She was playing hide and seek with her sisters and managed somehow to hug a tree that was covered with poison oak.
One side of her face, the inside of both arms, and one leg soon broke out in an angry-looking and itchy bright red rash.
Of course, we knew right away that she was having an allergic reaction to the poison oak.
We got some salve from the drug store and began putting it on the rash as quickly as we could, and I took her to the doctor as soon as we got home from the camping trip.
The doctor started her on a prescription by mouth (I don't remember what) and he gave her an injection (and I don't remember what that was, either). The rash didn't get any better.
We repeated the trip to the doctor twice more, with no results. The rash was getting worse all the time.
My husband's grandmother visited and saw the rash. She told us that to cure it we would need black powder and sweet cream. She had to explain what black powder was -- it is gun powder.
We found that .22 shotgun shells used old-fashioned black powder, so we bought those, added it to some whipping cream, and applied it to the rash. The rash was gone in three days.
I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. It was like a miracle.
Within minutes of applying the black powder and sweet cream mixture to the poison oak, the itching stopped.
After we had applied it twice on the first day, the rash was looking much drier. By the end of the third day, it was difficult to see where the rash had been.
