POISON IVY!!!

Well, I've had quite the week! A couple weeks ago I did a photo shoot down on a river bed, I was trying to get a shot with the river in the background, so I was practically in a bush. My elbow was stuck by some thorns on a wild rose bush, and wondered what all the other leafy plants entangled in it were (maybe stinging nettle). (I didn't give it too much thought, cause I had already touched them and nothing happened) Well, a week went by and my scrapes were healing, but my elbow was starting to itch, it looked like I had about 3 mosquito bites. Well, a few hours later I had what looked like hundreds of very itchy mosquito bites (very very very VERY itchy I might add) (I almost went nuts a few times) The itchy blistery bumps were in stripes and patches, and my whole elbow was a bit swollen. I took the kids to their pediatrician appt. and the Dr. said it looked like staff and to get into a Dr. (as a nurse I hate being the patient and tried to pretend it away) so I freaked out thinking the worst (MRSA, I come in contact with people that have it on a regular basis) and went to the doc. they cultured it and put me on antibiotics, steroids, and a powerful hydrocortisone cream (which helped the swelling go down, and gave major itch relief YAY) The culture came back 2 days later, and it was negative (phew) But I still had stuff going on, so I started my internet research again, looking up fungus from rosebushes. This is where I came across poison ivy (which looked like the plant entangled in the rose bush) and learned that the rash doesn't show up immediately, it may take a week or so (that was the part that got me, I had no idea it took that long or I may have considered it as a possible diagnosis, since it crossed my mind early on, but I ignored it cause it had been so long) So I pulled up the pix of people poison ivy rash, and what do you know.. It was identical! So there you have it, my first and hopefully last encounter with poison ivy! I think I'll be a little more cautious about plants from now on, especially on the job!