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​Oddities used from the first aid kit?

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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?
 
Several years ago (45?) when doing week long trips with groups of teenagers, our 1st aid kit included sanitary napkins (remember, teenage girls). One trip a macho teenager seriously cut his foot. Desperately looking for a way to bandage his foot, somebody grabbed a kotex... for many years later, there were always a couple in the kit, even on all guy trips.

My personal 1st aid kit now contains an extra insulin pen and an extra day of my meds, just in case something happens to my med box which is (unfortunately) larger than my 1st aid kit:(.
 
Probably the weirdest thing in my kit is a pair of tampons and they're actually one of the more used items. They're about the only way to pack an uncontrollable nosebleed in the field!
 
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

I don't worry about bears, wolves, poisonous snakes, rapids, wind out there....Heck my first aid kit is the size of a sandwich bag, but this makes me think twice about ever going on another solo trip for the rest of my life!!. I'm going to have to get some elastic and mesh and make a pair of ear covers....:)

I do for some reason carry a small bic in my first aid kit too along with a small roll of duct tape. Not sure how it ended up there, I carry a larger roll for actual repairs.

Cheers,

Barry
 
Probably the weirdest thing in my kit is a pair of tampons and they're actually one of the more used items. They're about the only way to pack an uncontrollable nosebleed in the field!

Why haven't I thought of that? I know what's being added to my kit this season!
 
I'm squeemish. My wife is not. I fear that if I carry hefty first aid, I'll have to use it. But she's a nurse. We go thru my kit from time to time and she keeps everything within expiration and reminds me what things are for. Tampons, as mentioned twice above, are probably becoming not that unusual anymore. They are awesomely absorbant and easy to use and dang well work.

But I tell ya and maybe this is common in first aid kits but eye drops have become one of those things I use always. I've never really used eye drops--even in my youthful red eyed at school days--but days on the river with wide eyes I find myself reaching more and more for something to help my eyes. They get so blistered feeling and raw. Now I can't imagine taking a trip without eyes drops. Maybe I've suddenly entered old age, I don't know.
 
I use the moisturizing/lubricating eye drops quite a bit. My optometrist tells me that I should use them daily. Any opinions on these vs the regular eye drops? I also keep some antihistamine eye drops for the times when my eyes start burning, but that's almost always indoors.
 
But I tell ya and maybe this is common in first aid kits but eye drops have become one of those things I use always. I've never really used eye drops--even in my youthful red eyed at school days--but days on the river with wide eyes I find myself reaching more and more for something to help my eyes. They get so blistered feeling and raw. Now I can't imagine taking a trip without eyes drops. Maybe I've suddenly entered old age, I don't know.

I am with you on the eye drops, especially when travelling in drycrusty desert environs or other areas with blowing dust and sand. Same for Chapstick or lip balm, on both desert and cold weather trips.

At the risk of sounding like a huge wuss, same goes for hand lotion on tidal or salt water trips. The calluses on my fingers will start to crack within days without some attention when paddling salt water. The desert will do that as well, just not as quickly.

But none of those things are in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit; they are in my toiletries bag, which I am opening twice a day anyway. The only other things in that toiletry bag are a toothbrush & toothpaste. And the world’s most disgusting hair brush, a tiny broken fragment of an old brush, 2 inches long x 1 inch wide. I keep my hair very short, and my beard very long; trying to run a comb through my beard to dislodge the stray insect carcasses and oatmeal dribbles would be an exercise in futility.

Along the same everyday need storage lines, I eat two ibuprofen dang near every morning. The ibuprofen bottle isn’t in the first aid kit; it is in the breakfast bag which I know I will open every morning.

And yeah, there are two tampons in the big 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit.
 
You can actually buy absorbent dressing plugs for dealing with nose bleeds, they come in a nice foil pouch. I guess they are a bit more expensive though.

Mirror? Use your signal mirror. I assume you carry one?

A simple way to deal with nasal congestion is a big pan of boiling water. Take it off the stove, drape a towel of a jacket over your head and breathe deeply to inhale the steam. It's better with some oil of eucalyptus but steam by itself is good.

I now carry a SWAT touriquet as well as a quik clot bandage. In winter I tuck these two items into my pants pocket when I head off gathering firewood. I figure that if I screw up with the axe I am unlikely to have time to come back to the tent and find the first aid kit. I also take my SPOT with me just in case!
 
Mirror? Use your signal mirror. I assume you carry one?

I do, although it has gotten mighty scratched up over years of disuse. But I only carry one, which made it hard to see what was bleeding on the side of my head.

The beauty of the little makeup compact is 1) it is two mirrors in a clamshell case, so I can see all around my head (back, butt, whatever) and 2) it is stored in the first aid kit where I might need it along with the dressings/bandages.

I deliberately broke the little plastic clamshell hinge so that I can angle the mirrors to get a good look at the side (or back) of my head. The little clamshell case still snaps together just fine, so the mirrors have stayed scratch free.
 
You can always use your camera in lieu of another mirror, but I do see your point.

I probably could if I knew how to use the dang thing. The digital sure as heck isn’t my old simplefamiliar SLR, and I’d likely end up shooting video of me going “Oh, ow, crap, that’s a lot of blood. Ouuch, ouch, dang”. (The only video I have ever taken was accidental, of the ground wobbling back and forth as I walked along holding the camera while talking to myself, and I’m still not sure how I did that)

Other weird things in the big first aid bag: Surveyors tape and a spare whistle. If I need to leave someone while I go for help I thought the surveyors tape might assist in finding them again. Spare whistle too.

Those are never used items that I have not yet removed from the big kit, mostly because they take up so little room/weight. I always have pieces of surveyors tape in an essentials bag, and a whistle in my PFD pocket. I have used those, but never the ones in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] aid kit.
 
I have a couple piece in there more for the ditch bag part of the kit and also some fit better there.
I have an Army Dog Tag, a Loupe, good for those small splinters but more for small plant and insect details, a CRKT neck Knife, a Compass and a P38
 
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