I noticed that. Grin. I am careful to always have one of those tiny travel squeeze bottles in my Daily Carry Kit.

Personally, I believe people in this forum put way too much emphasis on medication and far too little on basic first aid, so take my comments with that in mind.

Do you actually know when to take these medications? If your diarhea is caused by food poisoning, and your body is desperately trying to get rid of the toxic gunk you just swallowed, is taking Immodium a good idea? If you took a wrong turn and got lost, and while trying to attract someone's attention you fall and gash your leg, do you really want to improvise a sterile dressing from a shirt you've been wearing for five days?

In other words, you can't improvise sterility - your dressings are either sterile or they're not. And apart from the antiseptic and painkillers, a lot of the meds you're carrying might well do more harm than good in a survival situation.

Go back to First Aid basics and ask yourself, what are the things most likely to kill you?

Shock: caused by heart problems, breathing problems, loss of blood, allergic reactions, and possibly psychological stress. Treatment: prompt and immediate first aid for the cause of shock; a blanket to keep the casualty warm; placing the casualty in the shock (semi-Fowler?) position if possible. Basically, your body is trying to heal itself; do what you can to assist it.

Severe Bleeding: Can cause shock and infection. Treat shock as above; prevent infection by the use of sterile dressings.

etc. etc.

If the point of this mini-FAK is to have it when your main FAK isn't readily available, it makes no sense to me to stock it with stuff to treat non-life-threatening illnesses, or worse, stuff that might make a serious illness/injury worse.

Also, there's a tendency in this forum to treat life-saving supplies like items on a checklist. The book says I should carry sterile dressings; okay, I have two 2x2 sterile dressings - check. They're not much good if you fall and rip all the skin off your forearm from the wrist to the elbow, but you've got the tick in the box so you can carry on. To me, this is the equivalent of taking a couple of waterproofed strike-anywhere matches and saying "Okay, I've got everything I need to start a fire, what next?"

Maybe, instead of simply listing every OTC medicine you think you might need, ask yourself "What's the worst that can happen to me if I take this? What's the worst that can happen if I leave it behind?"

Good points, but I'm not too sure if i agree with you 100% - practical knowlage is extremely important, yet the gear that you use to apply that knowlage is also important.

I have been pondering over the use of small band-aids (and a lot o other equipment) in a PSK. I still don't know the answers to many of my questions, so i will continue to carry what other people (experts?) suggest. Untill i can answer these personal question, I would rather carry something that i probably want NEED, than not have it when I need it.

Quote" <<Do you actually know when to take these medications?>>

Yes I do. I have a level 3 first aid qualification, I have 350+ hours of experience in varied environments, I come from a medical family and often our supper time conversations include "wilderness medicine/first aid" (I get my love of the outdoors from my father).

Quote: <<If you took a wrong turn and got lost, and while trying to attract someone's attention you fall and gash your leg, do you really want to improvise a sterile dressing from a shirt you've been wearing for five days?>>

No, but I also can't carry a a sterile dressing that size. I can carry a small bit of moleskin to treat blister on feet which could fester and become infected if not treated. If you can't use your feet properl;y in a survival sitution i'd think your chances odf survival diminsh greatly.

Quote: <<Basically, your body is trying to heal itself; do what you can to assist it.>>

I agree. How can you help your body heal itself? By apllying you knowlage and using the equipment you have with you. You cannot carry a fully equipped jump-bag with you when you go hiking. but you still can carry minimal gear in a small first aid kit. Your first aid kit will also be adapted to the anticipated environment.

quote: <<Maybe, instead of simply listing every OTC medicine you think you might need, ask yourself "What's the worst that can happen to me if I take this? What's the worst that can happen if I leave it behind?">>

The point of this thread is to discuss exactly that.

I hope I don't sound like I am attacking you, because I most definantly am not. Just a difference in opinions.

Think about what your going to be doing on a regular basis. Think about the kind of things that might go wrong. I spend most of my time in urban/suburban areas, and need to deal with minor cuts and scrapes more than anything else. I believe Doug has a section on first aid kits, and recommends having an assortment of band aids, different sizes, as well as the various types for knuckles and fingertips. I've found that to be quite useful, and for me, those are what I use the most. I also keep some meds in my FAK, a few OTC pain killers and some benadril (since I'im very allergic to cats, and never know when I might bump into somebody that has cats). As far as keeping a full supply of meds, I think thats better suited to a larger first aid kit, one that stays in the back pack or such. I look at my altoids tin FAK as something that can hold me over until I can get to my bigger FAK. Also, something that I just tried is vacume sealing items in the altoids tin. I have a stack of 8 2x2 guaze pads, and they took up a lot of space before. Now I have them vacume sealed in a single pouch (they are still in their wrappers) and they take up much less space.

A majority of my meds are for comfort or false peice of mind.

I totally agree with what you are saying. In a lot of cases I can use my two bandannas or bare hands to apply pressure to stop what I call medium level bleeding, not artery and small area. They are in no way sterile, but when help is only a day or two away this makes little difference. You could die pretty fast from blood loss but most infections take longer to kill.

I also keep a small zip lock bag of aspirin and band aids just to keep the other hundred unfortunate people from knowing about my real first aid supplies. With small children these can be a real life saver because bandaids will cure any small imagined cut.

My real first aid kit is heavey on life-saving bandages such as trau-medics. I use stacks of gauze and stretch gauze to treat smaller wounds. I have no bandaids whatsoever in any of my real kits. Everything is kept in original packaging then vacumm sealed to help keep them sterile. Sterility can always be compromised but this gives me a better survivability curve.

I keep some bandages, gloves, and CPR mask where I can get to them in a hurry.

I might not die from diarreah but I have had it so bad that a couple of immodium could have saved my life if water had been in short supply. No I might take them and make matters worse if I really had no clue what caused it. Hopefully I can make a good guess from a sample of stool or what I have been putting in my body. I'm not a perfect expert so mistakes are a possibiliy but this goes towards all areas of surviva.

I agree that many meds will make situations worse, but mine are geared towards minor injuries where I just want to be more comfortable. In a real survival situation I will treat conditions as I have been trained, have practised, and have done in the past.

One final note. Most FAKs I have seen have no real life saving gear. I am guilty of copying Doug's PSK by keeping Vicodin ES and Zithromax in my kit. No they won't save my life but are their to give me that 1% edge over the situation. I have used and seen the results from these meds many times over and I still have the beliuef that they will help. This belief will probably aleviate some of my fear in a survival situation enough to help me out with that critical 1%. I think most FAKs are geared towards everyday comfort supplies and these people should either state the true reason for these kits or take a long hard look at the true necessities of first aid.

I whole heartedly agree with this.

Basic first aid saves lives. Not a dig at any one in particular on this forum, but some people seem to get the attitude, "I'm better than that so I don't need to do the basic stuff". Unfortunatly this attitude can cost people their lives.

Remember

[color:"red"]A[/color]irway
[color:"red"]B[/color]reathing
[color:"red"]C[/color]irculation

The only Drug I would consider carrying in a first aid kit is Asprin.



Again, I agre with this.

On duty I normally carry a small bag with large dressings, a few triangluars, OP Airways and some sterile pads and tape for wounds in awkward places to bandage. If the person only needs a plaster, they can wait.

Chris

Most basic first aid courses are normally written with the assumption that you have no kit with you.



IMHO, Not worth worrying about until you've covered the ABCs.



You'll have to excuse me, I'm British. What is a level 3 First Aid Qualification. We have different Qual levels over here.

Chris

*Level 1 - Entry level first aid ( 2 day course)
*level 3 - "advanced' first aid (5 day course)
*BAA - Basic Ambulance Assistant (an ambulance driver)
*I forget the next level, but it is an advanced BAA
*Paramedic

Level 3 is the highest "first aid" qualification. I hope that gives you an idea of our qualifications.

Everything that you, survivalperson and aardwolfe have posted, I agree with. I have taken most of what you said into consideration when designing my FAK and other systems. I call them systems, because they don't function as a kit by themselves.

EG. EDC + PSK + Hip Pouch = a system

I am in the process of tinkering with these systems, and trying to find the best to suit my conditions.

As I re-read my post, I can still see that I am not explaining myself very well <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Oh well, keep the comments coming <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

BTW, how do you do that "in reply to" with the small writing and formatting?

Wow. Looking back at my original list of FAK items, i really should have thought a bit more before just posting <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

WOFT, do not feel bad about your post. How else will you learn? Irregardless of how you feel about the post or comments some people make. The important thing here is that you learn knowledge, which in turn empowers you. As Doug and many others have said; the number one survival tool is our brains. Your training in first aid is invaluable. Who knows when you will save a life, even if it is your own? I carry what I do from experience and my training. You may have noticed I carry a bare minimum of medications with me. What I have is mostly for me. I carry no antibiotics, or other than Motrin I have no painkillers. Looking over Doug’s list (drawing on his experience) you will notice his listing for antibiotics (Zithromax) and painkillers (Vicodin), but may also note that here in the U.S. you need a prescription for both. If carrying these items makes you feel better please do so by all means. Also ask the doctors here about carrying these. Most likely you will get a different answer even though these fine gentlemen have M.D. behind their names. Such is the nature of medicine.