Systemic

One of those little irritations in life I have is something called systemic poison ivy. The most common form of systemic poison ivy is when you breathe in smoke from a brush fire, the oil gets into the bloodstream, and you have a major breakout EVERYWHERE. I had a firend when i was little actually get poisin ivy INSIDE his mouth and throat, and they think it was even in his stomach. I don't get this kind. You can also get it from being allergic to the substances your body makes in the reaction. My mom gets this- her poison ivy can get so bad that you can jus sit and watch the patches bubble and ooze before your eyes, like some Martian landscape. I don't get that, either (thank GOD).

I get the kind that once I start seeing it anywhere, it starts to pop up as a bubble here, a bubble there, all over my body for the next few months. It is highly annoying.

My yearly poison ivy has begun. I get it this time of year because I am hacking down the autumn clematis, and invariably the ivy gets in it, and somewhere I have an inch of skin uncovered. Only this year I was particularly stupid, and didn't put on my gloves to take down the clematis. So naturally I got angry red welts across the back of my hand. Now it's startd the spreading stage. Its moving up my fingers, and I have single bubbles here... there... yep. The itching has begun.

Too much of my life is like that. Consequences you can do nothing about now, popping up here. There. It all becomes systemic, in a delicate system. But then, sometimes I think, at least I don't get poison ivy like Steve used to. Or my mom. Just an annoyig bubble or two, here and there. I can live with that. No prednisone required.