How long does it take for poison ivy to go away?

How long does it take poison Ivy to go away?

• I went into the creek with a few homies on saturday and on monday I started having little bumps on tuesday I woke up and it was alot worse I went to the doctor and they gave me a steriod shot I also bathed in oatmeal and put on some oitment that says it would help. I also used the stuff the dr gave me but today is now thursday and I STILL have this miserable itch... what can I do to make it go away faster? it seems like all it is doing is spreading it went from my face to everywhere else?=(

• Answer:

  There's nothing you can do to speed things up - you have already had the most effective treatments available. The reaction is caused by the immune system. The steroid suppresses the immune response, but it cannot be suppressed completely or you would have no immunity to infection (which is dangerous). It usually takes 10-20 days for poison ivy to run its course. The reaction should hopefully start tapering off in another day or two.