Identifying poison ivy

So, I've recently realized that older poison ivy vines don't neccessarily follow the adages that I learned at girls camp: "leaflets 3, leave them be" and "the leaves look like they have a thumb". And of course I learned this the hard way: I currently have a raging case of poison ivy that's spreading all over. The rash started emerging Saturday night and by Sunday night I realized it was going to be bad enough that I'd need to go to the doctor for more ointment and meds. I've had one brush with poison ivy already this spring, but it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, since Monday was a holiday, I had to wait till Tuesday morning to call my doc for an appointment.

Poison ivy vines- big and hairy with leaves that don't look like the smaller posion ivy plants on the ground.

It actually ended up being a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone appointment, since we found out over the weekend that we all need to fill out risk assessments for TB as part of our adoption process. Grrr. We thought we had everything taken care of and then the state went and changed things and there's more we have to do now. Most of it is just little nit-picky stuff, but there is more paperwork too: the TB risk assessments, proof of auto insurance (really??), and our driving records, along with more things to document around the house.
Anyway, back to the poison ivy. Did you know that poison ivy vines can have clusters of little berries under the leaves? I didn't.

I thought they were some sort of grape vine, so took off my gloves to cut them off the trees that we built LMS's tree fort on. Definitely *not* the smartest thing I've ever done.

 big, hairy vines on several of our trees- they've obviously been growing  there for quite awhile

Despite using poison ivy scrub in the shower and using 97% rubbing alcohol, the oils are in my system, the blisters are out en masse, and I'm itching like crazy. Ok, it's actually getting better now, since I've started taking the prednisone. I took it last year, and while it does have some side effects, the itching blisters that spread all over are more than I can handle. Seriously. Sometimes I just want to start scratching and never stop because it itches so bad.

While we were working outside we saw several ticks (some of them crawling on us)- soooo icky. Ticks are unnatural creatures. Between them and the poison ivy, I rembered why I don't spend as much time outdoors as I would like. It's seriously hazardous to my health, even when I'm trying to be watchful and aware.

Does poison ivy love you as much as it loves me?