Thursday, September 16, 2010

Poison

In my post yesterday I mentioned that I have a poison ivy rash.  Today I want to go into more detail on that, and tell you about why I don't hate it quite as much as I did.  But, I ask you to bear with me some, as I want to go a little into the details of my particular situation.  You see, my exposure is not typical.  My exposure has been pretty bad actually.

I went a saw a doctor about my poison ivy rash.  Two weeks out from the first exposure the rash seems to be continuing to show up on other parts of my body.  Initially I had a minor rash on my right arm, and a few little spots on my left arm where it looked like I touched my arm with my fingers after they came into contact with the plant.  A minor rash, at best.

I was exposed on Saturday, August 24th.  By Wednesday of the next week, it looked like I described it above.  I showed it to some of the people from church as my wife and I went to bible study.  Most of them noted that it looked like a minor rash, they even teased me that the little rash I had wasn't sufficient to be called a poison ivy reaction.  If only they had been right.

On Sunday I showed them the rashes again.  By this point, on my right arm I had a think leathery scab just at my wrist and extending about an inch up my arm.  It was mildly annoying and I couldn't bend my wrist very well because of it.  My left arm had blossomed into a minor swelling all along my lower under arm.  Now I had validation: I had a certified poison ivy rash.

So, by this point I'm in a bit of discomfort.  I'm spraying calamine lotion (with pain and itch relievers) on the left arm.  On the right arm it wasn't itching too much, the scab was so thick it basically just hurt a little bit.  I'm still not worried though.  Instead I'm making a point of keeping ice bags on my arms as I can and just trying to avoid scratching it.  I'm hoping it will start to heal soon, and Sunday night brought some additional hope to my attention.

An aunt and uncle along with cousins from my wife's side came to visit us.  Spencer (my cousin) told me about how he used a product called Zanfel to treat his poison ivy.  He told me it could do what no other product claimed to be able to do: it could remove the Urushiol from my arms!  That's right, the Urushiol that had bound into my skin could be pulled out, I could stop the spread and get rid of the itching!  Excellent!

I got some.  $35 without tax for one ounce.  If it would do what it claimed though, it would be worth it.  I took it home and used it as per the directions.  The itching stopped.  I thought that was the end of it all, now I could heal.  God is only amused at the feeble attempts of mortals to control that which he created to serve his will.

The rash seemed to stop on my arms, but it wasn't healing very fast.  Oh, and the scab on my right arm was thicker.  It was starting to crack to the point of bleeding lightly.  I now could not move my wrist at all without pain, or close my fingers on my right hand because it would pull the skin at the top of my hand, adding a little more pain to the situation.  The swelling on the left arm began to lightly scab.  And a few new bumps had developed on my right hip and side.

Add to this the general disgust that I was oozing.  That's right, the serum that forms scabs was attempting to form little scabs on all the spaces where my skin had broken down a little bit.  Imagine holding a rubber ball with tiny little holes in it with a pressurized gel on the inside, so that the gel was continuously forming little bubbles and lightly flowing out of the rubber ball.  That's how my left arm looked.  Wherever I went I tried to take a napkin or a handkerchief with me to prevent oozing on anything I might rest my arm on.

My right arm was oozing also, but the breaks in the skin were thick enough that instead of forming little scabs that couldn't adhere to anything I had large scabs that caught the hair on my arm.  Ah, one more minor inconvenience, feeling the hairs on my arms getting pulled every time I moved my arm.  But, at least I wasn't leaving slug spots behind me wherever I rested my right arm.

I want to add one more final annoyance of my particular exposure to poison ivy: pressure.  Every time I held my arms down by my side for more than 30 seconds the blood flow in the area would get so intense it would feel like my arms were swelling up.  Add to this the irritation of feeling my blood flow.  That's right, the little vibrations that travel  through your arm from the pumping of your blood would aggravate the sensitive skin and cause minor pain or itching.  Constantly.  No, no, you don't understand, I mean all the time with out end constant itching and minor pins and needles pain in my left arm, and pressure in my right arm.

But, I finally went to the doctor.  Once I realized the rash is still spreading, still is spreading, I figured I have what is known as systemic poison ivy.  Basically the poison ivy didn't just adhere to my skin, it got into my blood stream.  Now it is traveling around, having a little carnival in my body (whoopee!) and popping up wherever it decides to make a picnic lunch.  It should stop now though.  I got a steroid shot and some topical steroid cream (Charlton smash!) that should help me heal.  And I'm on an antibiotic since I have beautiful open wounds on both arms now.

I told my wife though that it brought a comparison to my mind.  Everything I described about my poison ivy is a lot like the sinful situation of all of us.  At first, when we are young or do not know much of the glory of God and his holiness, we think we only have a minor exposure.  We figure, over time, we'll heal, we'll get better.  Finally, after the sin has spread sufficiently in our lives, we hear others talking about how they have fought sin in their own lives, and we do the same things.  We hope that by applying a cream to our sinfulness, we can stop the outbreak.

The problem is that the wounds just don't heal, the sin may not be spreading any more, but we are powerless to really heal it.  Unknown to us, sin is not just on the surface, it is in our blood, in our very souls.  Wherever sin decides to crop up, it will, and we are powerless to fight it.  We will always be powerless, and we need someone who can treat the sinfulness within us.

Christ is our great doctor.  He alone has the power to give us what we need to be free from the sinful condition of our bodies.  Just as I needed a steroid shot, we need an injection of Christ into our lives.  And just as I have a cream to apply to my sores to help control the outbreak and heal my skin, so also we have the Holy Spirit who continuously convicts us of sin and helps us to recover from the wounds that persist, even after we have been forgiven.  Moreover the power of Christ not only removes our sin, not only forgives us, it also makes us righteous, just as I needed treatment not just for the poison ivy, but also because of the potential of infection.

Not really a new metaphor, but hopefully, Christ as our great physician means a little more to you today, as it does to me.

For those of you who want photos, continue to the bottom of the post!  I have included "before" photos, and "after" photos.  The first three were taken around 9/5/10, the last group was taken on 9/11/10, when I finally went to the doctor.  You can decide for yourself whether you think going to the doctor was really necessary.

WARNING!  These pictures are potentially disturbing.  If you've ever seen a moderate/severe chemical burn these most closely resemble such.  Please, if you have a weak stomach, you probably don't want to look at this.  If you have young children you may wish to look at these first and then decide whether it is appropriate for them.  The first three look like just cuts or scabs, the last six are more graphic.  (They are only shots of my arms, but they are pretty bad.)












Here are the photos from 9/5/10:

Right wrist
Left arm (sorry for the blurry shot)
Both arms.

And here are the 9/11/10 photos:

Left arm, note the cracking around the elbow.  Couldn't bend it w/o pain.

Left fore arm, under, closer look at the elbow and the weepy serum scabs.

Left arm, close look at the worst blisters nearest the wrist.

Right fore arm, upper
Right fore arm, under.
Right wrist

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