Poison Ivy

About 2.5 weeks ago, I was playing with Olivia and the ball rolled into the woods. I ran after it, looked down and thought, "oh, there's a lot of poison ivy here. We should really spray because some people are really allergic."

I'm not, so it wasn't a big deal that I ran through it. I've grown up playing in the woods and spend the last 16 summers at camp, poison ivy just isn't a think I have to worry about.

 Did you know that your immune system can change when you are pregnant?

After walking through poison ivy, I had a little bit of itching on my feet. I didn't think anything of it.

Pretty soon, my hands were itchy too. I noticed that but figured it would go away quickly.

I got a little spot of itchiness on my jawline. Annoying. I put some calamine lotion on it.

And then I woke up and looked like this. And that was when I started paying attention. I called the doctor, who said because I am pregnant, there isn't much they can do, so just keep putting the poison ivy cream on it.

It got a little worse and so I called the doctor back. I went in and they said, "well actually, we can put you on a round of steroids." I did a lot of googling and found that women can take steroids during pregnancy.

Day 8 of poison ivy, I woke up and couldn't open my eyes. I knew I was in trouble and called 'A' from my bed. I called my mom and asked her to come to camp.

In 8 years, that was the first Friday I've ever missed. I lead the end of the week chapel and I lead the parent program. I love both of those. I have never missed them.

Instead, my mom came and drove me to the emergency room. The doctor there told me he could give me a steroid shot. I wish we would have done that 8 days ago, but there's risk with everything when you are pregnant, so it's better to be cautious.

I've never been more miserable than I had been these past 8 days. I had poison ivy EVERYWHERE- my feet, legs, hips, stomach, back, arms, hands, chest, and face. Every part of me felt like I was on fire with itchiness and absolutely nothing offered relief.

My mom spent several days taking care of me. She cooked, cleaned, played with the dogs, gave me ice packs for my face, and was nice to me while I lay on the couch in misery.

It took almost 3 weeks, two rounds of steroids and a steroid shot for my face to go back to normal and the itching to go away. I'm concerned my baby is going to come out with giant muscles from all of the steroids, but none of the doctors, including my obgyn have been concerned and if the itching had gone on any longer, I think I would have torn off all of my skin.

This was the most miserable experience of my entire life and I am so thankful it is over.