Recurrent poison ivy

[saric]

I contracted poison ivy last summer (a year ago) on my chest and forearm. It took a long time to clear up, at least 2 months. I had a recurrence of the rash in the same exact place on my chest a few months later, which I had assumed was a re-exposure to the urushiol.  Again, it took many weeks to clear up. I did not use any cream or medication apart from Calamine.  Now, the rash has recurred a few MORE times since then and I am positive there has not been any direct exposure to poison ivy or its oil.  I even threw out all my old bra's in case they were contaminated with the urushiol and causing rexposure.  Has anyone ever heard of this or experienced it? Did my initial exposure permanently damage the nerves in that area or something?  I used over the counter hydrocortisone cream for a week to no effect.  Then I used prescription hydrocortisone cream for 2 wks which helped, but 2 weeks later the rash is back: pruritic, patchy eruption. It has never been a classic poison ivy rash like I've seen in photos. Any input is appreciated.

[Ben_Samways]

Yip, I have a repeated flare up about two months after coming into contact. It is a small patch on the underside of my forearm (as long as your pinky), and in exactly the same place and shape. I can categorically state that that area did not again come into contact with poison ivy. Long story why such a specific spot and shape. And no, not fungal etc, and I've only been in the US for 5 years, here in the NE, and the original contact is absolutely poison ivy.

[Nicobot]

I got poison ivy on the front of my shin last summer after moving into a new home and being unaware of its presence while doing yard work. I didn't use any home remedies and it went away after about 2 agonizing months of scratching holes into my shin.

The leg that I got it on is heavily covered in tattoos from just below the knee down so I can't speak to exactly how it looked either time, but it came back again the following spring and I live in Ohio, so it's not like I was hiking anywhere in shorts in the frosty spring months we have here.

But although I couldn't get a visual on it, the symptoms were the same and in the same location. Right on the front of my shin so when I would persistently scratch it, I would feel like my shin bone was going to start coming to the surface.

That would force me to ultimately quit scratching and then it would finally start going away.

Anyway, I got to thinking about it and decided to do a search on the web to see if anyone else has experienced this and I wound up here.

Judging by the many shared responses I am going to have to lean towards this being a thing that some people who have been exposed do experience.

Based off of the responses in comparison to the sheer number of people who have access to the internet, I would lean towards it being a rare occurrence of those who have been exposed in a large scale view.

None the less, it is at least comforting to know that it does happen and I don't have something else going on.

Thanks to all who have shared!

[Swager79]

Can you get poison ivy again if youve had it before?

[Wigirl1111]

I contracted Poison Ivy this past summer while visiting in Northern Wisconsin. The rash was confined to two patches on my right ankle. The rash was so severe that it appeared to be a third degree burn. The itching was absolutely insane- but If I could hold on for 20 minutes- it would fade and become more manageable. I could do nothing to rid myself of the Poison Ivy and eventually  resorted to taking a pumice stone and tearing away the wounded area- which actually worked. Of course I was trading a horrific road rash pain for the itch - but, it was worth it. I still have dark skin in the area of the original rash- and lo and behold- its back. In exactly the same spot. We are 9 months from the original infection- AND I am living in the Sonoran desert. Interesting to note- I have increased my excursive lately- and the temp outside has risen to 90-95 for the past several days. I also ate cashews within the past few days- all issues noted in above comments. The only relief is to put my foot under scalding hot water- but , this exacerbates the condition. Now that I know it is PI returned I will use ice instead. Thanks for your stories above.

[Wigirl1111]

*exercise

[Wigirl1111]

*exercise

[Ralphyl44]

I am currently having a terrible outbreak, which started after I did some yard work (nowhere near poison ivy/oak/sumac, though my dermatologist was determined it had to be related).
My story is eerily similar to all of yours, with one detail changed. My original outbreak was in 2003, after coming in contact with a chechen tree in Mexico. We were doing some brush clearing and were warned by the natives of the Chechen tree. That it would produce a rash 10x worse than poison ivy. Well even though we were shown what it looked like, I still managed to break out in a horrendous rash...I felt like Job at the time. It was all over my body, with the worst part being a portion almost a foot in diameter on my side, that was completely composted of those pustules you get when you have an Ivy rash. Anyway, as I'm reading many of your accounts, I'm seeing a lot of talk about inhaling the PI oils from the smoke, and I remembered that we were also burning the Chechen trees as we cleared the land!

I have had recurrences at least once a year, usually small, and mostly after I have been sweating a lot. This reaction I'm having now is the worst this far, though I'm still not certain if it's a recurrence this time, or a new allergic reaction to a different plant.

I have read a few threads in the past years about people having recurring outbreaks from the Chechen plants, and I am very interested to hear that the same does happen with PI too! I wish someone would do some research on this! I do have some ties to a local dermatologist I used to work for, and I'm considering emailing her with all of these accounts, as well as my account.

[hopduxart]

Yes!!! Since I was young I believed poison ivy was recurring!
Happened all the time. FOUR years ago had really bad poison ivy rash on my arm and after 2 weeks of home remedies I ended up in er and put on the two week steroid treatment...it was a nightmare and guess what...I have it again really bad on the forearm and it does look different... not classic rash but a million bumps all the same size with the classic itch/pain COVERING THE EXACT SAME AREA !
still trying my home remedies but miserable ..so my theory is unfortunately...yes it lies dormant in us ..never had luck with otc hydrocortisone cream.

[macm]

My case is similar.  In 1988 I bought a farm in North Carolina and ripped down the poison oak/ivy from the barn and was stupid enough to pile it up and burn it.  Needless to say the smoke contains active urushiol and I was covered with the allergic reaction rash.  The doctor was surprised I was not dead from inhaling it.  After listening to several medical doctors and trying a myriad of their useless remedies for a couple months the old local farmers told me to just scratch the blisters open and pour bleach on it.  In desperation I did and it was dried up and gone within days.  I've told many others about this and they also have used the remedy and it works every time.  I also get recurring outbreaks in the heat of summer without any possible contact with the plants and the old farmers told me that would happen as well.  They also said you can eat the plant and you won't be allergic anymore but I haven't had the nerve to try that yet.

[greg44289]

I have just started developing a little patch of poison ivy blisters on the inside of my finger 15 years after having a horrible exposure to poison ivy. I definitely have not come into contact with any poison ivy recently. I am under a huge amount of stress due to finishing my PhD dissertation and I think my immune system is compromised. When I originally had a reaction to poison ivy, my friend and I were clearing out a bike path in a forest and we used clippers to cut back the poison ivy. After I started breaking out all over my body the next day, I researched it and apparently cutting the stems releases thousands of times the amount of poison into the air and then you breathe it in and it distributes throughout your body. People have died from burning piles of poison ivy/oak and breathing in the toxins. In the final weeks of my horrible experience the blisters moved out towards my fingers, toes, and lips. Today I have small blisters that look exactly the same in what was one of the last places for me to heal. Very strange to me, but I'm glad to find out that others have had this experience as well.

[karl3]

This past April, I contracted poison ivy indirectly while banding birds in Southern Ontario.  This is known as grackle pox because it is caught by being scratched by a bird, usually a grackle, that has recently foraged in poison ivy.  The backs of all my fingers were covered in a horrible, itchy rash for the next month and a half, and then it went away completely.  Now, 3 months later, I am seeing the beginning of it coming back in the exact same place for no apparent reason.  I haven't touched poison ivy lately (I'm in the woods all the time and I know what it looks like).  I sincerely hope this rash doesn't develop as much as the original one because I would have to cut my fingers off.  

[SusanDDavis]

Glad I am not crazy. I have had poisonmivy and poison oak many times over the years, some very severe. Last summer, I returned to California from Missouri with poinson ivy all over from working in my dad's yard. I was given the internal meds and eventually the rash cleared up, but I still have redness where it was. About a month ago, I developed an itchy rash right where the outbreak had been the worst. It's still itchy--not like the original rash, but still annoying. Headed back to St.Louis soon. I am NOT doing yard work.

[ivybeleagured]

In the first week of June 2015, I suffered a case of poison ivy from contact with the leaves.  I first got poison ivy in 2011 and it was a small outbreak on the tops of my hands.this time the rash started on my forearms (I was wearing garden gloves) and became blisters and were leathery in a gash pattern.  They were extremely itchy and spread up my arm.  Calamine and triamcinolone acetonide cream prescribed after I went to ER helped temporarily. The rash spread to my torso and a few places on my legs as patches, with smaller blisters.
A friend told me to try Zanfel, a cream that is activated with water and rubbed onto the skin to remove the Urushiol oil in poison ivy.  This stuff worked to alleviate the itchiness for hours at a time, and I didn't need calamine lotion. Without it, I would have been suffering longer.  After using it a week, 2x/day and gradually 1x/day to remove the oils, the difference is like night and day.  I was unable to work for a week before I started with the Zanfel.  You must rinse thoroughly because I noticed small blisters would pop up the next day probably from the urushiol oil making contact on other parts as it was washed away.  Further application would clear it up in a day or two..
I was told and after reading the posts, that once exposed the recurrence is more likely and it seems to be true. The use of Zanfel made the extreme discomfort manageable and I keep it in my medicine cabinet for future outbreaks.  

[DonBor]

I forgot to add that I am now 51, so this is more than 30 years after first exposure. And I have moved to South Africa, where the risk of re-exposure is zero.

[DonBor]

My first exposure was on my ears as a a teenager. (My fault; I rubbed the leaves on myself to prove to a friend that it wasn't poison ivy.) As I write this, my ears have been itching again for about a week. It recurs once or twice a year. It's not severe, but very bothersome. I think that the recurrences were rare until I was exposed to poison ivy again (on my ankles) a few years ago and had such a severe reaction that I required a steroid injection. I offer no solutions, just another voice saying that recurrences seem very real to us sufferers.

[lelupep]

I also have had it happen to me over a long period of time. I am now 51 and I was originally exposed to poison ivy when I was 26, It happen when I was cutting down some bamboo and burning it but I was new to Georgia and did not know that the vines around the bamboo where poison ivy.
I suffered with it re occurring for the next 6 years in the same areas and then it seemed to go away and return only very lightly every 2 to 3 years but one year ago I was exposed to it again and I am right back where I started so I know its poison ivy but a doctor told me a while back that when I burned the poison ivy I breathed the poison and it could get in my blood stream.
I don't know if this is the problem but I know that my son in law also was exposed 2 years ago and no matter if we speak or not we agreed to call each other and tell each other when we where having the spots of blisters return and we both have it at the same time.
Last month he was on a cruise in another country and on the same day we begun to get it now how is that for weird?
I am open to any sugestions

[aaront50]

I know this post is old but your story is exactly like mine. I've looked for answers but most doctors just say that it is impossible to contract poison ivy without somehow coming in contact with it. I think they are wrong. Just like you stated, I know what poison ivy looks like, I know what it feels like, I know its poison ivy but there is NO WAY I touched any of it! I get it every year around the same time, each subsequent year, however, seems to be less mild than the last. But it is ALWAYS  in the same exactly place every time. I too had a sever case of it when I was a kid and I ended up in the emergency room to get shots for it. So yes I believe it is reaccuring poison ivy that you do not get from physically coming in contact with the plant. My theory is that the poison ivy antibodies are now present on my blood cells and maybe my body is somehow "giving" me poison ivy to help keep its immunity to it at higher levels. Because if your body has to fight off something it developes antibodies for it, but over time if you don't get that illness anymore your bodies antibodies for that particular thing weaken. So it could be a survival instinct for my body to practice fighting off poison ivy. Maybe it is the necessary steps toward my body becoming immune to poison ivy all together.  I'm not a doctor so this is just me BSing

[EMB1jjj]

I first got poison oak on my right leg in 1998. A few months later, a rash formed on my lips. I got poison ivy on my right ankle in Maryland in 2006. Three years later, I had an outbreak of what looked like poison ivy in a place that poison ivy couldn't have touched, on my left thigh. And it's come back again in 2014. I'm writing to say that after all this time, I think I've solved the mystery of my own recurring poison ivy rash. I get it on my lips from eating mango. And I slowly but surely break out on my legs when I eat cashew dips and dressings or pistachios from the shell. Turns out all these plants share the same poisonous oils. Once a bad case of poison ivy/oak gets you, you're probably more susceptible to having a skin reaction caused by eating these foods. I hope this helps others avoid recurring poison ivy rash.

[mugwort806]

And just an added note of instruction for Mugwort treatment- the leaves need to be fully soaked and soft.  I let them soak for a good thirty minutes and I keep the water to soak new leaves in.  The water will turn brown like a strong tea and that is good.  Whatever the healing property is in mugwort is in that tea so don't toss it out.  Then I lay the soggy leaves directly on the rash and read a book while I let the treatment work.

[mugwort806]

I get poison ivy very easily and I use mugwort leaves to treat it.  Mugwort often grows very near to the poison ivy plant.  I grow it in my yard because it is a nice sage.  When I get poison ivy I soak mugwort leaves in hot water as if I am making tea and I lay the soaked leaves directly on the rash.  The rash heals much faster than in areas I don't apply mugwort to.  It is important that the mugwort be freshly plucked.  Dried mugwort doesn't have the same properties.  But I SWEAR by mugwort as a poison ivy remedy.

[summerbluesny]

I too get poison ivy in the same spot every year. It always happens late July, early August. I have been treated with steroid, Medrol pack, lotions etc.  I've rarely been outside this summer because of a heat wave on the east cost. I have someone do my landscaping, and yet I have poison ivy in the same exact spot that I been getting it for the past 14 years. It just keeps coming back.

[summerbluesny]

I too get poison ivy in the same spot every year. It always happens late July, early August. I have been treated with steroid, Medrol pack, lotions etc.  I've rarely been outside this summer because of a heat wave on the east cost. I have someone do my landscaping, and yet I have poison ivy in the same exact spot that I been getting it for the past 14 years. It just keeps coming back.

[bawaggo2]

I am highly allergic to poison ivy. The last time I came in contact with it, the reaction sent me to the emergency room. I have an Allergist specialist spcifically for treating my poison ivy when I get it (I work outdoors in the southern US, so I get it frequently).

One of the M.O.'s of poison ivy is each time you have a reaction it will be worse than the previous time. There is no way to treat a breakout other then steroids. Calamine lotions help with the oozing of blister, and hydrocortisone helps with the itching, but the steroids boost you immune system into overdrive and help your  body get through the healing process quicker.

The one thing my doc has always made abundantly clear is, if I don't finish the prescribed series of steroid pills to the very last day (starting with a large dose and then weaning off over time), the poison ivy rash WILL COME BACK. The last time I was on steroids for a month and a half to fully stop my ivy break out. So, to answer everyones question, you can have a rash and have it reoccur over time for many years. The oils have worked their way into your skin and any change in body temperature, exercise, etc may be enough to cause another break out.

The last time I came into contact with poison ivy was seven months ago and it was on my face, even with completing steroids, I get a small outbreak around my lips and chin every once in a while as a repercussion.

If you have been experiencing breakouts for a long period of time, like 20+ years, I would suggest seeing an allergist.

[Wintersquest]

I don't believe the medical community when they say poison ivy does is not a recurring malady. I had a horrible case of poison ivy when I was just 12 years old. My two friends and I had our last little 'tween' summer dreams smashed after unknowingly choosing to make a club house in a spot intensely thick with poison ivy. We were blown up like balloons for months, one of us landed in the hospital for 4 days and all three of us spent our 2 summer months indoors praying for it to be over before school started.

That was 25 years ago and every year since I have had an outbreak, some slight, some not so slight, of the EXACT same poison ivy rash that I had years ago. For a while I believed I was somehow 're-catching' it-  even thinking that I must be so sensitive to it that I could get it from a strong breeze- that was when I lived in the northeast where there IS poison ivy all over.

OK....so NOW I live in the western US in an area that supposedly doesn't have ANY poison ivy.....yet, as I write this I have the predictable, itchy, bubbly rash in two small but very annoying patches. These poison filled bubbles match every regular picture of poison ivy and nothing else. Its NOT a heat rash or hives or bug bites. After 25 years I know what poison ivy looks like as its the same damn thing that has previously been confirmed by more than one doctor.

It seems like others have the same complaint. Has anyone ever had it as long as me? It seems like, again and again, i hear of people that have it come back again and again when they have it as severe as I did. So, how is it not recurring?

[LadyLiberTea]

I suffer Recurring Poison Ivy on my fingers--thankfully now only subdermal--after a bad case of poison ivy several years ago that I'm thankful only recrudesces and subdermally in some of my fingers after even one finger is stressed by repetitive motion or scraping (and in summer heat a few red bumps under one breast re-surface) I'm thankful don't topically ooze/spread again!  To draw the urushiol out via skin and internal systems, drink lotsa pure spring water; eat animal protein and naturally salty (not salted) foods stimulating adrenal cortisone production; eat and apply high medicinal number least-processed Manukkah Honey; take immune-boosting supplements (like EpiCor beta glucans, Synergy/Utah's Rapid Response, Drs.Best N.A.C., etc); warm water soak of Sodium, Epsom/Magnesium, and MSM salts. Topically I apply Young Living therapeutic-grade unadulterated "essential oil" plant extracts (one blend with one single, or two singles at a time) of Purification blend and Rosemary, Lavender, and TeaTree/Melaleuca on swelling/ redness/bumps; Helichrysm on itch/pain or if severe then PanAway. I top the YLEO with skin-soothing and detoxifying Coconut Oil. If swells terribly, I apply dollar store Anti-Itch/Cortisone tube cream.

[Ant216]

I was first exposed to poison ivy in July 2004.  Suffered through an entire summer of unGodly blisters and scratching to the point of removing layers of skin.  I would use the hottest water I could tolerate to ease some of the pain and then finally it did subside once the cold weather began.  Each subsequent year I have gotten it again and again in the same spots without being exposed to the plant or oils.  I was treating it with Medrol Dose Pak and it would eliminate the rashes.  However, in 2011, it stopped working and now I'm left with it reoccurring every time I sweat.  Has no relation to sunlight, just sweating.  I now have a positive blood test for anti ds dna.  I'm wondering if this is due to the reoccurring rash and now possibly spread to my blood.  ?????  

[Oct23]

I too have had a recurring poison-ivy like rash starting in August 2004. I have had it every year now in July or August. It starts on the left side of my face and neck. It is red, itchy, swollen, and oozing. Last year my doctor told me it was hives after he did a biopsy on my stomach where it had spread. I also had an allergy test but it was inconclusive. This is what I do know. I have had it recur for 7 years. It always starts on the left side of my face. If left untreated, it spreads to the rest of my body and can last over a month. It mainly occurs in the summer. I live in the Midwest. One summer it occurred late as I was in working China all summer. The week I returned to the Midwest, I broke out. I feel like it is something in my body that is triggered by a seasonal pollen. This last year I have also had 4 bladder infections. Never had those before. I don't know if this is related to the rash.