Ok…give me some suggestions for dealing with poison ivy!
I am already using Zanfel, calamine, hydrocortisone cream.
This started Saturday…how long before it goes away??
About a week. I am sorry you got it. I would try tecnu. Smear it on the rash and wash it off with cold/tepid shower. That was a tip my neighbor gave me. It probably is a bit toxic.
I am very allergic to poison ivy and have tried everything. The key is getting the oils off and so I always use Tecnu first. Get the skin cleanser, not the anti itch creme. As long as the oil stays adhered to your skin, it will continue to itch for a long time.
If you have it extensively, you might be itching for three weeks. If it’s all over your body and it’s interfering with sleeping, you might have to go to the doctor. If it’s just a small patch, it can be very itchy for about two weeks. At least that’s my experience.
As far as taming the itch, Ivy Dry is pretty good, along with the other stuff you’ve already tried. Benadryl ointment too. I find the thicker I put it on, the better. Though maybe it’s just more of a deterrent to scratching.
Benadryl at night really interrupts the allergic reaction - but it really knocks me out, so only use it a nighttime. I recently read that isopropyl alcohol can be good to use to kill the oil before you develop the rash, so after gardening I now wipe my hands and arms thoroughly with an alcohol soaked paper towel - so far, so good. After you get it, isopropyl alcohol helps to dry it up.
OP’s post may be the only time on CC where “ivy” means the plant known as Toxicodendron radicans and has nothing to do with Lux et Veritas, etc. 
Go or call the doctor. Last summer my husband fought it for a couple of weeks before seeing the dr. They gave him a shot and some prescription cream and maybe something else. It went away pretty quickly after that.
I was washing the bed linens everyday and his clothes. I kept telling him to call the dr., but it took him a while to listen. The second time he got it last summer he went to the dr.'s office almost right away and caught it early. There is no need to suffer for weeks on end.
The Zanfel usually works for me, but if I’m too late with that there are 2 choices:
- A 2 week progression of blisters, oozing rash, then scabs
- Prednisone
The prednisone is magic. But I don’t know your health history as well as your doctor does.
I’ve done the prednisone before. Not my favorite thing but I tolerate it fine.
It’s been less than a week since my rash broke out. I think it’s contained to my forearm…so I’m thinking I can wait until the end of the week before calling the doctor. The itching was not bad last night…meaning it did not wake me up!
I’m washing with Zanfel twice daily. Using hydrocortisone cream before bed.
Low tech way to reduce itching-- cold compresses.
Ivy veteran here- I get steroids. Creams and such don’t touch my reactions once the blisters have started. I am so paranoid now that I can spot poison ivy from a distance. I wear long sleeves and gloves when gardening in the wilder areas of our yard even when the temps are high. I wash with Technu if I think I have touched it. I even do it if I have been wearing gloves. I wash any clothes that I think may have had contact. So far, I haven’t had a rash in three years (don’t tell the ivy). I hope you recover fast!
I am wearing my wedding ring today for the first time in a couple of weeks. I put on gloves, long pants, socks, long sleeve shirt, tied my hair back, wore a hat and attacked the ivy that grew up in the forsythia hedge. Came in, stripped off all the clothes I was wearing and put them right in the laundry, and showered.
Which worked except that the back of the fourth finger on my left gardening glove had a hole in it from my wedding set. Small hole, but there it was. Four days later I woke up with my finger swollen so badly I almost couldn’t get the rings off. It was a small enough area that I just used some cortisone cream and waited out the blisters. Nasty stuff.
Ok…so I took my first 4 pill dose of prednisone on Thursday. This morning, I took the third dose. I’m washing with TecNu which feels good, and putting bacitracin on which the doctor suggested.
When this itches, I am using hydrocortisone cream.
So…when is this going to improve? So far,I see and feel very little improvement…
I have been the victim of poison ivy several times (my husband is even more sensitive than I am). One time it was by my eye (required special topical which is safe for eyes). It typically takes about 1 week to all go away. You should feel less itchy in 3-4 days. The prednisone does do its job.
Also suffering from an unfortunate encounter with some poison ivy in the back of the yard about 10 days ago. In addition to the ivy, I was seriously bitten by ants. Now I have blisters and rashes literally everywhere - arms, legs, face, torso. The doctor prescribed desoximetasone cream, but I’m not sure how much it’s helping. The damn rash seems to be spreading and it’s all very painful. 
In really bad cases, a doctor can give a steroid injection. I had that once. It’s very fast acting. I don’t know if that’s possible combined with oral steroids?
FWIW, in my experience, Zanfel doesn’t do much.
^It seems like a good idea to call my doctor Monday if things are still this bad. I don’t think they really want to SEE patients right now, but maybe if it’s bad enough they would.
The last time I had it, my doc gave me a prescription cream called fluocinonide. Stopped the itch in a couple of days.
If you suspect you were exposed, I was surprised to find that harsher seeming measures are what you need to get the oils off. HOT water, scrubbing with soap, wiping vigorously over and over with rubbing alcohol, etc.
I had been exposed on my hands, and realized it. I was in a public building and the restroom didn’t have very good soap or very hot water. Still, I thoroughly washed my hands. I thought I did, but I missed spots between my fingers. And I missed all the places I had touched on my face! Good thing I never rubbed my eyes in those few minutes.
You don’t want to use hot water. Hot water will open up pores and oil will get in and make it worse. You should use cold water.
If you can find it there is a good article about poison ivy by Berton Roueche. It was written in 1948 but is still relevant and fascinating. It’s behind the pay wall at the New Yorker website and is included in his book, The Medical Detectives.
@Iglooo - ok, cold water for skin, most definitely hot water for laundry. A friend managed to somehow spread it around while washing clothes and her H got it from the clothes!