Medical Stuff

[riversong]

Our dear cousins have this "Beans, Band Aids and Bullets" slogan. I wanted to open a thread regarding the first aid bit.
Anyone want to contribute to this? What's in your box?

The firs thing is to go on a course. If you can get it funded, so much the better. I've got someone to fund me on a 3-day St Johns course- Nice!

I am personally one of those zillions of people who have type 2 diabetes. I'm not insulin dependant but my doctor is suggesting it. I dont want to go that route - I would much prefer to beat it.

I'm trying cinnamon and will let you know if my blood sugars reduce.

If you have any regular medication then you may ask for a repeat after 3 weeks rather than 4 and see what they say.
Mine say nothing and after a while, I can vacu pack some away !

Similarly i've been sitting with a close friend who died at home of lung cancer. After they took his bodu away, I said to the nurse, "Are you going to take all these drugs away?" --- "Oh no" she said. "We are not allowed. Once they are in a patients home they cant be taken away. You need to bag them all up and take them to a pharmacy for disposal".

WTF

So I take to the pharmacy all the harmless stuff like paracetamol, but I now have a supply of oral morphione and very large doses of dia-morphine. So useful !!

I'll be updating with stuff

[ForgeCorvus]

My take, I buy the cheapest OTC meds I can find as long as they are B.P. registered
As many different types of painkillers as I can manage (I know three people who can't take one or another OTC pain-med)
Laxatives: to un-bung you
Loperimide(?): to bung you up
Anti-histamines (these are really important)
Anti-septic cream....Bonus points if its also a local painkiller
Anti-fungal cream
Burn cream
Pain-killer gel: sometimes you don't need to pop a tab
Burn gel: the stuff for rapid cooling of the burn-site
Dressings: loads of different sizes, both self-adhesive and non
Bandages: kerlix, woven and crepe
Tape: micropur and surgical
Wipes: Alcohol free
Sticking plasters: hopefully these are the only things you'll use
Gloves: more then three pairs
..... There is always room for a massive trauma pad in any kit, you just hope you'll never need it.

This is by no means a complete list, just what I can remember off the top of my head.

I quit smoking a few months back, however I'm still budgeting for my tobacco money. When I have enough saved I'm spending it on a course

[TwoDo]

Medical thermometer is an absolute necessity. However, finding an old style one that isn't electronic and doesn't require batteries isn't all that easy. Looking for vintage ones on ebay is a good bet.

[ForgeCorvus]

The colour changing foil ones are not too precise* but better then nothing

*or so I was told a few years back...newer ones maybe better

[24942895]

I have a few medical / first aid boxes but a complete list includes (minus the things I don't remember, as I'm going by memory from the bath!):

Sanitary towels & duct tape.
NATO field dressings.
Sharpie
Head torch
Glowstick wristbands
Mylar/foil blankets
Emt shears
Saline bottles.
Tweezers
Steristrips
Suture sets
Loads of bandages & dressings
Tape
Codeine
Co-codamol
Paracetamol
Aspirin
Ibuprofen
Antihistamines
Various creams and gels for local pain relief, disinfecting, burns gel etc.
Alcohol & non-alcohol wipes
Alcohol gel
Liquid anti bacterial soap
Heat pads
Blood pressure monitor
Heart rate monitor
Blood glucose monitor
Sugar tabs/sweets
A box of plasters with cartoon characters on.

I need to add:
Reference books
Antibiotics
Surgical stapler
Coagulant
Thermometer
A refresher course

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

[sg4]

nice list. i have a scalpal and several tweezers, trying to get surgical scrubbing brush for removing dead tissue and cleaning. cool packs for swelling and apple juice for any diabetics. dont forget gaffa tape, it fixes everything

[madgaz]

I'm currently trained as a St John first aider, so have the basic knowledge. This will hopefully be progressed to advanced first aid in the coming 12 months or so.

I'm a bit like a first aid kit magpie, in the fact I have way more than i could need under 'normal' circumstances.

Home Bargains is often quite good for cheap deals. They usually have some little first aid pouches for about 79p (I think) which include plasters, steri-strips, burn gel, wipes etc. I must have a few dozen of these spread about the place.
I have a grab bag type first aid kit which includes tuff cuts, combat application tourniquet, israeli field dressings, tapes, burn gel sachets (the wife tends to bring me a dozen or so sachets home fron work every week ) cool/compress bandages, normal dressings and meds such as asprin, paracetamols, ibuprofen and antihistamines.
I have in my man cave approximately 25 israeli fields dressings/ffd's, more tuff cuts, more burn gels, approximately 3 boxes of roughly the size of a carrier bag (if that makes sense) of various dressings/plasters/tapes etc.
I also have a general household FA kit downstairs and 4 or 5 pre-made kits aling the lines of the life systems and highlander kits.

[poppypiesdad]

So I take to the pharmacy all the harmless stuff like paracetamol, but I now have a supply of oral morphione and very large doses of dia-morphine.

Good luck with that if anyone in authority catches you with Controlled Drugs not in your name . And indulge me ,in what situation you give someone oramorph or diamorph or even take it yourself ?
J

To add to the list

Pulse oximeter

J

[TwoDo]

So I take to the pharmacy all the harmless stuff like paracetamol, but I now have a supply of oral morphione and very large doses of dia-morphine. So useful !!

Diamorphine is just the scientific name for heroin. Medical grade heroin, but heroin none-the-less. All the addicts know this and so I would not mention it down the pub you could be placing your family in danger if word got round to the wrong ears.

As PoppiePiesDad said these are controlled substances. However, it is possible to imagine scenarios in which the supply of painkillers dries up (like Greece right now) but the Doctors still prescribe it and it is up to you to find it.

[riversong]

When all my other painkillers don't work ranging from Paracetamol/Ibuprofen/cocodamol 30/500
though to a few stronger things then a 5ml teaspoon of oral morph will help.

If i'm in a situation when someone has broken a leg or is dying then subcuteanous or iv diamorphine will make them comfortable.

I wouldn't be averse to injecting 200mg of diapmorhine to put someone out of their misery.