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Sweeper’s thread about “Rebuilding a first aid kit” got me thinking about some of the stuff in mine, especially the oddities in that kit that have been needed, used or appreciated.
Looking at the laminated list in the big group first aid kit a couple things immediately spring to mind. The “oddity” that has brought the most relief is a small bulb syringe.
Not for irrigating wounds; I have twice had companions clog an ear with wax during a trip, usually in the sweaty depths of summer. I know how uncomfortable that can be, and how unbalanced it has made me feel. A pot of warm water and a little bulb syringe irrigation flushing and good Lord, how did that chunk of wax exit a human ear? Hallelujah, Demons come out, he can hear again.
I won’t freak you out with the sizable bug that flew into my ear. The bug that I reflexively, and unwisely, pushed further in with the tip of my pinky. Or the ever-more-faint mubzzuubbb, mubzzuubbb sound it made. Or, that it seemed worse when it stopped going mubzzuubbb, mubzzuubbb deep inside my head some minutes later. I wasn’t thinking of this sci-fi scene, no, not at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i42Smtbmeg
Tiny nosed hemostats. Think “plucking out near-invisible prickly pear cactus spines”. Much better than the awkward tweezers on a Swiss Army knife. Especially when your toddler son picks up a loose prickly pear lobe with both hands for backwoods show and tell.
Decongestant nasal spray. A friend clogged up completely with a lingering head cold on a long trip, and both of us slept much better when he could breathe at night without bugling like a rutting elk. I have used it as well; on far flung trips there can be new and heretofore unexperienced allergens lurking. The desert in rain sprouts some stuff us easterner’s have never before sniffled. Ah to be in the desert now that the creosote is in bloom.
Ladies folding compact double mirror. I have mentioned that item before, but facially bleeding solo trippers would be wise. Make up section of Walmart. Mine is bright pink with white polka dots. Also nice when I’m not bleeding; is that a chunk of breakfast oatmeal adhered to my bearded chin or an engorged tick?
Mini butane lighter. Not really sure why that is in the “Tools” pouch of 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit, I carry several lighters elsewhere, but thought one in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit might be handy. It has been, but not for 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid uses. I have given that mini-Bic away and replaced it more than once. The typical recipient reaction is much like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS7Og1zvdy8
Smokers mostly, and I felt their pain. I could have given them one of my other lighters, but it is too much fun to watch them try to stretch the life of a mini-Bic using a micro-second of flame. I am not evil, just easily amused.
None of those were critical emergency need- the-clotting-bandage-pronto type situations, but they made a big difference.
And yes, I do carry a QuikClot bandage in the big group kit. I have never needed to use it on a trip (knock wood), but the friend who gave it to me once did, and it may have saved his arse, or at least his leg.
1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit stories?
Looking at the laminated list in the big group first aid kit a couple things immediately spring to mind. The “oddity” that has brought the most relief is a small bulb syringe.
Not for irrigating wounds; I have twice had companions clog an ear with wax during a trip, usually in the sweaty depths of summer. I know how uncomfortable that can be, and how unbalanced it has made me feel. A pot of warm water and a little bulb syringe irrigation flushing and good Lord, how did that chunk of wax exit a human ear? Hallelujah, Demons come out, he can hear again.
I won’t freak you out with the sizable bug that flew into my ear. The bug that I reflexively, and unwisely, pushed further in with the tip of my pinky. Or the ever-more-faint mubzzuubbb, mubzzuubbb sound it made. Or, that it seemed worse when it stopped going mubzzuubbb, mubzzuubbb deep inside my head some minutes later. I wasn’t thinking of this sci-fi scene, no, not at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i42Smtbmeg
Tiny nosed hemostats. Think “plucking out near-invisible prickly pear cactus spines”. Much better than the awkward tweezers on a Swiss Army knife. Especially when your toddler son picks up a loose prickly pear lobe with both hands for backwoods show and tell.
Decongestant nasal spray. A friend clogged up completely with a lingering head cold on a long trip, and both of us slept much better when he could breathe at night without bugling like a rutting elk. I have used it as well; on far flung trips there can be new and heretofore unexperienced allergens lurking. The desert in rain sprouts some stuff us easterner’s have never before sniffled. Ah to be in the desert now that the creosote is in bloom.
Ladies folding compact double mirror. I have mentioned that item before, but facially bleeding solo trippers would be wise. Make up section of Walmart. Mine is bright pink with white polka dots. Also nice when I’m not bleeding; is that a chunk of breakfast oatmeal adhered to my bearded chin or an engorged tick?
Mini butane lighter. Not really sure why that is in the “Tools” pouch of 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit, I carry several lighters elsewhere, but thought one in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit might be handy. It has been, but not for 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid uses. I have given that mini-Bic away and replaced it more than once. The typical recipient reaction is much like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS7Og1zvdy8
Smokers mostly, and I felt their pain. I could have given them one of my other lighters, but it is too much fun to watch them try to stretch the life of a mini-Bic using a micro-second of flame. I am not evil, just easily amused.
None of those were critical emergency need- the-clotting-bandage-pronto type situations, but they made a big difference.
And yes, I do carry a QuikClot bandage in the big group kit. I have never needed to use it on a trip (knock wood), but the friend who gave it to me once did, and it may have saved his arse, or at least his leg.
1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit stories?