There's a huge beautiful mango tree in my new place. A week ago I spend an hour working with a hand saw to cut off a limb that grew into the house power line. It required a few cuts while balancing on the top step of an A ladder, and hanging on to branches with my free hand. Needless to say I got rained on with leaves, pieces of bark and saw dust.
The next day I came down with bad pain. The skin hurt on my back and under the arms, the pain is something like a bad sunburn but it feels like it's under the skin rather than the outside. Everything hurts, lying down in bed, leaning back in a chair, even the touch of a shirt. After 3 days I started to really worry as the pain wasn't subsiding. A week later with the pain getting worse I started to think that I will have to spend the rest of my life like this.
Trying to figure out what might have happened I searched the internet for skin pain like mine. There were a few illnesses that had these symptoms but the sudden onset in my case eliminated them in my mind. Finally considering the timing of what I was doing just before the pain started, I googled mango and toxic. Sure enough this popped up Mango - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
QuotePotential for contact dermatitis
Mango peel and sap contains urushiol, the chemical in poison ivy and poison sumac that can cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis in susceptible people. Cross-reactions between mango contact allergens and urushiol have been observed. Those with a history of poison ivy or poison oak contact dermatitis may be most at risk for such an allergic reaction. Urushiol is also present in mango leaves and stems. During mango's primary ripening season, it is the most common source of plant dermatitis in Hawaii.
and then this Urushiol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
QuoteUrushiol is an oily organic allergen found in plants of the family Anacardiaceae, especially Toxicodendron spp. (e.g., poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac). It causes an allergic skin rash on contact.
Let me tell you guys this is some bad pain which puts your life on hold. The prospect of living with it for another 1 - 4 weeks is nasty. At least I didn't have a reaction on the outside of the skin, and the stress of not knowing what happened to me is gone. I've never had a reaction to poison Ivy, poison oak or anything like that. I guess there's a first time for everything. Mango.. who knew :dumb: