I've actually just learned about the jewelweed thing trying to ID the plants on my property, but I have an awesome sanity-saving tip I learned a few years ago that I know works. (I had a really, really nasty itchy case all over my arms and legs.) Direct a hairdryer to the itchy spots and let the hot air sit there until you can't take it anymore. It'll feel super-intensely itchy while your doing it. Keep doing it until the itchy sensation goes away. You're actually exhausting your skin's histamine supply doing this and relief lasts for hours. It sounds weird, but I swear it works.

mexicanhat, thank you for the info about the correct medical terminology and the supportive words. petaloid, no it doesn't sound like he does, I will ask, and doubt that whatever he was supposed to wear around his neck was a medic alert but some drug, doesn't sound like EpiPen if that has to be injected. At the least, I could help pay for that for him, could have offered to do that already now that it has come up, when it is time to renew when it has expired, he can let me know (he's 22 now and has to take responsibility for what he can control). I also think community health might help him if he tried there. My grandmother never gave up her gardening but tried to be really careful about bees, and medical services and medications back in the 1950's were far different. I think I've been stung about 5 times in my life so people who have never been stung are fortunate indeed. Sometimes it doesn't hurt as bad for as long, depends on what part of the body and maybe the type of insect. I'd be deathly afraid of bee swarms or killer bees, try never to provoke them when I know they are there. They get in the house sometimes, and I developed a strategy to catch and release, we do need them for pollinating (one sting was from that not that bad). I would kill one if I had to, a bunch, no. If you miss, they might retaliate. They are super fast in flight when they feel trapped. And cute and furry as the yellow jackets are, there's no making buddies with them.

Will that cure work on wasps too? I never knew that yellow jackets burrowed under the ground and one day as I was trying to neaten up an azalea bed, I pulled a long branch out of the soil to cut it off, ans a whole mess of yellow jachets swarmed me. It was awful, the pain from about 25 stings all over my bidy and the itching a day or two later was almost worse! ohris \

https://www.theseniorlist.com/medication/anticholinergic-drugs/ “If you or someone you love is 60+ years and takes over-the-counter allergy, mood, or sleep aid medications, consult your doctor or pharmacist immediately. There’s a good chance the drug is an anticholinergic. These drugs are linked to dementia. The American Geriatrics Society strongly recommends avoiding over-the-counter antihistamines and other anticholinergic medications.” Please check out this list of drugs that hugely contribute to dementia. They include many over the counter drugs--everything with "PM" in it as well as Benedryl. And of course, many prescription drugs as well. The more you take, the greater your danger is of developing dementia. And if you're under 60, and you're taking these drugs, you increase your danger of developing dementia later.