Stinging Nettles or Spearmint?

I'm embarrassed to share this, but I thought my herbalist friends would get a good laugh.

Yesterday, I had another dental appointment...*sigh*  I don't know why this keeps getting more and more complicate and difficult but it does.  I had two teeth prepped for crowns, two weeks ago...one had to have a "Pulp Cap" done...which left it super hyper sensitive.  Thus, I've not been able to chew on that side and I've been experiencing intermittent pain.  They wanted me to come back today for an evaluation.  When it was all over I'm left with needing another root canal on one of them and left waiting to see if the Pulp Cap takes on the other.  Deep breath....just breathe... I kept telling myself.  But despite trying to keep it together I couldn't help but cry on the drive home.

One of my many hikes with my then 3mo old, now 17yr son

As I was driving home the mountains called to me...

and I turned off and headed up La Plata Canyon. A gorgeous mountainous area where I have done a lot of hiking throughout my years here in Southwest Colorado.  The feeling that I had of not being able to breathe and feeling like running away from it all...all this debt we are getting into, all this pain and dental work... started to alleviate as I drove deep into the mountains.  I had the boys with me, it's been a while since we've been 4 wheel driving, so needless to say they loved the rough terrain and they were having a blast.

We came up to a wonderful little water fall, where of course, I felt called to step into barefoot and let it wash away all this anguish I felt, help me release and ground.

As we were driving back I was drawn to the woodlands and so we parked and walked across the meadow.  

Mind you...usually when I venture into the Mountains, I wear proper attire...this was a spur of the moment thing and I had capris and sandals.   As I was walking through the meadow I saw these green ovalish leaves that reminded me of wild Spearmint...I was so drawn to them that I walk right through them thinking I should pick some.  The moment that thought crossed my mind, I felt the stinging and burning.  My first thought was did I step into a red ant mound?  The boys were with me but they had jeans and tennis shoes on, so they were fine.  Of course there was other grasses and vegetation around there and I couldn't pin point what stung me.  Needless to say it burn and stung all the way walking through the woodlands and back to the car.

I washed it off with some water we had in the car but I didn't help I couldn't wait to get home to shower and attend too it.  Once I got home, I got that I should use some tape and see if there were any little stingers that needed to be removed, I washed the area and put aloe on it to calm it down.

Then it dawned on me...Stinging Nettles...it wasn't Spearmint, it was nettles! 

Little did I know, and not after doing a little research on the Internet, did I find out that right next to them was a weed called Dock Plant...who's leaves would have taken care of the stinging and burning until I got home to tend to it.  I also found that Stinging Nettles consist of 3 chemicals...a histamine that will irritate the skin, acetylcholine which causes the burning feeling and serotonin.  I learned that it is a medicinal herb with a variety of uses, one of which is to open constricted bronchial and alleviate   Asthma, which I've been struggling with lately on my C25K journey.

I also learned that a paste made from Baking Soda and water, put on the rash neutralizes it and provides quick relief.  For the most part it felt better but I still have a few places I've had to reapply the paste.  Pretty huh?  At least I'm no longer in pain.

As I sat there enjoying the relief...I got to thinking...

Was this the Faeries' way to show me I can get some healing from the medicinal use of Stinging Nettles...

Hmmm totally worth looking into...though next time I'd prefer a more subtle message...lol

Have you had any experience with the Medicinal use of Stinging Nettles?