Growing up, I was the only kid I knew to get poison ivy practically once a month. Not funny. If you’ve ever had it, you know that there’s nothing like the feel of that scaly, oozing nastiness that you just can’t wash away. Not to mention the intense itching misery of the whole experience.

Well, I could sure use your prayers. Apparently I got into poison ivy or oak (I know what poison ivy looks like, so we’re thinking it’s poison oak). This morning one of my eyelids is very swollen up on one side, and the other eyelid is red, inflamed and itchy. I can feel it starting down the side of my nose, my neck, between all my fingers and completely covering the insides and backs of both arms from the wrist to the elbow.

Confession…I knew that I might be exposed to it, but I weeded anyway. It’s an area of my yard that has been bothering me all summer b/c of all the nasty weeds, and our weed-eater has been needing a part, so I tackled it night before last…pride had me wanting it done before several of my friends come over for lunch on Monday. Well, I’ll be amazed if I can even SEE my guests on Monday. I do hope and pray that I don’t get the crusty, seeping stuff on my eyes.

The good news is that I have had touches of poison oak/ivy off and on for the past 4 years and it hasn’t gotten to the weepy crusty stage, and it hasn’t really been intensely itchy either. My husband and I have the theory that since I pretty much had a bad case of poison ivy every month during my growing up years, my body has built up a weird immunity/ability to deal with it better.

So please pray for me to survive this, and not be scary to look at on Monday! And please God, let this be a mild case, b/c if it isn’t, from the looks of it now, it’s going to be really bad!

Thanks, friends!

Mary