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Ok, following a good suggestion from Jefe, I was wondering what sort of first aid kits or equipment most of you carry when travelling. Just a bottle of tylenol for the hangovers, or a complete trauma kit?
For me its a constant battle between travelling light and carrying everything I might conceivably use. Were it not for the luggage weight limits on airlines I might roll up with an entire ambulance strapped to my back.
As a compromise I usually end up with a small sterile set for my own use if I end up in hospital, and a couple of ex-mil field dressings. And some saline solution.
And a horde of anti-inflammatories.
And some anti-histamines.
And some anti-diarrheals…
You get the idea.
So what do the rest of you pack?Bandages, band aids, foldable scissors, tape, long needle. Also added in a pair of latex gloves, athletic tape, and some sort of hydrogen peroxide mixture.
Often I just take band aids and Immodium, for short trips. Since I know I’m not usually going too far and am never in country for more than a week. If I’m there for over a week, or if I think I’ll be getting myself into trouble, the standard first aid kit comes along.
Since I know pretty much nothing about repairing my damaged body, my philosophy is basically to get it patched up decent enough that I can make it to the airport and get the hell out.
My trip to Haiti had most of my pack weight designated to stuff to help me not get sick…but I got dengue fever anyway. (probably from the DR though)
Aspirin & Ibuprofin
Lomotil
Pepto-Bismol (pink Bismouth)
antacid
powdered Gatorade (I wished I had brought more)
anti-bacterial ointment
bandages
guauze tape
Permethrin
DEET stuff
Sunblock
a foot blister kit (most important, because when your feet go, you go with them)I also pretty much only wear Georgia Steel toed work boots, because i am paranoid about my feet. I save the cheap tennis shoes for the hotel and bar. In Haiti the cars come so close to the pedestrians that it would be possible to have your foot driven over, and steel toes will limit the damage. On the other side of you is an open sewer…if a car, goat or woman with a basket on her head knocked you into a sewer,, you will be glad that you always walk around with antibiotic cream. I always slathered it on my feet every day before I stepped out.
My light first aid pack or what I refer to as my escape pack has the following:
2 Large field dressings with tie straps.
2Ace gauze rolls
Assorted gauze bandages with tape
Butterfly strips (assorted sizes)
pocket mask
assort. airways
assort. tubes
q-tips
Small bottle Hydrogen Peroxide
Iodine Tablets
Suture kit
rounded Scissors
Leatherman Multi-tool
mini mag-lite
Bic lighter
candle
pen & paper
forceps
tweezers
Bottle Aspirin
Botlle Tylenol
Bottle Cipro
Multi-Vitamins
diahrea meds
Hypos/syringes
shot record
$100 u.s in twenty dollar bills
3 MREs (main Meals only without the box)
handcuff key sewn into linerall fits into a standard army issue fanny pack…about the size of a small luchbox, I dont go on trips without it.
I usually carry anti biotics as in the tropics you are suseptable to infections from small cuts. Also alcohol, I usually swab my hands with it before eating and also to clean any cuts. I carry a first aide kit in my vehicle and boat with the usual stuff, but I consider large patch bandages the most important next to alcohol/swabs also small band aides.
Spamhog
This is pretty much what every soldier carries. Combat lifesavers and medics obviously carry more:
One bag of Ringers with the tubing, catheter etc., hooked up and ready to go. (hypovolemic and septic shock) hypovolemic meaning loss of blood. (not bad spelling for an old infantryman huh?)
Good for heat casualties too. One thing you don’t hear in the news about combat in deserts, jungles and other hot places is how many guys go down as heat casualties. Go figure with helmets, flak vests, 100 plus lbs of gear etc.
Gatorade powder (Good call Kurt). See above, and iodine makes the water difficult to drink. They now put Kool Aid in the MRE’s and whoever was responsible for that and the tobasco should get the next Nobel Peace prize.
Needle/lighter for draining blisters
Baby wipes. Can’t preach on them enuf.
Field dressings. I tape them over with blk electrical tape which really helps out alot as far as water seeping in thru the plastic covers etc.
Cravat
Iodine tabs for purifying water
Bug juice. Cutters is good.
bee sting kit (I am allergic to them)
Foot powder.
NOTE ON RINGERS:
On one patrol, we got in pretty bad shape dehydration wise and wound up drinking these. It was like putting a straw under somebodys armpit, but it helped out.
Yes , baby wipes are great. I used to pack those in my truck to wipe all the dust off of my face after a delivery.
For travel I pack Witch Hazel towelettes and I keep the dry ones to make my pack smell better and as emergency TP/Kleenex.
For hiking in colder climates I like to take along powederd instant “Jell-o” to mix with hot water and drink. Instant pudding would be good for this also. An excellent camping breakfast is a mug of hot Jello, powdered milk and granola or grape nuts…lots of calories and you get your fluids too.
I met a Swede once who always carried a can of pesticide with him for bed bugs. He had a hellish time in Pakistan when bed bugs bit both eyes shut and a local “Doctor” lanced his eyelids to relieve swelling so he could see.
I have a small pouch that I can have in my belt or the top pocket of my pack.
It contains:
Field dressing
tampoons
desinfection wipes
band aides (I think you call it)
pocket mask
rubber gloves
imodium (was nice to have yesterday)
pain killers
Anti inflamatorial/pain killer
Doxyferm or other medicin if neciessery
Extra battery for my surefire (only because it’s easy to find in the dark)In my pack do I have a bag with:
2 sterile dressing/cleaning kit
Alcohol or/and saline solution
betadine
twezeers
Compeed
Coach tape
surgical tape
Antibiotic cream
lexinor/norfloxacin
Mil. field dressings (no leakingproblems)
Rubber gloves
pocket mask
Roll of bandage
Roll of gauze
And more of the same pills as in the pouch
small tube of sunblok
small tube of “skin cream” (soften the feet)
termometer
Baby powder
“wet napkins”
water purifier
Salt
Tiger balm
mosquito reppelantIs there anyone that have a REALLY good and fast treatment for “infantry fire”/a nasty rash in the ass????
Good point about the tampons, lots of guys carried those. Some even wore nylons to keep leeches off their legs, or at least that was their cover story!
I forgot to put down some type of signalling device, a red smoke grenade, signal mirror, or orange panel to guide in a medevac. We kept it as light as possible. The electrical tape around the field dressings even with their plastic covers is a good idea that you don’t see much if you are going to be off the roads etc. Don’t care wheter its got a plastic cover or not, it will get punctured, foul water etc., will get inside that “sterile dressing” and make a home. The tape will secure the dressing for months even in the worst environments.
Kurt; the jello stuff is great for cold weather and apparantly quite healthy for you although I never let that stop me.
We always used to joke with the medics about carrying:
leaches: to bleed the toxins out of the victim
maggots: to clean off the infections.(apparantly, this has legit benefits)Funny snake bite story. Guy got bit by a fer de lance and the medic is calming him down, i.e., don’t worry, choppers inbound with anti venom. You will be fine!
Medic leaves for a second to talk with the pilot and a greenhorn/gung ho Chaplain comes over and starts giving him his last rites! I guess everyone started laughing at the poor guy!
Talk about trying to keep his heartrate down! I don’t guess that went over as a textbook case on how to handle a snakebite.
And don’t forget your boilerplate Last Will & Testament, leaving all your wordly possessions to Jefe that you can sign if it really looks bad!
Leeches have a natural anti-septic, anti-coagulant in their saliva and are the best cure for those bruises that never go away when you bang your shin on a rock or stump while trying to pee in the woods at night. I guess they are also used in someplaces for re-attaching severed fingers to keep the blood flowing.
Maggots…I forget which kind only eats the dead skin, I think it is the larva of the common blue bottle fly, but just any maggot might leave you with maggots burrowing into your flesh and hatching flies out of your live skin at embarrasing moments. One Entomologist at Columbia university wrote about an “experiment ” he had done on him self and having a fly hatch from his forhead while out at a Yankee’s game. I also used maggots as bait while fishing in Romania and they worked great.
I have never worn nylons in any way, atleast not if the police asks me.
But it’s good for getting that extra shine on your parade boots.What kind of plastic cover has your dressings, Ours is in a real sturdy kind, suposebly also good to use for stomach wounds, keep the moist in, and other things that are suposed to stay there. But you should change them a couple times a year, riding around in your right leg pocket (standing order) can’t be to fun.
I will remeber the electrical tape.Jell-o? Is that good, what does it taste?
I use to have, hot chocolade and soups. Canned liver pate and panzer crackers are also a good breakfast. But nothing that I would order in a resturant.@LiveLife wrote:
Jell-o? Is that good, what does it taste?
I use to have, hot chocolade and soups. Canned liver pate and panzer crackers are also a good breakfast. But nothing that I would order in a resturant.Jello is instant gelatin or “jelly” in some places. Its cheap and full of calories. It comes in fruit flavors too.
SPAM (the meat) is good when you are really really hungry and gotta have “meat”. I prefer it cooked on a stick until almost burned.
The field dressings have a fair plastic cover, but if you live in the field as an infantryman, they don’t last more than a month before getting perforated, torn or just worn by the elements somehow.
Another great use for nylons is to cover binocular or scope lens to prevent reflection. If you don’t have them, at least cup your hands over the end of the binos and avoid facing into the sun.
The new binos have laser protective lenses which show bright luminescent green which can be spotted a mile a way.
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