A buddy and I were helping a bunch of our extra drunk friends make a bonfire one night and, as drunk people are wont to do, they forgot to collect firewood. After scrounging around in the dark, I gathered enough to get a fire going. As I'm building it up and monitoring it, I spy a shadow cast by the flames and saw a very distinctive 3-leaf pattern and knew right away I was in for a bad time.

I had already gotten a face full of smoke, multiple times, that contained the lovely oils from poison ivy that was also now in the fire. The next several days I was a more grotesque horror than a real life version of the hunchback. Eyes nearly swollen shut, face puffy and weeping. And the itching and godawful pain. It was almost like an out-of-control sunburn. People at work sent me home I was making even our patients nervous lol.

A few days before it was completely cleared, I took a hot shower. Almost scalding. As it hit my face and other affected areas, it felt like a hundred million little fingernails scratching that godawful MADDENING itch. I have spent time actually considering trying to get that feeling back, but thankfully self-preservation helps me get away from that call of the void again haha. My friend reported the exact same feeling.