How do you spell bliss?

This past Sunday was an eventful day. After church there was a baptism and a fellowship meal. The church was packed, and the baptism was in a really nice pond in front of somebody's house. There were pretty many that got baptized, but I didn't stay for the meal because of the plans for the afternoon. A little more than a year ago one of my friends, Gordon, died in an accident, so now his family has started getting a cruise together every summer in his memorial. They do it as a fundraiser for a charity that Gordon used to donate to, called Christian Aid Ministries. It's a good time, and there are lots of people there to remember him and enjoy doing some of the things he used to enjoy. Lots of motorcycles and hot rods, food, door prizes from sponsors, etc. I won an electric toothbrush donated by the Gordon's dentist who came to the cruise - same dentist who told me last year sometime that I need one of those brushes. Gordon worked in a local butcher shop, so they butchered a hog and got the whole hog made into sausage. Good stuff! Goes down good with some southern sweet tea. We took a nice Sunday afternoon drive, which was a big loop about 90 miles long. There were about 55 bikes and at least a dozen other vehicles including a 1955 Chevy pickup truck that was restored really nicely. We even had the luxury of the PA State Police temporarily holding up traffic so we could cross a busy intersection all at once, regardless of the red light. I would have taken pictures of the bikes and stuff, but forgot to charge the battery in the camera. We saw some nice countryside including some old farms and went through a covered bridge. When we were almost back to the starting point, somebody lost it on a turn and ran off the road into a corn field with their bike. The EMT in Bubba kicks in and I go chugging up there to see if any help is needed.....right through the poison ivy alongside the road. Duh! Brainiac move there, Bubba. Note to self: next time, go around the poison to get to the patient. So now I'm trying to fight off poison.

In the past, I've tried everything available over the counter including Calamine lotion, IvyDry, Hydrocortisone creams, Gold Bond, topical Benadryl cream, and more. I guess some things work better for different folks, but none of those have helped me much. My skin is stubborn. Some people get really swelled up and get big blisters and stuff. Some people get those rashes, but it doesn't itch much for them. Lucky buggers. And, of course, some people, like my Pop, can pull poison out by the roots, just like any other weed. Even from minimal exposure, I get some swelling, maybe not as puffy as some people, but it gets bright red and itches and burns, and burns and itches, sort of like taking 80 grit sandpaper and heating it up good and hot in the oven and then wrapping it around your arms and legs. Not that I've ever done that...

So again, how do you spell bliz? blis? bliss? blys? er...sumthin'. Well, I got a prescription for Elocon (mometasone furoate cream USP, 0.1%). It's a corticosteroid that suppresses the body's immune response to poison ivy and is supposed to reduce the inflamation of the rash. All I care is that the itching stops!!!! I don't care what the rash looks like, so long as it don't itch. The doctor who prescribed the Elocon cream also recommended that I use Zanfel. He says it's expensive and I never heard of it before. So I go to the pharmacy to get my prescription filled and sure enough, they have some Zanfel available over the counter too. After talking to the pharmacist, I got both. I don't know if this is a new product or if I just never noticed it at the store before, but I'm always ready to try something new to see if it works, especially when nothing else has worked. The Elocon cream helps a good bit too, but you need a prescription for it. I'm convinced that poison must have sprouted about the same time as thistles back in the Garden of Eden and genetically I must have gotten dumped on, because I get allergies of all kinds including allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and poison, and all this other wonderful stuff. So if you have been genetically dumped on too, and you get poison ivy blisters, and you want to know how to spell bliss, take the "terd" out of blisterd, and you will have blis. You can take that terd out of blistered too by getting Zanfel over the counter, and by talking to your doctor about getting Elocon. I followed the directions and so far the two products seem to be helping quite a bit with the itch. If you want to know how Zanfel works, check out this website: http://www.zanfel.com/. And if you want to know anything about Elocon, talk to your doctor and/or do a Google search for Taro Pharmaceuticals Inc. or Clay-Park Labs, Inc., and search around on their websites till you find Mometasone furoate.

As much as I like emergency work, I have to admit that dermatology seems sort of interesting too. You might say I have a little bit of a vested interest in dermatology. I doubt I'll ever go to medical school, but if I would, there's a chance that I would do it just to specialize in dermatology and find the magic cure for poison ivy. Hey, why not??? I'm going to nursing school just so I can get to ride around in a helicopter... *(joking)*

Maybe Gordon knows a truly better definition of bliss these days.