Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Urgh.

Over the weekend, I spent some time ripping weeds out of a neglected garden (it is the one with the irises in it). I didn't see, unfortunately, that the poison ivy that has crept into the very back of my yard also crept into that garden...well, I DID see it but had apparently been exposed by that time, because despite the fact that I had gloves on, and I VERY CAREFULLY cut the ivy out with the nippers, and carried them to the compost heap in the nippers, I now have rash up and down my arms.

Crud. I hope they'll still let me give blood on Thursday - the area right around the vein isn't rashy but there is rash-adjacent.

Luckily, Amazon.com sells Foille and you can even get it on 2-day delivery if you have Prime.

(I'm surprised more people don't know about Foille. Perhaps it is a very regional thing, but it was something my dad ALWAYS had in his first-aid kit for fieldwork, and we always had it around when I was growing up. It is essentially benzocaine lotion in a heavy oily base (so it stays on better). It is the only thing I've found that works really well on bug bites, and it works on sun burn, and it has healed minor kitchen burns almost over night. Poison ivy is kind of an off-label use; I don't think it's mentioned on there, but it makes it stop itching and it does seem to dry it up faster than just hydrocortisone cream will.

Foille can be hard to find - I don't think I've seen it in any of the pharmacies 'round here, and I know the last tube I had (which is almost all used up) was one my dad ordered from somewhere. I know there are other benzocaine formulations but the Foille seems to work best of the ones I've tried on stuff like bites and burns.).

1 comment:

Lynn said...

Wow, thanks! I haven't seen that stuff since I was about 12 years old. I assumed that the company went out of business or it was banned for some silly reason. (I didn't know it was made by Blistex) My mom used to buy it as an aerosol spray and we used it mostly for burns. Nothing else works as well.