Except that the resin can be picked up on your clothes or the garden tools. Even your pet cat or dog can carry it into your home. During the season, you’re not safe. If you’re caught, wash all your clothes and everything else you were wearing or using at the time. Failure to take this simple precaution could result in a further exposure. The urushiol remains active for months.

One final word of warning. It’s tempting to go out and root out every last sign of these “evil” plants and burn them. Except that, if you burn these plants, the droplets of urushiol can be carried down wind. If you breathe them in or they get into your eyes, this is dangerous.

The treatment is standard. Prednisone should be taken for between five and ten days for a mild “attack”. For a more serious condition, you may have to take this steroid for several weeks. It works by suppressing your body’s immune system so it stops trying to deal with the urushiol as an invading foreign substance. So long as you stop taking Prednisone when the condition clears up, there should be little risk of side effects. Even if you are unlucky, the poison ivy is worse than the side effects . Be thankful Prednisone is available. Because of the blisters, there is a risk of skin infections so be prepared to add an antibiotic. Other than that, just wait to get better.

Your body naturally produces cortisol. This is a hormone and it helps to reduce inflammation by modifying the way in which the immune systems works. Inflammation is actually a good sign. That sounds counter-intuitive so, to explain, when your body is invaded by bacteria, viruses and other foreign matter, your white blood cells gather round to defend you against infections and other damage. That swelling, pain and redness are signs the white blood cells are doing their job. All you have to do is to slow down and let the battle continue. Except that sometimes your immune system does not work as it should. If it becomes overactive, too many white blood cells are released and can cause tissue damage. Prednisone and other steroids reduce the activity level of the immune system and modify the way in which the white blood cells function. This distinguishes them from the anabolic steroids whose function is to build up muscle mass.

Thus, used in low doses over a period of time, Prednisone can reduce the stiffness and pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis. If there is a serious increase in the pain from arthritis, a short burst of a high dose can bring rapid relief by reducing the swelling in the joints. Because there can sometimes be uncertainty as to the extent of an oral dose required, steroids can be injected directly into the tissue close to the affected joints. This has the further benefit that relief comes more immediately and reduces the amount of steroid in your body. Less steroid in your body means a lower risk of side effects. The best course of treatment combines the use of the lowest possible doses of Prednisone with other anti-inflammatories and physical therapy to improve mobility in the joints. This allows the steroid to be used for longer with reduced risk of side effects. Indeed, with constant monitoring of the condition, the dose for Prednisone should be continuously reduced as the condition improves.

One of the standard approaches to treatment is the use of steroids such as Prednisone. Steroids can be administered orally, through inhalation or by injection and they help to reduce inflammation of the airways. For this reason, oral Prednisone is used not only for asthma, but for other lung diseases as well. There is no doubt that, when Prednisone is used on an emergency basis to relieve a serious asthma attack requiring hospital treatment, the benefits outweigh the risks. A short-term, high dosage use can quickly reduce the inflammation contributing to the breathing difficulties and prevent the symptoms from worsening. Unlike the inhaled steroids which go straight into the lungs, Prednisone is absorbed into the blood stream. In this form, it is used alongside other medications to control long-term and often difficult problems.

This so-called “short burst” treatment is highly effective. At a lower dosage, it can also be used on a daily basis to build up resistance to attacks. However, there is a balancing of benefits and disadvantages. High doses for no more than two weeks are safe. But under no circumstances should high doses be taken for longer periods of time because of the risks of side effects. If you are suffering repeated serious asthma attacks, this may suggest an allergic reaction and you should seek separate treatment. Similarly, the longer you take lower doses, the greater the risk of the side effects which include fluid retention, weight gain, increased blood pressure, and so on. As soon as your course of Prednisone has achieved the desired effect, you should move on to one of the inhaled steroids which have fewer problems.

“I used to stay home as much as possible. Neighbors used to feel sorry for me and give me all their glossy magazines to read. I had a steady supply of perfect faces to look at. Some people have no sense. But it did give me an idea. All these ads for expensive cleansers. These models with their perfect faces. I could never afford to buy any of them. So to get rid of my acne, all I had to do was get one of these top companies to hire me. That way I’d get free samples of all their products and my acne would be gone.”

We were more gossiping than running an interview. It was refreshing to find someone so obviously comfortable with herself. With an effort, I pushed her forward a little in time.

“Work at college? My GPA shot up like I was reborn. I had escape velocity to a postgraduate course in business. Guess what? I was hired by one of THE companies.” She smiled and waved her arms around the office in mock triumph. “A back-office job, of course. You can’t send someone like me out into the field to sell a skin product.” A sad smile went with that. “So I moved cities, found a new home, joined the local church and went to work.”

I could see her winding up to do a short advertisement. “It’s a great job.” That was it, of course. And the plan? “I got free samples of all their lotions and creams.” So everything worked out? She shook her head and whispered. “They all make my skin worse. I never wear any makeup now.” Surprisingly, we fell about laughing. A secretary appeared and produced mugs of coffee (nothing fancy for her). “I’m married to someone I met at my local church who saw me and not the pimples. So my life is on a good track. Never give up. It was God’s plan to see me through to find my place in this world. Praise the Lord!”