So I finally got around to planting my community garden plot. I still have some starter plants inside, but I planted some carrots, lettuce, and chives from seed to get things going.
First there was some prep work to do. I needed to remove the remaining leaves and rake the bed. Even though I did this with gloves on, I still managed to get poison ivy/oak/sumac. I am not sure which. Which I realized when I got to work and was about to embark upon a long test-run for the Ted Talks that Brown was filming.
The Dr. in my life suggested I take Benadryl right away, since I am the sensitive type and the rash was likely to spread (which it did). I went to CVS and procured the sleeping pills. If I can only drink half of a beer before I am tipsy, you can only imagine what Benadryl does to me :)
Normally I might try oatmeal, but there was no time, so I searched for Calamine lotion. When I located the lotion, I discovered that it contained two kinds of parabens among the ingredients and decided to stay away. I had heard that vinegar might do the trick, so I decided to risk the smell and go for that option. It worked for my sunburns this summer, so why not?
I found that within a day my rashes had shrunk. Excellent! I will soon be ready to go back into the garden and chance another exposure. I feel better about that now, knowing I have a remedy at the ready on my desk at work.
If it happens again I will try to tough it out without the Benadryl. I can't imagine a pill that pink is very healthy for me, but who knows? Only the active ingredient is listed on the bottle. Other home remedies for poison ivy include baking soda, banana peel and aloe vera gel. For more info go here.
In other news, I'm on the hunt for a new futon mattress. Mattresses often contain petroleum-based synthetics and fire retardants (which also often contain parabens) that emit toxic chemicals. I usually use a firm futon mattress. I figure I will go with organic cotton rather than a cotton foam mix in order to prevent the petroleum factor. This sounds great, right? It is easy enough to find a futon cover that doesn't have flame-retardants. The great thing is I can find an organic cotton flame-retardant free mattress in Rhode Island. But how do I know that the cotton inside my mattress is fair-trade? How many futon stores advertise whether or not their cotton is fair trade? Perhaps in Portlandia?
Karyn I am sorry to hear about the rash on your arm! As much as I don't like it, our son has bad allergies and a rash that often follows and one of the few things we have found that helps him is benadryl. Although it does make people sleepy, it does help with the allergic reaction.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the futon shopping! It seems when we try to find things that are not harmful on us and our planet, it takes twice as long to shop for them.
Thanks so much for the helpful hint on using vinegar for poison ivy! I contract poison ivy very, very easily, and have had to take prescription steroids on two occassions to get rid of it. The next time I get it (and there will be a next time for sure) I'll try vinegar!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip of using vinegar to treat poison ivy. We get it in our yard every year and pull it out by hand. I am highly susceptible to getting it. (And we have plenty of vinegar on hand for treating weeds.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I had no idea that Calamine lotion has parabens in it. Nasty! I wonder if all brands contain parabens, or if there are brands with fewer, better ingredients.
Karyn,
ReplyDeleteThe paraben thing is really scary. So many ways we are poisoning ourselves and don't know it. 19 of 20 women with breast cancer they found paraben - I want to know more about this. Good that you turned it down. Thanks for the vinegar tip.
More on that: I just went to a conference over the weekend about sustainable food. They found a huge number of environmental contaminants in the all cord blood from a small selection of random women. When we are pregnant, all the chemicals we accumulate pre-pregnancy are mobilized into our blood stream and the fetus. It isn't just about what we are exposed to in pregnancy, but all of our lives, and our mother's lives, etc. What hit me about this is that women are likely protected from breast cancer, etc. by bearing children and breastfeeding because it detoxifies our system by passing it all on to our babe. I am not advocating formula, but it is something we should all consider.
ReplyDeleteAbout chemicals in our environment and child-rearing, I mean.
ReplyDelete