First of all, YES, poison ivy can get into your blood and be "systemic". I was dx with "Systemic poison ivy" in May 2009, after coming in contact with the poison ivy ROOTS (leaves had not even broken ground yet as it was early spring) which apparently contain very potent urishiol. I was treated with high doeses of oral prednisone. The rash appeared all over my body soon after appearing at the actual site of contact with the oil.
A couple of months later, I had another recurrence, and although I could not pinpoint how/where I'd contacted it, I had been doing some outdoor work so assumed I had had either direct contact or indirect contact with some tool or whatever that we'd missed in our huge "WASH EVERYTHING!!" frenzy.
Now it is Sept 09 and all of a sudden I have two new outbreaks, at the EXACT SAME LOCATIONS as the two initial spots where I'd had direct root contact initially!!!!! (Upper thigh and wrist) I have NOT been working outdoors, nor with any gardening tools. The clothing I have been wearing in the past week has all been laundered many times since spring.
I have only two conclusions:
1) That laundering does not really remove the urisiol as they say, and I re-infected myself with very old oils.
or
2) That PI is able to recur without any new contact. One clue to the mystery may be that over the last weekend I was exposed to fairly high doses of other allergens, specifically mold and old fiberglass insulation. My immune system has been taxed all year since we are battling a mold problem in our home (to which I am quite allergic) and this weekend I got a bigger-than-normal exposure to mold, plus the old insulation.
So---- could it have something to do with a suppressed immune system not being able to "keep down" the poison ivy rash that's somehow still living in my body?
Also--- I know I have at least some low-level automimmune issues, like arthritis and Reynaud's. In the last couple of months, these have gotten much worse. Couls all this immune stuff be inter-connected? It certainly seems possible.
It is very frustrating that there is not more information available about this!!!!! |
