home first aid kit

[unsure]

i picked up a bargain on ebay this week , 72 large wound dressings for a fiver delivered . ok a shortish date on them but put them in a vacume bag and i can`t see a problem with that

[hobo]

Had a major purge of old first aid and med items from the house today, now replaced by a St John Ambulance Zenith Statutory 20-Person First Aid Kit + lots of customised additions from Wilkos. Should keep us going for a bit.
Why so big a kit just for 4 of us? Well, my eldest went through several boxes of sterile pads, plenty of TCP and cotton wool to patch himself up after a school hockey match on Friday!
Better to have and not need etc.
All 4 of us are booking onto a first aid course ASAP. My certificate has run out (and I've forgotten everything) and I've finally persuaded the OH and 2 teenagers to get trained up

[Stasher]

Wife is a Paramedic so I asked her to come up with a list of must haves in a FAK to cover most eventualities. After removing the specialist bits like O2 and morphine we ended up with this:

Bandages
Steri strips
Water gel
Foil blanket with fleece
Tremadol
Ibuprofen
Calpol
Cocodamol
Paracetamol
Anti-histamine
Gloves

Our home one is stored in a Tupperware box and the travel one is keep in a toiletry bag.

Sorry, joining the party late here............

I thought tramadol was a restricted drug? Also I would personally not include ibuprofen as it's an nsaid which means (essentially) that if someone has an ulcer it's a really really really bad thing to give them (unless of course it's for family use only and no one has an ulcer )

As we travel to some 'off the beaten track' locations on a fairly regular basis I have always (by that I mean since I was 17 and first flew off to a country with a less than excellent health service) had a steri kit in the stash. These kits include all sorts of things like needles that are not easily available to get hold of. I then just add to the kit all the bits and pieces I think are missing (like sting relief, extra germolene, irripods, mega pain relief etc etc) It comes in a handy little bag which is easily stuffed full with other bits and pieces and as a result has become my grab bag when there is blood in the household. I would never expect a bought FAK to fulfill my needs, I view it as the foundation of my FAK

[Lanky Yankee]

You can buy tramadol OTC, but it's a low dose just like co-codamol and co-ibuprofen. I would always jeep ibuprofen in a fak as it's a great anti-inflammatory. You can get coated ones that are not bad with ulcers but unless you are taking them over an extended period of time, again it shouldn't be an issue. People with asthma might have a problem though.

My carry fak is in a tupper ware and has

10 gauze packs
4 dressings
4 triangle bandages
Glue
Stereo strips
Ibuprofen
Co-codamol
Duct tape
Scissors
Tweezers
Alcohol gel
Soap
10ml syringe
18 ga cannula (to irrigate wounds)

With this I can treat most minor trauma and dress/close wounds. Also it's not a lot of weight for my bag.

My home kit is enough to do minor surgery and treat longer term but that's for another post

[prepperG]

Hi its great to see people thinking about first aid training and having a fa kit at home.
Manclife i am a paramedic and would have come up with a very similar list so it did make me chuckle..
a first aid kit is of little use if it has a ton of plasters and bandages the things that are used the most are medications and knowing when to see a doctor or when it is an emergency.
the mountain leader first aid kit is expensive but gives you a good idea of what to carry for a family size group and is compact for easy bob group carry. i have used one for 20 years and find it quite handy.
add to that a thermometer and drugs.

[Stasher]

You can buy tramadol OTC, but it's a low dose just like co-codamol and co-ibuprofen. I would always jeep ibuprofen in a fak as it's a great anti-inflammatory. You can get coated ones that are not bad with ulcers but unless you are taking them over an extended period of time, again it shouldn't be an issue. People with asthma might have a problem though.

My carry fak is in a tupper ware and has

10 gauze packs
4 dressings
4 triangle bandages
Glue
Stereo strips
Ibuprofen
Co-codamol
Duct tape
Scissors
Tweezers
Alcohol gel
Soap
10ml syringe
18 ga cannula (to irrigate wounds)

With this I can treat most minor trauma and dress/close wounds. Also it's not a lot of weight for my bag.

My home kit is enough to do minor surgery and treat longer term but that's for another post

Ooo, I never knew that! I understood they were just BAD. Thanks for the advice

Also I love the glue and duct tape. So simple. So effective. Will add to the bag

Thanks!

[Yorkshire Andy]

You can buy tramadol OTC, but it's a low dose just like co-codamol and co-ibuprofen. I would always jeep ibuprofen in a fak as it's a great anti-inflammatory. You can get coated ones that are not bad with ulcers but unless you are taking them over an extended period of time, again it shouldn't be an issue. People with asthma might have a problem though.

My carry fak is in a tupper ware and has

10 gauze packs
4 dressings
4 triangle bandages
Glue
Stereo strips
Ibuprofen
Co-codamol
Duct tape
Scissors
Tweezers
Alcohol gel
Soap
10ml syringe
18 ga cannula (to irrigate wounds)

With this I can treat most minor trauma and dress/close wounds. Also it's not a lot of weight for my bag.

My home kit is enough to do minor surgery and treat longer term but that's for another post

Whats the score (no drug related pun intended) with getting tramadol / co-codamol stuff OTC its Pharmacy only isnt it im assuming they dont look fondly on people walking in and asking for a box of each to put in their first aid kit do they?

the Girl friend can suffer major migrains (has had a couple of thunder clap's) so having some in stock will be handy but is their a restriction on buying them remember a few years ago been looked at with horror as i said i wanted the biggest syringe and needle they had to inject wall paper paste into the bubbles in the wall paper as they flatly refused to sell me one


im in the middle of camping prepping along side my big FAK i carry in the car viewtopic.php?f=19&t=10154#p110751

and my smaller hiking kit i have begun adding to the drug side

[Lanky Yankee]

Whats the score (no drug related pun intended) with getting tramadol / co-codamol stuff OTC its Pharmacy only isnt it im assuming they dont look fondly on people walking in and asking for a box of each to put in their first aid kit do they?

Yes just go up to the pharmacy desk and ask for it. They will be low dose stuff, not the high dose the Gp prescribes. It still works well though. I had a bad tooth infection and they worked great until the antibiotics kicked in.