you can’t make it sure that you will never have an accident at home, on the road, in the office or outdoors. All you can do is make sure you’re prepared. Many commercial medical kits are bulky, expensive, and lack many useful pieces of equipment. Crafted for camping and hiking, handy in the trunk of a car or at work or at home.
For many of the following supplies, you’ll end up buying more than you need to pack in your medical kit, so share the cost with a few other friends as you build the kit together. your medical equipment. While your mind is getting ready, check out more of our tutorials, including 101 . hiking, Best home emergency equipmentand Necessary for emergency vehicle.
Good equipment, but knowledge plus better equipment. Train yourself so you know how and when to use everything in your medical kit. Red Cross First Aid and CPR classes inexpensive and widely available. Skip online classes and join in-person classes. If you want a more outdoor-focused option to tackle situations that aren’t covered in typical household first aid courses, I personally recommend both. NOLS . Wilderness First Aid Classes or theirs First Responders classes in the wildernesscan be found locally and are very effective teaching tools.
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medicine
Photo: REI
Organize your kit into three quart-sized Zip-Loc bags, all of which you’ll fit into a larger, gallon-sized Zip-Loc bag. Zip-Locs are waterproof, lightweight, compact and cheap. In addition, you can view the contents inside without having to open them. For a one-liter pill bag, you should include these items.
Keep a few popular over-the-counter medications in the pill box. Some helpful all-in-ones can include pain relievers, anti-diarrheals, and antihistamines, along with any other medications you normally take. Wrap a rubber band around the box to keep it from unfurling during storage. Write the expiration date of each medicine (found on the original packaging) on the sticker to stick on the box. That way you know when to replace them.
This antihistamine gel relieves insect bites and stings. After Bite comes in a tube, so you just open the cap and rub it over the affected area. It helps to relieve pain caused by mosquitoes, fire ants, black flies, bee stings, etc., as well as poison ivy. If you have or need an epinephrine pen (EpiPen) or Instant Glucose ($30)please add them to the medicine bag too.
In an emergency situation, your feet will likely be your means of transportation. If you’re going on a long outdoor trip where you might get your feet wet, you should be prepared to deal with fungal foot problems. Some fungi can not only be very painful, but if left untreated, they can become chronic health problems and even damage nerves. A small tube of cheap cream can save you a lot of problems later on.
bandage
Photo: 3M ACE
To ensure the best, plan for the worst. Bandages are useful for stopping bleeding, dressing wounds, and stabilizing the injured body part. Depending on how many you choose to bring, you may need to pack some of them yourself inside the larger gallon-sized Zip-Loc. Keep smaller items inside a quart-sized bag specifically for trauma equipment.
Compression bandages incorporate elastic material so you can pull them tight to immobilize your limbs and stop bleeding. Bring a 2-inch Ace and a 3-inch Ace ($14) so you have different sizes and buy the one with Velcro instead of the metal clip, which is difficult to use. Alternatively, you can replace a roll Cobalt ($5) instead of 2 inch Aces. It lacks Velcro and instead clings to itself.
They are used to absorb blood and stop bleeding in the case of medium to large wounds. Make sure you buy them in a variety of sizes and individually wrapped. Don’t pack the whole box into your medical kit; just a few of the different sizes. Keep them in their wrapping paper. Triangle shape, light weight tie ($10) also has many uses, such as making slings for broken arms and sucking blood. Steri-Strip ($6) will keep the incision and cut closed, and a little Transpore Medical Bandage ($5) will also hold gauze.
Burns can be extremely painful, but these pads provide significant pain relief and keep burned areas clean. Keeping the burned area moist is much more comfortable than dry dressing, and when you finally need to remove it, it won’t stick to the burned skin and tear again.
This gauze is impregnated with a hemostatic agent to help clot blood faster to stop bleeding better than regular gauze. If you decide to bring a QuikClot swab, you can exchange it for one of the larger standard swabs. Besides, Celox ($30) is a hemostatic powder with a similar effect. Both can be a lifesaver in cases of heavy, life-threatening bleeding. If you are hunting or may be around firearms where accidental shots can cause deep wounds, pick up a Celox Set ($27) includes a plunger that allows you to inject Celox powder deep into the wound groove.
toilet
Hemostasis is only part of wound management. Doing it in a hygienic manner not only helps the patient succeed by reducing the possibility of future infection, but it also makes you, the caregiver, safer from getting sick from the patient.
You should put these on before treating anyone else’s wound, if you have time. You don’t want to get any blood-borne pathogens when caring for a patient. Latex gloves aren’t used much these days because many people are allergic to latex, so buy nitrile to avoid other people’s bodily fluids getting on your hands.
These transparent wound dressings with adhesive backing are useful for keeping the wound waterproof for days on end. As it can take days from injury to evacuation, you’ll need to keep the wound and dressing dry, so the surefire way to do this is with Tegaderm. These are necessary for trips away from home, but not when you get closer to civilization. Pack a few; They weigh almost nothing.
Use sterile water from your water bottle to rinse the wound with a syringe before applying a bandage. Do not rub open wounds! It doesn’t matter whether you buy a straight or curved one, as long as it’s a 10cc or 12cc model.
You need these to prevent wound infection. Each pack combines three topical antibiotics to be applied to wounds after they have been irrigated. While they’re important in medical kits in remote areas, it’s a good idea to keep them in any medical kit, including those around the house. It’s better to apply antibiotic ointment while the wound is bandaged than to remind yourself to try to go to the store after an infection may start to enter.
Other terms
Photo: Personal tape
There are several other odds and ends that should be in the third Zip-Loc bag. These don’t fit into any particular category, but that doesn’t make them any less useful or necessary. Place a pair of tweezers and safety pins into this bag to remove debris. If you plan to use your kit in the wilderness or at work, add a few Popsicle sticks to splint your fingers.
This is the best acne treatment I have ever used. I’ve found Mole ($4) Less effective than Hydro Seal on ankles, but it can be helpful for body parts with more awkward shapes or positions, such as toes.
You don’t want to drown or burn ticks. While they will separate, they will first vomit onto your skin and potentially transmit nasty germs. While this is obvious for trips away from home, keep one in all your medical kit. Even at home, you can walk into the house after mowing the lawn or walking the dog and find yourself with a nasty bug clinging to your skin.
Tooth trauma can be extremely painful. Ask anyone who’s been to the dentist about anything other than routine teeth cleaning. Orajel safely numbs the pain. When you may have more than a few hours left to get medical care, consider bringing it dental wax ($6). Timely application of dental wax to replant a tooth in the socket can save it, not to mention protecting sensitive nerve endings from damage.
