Well I did the thing that you never think yourself careless enough to do.

I stepped on the rusty old nail. When it happened, it didn’t hurt at all, my brain just said “you just stepped on a nail”. I was carried over the threshold into the house, with blood gushing out, my sock quickly turning from white to red.

My shoe, still standing on the nail, was able to tell me that the nail went 2″ in. GOD! The plank was under leaves and the nail was maliciously sticking itself up just waiting and waiting… like a spindle on a wheel or a poison apple…

Cleared the kitchen counter and threw myself up there, hefting my foot over the sink – first reach was Goldenseal tincture right into the wound, then right into the mouth. Didn’t mind the taste at all when usually it makes me flail and flince like a flounder. Next I am furiously reading through
Matthew Wood’s Book of Herbal Wisdom – tetanus, tetanus, tetanus (I have not
had my tetanus shot) – and its in the index… Plantago Major. Good for blood poisons. OK! Plantain tincture, directly into the puncture, then down the hatch. The tincture burned into my foot, “JESUS!”, well at least I know I’m not in shock anymore and now I am beginning to feel the pain. The stinging told me it went all the way into the wound, sometimes the things that hurt the most are the best for us… After that, we couldn’t find the Hydrogen Peroxide, so straight vodka over the whole wound.

Next comes bandaging issues. I used Carolyn Kelley’s First Aid Powder to make that “herbal skin” in order to close the puncture wound as infection free as
possible. I know her powder has Goldenseal in it so used that each time I
changed the band-aid.

Now the hole is just a scab and the inside of my foot is still tender, I
have no red lines indicative of tetanus. I am definitely staying alkalized
with teas and green foods right along to ensure nothing starts inside.

I did confirm later that Michael Moore recommends Hydrastasis as a standard for puncture wounds (Goldenseal).

I am still watching it and nursing the foot. It slowed me down for sure
which may have been what I needed, something worse could have happened.

That’s the LONG version!

Adventures in Herbalism and Life… affirming my bodily existence in many ways!