Worst Poison Ivy Cases You Should Never Google

From Redditor/u/Trogdor7432:

I knew I was more allergic than most, but I did not prepare for the worst two weeks. I tried to find leaves that were not poison ivy, but I lacked the necessary information.

Wiping with poison ivy sends it straight into your blood; it does not just touch your skin. The poison ivy shot through my body like wildfire. I became swollen from head to toe. My entire body felt on fire and itchy at once.

It was so bad I wore a pad over my butt for about a week to stop the itching while sleeping. I used anti-itch cream and oatmeal for nearly half a month. It was awful. I have never met anyone who had such a terrible time with it.

From aformer Redditor:

I lived next to a farmer who told me this crazy story.

To keep his land, this man burned brush and overgrowth every few years. One year, the winds changed during a burn, and a smoke cloud completely covered him before he could escape.

About two weeks later, he got a bronchial infection and poison ivy all over his face. Doctors found a poison ivy rash inside his lungs.

He said that was the closest he got to dying. He was a solid old guy.

From an anonymouspoison ivy storyteller:

This was the worst case I had, or heard, around age ten. My family rented a cottage near the Bay of Quinte on Lake Ontario. By day four, my younger brother and I got a rash everywhere. The local doctor told my mother the area had a scabies outbreak. He said not to worry; her sons did not have measles or chicken pox or anything like that, just scabies.

A few days of hot showers and scrubbing, plus a heavy rub of a lice-killing cream, should have cured us. It did not. Sticky, oozing, itchy, and painful days passed. We became covered from head to toe and everywhere in between.

I still remember waking up. We called Mom to help us get out of bed to pee. She wiped our eyes with a wet cloth because they were sealed shut all night. We grimaced and bit our tongues to act like big boys instead of crying as she slowly peeled the sheet off us, inch by painful inch. The sheet moved the top layer of hardened ooze from the night before.

From an anonymouspoison ivy storyteller:

In college, I took a "Camping" class. My friend and I were late getting to our campsite. We had to pitch our tents in darkness. His tent had a floor; mine did not. We set up our tents in a poison ivy thicket. The results were much worse for me. Blisters covered my whole body. My eyes swelled shut, and I had a fever. Dorm mates carried me to the campus nurse. She washed me with alcohol and then Caladryl.

I felt miserable for two weeks longer than any other time. Certain parts of the male anatomy do not like rubbing alcohol. That taught me a lesson in Camping!

Redditor/u/stoicjohn:

I worked as the health officer (EMT) at a summer camp. An adult leader arrived with poison ivy on his stomach and arm. He must have been severely allergic. Blisters formed four or five water-balloon sacks hanging off him. It started on his arm. The poison seeped through his shirt, infecting his side and armpit too. I took him to the ER. I never touched the camp truck again.

Anonymouspoison ivy storyteller:

During our annual camping trip to the Ochlochnee River, I touched poison ivy while squatting in the brush. I was nine months pregnant and wrongly thought the rash connected to my pregnancy. Two weeks later, during childbirth, I asked for itch relievers instead of pain relievers. The rash spread from my knees up the inside of my thighs. The dermatologist said this was the first time he treated something like this during childbirth. This was how I welcomed my baby girl.

Anonymouspoison ivy storyteller:

My father spent a day cutting poison ivy vines around our house. At the end of the day, he showered and scrubbed himself with brown soap.

Instead of removing the poison, he spread it all over himself. He stayed sick in bed for a week with a bad case of poison ivy.

Be careful with the stuff. Know you can spread the oil by washing with soap and warm water. Warm water opens the pores. Soap mixes the oil. Scrubbing pushes the oil into the open pores.

Anonymouspoison ivy storyteller:

My mother loves gardening. She changed her yard from red Georgia clay to a place full of lilies, herbs, and yard whimsy. However, she reacts badly to poison ivy. Every two years, her whole face swells so much that her eyes shrink to slits.

She has it now. I told her, "Mom, you really need to find out what poison ivy looks like." She replied (with her German accent), "Yes, I have been trying to figure that out for the last ten years."

Anonymouspoison ivy storyteller:

One morning, I put on loose shorts, no underwear, and went out to pull weeds. I did not know I was getting mosquito bites in places I couldn't mention.

I found tiny, young poison ivy sprigs. They looked too small and innocent. Every time I tried to pull them with my gloves, the stems slipped right through. I could take off my gloves and touch the tiny stems with my bare fingers. They were still too slick to hold, but I could dig my fingernails into the stems and yank. I knew I had poison ivy sap under my nails, but I was almost finished and planned to wash.

I absentmindedly reached down to scratch a mosquito bite. This caused the worst poison ivy rash in a terrible spot.

An anonymous poison ivy storyteller wrote this.

I married recently and took a summer job at my father-in-law's apple orchard. I stripped the apple trees of Virginia Creepers because the vines harm the trees by wrapping around them and blocking light. I thought ripping out the vines would be fun. My father-in-law warned me to keep my gloves on because he suspected poison ivy was near.

Trying to act like Mr. Macho Man, knowing I was somewhat immune to the weed, I ripped out vines for five days. On day seven, I went to the ER. My eyes were swollen shut, and deep wounds oozed all over my body. The doctor called it the worst case he had ever seen. Nurses thought I had been burned in a fire.

From an anonymouspoison ivy storyteller:

I was pruning small trees and did not see the poison ivy. The next morning, I saw a rashy, bumpy patch, dime-sized, on my right ring finger. My mom, an RN, thought it was a bite. It was worse. Every day, it spread across my hand. My hand went numb, and my fingers swelled, making them hard to move. The itch was bad, but so were the sleepless nights. Eventually, the 2.5-inch blisters and the itch went away, but I kept a scar as a reminder of the nasty poison ivy.

A month passed. Time for another trip to the hunting camp. We moved a tree stand blown over by a recent storm. I knew poison ivy was around, but I did not know where. No one ever saw the vine running up the tree like fire. My dad and uncle held a ladder while I climbed up. I locked a chain in place. I reached the top and secured the chain across the stand. Then, my dad said, "Watch out! I think that vine is poison ivy."

I sit at home now. Cream covers both my arms, my face, lips, ears, and eyelids. Bandages cover my arms and hands. I can barely type. I want to send a message to all the 'outdoorsy' people. They must take time to check where they plan to work or hunt. Trust me, a few minutes helps. Otherwise, you end up like me.

An anonymous source.A poison ivy storyteller.:

As a child, I reacted severely to poison ivy. I got allergy shots every year. They failed; I always got poison ivy.

The worst time was a family camping trip. We used poison ivy sticks to roast marshmallows over a wood fire. The poison ivy grew large and healthy at this campground. In the dark, my father mistook the vines for tree limbs. He cut some for kindling to start the fire and some for marshmallow sticks! Ouch! I felt terrible. Poison ivy covered my face and body. I ran a fever and stayed in bed for a while.

An anonymous source.A poison ivy storyteller.:

The night before our wedding, my fiancé went to the ER for a high-dosage shot.

He had 2-inch-tall blisters covering him. We would never get a ring on his finger, yet he would not let it stop our wedding.

An anonymous source.A poison ivy storyteller.:

I worked for a foster home. The building where our children lived was for sale, so we had to move all our boys. We found a huge old house with a backyard overflowing with plants.

Moving in took hard work for staff and kids. The goal was to finish by Friday for a big Staff and Families Picnic Saturday. The kids cleared the backyard that evening. Then, they played a well-earned football game Friday night.

The next morning, every kid woke up with poison ivy everywhere. This was the worst group of kids I ever saw. Instead of picnicking, we spent the day at the walk-in clinic. Just as the boys healed, the staff thought they removed the plants. So, the following week, we walked around with the plants ourselves.

An anonymous source.A poison ivy storyteller.:

Nelson, age 11, touched poison ivy building a fort in the woods. He quickly developed bad symptoms. Nelson scratched constantly, seeking relief. The rash appeared in sensitive areas beyond. He whined to his father, "Dad, what can you do to help me? Isn't there anything that can take away the itch?"

Dad checked the medicine cabinet. "The only thing here is Bengay. I don't know if it helps, but we can try." Nelson yelled back, "Anything has to be better than this," and immediately put the stuff on his private parts. A painful scream shattered the quiet as the boy moved in uncontrolled pain. "Quick! Get in the shower," Dad ordered.

That taught him a hard lesson.

An anonymous source reported this.A poison ivy storyteller wrote this.:

My ex loved bow hunting. He spent the day in a tree stand, waiting for a deer. When he returned, he gave me a back rub to make up for leaving me alone. The problem? The tree he used for the stand had poison ivy. He seemed fine, but I was not! The rash covered my whole back!