I have poison ivy - on my face, around my eye. Also on my wrists, neck, stomach, back of knees, and thighs. You would think I had been rolling around in the stuff.
No - I just forgot one of the cardinal rules of fieldwork - take a shower not a bath when you return from the field. Poison ivy rashes are caused by plant oils, which, while in a bath, float around on top of the water. The oils on the water can thus come into contact with any part of your body.
See on Thursday, for my plant biology lab, we were collecting twigs to ID. It did not sem like field work as we did not leave campus. I didn't even cross my mind that evening as I prepared my bath, that I may have come into contact with poison ivy.
The students in my freshman biology class are hoping that my eye swells shut so that I cannot write their exam for Friday. I am touched by their concern (I think they were in part joking). Alas, I can see out only one eye, so no reprieve for them.
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