Clinging Vines

On our last weekend at Pacifica, CA, the principal of the school where we had been working took us on a tour of San Francisco.  We enjoyed driving down, not only the famous Lombard Street with its many turns in a short distance, but down another, lesser known street, Vermont Street, that was even windier.

Many of the streets were so steep that cars parked straight across so they couldn't roll downhill.  No angle parking on these angled streets! 

We had driven to Pacifica when we arrived via the Golden Gate Bridge, so I didn't think I wanted to walk across it, but we did, about halfway across.  Since the sun suddenly came out, and the sky cleared, it was a pleasant experience








"Do you want me to take a picture of both of you?"  asked the principal.

If you look closely, you can see scratches on Terry's neck.  They were healing nicely and forming scabs.
That night he started to get terribly itchy, and his neck, arms where he had more scratches developed red patches.  Then his arm blistered.  His face started to swell.
"Uh-oh, I think I encountered something poisonous," said Terry. That was two days previously! He remembered how they had been asked to clear and trim the brush behind a fence.  With his usual enthusiasm, Terry remembered how he had dived into the bush, and how the vines had wrapped themselves around his neck.
Internet research revealed pictures of poison ivy and poison oak.  Apparently poison oak is common in California, and poison ivy grows only east of the Rockies.  All our lives in BC and Alberta we'd never seen any specimens of these plants.

Benedryl didn't seem to do much. Calamine lotion and ice cold facecloths helped to some extent. A week later we were on our way to the next project, and were staying the night at Walmart.  Would you believe Walmart sells aloe vera? Not in a bottle, but a giant two foot spear of it!

The soothing jelly scraped out of the leaf helped for a while.  Meanwhile Terry wasn't getting much sleep because of the terrible itching on his face, neck, chest, and unmentionable parts of his body.
This is how swollen his face looked. He's downright scary!

The time came to take stronger measures.  We decided to go to Urgent Care in Beaumont, near Cherry Valley, where we are beginning our second project.  The swelling wasn't going down, and he could hardly see out of his right eye.
The doctor gave him an injection into his hip, as well as prescriptions for a steroid drug and some medicated cream. The cost of all this was less than the deductible, so we decided to use our Visa card. 
"Transaction denied," said the machine.  After a call to Visa, the problem was solved. Some machines need you to use a pin number, and Americans don't use pins, so the clerk bypassed the instructions on the screen.  Finally we paid, picked up our meds, and drove away in relief.

 
The next day his face looked so much better! And he feels so much better!  Thank You, God.