The Worst

I used to think head lice was the worst.  Now I know I was wrong.  It turns out poison ivy is the worst.  The Nelsons have had both this spring (#blessed) and while lice was hor.i.ble. the head-to-toe poison ivy we ALL  had was even worse.

So back on Mother's Day, I had the grand idea to go "Geocaching".  We all thought it was super fun and a good day for a hike.  We found three different caches in Midway park which is near our house.  They were trickier than I thought they'd be, but we didn't have to give up on any of them and we were excited to go again sometime.

From Spring 2016

 Our first cache!  

From Spring 2016

 #whenchildrendressthemselvestogohiking

Fast forward a few days and Steve started breaking out in poison ivy/oak/sumac.  This wasn't a big surprise because we know he's highly allergic and it has happen before.  However it kept spreading and spreading and he finally decided to go the doctor when his eye started swelling shut.  A cortisone shot, 2 rounds of prednisone, a topical cream and 2 weeks time did NOTHING to help!  Ugh, it was miserable.  I started breaking out a week after Steve did and got progressively worse as well.  When it started oozing and creeping up my neck, I went in for my cortisone shot, prednisone, and topical cream too.  Praise the Lord we had no plans for Memorial Day weekend because Steve and I basically took turns soaking in the tub and crawling out of our skin.  These are the moments that I really hate being so far away from family and having no one to call on to help.  To top it off the girls started breaking out that weekend too and I was a mess worrying that they would have it as bad as Steve and I.  I took them in right away Tuesday morning and their pediatrician just prescribed some topical cream.  Thank God it never got too bad and it didn't bother either one of them too much.  Sadly, we are now scared to go geocaching or step foot anywhere remotely undeveloped again.  We figure it had to have been sumac, because we didn't know what to watch for with that.  It took about 3 or 4 weeks, but we are all mostly healed now.

From Spring 2016

Pretty gruesome 


Steve's birthday fell over Memorial Day weekend which meant it was pretty anti-climatic.  Poor Steve!

Poison ivy is the worst!