Poison Ivy

     I've been a hiker and backpacker for a number of years, both before and after the scrambling of my brain that occurred during my motor vehicle accident. My brain's name is Briella-- still brilliant but a bit sideways. Vision begins in the brain. Besides having double vision in one eye and now having face blindness [I would say "suffering from" only I don't feel like I am suffering from anything], I am apparently no longer able to recognize poison ivy.

     Most fortunately, some years ago I had a flat-coated retriever who was absolutely nuts about the stuff. Dogs are generally not allergic to poison ivy. He used to roll in it, dig it up, toss it around, eat it. Then I would break out in that certain rash. The first summer with him, I had poison ivy six times. I figure that dog is the reason why I have very mild reactions to the leaves of three now.

     I've been weeding in the garden. During the first few years of living with my t.b.i., I purchased several berry bushes and planted them. I don't remember what kind of berry bushes they were. This is a problem now. I do have a rather prolific vine thing growing in the plot where I plopped the berry bushes. It is currently full of white flowers. When I walk by it, I feel little itches on my skin. [There is a particular weed in my garden too that causes the little itches but which I know is not poison ivy]. I go inside and I scrub my arms and hands and then that's the end of it. 

     I've never eaten the berries off of the prolific vine because I cannot tell if the thing is a version of poison ivy or if it is some kind of raspberry or something. This week, I will hunt through my plant identification books in hopes of figuring out what the vine actually is. If is it poison ivy, I suppose I will put on long pants and a long shirt and thick gloves and yank the stuff out. If not, then I will probably want to sample the berries this year. And I will also have to investigate the berry plot. Maybe there are berry bushes growing in there and maybe the bushes died.

sapphoq healing tbi says: Now that I have some distance from my car accident, I suspect that the changes in my personality and my neurological functioning bother other people a great deal more than they bother me. I don't feel like a victim. I keep striving.
     Most days I can say with some confidence this: It's good to be alive yo!