In 1990 I was driving my beloved 1987 Mazda 626GT coupe when I was in an accident and ended up upside down in a ditch.

I can remember the odd feeling of hanging from my seatbelt and falling when I released it, and then crawling out of the now broken window to get out of the car. The car was totalled.

What I didn’t realize is that the ditch was full of poison ivy.

When the EMTs showed up I was scratching my arms but I didn’t think much about it. They took me to the hospital but I checked out fine. They, too, didn’t notice the poison ivy. Outside of being a bit bruised I didn’t get hurt in the accident, but my poison ivy rash was one for the record books. I had blisters on top of blisters. Since this was before camera phones I don’t have any pictures, but I finally caved and went to the doctor who put me on a course of steroids.

Ever since then I’ve had a strong reaction to the urushiol contained in poison ivy leaves. Poison ivy is rather common around here, and on the farm we have a lot of it, although I work to try and kill any plants near where people go (brush killers work better than herbicides like Roundup). I am extremely careful to avoid exposure.

When I woke up on Monday I noticed a little bump had formed near my left elbow. At first I thought it was a bug bite, but soon it started to spread in the pattern of tiny blisters I’ve come to associate with poison ivy. I immediately slathered Dawn dish soap over my arm to remove any traces of the oil, but it was too late.

I’m not sure where I was exposed. I did mow on Sunday but usually any reaction would have come on sooner. Perhaps the dogs got some on their coats and I brushed up against them.

In any case my left arm was soon covered in blisters.

I have had mild exposures in the 30+ years since the accident, and as long as I get the oil off quickly I can manage, but this time the rash spread too far for me to wait for it to clear on its own. I sent a note to my doctor asking for a blister pack of Prednisone and his reply was a little skeptical - until I sent a picture. Not only did I get the steroids, he threw in a topical antibiotic to prevent infection. I don’t think I’ll need the latter as I am able to prevent myself from scratching although it can be trying at times.

I know folks on the West Coast of the US don’t have poison ivy (which I learned is not an “ivy” but is instead more closely related to cashews and pistachios) but urushiol is also present on the leave of poison oak, which they do have. We have a variety of poison oak on this coast but I don’t remember ever seeing it.

There was a guy who posted a story on the Wall Street Journal about how he ate poison oak in order to build up a tolerance. I’m not sure I’m ready to go that far just yet, I just plan to be extra vigilant.