For Nadia Caffesse, that pain came in the form of a number of tiny needles lodged in her hands, forearms and chest. In September 2006, Mrs. Caffesse, now 45, and her family were driving through Big Bend National Park in Texas, where she found herself admiring the native blind prickly pear cactuses jutting out along the rocky roadside. She was violating a cardinal rule when visiting a national park: Take only memories and leave only footprints. “They are a poetic threat.”She knew she’d made a mistake the second she grabbed the paddle of the cactus. “The pain was instant, searing and, because of the diffuse nature of all those tiny needles, unrelenting,” Mrs. Caffesse recalled.

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Persons: Nadia Caffesse, Caffesse, ”, “, she’d Organizations: Big Locations: Texas