Programmer & Poison Ivy = Quasimodo?

Kevin

Code Monkey
Staff member
Ever wonder what would happen if you took one erstwhile programmer and tell him to go trim those strange vines around the shed? And those vines turned out to be poison ivy? And the resulting rash spread to the programmer's face? And the rash on the face was not responding to any over-the-counter (OTC) solutions?

I can now tell you what would happen! The programmer would try every OTC solution possible for a few days before finally giving up and asking his wife to take him to the ER because he could no longer see out of one at all and barely out of the other one.

I was kidding around with the Mrs. that I looked like Quasidmodo from The Hunchack from Notre Dame. I didn't realize how right I was until we were leaving the ER and the woman at the billing station, whom were were kidding around with, also made the Quasimodo reference. :cry:

The attached pic is from the ER this morning. After some Prednisone & Amoxicillin I can now see out of at one of my eyes again and a little bit out of the other one. Everything is still fuzzy though because due to the swelling my glasses do not fit at the moment.

So the lesson learned? If you do not do much landscaping, make sure you take a lot of precautions before you tear off that funny looking red hairy vine that is spiraling up the side of your shed.
 

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Oh no! That's scary. Long time since I've heard of anybody getting stung by that stuff. I think we've pretty much got rid of it from homes here because of so many kids getting laid up after coming into contact with it. At least you've got a good excuse not to do chores next time. You can make the missus promise it won't put you in hospital and if she can't.......then the sofa and remote control beckon.
 
To my knowledge there has not been a concentrated effort to get rid of it here in the States. What got me in this case was that the vines were growing up the side of my shed with only a few leaves on them near the top. I didn't catch what it was since I wasn't used to seeing the red hairy vines like that with just a couple of leaves on it. Growing up I was used to see the dense thickets of the three pointed leafs but not just plain vine like this was. Lesson learned.

The Prednisone & Amoxicillin is starting to kick in. Now instead of looking like Quasimodo I just look like somebody beat the heck out of me with a lead pipe.
 
Most of the swelling in the face has gone down! :D

The left side of the face is now just a little swollen while the right side looks like... well, ever go to the dentist and they give you enough locals so that when you leave the entire side of the face is swollen & drooping a bit? That's the right side of the face but nothing like it was in the pic above.

Some severe skin drying going on in various spots like the patches on the hands & legs. But I can see again with both eyes and compared to some pics I've seen on the net I got off pretty easy for my stupidity so I'm grateful it wasn't worse.
 
Well, glad you're not 'really' suffering like some do. Although it's an experience where everyone can learn from your experiences and look at a few pictures of the offending plant and store it in the aversion part of your memory, next to rabid dogs, spinning things, hot things and radioactive isotopes (if your name is Homer) Have you been staying out of the public eye till it's over? Sending the missus to the shops, etc so no one rings the feds and tells them you've been getting a hiding at home?
 
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