is wonderful balm that can be used for so many things, including skin ailments.  It can be used on the body, face and many use it in their nail care routine. I used it on my angry areas once the blisters had dried and there were no open areas. It was super moisturizing and felt so lux applying it to the new skin coming in. 

So there we go! I hope this blog helps poison ivy sufferers get through this trial quickly, efficiently and positive results. For more fun glamping tips, tricks & personal experiences, join us at the Glamping Essentials Facebook Group: Glamping Essentials Campfire Collective.

~ Anja