Stargazer wrote:


JohnN wrote:


I was at the dog park the other day and my dog got some grass seeds in her eye. I nabbed my FAK and used some of these eye drop ampules to flush them out.

So I go to re-fill the used items. The particular ones I have are called Bion Tears. They come in a box with little foil packets. The foil packets contain four individually sealed ampules.

When opening the foil packet, I notice the following note: "Use all containers within four days of opening pouch."

Why would they go bad?

Are they safe to use? I really just need sterile saline, but I figured these would be OK too since they are ment to be safe to put in your eyes. Hmm.

Thoughts?

BTW, I'm still pretty happy with my current EDC FAK. At this point I don't tend to carry the gloves anymore, but will probably revisit that when I can get myself some individual packaged gloves so I don't always have to try to stuff them in there.

Thanks,

-john

Sometimes the word overkill comes to mind when trying to plan any type of kit from fak to edc or b.o.b. In your case here are some suggestions:
-small scissors could be replaced by SAK or multi tool ones
-meds-really consider whats most freq. used day to day for your "daily carry"
-coflex is a great product that combines the usefulness of tape with the coverage of "kling" gauze
-thermometer-best for car fak or long term situation-hot is hot and cold is cold right? If you ever suspect fever, a theraputic dose of tylenol wouldnt hurt the average person
-steri strips -if applies properly are the same as a butterfly
-bandaids-stick to regular size and large-the round dots are useless for most applications
-burn pad is nice but again if your going for light weight and or alternatives it could be skipped
-gloves-at least 2 pair-what if one tears? they also could be used for emergency water bucket
-tweezers could be carried as part of sak but again here the razor blade or even a sterlized safety pin could be used to dislodge a splinter
-gloves can be rolled from fingers inward then tuck the roll inside itself (cuff of glove) you could even use a rubberband to hold the roll together
Hope this helps...........

An out of the box idea;

I always pack a bit of "survival" stuff in the corners of my first aid kits -- water tablets, a lighter, small folding knife, fishing line, etc.

TRO

I use either a ziploc baggie or a 35mm film canister -- a pair of xl gloves just fits. Now, how often should I be replacing them?

TRO

Depends upon how long they have been sitting around before you repackaged them. It also depends upon what they have been exposed to (sunlight, heat, freezing, etc.). Gloves are cheap, and are intended to protect YOU, so replace them often. Since I use mine about once a month, they get replaced about once a month. Use the old gloves when working on your car, cleaning a knife or firearm, painting, cleaning the bathroom, etc.

Update: v5

- Back up to the 1040 case
- Few more eye wash ampules
- (2) Benadryl caps
- (2) Gas-X tabs (I've heard they can help in case of dog bloat)
- (1) Imodium A-D (why not?)
- (3) Small bandages (why not?)
- (4) Alcohol swabs
- Slant tweezers
- Safety razor
- (4) Pepto Bizmo tabs (replace roll of Tums)
- (1) Glucose tablet

Thinking about:
- Adding micro headlamp
- Adding pointed scalpel (squared off razors have their limits)
- Replacing syringe w/12cc irrigation syringe (on order)
- Some sort of small magnifying lens

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

-john

Detailed Gallery

How about getting a Leatherman Micra? It has a blade wich, when very sharpened,
can replace the scalpel-and razor blades. It also has a pair of tweezers and good scissors.

Also I would replace the small bottle of Betadine with some Povidone-Iodine swabs if available.

I don't think you'll need a thermometer in your kit. If you really want to, replace it with a 'flexible-thermometer' wich take up far less space.

Rewind de medical tape on a small object, for example a paper-clip. You'll probably won't need a whole roll.

Use only 1 steri-strip pack. Add some small Band-Aid butterfly closures.

Do you really have to carry that much saline ampules? I carry 2 10ml ampules in my FAK. Seems like you carry more.

That's about it. Good luck!

My daypack- FAK
My EDC FAK

OK, new FAK V6.

(I've made a few changes since these pictures, but very minor)

Note, this FAK is my EDC kit and is fairly streamlined in order to support EDC carry.

My EDC bag is now a Maxpedition Condor II. Main exterior pocket is dedicated to FAK (this gives me a bit more room than previous EDC kits):





As can be seen in photo:

• Pocket Mask (pair gloves inside)
• Pair of Epi-Pens
• Trauma bandage (w/pair of gloves)*
• Small pair scissors*
• Small pair diagonal cutters*
• Main FAK container*

* Slight update. All these items have been moved into a single Snapware 1 liter container.

In addition to a pair of gloves in the kit, I have an Emdom "Grobes" Glove Pouch with several pairs of Nitrile exam gloves attached to the exterior of my EDC bag (upper leftmost pouch as viewed in this picture):



Inside the primary FAK container, we see the following:

• Various sizes BloodStop gauze (2x4", 2x2")
• .5 oz bottle, Betadine solution
• (2) caplets, Benadryl
• (2) packets, Burn Jel
• (2) packets, aspirin
• (2) packets, Tylenol
• (2) packets, Gas-X
• thermometer
• Steri-Strips
• Disposable razor
• Petzl e+Lite headlamp
• Tape
• 3x4" non-stick pads
• glass signal mirror (assist self-aid in hard to reach/see spots)
• Magnifying glass
• Safety pin
• Alcohol swaps
• (4) tablets, Pepto-Bismol
• packet, Imodium
• Triple Antibiotic Ointment
• Ampules saline (eye flush)
• Irrigation syringe
• sharp point tweezers
• blunt point diamond coated slant tweezers
• Glucose tablet
• Bandages, finger sized
• Bandages, standard sized
• Straight razor blades
• Pair #10, #15 & #11 scalpel blades
• #3 Scalpel handle

[FULL SIZED FAK PICTURES]

I've moved some things out of the FAK proper and now include them in the "convenience" section of my primary kit.

This includes additional quantities of Benadryl, Sudafed, throat lozenges, Claritin, Tums, Tylenol, etc.

The idea is to try to re-focus the kit on more urgent needs but still having a supply of comfort and convenience items, and to decouple the inventory of these two categories.

The new container is lighter, better sized and better shaped while still being waterproof and protecting the items from crushing (lots cheaper, too). It also allows me to move the trauma bandages inside the kit, an improvement IMO.

I've actually picked up some of the 86 oz. versions to re-pack my car kits.

Yes, there are some overlaps with items in my primary kit (mirror, headlamp, etc.). I thought about this and wanted to have most things in one place to avoid having to look around and remember where things were at.

There are also a few items that are probably not strictly needed (the aforementioned thermometer for example, alcohol pads, more than necessary Steri Strips) but I contemplated the size/bulk/weight and ended up saying "why not".

Note this kit isn't the only one I have around. For example, I have a kit in my office that contains more trauma bandages, etc. in case of an earthquake. Another kit similar to this one in the car, but slightly better stocked. The idea is this should be the minimal I have on me, and depending on the situation, I hopefully can bolster it with additional layers of kits.

Next steps:

Actually, over all I'm pretty happy with the kit the way it is.

That said, after starting to watch the Backcountry Medicine 101 video, I think I might add some duct tape directly to the FAK (I have some in the primary kit) and some more safety pins. Oh, and it did get me itching to put a Sam Splint in the kit for neck immobilization.

Suggestions and comments welcome.

-john

My thoughts are that you have an excessive amount of edged tools for a FAK this size. I realize that they are all pretty small, but I can't imagine that you'll need all of these:


Consider swapping all this out for a decent pair of trauma shears and one (or possibly two) scalpel blade(s).


Once again, for the size of the kit, consider picking one pair of tweezers and eliminating the other two.

I would add a couple more safety pins, as well as half a dozen or so disposable probe covers for the thermometer. Consider some type of occlusive bandage (3" x 9" petrolatum gauze pad) and rolled gauze (Kerlix or PriMed) to go along with the ETD that you have.

Looking closely at your photo, the glucose tablet expired in July of 2007, so you probably want to replace that.

Overall, you've done a very nice job with the FAK, and the Condor II looks to be a very nice pack.

Jim

Heh. I saw that one coming! Yah, I agree I probably have more than strictly necessary cutting tools for a kit of this size.



I've found both the pointed and slant tweezers to be useful. Originally I was going to remove the tweezers from the magnifying glass, but in actually trying to *use* the magnifying glass on myself, I found them useful so went ahead and left them. I suppose I could remove the other sharp pointed tweezers, but they are much better quality than the ones on the magnifying glass. Point taken in any case.



Can you suggest in what cases and how it would be better to use these items vs. (or in conjunction with) what I have?



Good catch. Now that you mention it, I should do an expiration date inventory.



Thanks. And thanks for your feedback.

-john