Poison Ivy Infection, Book Tour, and Ostrich Farming

1 / 6
The author's book tour led her to meet a Shuswap Lake family who had taken up ostrich farming
The author's book tour led her to meet a Shuswap Lake family who had taken up ostrich farming
2 / 6
Snowberries and rosehips.
Snowberries and rosehips.
3 / 6
Ostrich farmers Bret and Sue Oliver.
Ostrich farmers Bret and Sue Oliver.
4 / 6
The author studies a back of herbs.   
The author studies a back of herbs.   
5 / 6
Comfrey leaves. A comfrey root creme was part of the treatment regimen a naturopathic practitioner recommended for a poison ivy infection.
Comfrey leaves. A comfrey root creme was part of the treatment regimen a naturopathic practitioner recommended for a poison ivy infection.
6 / 6
The Olivers' son holding an ostrich egg.
The Olivers' son holding an ostrich egg.

What a poison ivy infection, a book tour, and ostrich farming have in common is anyone’s guess, but in the past few months, they all converged on my path. I should have known better ….

At the prickly age of fourteen, my twin sister Donna and I had tangled with poison ivy at a Shuswap beach party. We returned to school proudly wearing panty hose for the first time. But the glittering coach of privilege soon turned into a pumpkin. Our rashes were thriving and spreading until the nylons were more akin to a torturer’s device. The itch was so fierce that we scratched our legs until they bled.

Thirty years later, elated by what would amount to a sixteen-mile back road bike trip with Ben and my friend Eric, caution scattered like the pebbles launched by our whizzing tires. As poplar leaves spun in the breeze, I wandered in a glade in the remote reaches of Meadow Creek. Unwittingly, and with a stroke of luck, only my right arm was zapped.

Eight days later, despite the use of calamine lotion, baking soda, and other suggested remedies, my arm had swollen to nearly twice its size. Aggravating the condition was my apprehension about the publicity tour of Vancouver looming on the near horizon. The purpose was to promote Wilderness Mother, my book about raising children in the bush. Whitecap Books had produced a Deanna Kawatski Canadian edition and organized the tour. First I was to do a reading and signing at Elaine’s Books in Salmon Arm. In horror I watched what was scheduled to be an autographing arm mutate into a monster. Would it make people run? Without question, I would wear sleeves.

At a clinic in Chase I was told that mine was the fourth case of poison ivy the doctor had recently treated. The physician made no move to touch me and instead told a nurse to bring a basin. I was then instructed to wash off the slathering of zinc oxide while the doctor watched from the opposite side of the room.

  • Published on Dec 1, 1994
Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368