Normal People Preparing for TEOTWAWKI – Survival Medical Systems

When we’re talking about survival medical systems, there are so many things that need to taken into consideration.

Like every other kind of preparedness, there are things that you must buy now or you won’t have access to them later, but also like most aspects of preparedness, there are ways that medical issues can be handled even after TEOTWAWKI.  Let’s talk about some different medical systems.

Medicines

As with all types of preparedness, we should start by preparing for what we already know, even when preparing for TEOTWAWKI.  This is what I mean.  If you know that you get heartburn fairly easily when life is simple and easy – then when you start preparing for TEOTWAWKI, when we’re talking OTC’s, make sure that you have plenty of TUMS (or something similar) on hand.

OTC

There are so many different types of OTC’s that can be kept on hand.  Like I said above, start by keeping what you already normally use on hand.

There are different categories of OTC’s that you should keep on hand including:

Pain Relievers such as:

• Acetaminophen – aka Tylenol
• Ibuprofin – aka Advil
• Naproxin – aka Aleve

Digestive Aids

• 

  Activated charcoal  – I won’t go into a lot about most of the stuff that I list, but activated charcoal warrants a bit of an explanation.  Honestly, if I were only able to choose ONE OTC, it would probably be activated charcoal. It can be used in poultices, treatments for ulcers, and nosebleeds.  Activated charcoal used to be used in hospitals to treat overdoses, accidental or otherwise.  Vets still use it when animals ingest something potentially dangerous.  Activated charcoal is available today, even in drugstores such as Walgreens or CVS.  Their brands are capsulized, but contain fillers and even colors. I would recommend purchasing it in bulk from Amazon.  This is my go-to for when my kids have upset stomachs.  I add about 1/2 tsp of activated charcoal to about 1 C of water and if my kids need it, I add some stevia to sweeten it.  My kids drink it through a straw to keep the charcoal from staining their mouth.

• Tums (Antacid)
• Pepto Bismol
• Immodium (anti-diarrheal)

Immune Boosters

• Emergen-C – This is our personal choice for an immune booster, and most of the adults in our family take a dose of this most of the winter.
• Airborne

Cold and flu

Want to know how to tell the difference between a cold and the flu?  Check it out here.

• Oscillococcinum – This is what we use when we feel like we may be coming down with the flu.  We buy this through Amazon because we can get it through subscribe and save.
• Sambucol
• Cold Calm – This is also what we use when one of us is struck with a cold.  It may not be a necessity during TEOTWAWKI, but it would sure help.

Skin Issues

• Epsom Salts – We even ended up using these last week.  My son came to me this week and said, “Mom, I think you need to take a look at my foot.”  This is what I saw.  As soon as I saw his foot, I contacted our doctor and had him……….you guessed it.  I immediately started him doing Epsom salt baths for his foot.  While the doctor did put him on an antibiotic, we have kept up the foot baths twice a day, and now his foot is doing SO MUCH BETTER!
• Hibiclens – This is a skin cleanser.  It will kill any bacteria on the skin for up to 24 hours after you wash with it.  If you have had MRSA in the past, Hibiclens would be a must for your arsenal.
• Hydrocortisone cream
• Triple antibiotic cream

Medical Prescriptions

Prescriptions that you’re already taking

When it comes to prescriptions that you’re already taking, there are a couple of ways to ethically bolster your supply.

(1) Each month, call your Rx refill in five days early.  If you do this… yes, it takes six months to get an extra month, but still.  And if you’re like me (I’m on one Rx med) and maybe you don’t always remember to take your meds every day, then you can build up your supply even more quickly.

(2) Not long after you’ve gotten a refill on your RX, shop around to see if you can find a deal on a 90 day Rx.  When you do, call into your doctor and ask him/her to transfer your Rx to the new place that allows 90-day prescriptions for less.  If your doctor calls it in sooner, then you have an extra stash.

Antibiotics

I got to thinking about my son’s foot this last week and how if we lived during TEOTWAWKI and I didn’t have a stash of antibiotics he would probably have died.  Yet, one call into our doctor, and he’s just fine.  Now I’m not a doctor, and I cannot recommend specific antibiotics for different conditions, but I found an excellent article written by SurvivalGrit.  The article goes into the 9 most important antibiotics if we experience TEOTWAWKI.

• Ciprofloxacin – aka Cipro
• Metronidazole
• Cephalexin
• Amoxicillin
• Erythromycin
• Doxycycline
• SMZ-TMP – aka Sulfa
• Azirythomiacin
• Ampicillin

So dontcha need a prescription to get an antibiotic?  Well, you do; however, if you have a “fish” who comes down with a bacterial infection, you can purchase antibiotics for your fish, which in many cases are exactly like the antibiotics that are used on humans.  You will need to check to see if there are any fillers in the antibiotics.  Most times, though, these are made by the same labs as make antibiotics for people as well.  This site sells antibiotics for fish and birds.

Besides checking for fillers and other things not in regular antibiotics, you should have a PDR.  A PDR stands for Physician’s Desk Reference.  It lists out dosages for different medicines.  The awesome thing is that a PDR that is 1-5 years old really isn’t that big of a deal.  The only thing that really changes from year to year is that new medicines are added.  So if you are mostly looking up tried and true antibiotics and other ‘normal’ meds, then an older (and cheaper PDR) will do the trick.

Supplements

Sometimes supplements can do as much (if not more) than typical prescription medicines.  I was having issues with my blood pressure, my doctor put me on a prescription.  At the same time, I also started taking CoQ10 (a supplement which also lowers blood pressure) I started getting really dizzy.  The two, taken in conjunction with each other, lowered my blood pressure too much.  I stopped taking CoQ10 in the morning and I was no longer dizzy.  My doctor suggested that I take both CoQ10 and Magnesium (also which lowers blood pressure).

So do some research.  Check into your health conditions and look into which supplements help with those conditions.  Make sure you research potential adverse conditions and how to handle them or which supplements you shouldn’t take if you have other conditions.  My Mom has RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis), and while normally turmeric is a wonderful supplement to take to lower inflammation, she isn’t supposed to take turmeric since she has RA.  You need to check into these things now.

Medicinal Garden 

I’m really excited about next spring.  I am planning an herb garden.  It’s both for my kitchen and as a medicinal garden.  I’ve been working through a book called “Prepper’s Natural Medicine” by Cat Ellis.  I’m currently working through her chapter called Materia Medica.  She works through 50 different herbs, what conditions they can be used on, how they should be administered, and when you shouldn’t use those herbs.

Almost every single herb that I read about I think that, “Man, I need to grow that herb!”  It’s amazing how many natural herbs can be effective for medical conditions.

Another book that I would recommend, if you are going to grow a medicinal garden (and of course I think that you should), is called “Herbal Antibiotics” by Stephen Harrod Buhner.  Please start with Cat Ellis’s Prepper’s Natural Medicine because it is so much more user-friendly!

If you don’t have room to grow your own garden, there is still a way that you can set up your own herbal apothecary.  There is a wonderful website that I have used many times in the past called Mountain Rose Herbs.  You can purchase sustainably-grown, dried herbs for your own usage.

Basic Medical Supplies

Besides just having medicines on hand, there are some basic supplies that are going to be very important.

Pill Making supplies

Having a pill-maker on hand is both cheap and incredibly useful.  You use it in conjunction with herbs and #OO capsules.  I’ve even made my own activated charcoal capsules.

Suture Supplies

If we do end up at TEOTWAWKI, you’ll need suture supplies at some point in the future.  Fortunately, you can purchase a suture practice kit.  You can also practice doing sutures with ‘practice skin‘ which is super cool.

Blood Pressure Cuff

This is helpful for both suspected high blood pressure and suspected low blood pressure.  You can buy either a manual cuff or a digital cuff which takes the blood pressures for you.

Medical Supplies

There are so many things that would fall under this topic.  I don’t want a list that is 3-4 pages long.  Everyone should know that you need bandaids, gauze pads, tapes,  gauze rolls, ace wraps and many more things.  If you need general first-aid suggestions, find a good first aid kit on Amazon and either purchase the duplicate its contents.  So because of that, I’ll list off other less-thought-of supplies.

• Tourniquet – A tourniquet is used to stop excessive bleeding.  My favorite type of tourniquet is an Israeli Bandage Battle Dressing Compression Bandage.  This is our go-to.
• Braces – elbow, knee, ankle, wrist or other braces in sizes for your family.
• Crutches – These are found very cheaply at Salvation Army or Goodwill.
• Sterile Saline – This can be used to irrigate wounds.
• Quick Clot – You never know when you might have a hard time stopping bleeding from something as simple as a paper cut to something as traumatic as a deep cut.
• Other potential needs for a pandemic.

Sterilization of Medical Equipment 

I want to offer you some thoughts on sterilization if you find the need to sterilize equipment during a TEOTWAWKI situation.  If you own a pressure canner, while this is NOT something I would recommend during a time when you have access to a doctor, but if you don’t, you can sterilize your equipment as best as possible in your pressure canner.

A couple of pieces of info that you’ll need to know.  First off, you’ll need to make sure that you raise the equipment up out of the water that you’re going to use, to create the steam and pressure to sterilize your equipment.  You may use a support trivet (my pressure canner came with one) or if you have a way to raise the object that you are going to sterilize.

Just know that it’s a possibility to use one for sterilizing medical equipment.

Medical Knowledge

The other thing that you’re going to need is basic medical books.  The books that I recommend are written for people without an extensive medical background, so they should be easy to understand.

Where There is No Doctor

Where There is No Dentist

The Survival Medicine Handbook

Prepper’s Natural Medicine

Herbal Antibiotics – Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria

What About You?

Wow!  That was a lot of info today.  Let’s start with… do you have any questions?  What things did you find most helpful or surprising?  What do you feel like you need more information on?  Do you have other things that you think should be added to one of the lists?

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome

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