I believe I'm prepped to handle everyday events (events I can foresee) during a grid-down situation, be it for a short term or long. In addition to my medical kit, which I covered a lot, the following are additional items for a grid-down situation:

03 Boxes of latex-free gloves (two boxes are open)
01 Box of latex gloves
02 116-count boxes of Alka-Seltzer (I know this is overkill, but Alka-Seltzer can be a life-saver)
13 Rolls of 2" CoFlex
10 ten-count 4" x 4" gauze sponges
07 Curad Wound Care Kits
06 first aid kits (this is in addition to my above-mentioned medical kit)
02 six-count Kleenex Go Packs
01 ten-count extra socks
01 extra pack of undergarments from Sam's Club (I'm not revealing any more details)
02 forty-pack sandwich crackers
03 eight-pack sandwich crackers
03 extra pairs of sunglasses
01 open box of hand sanitizing wipes (estimating fifty left)
34 boxes of Kleenex
31 5" x 9" trauma pads
01 open fifty-count box of biohazard bags (probably forty-eight bags left)
12 40" x 40" x 56" triangular bandages
01 open box 3" x 4" non-adherent pads
02 eye pads
01 100-count box fingertip bandages
04 After Bite
05 1" x 10 yards cloth tape
01 100-count knuckle bandages
01 eighty-count .75" x 3" plastic bandages
05 digital thermometers
03 3" elastic bandages
01 4" elastic bandage
01 DripDrop ORS
01 cold compress
09 #11 sterile disposable scalpels
01 open box 100-count 3" x 3" gauze pads
01 3" elastic bandage
04 emergency blankets
02 penlights
03 SWAT tourniquets
09 3" gauze rolls
03 1/8 ounce Burn Jel
02 Dyna-Stopper
02 4" x 4" burn dressing
02 4" x 16" burn dressing
04 packs of eye pads
02 irrigation syringes
04 six-count antiseptic towelettes
01 bandage scissors
01 2" x 6" burn dressing
06 cotton-tipped applicators
02 eye shields
01 2" elastic bandage
02 1" cloth tape
01 Dentemp
01 open twenty-five count box 4" x 4" sponges
02 13 ounce jars petroleum jelly
01 4 ounces cough suppressant
02 twenty-five count cough drops
02 200-count boxes alcohol prep pads
03 liquid generic Tylenol (I'm unable to swallow pills because of my throat)
06 thirty-six count chewable aspirin (twenty-seven doses total)
04 generic lip balm
01 100 count 1" x 3" bandaids
01 1.25 ounce Ben's 30% DEET
01 3.4 ounces Natrapel
02 pill crushers
01 4 ounces hand sanitizer (I'm having trouble getting more hand sanitizer)
04 8 ounces hand sanitizer
03 three-pack Carmex
05 pill splitters
02 300-count bottles 5000 mcg Vitamin B12 (this will last me 600 days)

Clearly, I'm not covering food and water (except for sandwich crackers). I have more sterile strips than I can count. There may be some things that I have but did not think to include.

To the point of this thread, while I believe I'm prepped for emergencies I foresee in a grid down (long term and short), everyday situations. It is the unforeseen events that have me wondering if I have everything that I can get. Based on my list, your experiences, and so forth, can you think of emergencies that I can't think of? Is there a go-to product that helps you in about every situation?

Edit: I forgot to mention two pairs of prescription glasses, a cleaning cloth, and an extra eyeglass case.

Jeanette Isabelle

Lights come in handy in emeergeencies. You didn't mention those, although I bet you have some. Good to have at lest one reliable headlamp. basic tools - hammer, shovel, maybe an axe?

You are in hurricane country, although thankfully well inland. What about tarps? You are likely to get massive rainfall. Can you cope with that?

PPE items - gloves, helmet, stout boots (steel toes?), face masks (useful for much more than covid).

How will you cook? some sort of camp stove and fuel should be handy, along with the all essential coffee.....

I like solar panels for recharging at least phones, headlamps, and other small items.

In a way it comes down to basics - food and potable water. You don't need the exotic MRE, lifeboat rations, and all that. Basic canned goods will go down quite well.

What are your preps for diarrhea, constipation, and all those things that accompany changes in diet and daily routines?

I'm reasonably well prepared but if the grid was down for a long time in my corner of Montana things would get nippy! It's 12 degrees today and will much colder come Dec/Jan/Feb. I don't really have a good system of heating my place for long. There are some propane heaters on the market but I don't know that they're safe to run indoors for long periods. This wouldn't be a survival issue immediately as I have plenty of appropriate winter gear (boots, mukluks, coats, semi-arctic sleeping bags, etc) but obviously keeping the water from freezing would be an issue.

Right now I have plenty of food for a couple of months. Probably around a month of Datrex, a couple months of Mountain House, canned and fair stock of dried beans, etc.

While I don't expect it to be an issue I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I am adequately stocked with firearms and ammo. There hasn't been a round of 9mm or 5.56 on the shelves for a couple months, and in my last trip to the LGS virtually every round for every caliber was gone! That would be much more disconcerting to me if I hadn't had the foresight to keep "a bit of ammo" on hand. Really it's not even so much "prepping" as just keeping stuff around I use. I've got two or three thousand rounds of 9mm and probably 500 rounds of 12 ga, mostly 00 Buckshot and slugs. The one area I kind of wish I had stacked deeper is 5.56; there I have maybe 700 round. That's enough to equip four US Army soldiers with the standard combat load but not enough to go out and plink recreationally with any frequency. But it should be enough for anything short of a Red Dawn situation.

I have six MAG-LITE flashlights, a headlamp in my medical kit, and tools (Philips screwdriver, ratchet, socket, and four wrenches). We also have tools in the garage.


We have tarps and duct tape.


I have gloves and masks.


Mom has a sun oven, which she uses to reduce the amount of heat generated in the kitchen during the summer months.


We have three solar panels.


This is why I created this thread. I knew someone would ask questions I have not thought of.

Jeanette Isabelle

You need to add a hernia repair kit, if you're lugging all that stuff around everyday.


We appreciate that.


That should cover things for the foreseeable future.


You can never have too many spares.

All my joking aside ... on the serious side though - since this is for a "grid down" situation (i.e., "no power") - don't you want to add some type of portable power? A few batteries? A solar charger maybe?

Though I belong to a gun club, I don't own a firearm because of my anxiety. I would end up doing more harm than good.

On the other hand, people may want to get out of harm's way when they see a loaded gun shaking that much.

Jeanette Isabelle

I have batteries for my flashlights, and I mentioned the three solar panels.

Jeanette Isabelle

As for constipation, I don't know if I should get milk of magnesia (the direction I'm leaning) or Imodium A-D Liquid.

As for diarrhea, my first line would be electrolyte drinks, which we have. It may not be a bad idea to add a bottle of Pepto-Bismol to the list.

Jeanette Isabelle

I only say this half-jokingly; for constipation you could keep a bag of candy made with maltodextrin! About for pieces of Russel Stover candy will have you running for the bathroom!

True. However, as you can see from my list, a person can have too many eye pads, sterile strips, digital thermometers, and After Bite.

Everything else looks about right.

Jeanette Isabelle

One additional thought - how about talking with your physician about some sort of broad spectrum antibiotic? Your doc might have some additional insights as well....

Mom bought some fish antibiotics.

Jeanette Isabelle

It would be supremely unwise to take those.

+1 Nothing wrong with getting competent, informed guidance on something like this. Your doc might even have some useful insights on measures to take in order to prep for various emergencies.

My next appointment with my primary care physician is November 23.

Mom bought the fish antibiotics after reading the book by Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy.

Jeanette Isabelle

An OB/Gyn, writing under an alias, recommending you take drugs formulated for a species so different from you that either would die in the others environment - I'd think about that before grabbing a bite of fish pills. But we all get to make our own choices.

Human and fish antibiotics are the same but with a different label.

Jeanette Isabelle

Oh please don't....
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-n...tics-180964523/

Most of this article discusses self-medication while only questioning the quality of the vet meds. Assuming Dr. Alton is correct about fish antibiotics, the only question left would be, is it a good idea to buy antibiotics before you know what you need?

Jeanette Isabelle

In 2018, when I began the thread, "Customize Your Medical kit," I received feedback on how you can't have too much 4" x 4" gauze, rolls of CoFlex, and so forth. Is that still true?

Jeanette Isabelle

Absolutely! Peoples still bleed profusely, and mass casualties still happen.

Which items do I need more of?

Would it help if I organize the list on my opening post?

Jeanette Isabelle

You have a pretty extensive inventory that should do quite well in nearly all foreseeable circumstances supplies will run out, so I would either add some dedicated splints, something like a SAM splint or two, or know how you would improvise a satisfactory splint from materials at hand. Some kind of cervical brace would be useful in a good many trauma situations, as well.

If times and circumstances are bad enough, your dedicated items will run out, so plan ahead for improvisation.

Not even remotely close to true. However, take them if you choose. We can only warn you, not stop you.

I prefer to avoid running out of supplies. However, it may be a fool's errand to attempt to avoid running out of bandaids, medical tape, 2" CoFlex, gloves, and non-adherent pads.

Jeanette Isabelle

I stand corrected, partially. Mom has done a lot of research, specifically on Thomas Labs. She has not done research on any of the other companies.

Which brands are you concerned about?

Jeanette Isabelle

Re: Fish antibiotics

The Smithsonian article is interesting.

The article does not say that fish antibiotics are made in different facilities, or under different conditions, or to different standards than those antibiotics made for humans.

Nor have I seen evidence published anywhere else that that is indeed the case. I'd like to see objective evidence that that is indeed the case.

As inexpensive as the specified antibiotics in question are to make, package, and sell, it would beggar my belief that the fish antibiotics are in any way different than what humans consume. It would make little economic sense for the manufacturers to do so.

The Smithsonian article minimizes the importance of the USP lab, which in my mind, raises questions about the knowledge and/or objectivity of the writer. The USP is the world standard for drug potency and purity, and it's lab is used by many other countries besides the USA to assure thier citizens are getting what they think they are getting. The drug manufacturers can choose to pay yearly fees to have a sample of their product certified by USP, but all manufacturers, Rx and OTC must meet USP standards.

The bigger problems, which are appropriately and accurately dealt with in the article, is the inappropriate use of antibiotics for viral infections, use of the wrong antibiotic for the presumed diagnosis, and the steadily worsening problem of bacterial resistance to the antibiotics currently available.

More info about the work of the USP is available on the USP website.

No affiliation to the USP or antibiotic makers or sellers

The subject of self-medicating is what I think we should talk about. That is where I have my concerns. A copy of the Physician's Desk Reference can't replace a physician.

Jeanette Isabelle

For one, fish don't "consume" their antibiotics. They swim around in a bath containing them, absorbing them through their gills and skin (I suppose - I am not a fish biologist).

When humans take their antibiotics (orally), they toss them down into a very strong acid bath (their stomach).

Drugs are formulated differently depending on the route of administration. Nothing could be more different than how fish and humans obtain and process their dose.

What is a grid down situation?

Whatever it is, what is short term and long term?

You can't go to the store. You may not be able to get gas. You may or may not have electricity, communication, and municipal water. Getting to a hospital, doctor, or dentist may take a while.


Anywhere from two months to nearly a year, more likely somewhere in between.

Jeanette Isabelle

One hugely important thing to do right now, make friends with your neighbors.
-Blast

Objective evidence that the fish antibiotics and those for humans differ in any way would be appreciated.

Whether the antibiotics are absorbed differently through the skin of the fish or the "skin" of the stomach is not the question at hand.

"Grid down" refers to the electrical grid not working; more widespread than a simpler local power outage. A shorter-duration example was the East Coast power outage of 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

There is a widely debated concern that a repeat of the Carrington Event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event#:~:text=The%20Carrington%20Event%20was%20a,largest%20geomagnetic%20storm%20on%20record.

would be much more crippling due to the greater dependency on electrical power for almost all of modern life, the challenges of replacing the many burned out transformers one sees at electrical substations (built on demand, apparently mainly in Scandanavia, wait time is a year, thousands to replace), and other factors.

A nuclear weapon, detonated at high altitude, could accomplish the same, or worse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse

A fairly recent book by William Forstchen: "One Second After" describes the aftermath of such an attack, as does his follow-up book "One Year After".

Hikermor recommended something for constipation and diarrhea. I'll order Milk of Magnesia and Pepto-Bismol.

I want to avoid running out of certain supplies. Is that an achievable goal? I don't know, but I have to try. I'll order two more boxes of 100 count nitrile gloves, one box of fifty-count 2" x 4" adhesive bandages, and one box of twenty-count 3" x 4" non-adherent pads.

Is there any remedy that no one has mentioned that I should consider if stores are closed, and doctors, hospitals, and dentists are hard to reach for four months? I'm placing my next order this Monday.

Jeanette Isabelle

I've already been doing what I can.

Jeanette Isabelle

We should not forget old wisdom, or folk medicine.
Yugort is good for diarrhea, so is heavy tea without sugar

In grid-down, or general hard times, or any kind of unforseen stuff, local or old medicine always saves the day. I remember two years ago, I was at my brother's house in another town. I got a bad toothache out of no-where. I was far from my well-stocked pantry and medicine cabinet. He brought me a small piece of mihr (?sp?). I just put it on my tooth for half an hour and I was OK. Since then. mihr(?sp) is always present in my portable pharmacy. It works as local pain killer , and antibiotic.

So, same goes for herbal teas, like mint, hibiscus, thyme , anise, and others.

OK, got the correct spelling :

Myrrh

Oh, and don't forget vitamin/mineral supplements

In grid-down situations, we may not be able to get all the nutrients we need. Either because we do not get our regular foods from store , or maybe not able to cook them as we normally do.

Oh, one important thing. If the grid is down then water won´t flow in the pipes because waterpumps don´t work without electricity. That means no water from your faucet and your toilet won´t flush. So you have to pour water from buckets (to flush) or use buckets as toilet.

Inexpensive DIY Camping Toilet System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grQzkrJVsnU

I have a nutritional shake every morning, and I take a separate Vitamin B12 pill.

Jeanette Isabelle

For some reason, foot care keeps popping up in my mind. That makes sense. After all, who knows what I'll need to be doing during a grid down situation.

Jeanette Isabelle

Wound repair glue: I keep some of this in my car kits: https://www.petsupplies4less.com/Vetbond...ASABEgJFbvD_BwE

As far as I know its safe to use on us humans, comparable to the Dermabond used for wound repair instead of sutures or staples.

Asking your doc for a prescription for something for nausea: ondansetron works well, not too expensive. Or Meclizine/dramamine is available without a prescription but causes drowsiness, which is sometimes a blessing.

Bars of soap: they last forever in storage, better than hand sanitizer against most pathogens out to get us, still the best choice for cleaning out a dirty wound.

Splinting material, like a SAM splint, in various sizes.

Sorry, but in my view planning for a complete lack of access to electricity, municipal water, food supplies, and medical care for up to a year is well beyond my own scope, and maybe that of this forum. To me that is more along the line of homesteading - and even homesteaders usually have access to supplies (food/equipment) and some level of medical care. We have no plan to store a year's worth of food - or toilet paper.

Here, we have a well and septic system. The house well also provides water to the horse barn. The house electricity extends to both of our barns. We've installed a natural gas whole house generator that can support our needs so long as natural gas is available. Natural gas is used to heat our home in winter. We do not have any supplemental heating (wood or electricity).

Last year we lost power for 7 days in July due to a very big storm, and we ran the generator much of the time, but shut it down when leaving the house. I was told the generator was built for it. I watched the engine oil level to be safe. Still, I can't imagine running the whole house generator for a month or certainly a year. I don't know what its expected life is (maybe 10th percentile hours of operation).

Blackouts are somewhat common here. Much of it is due to weather & trees damaging power lines. The power company is in the process of putting some lines underground. That should help.

I have no plans to move toward supplemental solar power.

Our internet, telephone, and TV are satellite based. I hope to switch from HughesNet to Star Link when Elon Musk has that up and running reliability. Cell phones only work marginally around here, flipping between 1 bar of 4G and the extended network (no-G).

How about four months instead of a year?

Jeanette Isabelle

In that case, if anyone has any additional ideas, send me a private message. I'm placing my order Monday.

Jeanette Isabelle