Prepper Kit #11 – Covering All Your Medical Bases

It doesn’t take too long why medicine is a NEED if the SHTF.  Medicine is a NEED right now.  How many trips to the ER are taken in the middle of the night because of a sick child or sometimes a sick parent?  And that’s NOW when we have access to medicine and medical professionals.

But what about if society collapses.  What are we going to do then?

***There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality items to serve you. All of these are the items that I have bought for my own family.  If you click on a link, your price will remain the same.  If you make a purchase, we may earn a small commission that aids in the cost of the running of this website.***

Knowledge is Key, and our foundation must start with that.

Informational Books

Informational books are the backbone of our medical preparedness efforts.  Even if you are a paramedic (which is awesome if you are) you still need reference books.  If you know very little about medicine, then you need these even more.  I, personally, have each of these books in my arsenal.  They are each worth their weight in gold.  These will walk you through individual issues and how you would go about treating them.

Where There is No Doctor

Where There is No Dentist

The Survival Medicine Handbook – A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way

Supplemental Book

Another book I HIGHLY recommend is called the Physician’s Desk Reference also called PDR.   Why do you need a PDR?  If you or a member of your family or group is sick or injured and you actually have access to medicines, you’re going to want to know how much medicine to give – especially if it’s a child.  A PDR will tell you which dosages to use, it will tell you which medicines are considered safe for pregnant or breastfeeding women etc.

Now if you just do a search on PDR, you’re more than likely going to see the 2019 version, but this is really cool.  Because there is a PDR put out every year, and since you aren’t going to be dealing with cutting edge medicine if the SHTF, you can purchase a PAST year’s PDRs for a fraction of the cost of the current year’s version.  Here’s a 2016 version of the PDR.  If the version it shows is more than $30, go search for it on Ebay.  Almost every 2016 version (or most other versions) on Ebay is $30 or less.

Natural and Alternative

Medical Books

If you prefer to use more natural medicine or you are concerned about what you do when your prescriptions run out, I have three more suggestions.  Again, I own each of these. I think they each have a great deal of value.  If you only chose ONE of these, I would recommend the first one.  The Alchemy of Herbs.  If you get this now and start a medicinal garden now, you will be further ahead.

The Alchemy of Herbs

Essential Oil Desk Reference

The Complete Homeopathy Handbook

Medical Supplies

I break my medical supplies down into these five categories.

Rx Medicines

Two categories of Rx medicines.  If I filled a prescription, but didn’t use any/all of it, I keep it for preparedness purposes.  The thought is that in a real SHTF medical emergency some prescription drugs – even if they are expired – are better than none.

I’m NOT a doctor, and I’ve never prescribed medicines for anyone – nor do I intend to.  However, for the sake of my family in case we are ever living in lawless times in which we don’t have access to doctors or medicine, I found a series of 7 antibiotics which will cover most illnesses.  This is where the PDR comes in.  It will tell you which medicines will treat which illnesses and which dosages you should use for which weights.

But beyond that, you can’t just go down to the local Walgreens and walk away with each of these antibiotics.  After doing much research, we discovered you can purchase fish antibiotics which are exactly the same as human antibiotics.   You do need to check to make sure the antibiotics that you purchase have no extra ingredients – that they are ONLY the antibiotic itself.

This site  is one of the many sites that are out there for purchasing fish antibiotics.  The antibiotics that I read about as the most used in basic situations where antibiotics are needed include: Amoxicillin, Ampicillin, Cephalexin, Ciprofloxacin, Doxycycline,  Metronidazole, Sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim.

Supplements  

What kinds of supplements should you be keeping?  Start by asking yourself what supplements you take now and why you take them.  Do you take glucosamine-condroitin for joint pain?  Then maybe you should stock up on those.  Do you take digestive enzymes because you have irritable bowel.  Again, stock up on those.  You get the picture.  If you are trying to use supplements to help in medical conditions that you have, stock up on them.

But if you aren’t currently taking any supplements, let me start by suggesting that because your food storage will have holes in it even if you don’t think it will, I highly suggest that you start with a vitamin.  I would highly recommend Costco’s Adult’s Multivitamin.  It’s affordable and uses bio-available forms of the constituent parts of the vitamin.

The other supplement that I would highly recommend is vitamin C.  Vitamin C boosts the immune system and prevents scurvy.  Costco has a Vitamin C that I highly recommend.

OTCs

Most of us know what kinds of OTC’s we already keep around – Pain meds and fever reducers, cough medicines, cold and flu meds etc.  Here’s a list of items just to consider.  Make sure that you’re keeping an eye on the expiration dates of these OTC’s.  Costco is a great place to bu OTC medicines because they give you the biggest bang for your buck purchasing them there.  I buy more of my homeopathic OTC’s from Amazon because they have the best price hands down.

• Acetaminophen (generic Tylenol)
• Activated charcoal (for stomach upsets, food poisoning, and potential ingesting of a poison)
• Allergy medicine (we use Costo’s Aller-tec)
• Aspirin
• Cold Calm (homeopathic for colds)
• Ibuprofen (generic Advil)
• Oscillococcinum (homeopathic for the flu)
• Sodium bicarbonate (generic for Tums)
• Urinary relief (pain relief for urinary tract infections
• Zarbees Cough and Cold products for children

First Aid

I don’t know about you, but my kids seem to go through an inordinate amount of Band-Aids when things are streaming along pretty simply.  I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like if life ever changes from the (comparatively) simple life we live now.  Here are some of my suggestions to put together for first-aid supplies

• 2×2 gauze pads
• 3×4 gauze pads
• 4×4 guaze pads
• alcohol swabs
• Band-Aids – assorted
• Blistop
• Elbow brace
• Knee brace
• Wrist brace
• Cohesive bandages
• Cold packs
• Elastic bandages sm, md, lg
• Elastic stretch net
• Emergency blankets
• Eye patches
• Latex gloves
• Liquid Bandage
• Triple Antibiotic
• Nitrile Gloves
• Practice Skin
• Rolled Gauze
• Stitching instruments
• Super glue
• Suture Packs
• Tape
• Thermometer
• Thermometer sheaths
• Wound Seal

Equipment  

You might think that because you’re not a doctor that you don’t need a lot of medical equipment, and I would agree with you in general.  There are several pieces of equipment that would be helpful I would suggest you have.  I have what I refer to as a “pill maker.”  It doesn’t make pills, but it fills capsules.  I have used this to make activated charcoal pills and turmeric pills, but it’s uses are endless.

Here are some other items I suggest.

• Blood pressure Cuff – If you don’t know how to take a blood pressure.  If you don’t, it doesn’t take long to learn and it is REALLY easy to do. Using an electronic blood pressure cuff is less desirable because so much more can go wrong with it.
• Manual blood pressure cuff  – If you know how to take a blood pressure.
• Trauma Shears
• Thermometers
• Tweezers
• Magnifying glass
• Medical tape
• Kinesiology tape
• Scalpel and blades
• Hemostats
• Tourniquet

Organizing Medical Supplies

When it comes to organizing medical supplies, I use smaller clear plastic totes to organize each of these categories of medical supplies.  This will make life so much easier on you because you can put your finger on things quickly when you need to find them.  If you purchased the large black totes that I’ve mentioned before, many times the smaller clear plastic totes will fit inside these nicely keeping your medical supplies together in one place, but separate in their categories.

What About You?

Which medical supplies do you keep on hand which may not be mentioned here.  Which do you think are the most important?  Do you have any specific books that you rely on for medical knowledge?  Leave a comment below and let us know so that we can all be better prepared.  And remember as you put together your medical equipment . . .

You’ve Got This, Mama!