Did you know that only 50% of the population reacts to poison ivy?  This is something I  recently learned.  I knew I was one of the 50% because I had experienced poison ivy as a kid.  I was very recently reminded what a poison ivy rash looks like.

I am pretty good at plant identification.  I spend lots of time in the woods figuring out the plants, trees, insects, and birds I see.  I spend some of my wandering time pulling out a particularly invasive species.  While I was performing this service to the wild flora of the forest I failed to recognize the proximity of poison ivy.  I also failed to recognize the resulting rash for what it was.  I spent several days thinking it was bug bites.  Not knowing I had touched poison ivy, I unwittingly spread the rash.  I became concerned about the ‘bug bites’ when they started to blister and ooze (how often do you get to use ooze in a sentence?).  A trip to the doctor’s office enlightened me to the source of the blistering itch.  From the initial spot that came in contact with the noxious plant I could map the points of contact to other places on my body.  Yeah me.  I was given a prescription for the infection I inadvertently caused by rubbing the incredibly, aggravatingly itchy rash.  Not 24 hours later I broke out with another incredibly, amazingly, insanely itchy rash caused by me reacting to the prescription.  Yeah me, again.

I perceive that the situation would be funny if it was fiction and not happening to me.  Thankfully my family is empathetic to my experience and not breaking out in giggles watching me go slowly squirrelly trying not to scratch.