Adventures from the Weekend - Red, White, and Blah

I love the 4th of July! I know I have mentioned this. It's just a fun, patriotic, summery day to be spent with family and friends celebrating our wonderful country. Well our 4th of July weekend did not go as planned. We were going to grill out with friends, watch fireworks, then go to the lake all day Saturday...it was going to be glorious.... Instead, I got poison ivy....on my FACE! Ugh. Talk about misery. I have had it now twice in two months and before that I had never had it before in my life!

Friday morning I woke up and my right eye was all swollen and I was a broken out mess. Dave and I went to breakfast at a little "down home" type place near our house while my WONDER MOM did research (all the way from Florida!...seriously what would we do without moms?) on where we could go to find some serious stuff to straighten me out. We ended up at the neatest health food store that had several items to combat poison ivy. I can't wait to check out the store again when I am not a cranky mess!

I ended up getting Burt's Bees poison ivy soap, Boericke & Tafel Oral Ivy, and Jewelweed Lotion. I was diligent about using this stuff but still woke up Saturday morning looking like a train wreck! We decided to put off the lake until Sunday if I was feeling better. So Saturday we spent the whole day at home laying around.

Sunday morning I still wasn't much better. I actually wonder if I would have been worse if I hadn't been using those three things?! I think they slowed down or even stopped it from getting much worse but they weren't getting me better at least not at the speed I wanted them to. So we decided to let the professionals handle it and went to urgent care. I was so excited to get a steroid shot...seriously I have never been so excited to get a steroid shot in all my life! Within four hours the swelling on my face had started to go down! The itching got better and now, nearly 24 hours later, I look almost human again!

Prayers that I make it the rest of the summer without getting another case of poison ivy. I think our dogs may be the problem. They carry it in on them and then I touch them. So, I am going to keep using the poison ivy lotion to wash my hands at the kitch sink and use it in the shower just to stay proactive.

Have you ever had poison ivy? (My husband doesn't get it...I am so jealous!) How was your 4th? Did you do anything fun? Stop by tomorrow so I can show you the before and after on our garage!