Poison Sumac

Thursday, 13 August 2009

Well like i wrote about earlier, over the course of 2 weeks in the swamps in Jackson i readily accumulated more and more poison sumac over my arms and legs. Because our pants were wet from being in the swamp, the oil from the sumac trees was apparently able to soak through to our legs.
Several of us had it and by the middle of the second week, we decided to go to the local hospital and get shots. Waking up at 3 in the morning because of itching isn't a lot of fun.

Like Jerry Seinfeld said, i was pretty happy when i got called by the nurse from the big waiting room to the "littler" waiting room. After the physician assistant (named Rodney, who was big, mean, fat and wearing flowery scrubs) came in and told me i could get prosecuted if i did NOT file this under workman's comp, I got bored sitting in that second littler waiting room.

Here's my heart rate and arms. I don't know if 137 over 73 is good or not. I haven't had to go to the hospital for at least 10 years.
It's kinda hard to see from the picture but i had it all along my arm.

It's been a weeks since getting the cortisone injection and steroid pills and its finally almost all gone.

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Jackson

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Well more out of town surveying. This time however i was closer to home, Jackson, Michigan. We worked anywhere from 11 to 13 hours a day in corn fields and in swamps. Although it felt like the fields were few and far between. It mostly consisted of being ankle deep in black mucky water, cutting bushes with a machete. The final tally:

Number of times falling/sinking waist deep in the swamp................24
Number of times falling face first in the water.............................2

Percentage of body covered in poison sumac after 2 weeks.............30%

And yes i won the contest for the person with the most poison sumac. Later i'll post the pictures of me having to go to the hospital for that.

This was after having to walk around with 3" of muck in my boots for several hours.
After 3 days of leaving my "formerly white" socks on the AC unit outside our motel, the cleaning lady finally threw these out. I WAS going to have quite a collection going.

And here are the rest of the pictures i took. Trying to show the more fun parts of the trip.

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