Me and poison ivy/oak go way back.
In the past few years i have been using Fells-Naptha soap.
Says on the package that you are not supposed to use it on your skin. Call me crazy, I do it anyway.
Found out about it on the internet. Look it up for treatment.
As far as I know what it does is dry out the affected area and keep any residual poison from spreading out of the sores.
Get a corner of the soap bar moist and rub it on the affected area. Let it sit there until the soap dries on your skin (bout a minute) and then rinse off.
Do this a couple of times a day and don't scratch the rash. Keep it exposed, also. Don't cover it up.
Shit works and it's dirt cheap. Last episode I had was over with, in just a couple of days.
To combat the itching, the best thing to do is to run very hot water on the rash. As hot as you can stand and then a bit more.
Should feel like it's gonna burn you, but not quite there. Let the hot water run on it until it doesn't feel so hot anymore.
This really numbs the skin and gives me a good three or four hours of no itch. Enough to get some good sleep.
Recovering from poison ivy/oak is a game of preventing contamination. The best you can hope for is stopping the spread and letting your body do it's thing to recover.