What Should Go in a First Aid Kit?

[Neto]

Antibiotic ointment seems to have gone out of style. The last time I went in to be stitched up they did no antibiotic treatment at all, just let it bleed out, washed it with sterile water and closed it up.

Same with hydrogen peroxide. Cleveland Clinic says it has fallen out of favor as a wound cleanser. "It irritates the skin and can prevent the wound from healing. Essentially, it can do more harm than good."

Well, I suppose I'm not as qualified as the Cleveland Clinic but hydrogen peroxide has worked pretty well for me. Every once in a while I have a scratch that's starts to become infected. I scrape it open and wash it out with peroxide. Never fails to clear up the infection.
Some folks make the mistake of using it repeatedly over the course of days as if it's a salve or something. That is known to prevent healing.

Copaiba oil is also a great antiseptic, one that I've used on burns (not talking sunburn, a real burn) and I didn't even get a blister. Best story I have about it is that one of the Banawa men was chopping a fallen tree to clear the river, and chopped off the two toes next to his big toe. (He had one foot on the front of the dugout canoe, and the other on the log he was chopping.) The ax glanced off of the tree, and hit between his big toe and the next one, severing the bones and leaving the two toes dangling by the flesh over to the next toe. They poured Copaiba oil on the wound and tied an old rag around his foot to keep the toes in place. It healed, leaving the two permanently numb toes, with a scar that went around from the bottom of his foot over across the top. I have a small bottle of it that I got from a Deni Indian, a related language to the Banawa. It appears to help with poison ivy as well, but doesn't prevent some minor itching.

[Neto]

Wife: I will do the car first. I think it would be helpful for you to have ibuprofen and or Tylenol in there. I don’t know that the thermometer is that big of a deal because you can usually feel if they are sick, but you can always have one in there. I personally think an antihistamine if there’s a remote chance of them having allergies, and I’ve also found that it’s helpful with miserable ant bites or bee stings even if you don’t have a proper allergy. At least have it at your house, and I would recommend something nondrowsy, possibly in addition to drowsy. Cough syrup is always useful at home.

Water is pretty important in the car, and maybe bring some easy food along with you just in case anyone decides they are in the mood to barf, as well as something for them to do it in and maybe spare clothes. Also, wet wipes and paper towels are always useful.

I personally would have some sort of antibiotic cream. I kind of liked the ones with pain relievers, because that was really nice when I ended up scraping up my knees horribly at the Costco parking lot a good distance away from our place. Maybe some rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, although I think peroxide has done out of style. I did actually buy some a couple days ago when we were out fishing because it had a nice spray bottle at the Dollar tree.

If there’s any chance of you doing CPR on anyone, one of those cpr masks might be useful. They are teaching it without rescue breathing, because they just want people to be willing to do it, but the rescue breaths will definitely improve a person’s chances, and it will be less gross, and especially since they will likely barf.

Jump starter/tire inflator, and some flares. I think they actually sell kits so you can see what those include.

And whatever you do, don’t make my grandma mad by driving around in the fall through spring without a bunch of blankets in your car.

For auto safety (not personal injury), a fire extinguisher. (Also required by law for every vehicle in Brazil.)

I think you can't get it anywhere anymore, but I still have a small bottle of Merthiolade (tincture antiseptic). Back home in Oklahoma we called it 'monkey blood'.

[Soloist]

Wife: I will do the car first. I think it would be helpful for you to have ibuprofen and or Tylenol in there. I don’t know that the thermometer is that big of a deal because you can usually feel if they are sick, but you can always have one in there. I personally think an antihistamine if there’s a remote chance of them having allergies, and I’ve also found that it’s helpful with miserable ant bites or bee stings even if you don’t have a proper allergy. At least have it at your house, and I would recommend something nondrowsy, possibly in addition to drowsy. Cough syrup is always useful at home.

Water is pretty important in the car, and maybe bring some easy food along with you just in case anyone decides they are in the mood to barf, as well as something for them to do it in and maybe spare clothes. Also, wet wipes and paper towels are always useful.

I personally would have some sort of antibiotic cream. I kind of liked the ones with pain relievers, because that was really nice when I ended up scraping up my knees horribly at the Costco parking lot a good distance away from our place. Maybe some rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, although I think peroxide has done out of style. I did actually buy some a couple days ago when we were out fishing because it had a nice spray bottle at the Dollar tree.

If there’s any chance of you doing CPR on anyone, one of those cpr masks might be useful. They are teaching it without rescue breathing, because they just want people to be willing to do it, but the rescue breaths will definitely improve a person’s chances, and it will be less gross, and especially since they will likely barf.

Jump starter/tire inflator, and some flares. I think they actually sell kits so you can see what those include.

And whatever you do, don’t make my grandma mad by driving around in the fall through spring without a bunch of blankets in your car.

For auto safety (not personal injury), a fire extinguisher. (Also required by law for every vehicle in Brazil.)

I think you can't get it anywhere anymore, but I still have a small bottle of Merthiolade (tincture antiseptic). Back home in Oklahoma we called it 'monkey blood'.

Wife: I should not have forgotten that. If you’re worried about it for your vehicle, you probably want to get the types that are safe for vehicles, and doesn’t damage your engine, but I personally think effectiveness would probably be more important. I pulled over last summer by the side of the road in some grass that hadn’t been mowed and then we saw smoke and so Soloist ended up beating down a little brush fire with the canvas bag from our jumper cables. Turns out it was from the exhaust pipe and the dry grass.

[Neto]

Wife: I will do the car first. I think it would be helpful for you to have ibuprofen and or Tylenol in there. I don’t know that the thermometer is that big of a deal because you can usually feel if they are sick, but you can always have one in there. I personally think an antihistamine if there’s a remote chance of them having allergies, and I’ve also found that it’s helpful with miserable ant bites or bee stings even if you don’t have a proper allergy. At least have it at your house, and I would recommend something nondrowsy, possibly in addition to drowsy. Cough syrup is always useful at home.

Water is pretty important in the car, and maybe bring some easy food along with you just in case anyone decides they are in the mood to barf, as well as something for them to do it in and maybe spare clothes. Also, wet wipes and paper towels are always useful.

I personally would have some sort of antibiotic cream. I kind of liked the ones with pain relievers, because that was really nice when I ended up scraping up my knees horribly at the Costco parking lot a good distance away from our place. Maybe some rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, although I think peroxide has done out of style. I did actually buy some a couple days ago when we were out fishing because it had a nice spray bottle at the Dollar tree.

If there’s any chance of you doing CPR on anyone, one of those cpr masks might be useful. They are teaching it without rescue breathing, because they just want people to be willing to do it, but the rescue breaths will definitely improve a person’s chances, and it will be less gross, and especially since they will likely barf.

Jump starter/tire inflator, and some flares. I think they actually sell kits so you can see what those include.

And whatever you do, don’t make my grandma mad by driving around in the fall through spring without a bunch of blankets in your car.

For auto safety (not personal injury), a fire extinguisher. (Also required by law for every vehicle in Brazil.)

I think you can't get it anywhere anymore, but I still have a small bottle of Merthiolade (tincture antiseptic). Back home in Oklahoma we called it 'monkey blood'.

Wife: I should not have forgotten that. If you’re worried about it for your vehicle, you probably want to get the types that are safe for vehicles, and doesn’t damage your engine, but I personally think effectiveness would probably be more important. I pulled over last summer by the side of the road in some grass that hadn’t been mowed and then we saw smoke and so Soloist ended up beating down a little brush fire with the canvas bag from our jumper cables. Turns out it was from the exhaust pipe and the dry grass.

Possibly the catalytic converter? Back when that was a new thing on vehicles, there was more than a few serious fires during wheat harvest. The wife would bring lunch out to the harvest crew, and drive out to where the combine was, just as had always been done. Those deals get a lot hotter than an exhaust pipe or muffler ever did, and soon the stubble caught fire. Sometimes they were not able to get the combine out of the field in time, and everything burned.

[the-real-steve]

In my IFAC (individual first aid kit) I have a trauma shears, tourniquet, electrical tape and some type of narcotic pain killer. Solves most problems, at least until you can get yourself into a better place and better treatment.

[temporal1]

In my IFAC (individual first aid kit) I have a trauma shears, tourniquet, electrical tape and some type of narcotic pain killer. Solves most problems, at least until you can get yourself into a better place and better treatment.

First Aid. Not Last Aid.

[Bootstrap]

For most real-world injuries, a stack of 4x4 gauze, rolled gauze, and good cloth tape are really helpful. Most first aid kits don't have these things.

[temporal1]

2023 / The Dog that Bit People
https://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?t=6113

[barnhart]

Antibiotic ointment seems to have gone out of style. The last time I went in to be stitched up they did no antibiotic treatment at all, just let it bleed out, washed it with sterile water and closed it up.

Same with hydrogen peroxide. Cleveland Clinic says it has fallen out of favor as a wound cleanser. "It irritates the skin and can prevent the wound from healing. Essentially, it can do more harm than good."

When I was a boy we treated cuts and scrapes that could be reasonably covered with bandages with the three day method. Let it bleed out a little, cover it up and leave it alone until the third day unless it gets red, painful or swollen. As long as infection doesn't set in this works fine. We called it "let it stew in it's own juice". Sometimes opening it up can disturb the wound and expose it to new infection.

[Neto]

Antibiotic ointment seems to have gone out of style. The last time I went in to be stitched up they did no antibiotic treatment at all, just let it bleed out, washed it with sterile water and closed it up.

Same with hydrogen peroxide. Cleveland Clinic says it has fallen out of favor as a wound cleanser. "It irritates the skin and can prevent the wound from healing. Essentially, it can do more harm than good."

When I was a boy we treated cuts and scrapes that could be reasonably covered with bandages with the three day method. Let it bleed out a little, cover it up and leave it alone until the third day unless it gets red, painful or swollen. As long as infection doesn't set in this works fine. We called it "let it stew in it's own juice". Sometimes opening it up can disturb the wound and expose it to new infection.

Anyone (else) here ever have lymphatic poisoning? (We called it 'blood poisoning', but it's not that at all. Blood poisoning would be extremely serious.)
As a child I had a red streak that started at a deep puncture wound on the bottom of my foot (rusty nail) and ran up the inside of my ankle, to (as I recall now) just above my ankle bone. Treated with a hot water & Epsom Salt 'bath' for around 45 minutes. The poison was drawn out by the end of this time. (I don't know how old I was, just that it was before the age of 9, when we moved to a new house. I have a scar there from the puncture wound.)