An Epipen was the first prescription medicine I ever asked a doctor to prescribe for an emergency kit.

Quick story: When I was in college, I used to work as a lifeguard / swim instructor at summer camps. One of the really fun things I got to do was to be the last canoe down the rapids on some whitewater canoe trips run by the camp.

While getting ready for one of these trips, the camp nurse pulled me aside and told me that a neighboring camp had been on a similar trip. One of the kids had an anaphylactic reaction to a minute amount of peanut butter residue on a knife he had used to cut his sandwich, and he died on a sandbar on the Delaware River with his counselors powerless to do anything about it, and all of his friends watching. She handed me an Epipen, taught me how to use it, and swore me to secrecy that I had it, unless I needed to use it. That scared the crap out of me.

To this day, when I head out into the wilderness, in an easily accessible place I keep an Epipen and liquid Benadryl (and now that i have kids, an Epipen Jr.). While neither is an absolute cure, between the two I hope I can at least give someone with an anaphylactic reaction a fighting chance.