Always learning …

It seems like I’m always learning something new.  My latest education was about poison oak/ivy/sumac.  Did you know that it takes 12 hours to 2 weeks for the symptoms of exposure to show up?  Neither did I.  I thought it would be the almost instantaneous reaction like you get from nettles.

The other evening I was sitting in the audience at my youngest daughter’s play, when my thumb suddenly started itching.  Awful itching.  Drive-you-up-the-wall sort of itching.  Since it was dark in the audience, I couldn’t really look at my thumb to see what was happening, but it drove me crazy all through the play.

Later when I could look at it, I had a series of raised and fluid-filled blisters along the length of my thumb.  Omigosh.  I knew what it was.  Some sort of chemical burn, probably from one of the “poison” plants.  I thought long and hard about what I might have come in contact with at the play or on my way into the building, but I knew there was nothing even vaguely ressembling plants of that sort in the parking lot or around the building.

Long story short, the “burn” on my thumb is still healing but fortunately the itching has stopped.  Out of curiosity I did a search online about symptoms related to poison oak, etc., and that’s when I discovered that it’s a number of hours (at least!) from contact before symptoms appear.  Makes me wonder what I might have touched in the past week or so?

I even learned that it’s possible to come in contact with it from other people, their clothes, and even the family pet (the pet’s fur usually protects them from the poison actually contacting their skin).

“CAUTION: Burning poison oak can result in a dangerous smoke that can cause severe symptoms to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs.”  ( http://www.calpoison.org/public/poak.html )