One of the things I’ve learned since we bought our house is how much I enjoy gardening. Sure, it’s hot and messy and sometimes a drought comes and kills off your azaleas, but overall, it is fun and deeply satisfying. Part of the reason I never knew I liked gardening was that my mom hated it. So once I discovered my love of working in the garden, I told her I’d be more than happy to help her with her garden.

Way back on the 4th of July, I went down and to wrestle her small back garden into shape. It went fine. I weeded, I trimmed, I dealt with choking vines and out of control forsythia bushes and everyone was happy by the afternoon. Aside from a small mulch over buying incident (apparently I just cannot get mulch quantities right) it was a complete success. Until later that night when I realized my left arm had been the victim of a vicious bug attack.

Or what I thought was a vicious bug attack. There appeared to be a string of bites going up my arm, clumping together, and culminating in one huge bite. The big bite got swollen and hot and painful. The little ones itched and burned. Then they all started oozing clear liquid. It was all very painful and disgusting, and you had better believe I did a lot of bitching and moaning. I was putting one of those cortisone creams on it, but that wasn’t doing anything. Then I stumbled across my knight in shining pink armor tucked away under the sink in the upstairs bathroom – Caladryl. Caladryl made an enormous difference. I love Caladryl.

By Sunday I thought I had recovered enough to stop using it, which was a complete mistake because all the nastiness came roaring back. It was at this point that John finally took a close look at the arm I had been so dramatically and piteously waving in his direction and came up with a different diagnosis. Dr. John thinks I have poison ivy, poison oak or sumac. Now, when I was kid, I was hideously, horribly allergic to poison ivy. I’d get it, it would spread, and soon my eyes would practically swell shut. That hasn’t happened, but this also isn’t going away. The battle for the supremacy of my left arm continues. Caladryl and I will fight the good fight, but does anyone know how long it takes to get over poison ivy/oak/sumac?

Posted by Bad Penguin at July 14, 2008 11:05 PM