The Mysterious Whole Body Rash of 2020

3 years ago, I began my journey of gardening and trying not to kill everything I own. I've had successes and plenty of failures. But I have learned along the way and now I keep over 100 plants alive and I even propogate and grow new ones! Yay me! 🪴🌷

Some of my beauties

Since then, I have been dealing with a mysterious rash. Every year around April-June. (not the entire 3 yrs! I would have ripped my skin off.)

The first year was a WHOLE BODY RASH. I was terrified. Not knowing what it was, where it came from, or how to avoid it. Multiple doctors were stumped. Steroids (shot and creams) actually made it 10x worse! 

I had ONE doctor give me a anti-fungal cream which was by far the best. But she also suggested Sarna Lotion at the local drug store. It has a specific ingredient called Pramoxine Hydrochloride. Best combo I've found that helped. 

By August, it was finally gone. But right after it went away, I got shingles in THE WORST place ever!!! (I was only 30!) But that's another weird story. 

Skip ahead to the next year and sure enough.. It came back. And same thing this year. Thankfully, I was somewhat prepared and only had the rash in localized spots. 

After racking my brain and thinking about what is in my garden that would do this. I came up with nothing! But we have this vine all along our driveway. I found out that this vine with the pretty orange flowers is literally called 'Cow Itch Vine'. At least, that's one of its names. 

Campsis radicans 
(Image from Wikipedia) 

These flowers are pretty and smell great, but they produce an oil that causes skin irritation and rashes. I've never touched them, but I'm thinking my cat may have had the oils on her. She goes outside during the day and stays inside at night. 

This is Kaya. My little explorer kitty. 😻

So I'm currently dealing with the rash behind my knee. Yeah... Where the leg folds. Great. That's going to take forever to heal... Not to mention drive me crazy!!! 

So I timed it this year. 5 days after the flowers bloomed came the rash. So I KNOW that HAS to be what it is. 

All I know is I'm about to BURN 🔥 every piece of that vine and I have ZERO reservations about what else dies with it! 3 years dealing with this rash is enough. 

If you or anyone you know has dealt with this type of issue, please feel free to leave a comment! 😊 ❤️