Here is a picture of me grabbing some Western Poison Ivy
I've already blogged about one thing that kind of threw me off my blogging game on my trip to Santa Fe - having my insulin pump break - but the other big thing that derailed me was grabbing onto a big old piece of poison ivy.
Here is a picture I took at Bandelier National Monument:
iNat is absolutely certain that this is Western Poison Ivy! I'm not familiar with it, myself. I grew up with the poison ivy which grows on the EAST coast of the United States. My hometown poison ivy doesn't have spikey leaves. Since moving to LA, I've also been good at IDing Pacific Poison Oak, which has weird mitten-shaped leaves.
So anyway, I processed this photo about a full day after I took it. Getting the CV identification from iNat was a fucking jumpscare. I turned to my husband and said, "Ooookay... looks like I grabbed a bunch of poison ivy in the woods??"
I then spent the rest of the week researching how long it takes poison ivy to kick in (usually 48 hours max... but sometimes as long as 7 or 21 days!!! What the fuck!!) and psychosomatically generating many instances of itchy skin on my body. I definitely became itchier when I learned I had touched poison ivy. I could tell that my brain was probably generating the itchiness, but it didn't stop!
I also suddenly had to quarantine most of my clothes. Anything I'd touched that day ended up in a plastic trash bag in the trunk of the car. I washed it all first thing when we returned to LA.
But in the end, I did not end up getting poison ivy! As far as I know, I'm probably one of the 10 to 15 percent of people who are "immune" to poison ivy at any given time. I don't THINK I've gotten it in the past? I think I'd remember that strongly if it had happened to me. I shouldn't go around touching poison ivy anyway - you can get the allergy at any time, so reexposing yourself to it is a bad idea.
I've long considered the experiences my brain and eyes have to be highly suspect - having diabetic hallucinations does that to you. I don't believe that my senses are necessarily an accurate representation of the world around me. But it was still pretty surprising to suddenly find myself imagining itchiness all over myself. I think I was simply so anxious about breaking out in poison ivy rash that I began highly focusing on every instance of minor itchiness that I would have normally dismissed.
If you get too scared of being itchy, your brain can make you itchy!! It's crazy!!!