While we love living in Ohio, we are still learning the ins and outs of the Midwest. Even while we lived in Omaha, we never experienced some of the joys that come from the area.
Poor Aimee got to be the first in the family to learn about poison oak. To this day we still can't nail down how she, and only she, got a healthy dose of this. I hate to admit that the first person to notice it, was a sweet lady at the nursery of the gym I go to. Not understanding it's effects, I assumed that the rash that had formed overnight would just clear up in its own due time. How very wrong I was!
When her face started to swell up, I gave a quick call to a friend who is a dermatologist. He kindly called in a topical steroid ointment for us. I religiously followed the instructions for application. It continued to get worse!
My pretty little Aimee had begun to resemble the Elephant Girl, and showed no signs of improvement. Another dermatologist friend saw Aimee at a party and told me that some people react more severely to the toxins and require more aggressive treatment. Since her eyes were even starting to swell, I put in another phone call to our friend, who once again called in a prescription for an oral steroid. It took a few days, but finally the itching began to subside. The swelling subsided and the red rash slowly faded from her neck, chest, back and face. It was a solid 3 1/2 weeks before Aimee was back to looking like the first picture, and another week after that before she normalized. However, we have learned our lesson. Aimee and her brothers are pretty quick to obey when we tell them to steer clear of an area due to poison oak!
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