poison ivy/oak

my friends from my childhood most memorable memories of me is when i had poison ivy, which spread onto my face, forcing my eyes closed and swelling up my entire face. needless to say i was miserable. when i complained about it, my friend jenny's mom told me to stop complaining, which i was about to, when at that moment, i got stung by a bee that i couldn't see to dodge out of the way BECAUSE MY FUCKING EYES WERE SEALED SHUT!! i had to take steriods and also get steriod injections, i looked like a monster, and my parents couldn't think of anything to do to make me feel better, so they thought maybe if i were surrounded by friends that might help SO THEY SENT ME BACK TO JUNIOR HIGH LOOKING LIKE THE ELEPAHNT MAN. okay, so these memories are stil too fresh, so all these years i've avoided getting near anything resembling poison anything, i dont even like skull and crossbones. well, imagine my surprise when i developed poison ivy or oak the other day and blisters are bursting out of my arm and it's red and blistery and itchy and just gross, like i needed something else right now, like right now, with no job, turning 32, no boyfriend, my roomate of 7 years moving out, $600 car repair, and my career over, i need this, thanks. so i m freaking out cause i dont want this to spread because i'm so freaking allergic to it (another thing fair skinned people have to deal with, fair skinned people being irish people, like alcholism, catholic guilt and dark hair sprouting everywhere isn't enough). so i get on the internet to attack this problem so it doesnt spread and try to dry it up ASAP and i got to numerous websites to get advice and the first thing listed under "how to treat poison ivy/oak" is... can anyone guess, what do you think the #1 thing you should do after realzing you have poison ivy, think think think. THE ANSWER: drumroll please..... AVOID GETTING IT. yeah, that's what the #1 treatment was in almost every site i went on. thanks. that reminds me of the time when i left my purse on my frontseat of my car and someone smashed the window and stole it and i was upset and called my mom and her advice was "you shouldn't have left your purse in your car," thanks mom, i'm just gonna hop in my time machine and go back to the moment before i left it thre, because after now having it stolen, it still didn't dawn on me that i shouldn't have left it there in the first place. REAL HELPFUL!!