#medical prepping

[hillbillyoracle]

I would LOVE a post on putting together first aid kits, I always read about it and get overwhelmed and short out so maybe if someone whose writing I already know i can parse explains it I'll actually finish putting mine together :|

I might go one to write something more involved later but I thought I'd jot down my initial thoughts here.

--

Let me preface all of this by saying I don't have extensive medical training. I got my CNA license like a decade ago and used to be certified for basic search and rescue. So take all of this with a grain of salt and cross reference with other sources.

First Aid Kit supplies tend to fall into a few categories:

Supplies that help you get someone to emergency care

Supplies that help you get someone to primary care

Supplies that help you self treat without seeking care

All of these categories can go pretty deep and it's easy to get overwhelmed. Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.

Supplies in each category can be helpful in other categories. I've just grouped them according to their primary use case in my personal kits.

Getting Someone to Emergency Care

The most important aspect of responding to an emergency is knowledge so keeping an updated First Aid/CPR certification is ideal even if you don't need it for work or another position.

If you can't make it to a class, the Red Cross has a first aid app that you can download and review. While 911 can guide you how to respond to some emergencies over the phone, it's always helps to be familiar with best practices beforehand.

Aside from that a lot of supplies can be on the more expensive side.

Some supplies I included in some of my kits:

Tourniquet

SAM splints + medical tape

Quick Clot (cloth, not powder)

Trauma Sheers

Steri-strips

Aspirin

If you don't have the money for these supplies, don't fret. Cheaper things that would be helpful in similar situations would be

ace bandages (improvised tourniquet)

safety pins (improvised sling)

washcloths and hand towels (to aid compression)

Getting Someone to Primary Care

Though depending on where you live and how the health care system works these could overlap with getting someone to urgent care (step below emergency care).

The import part of this category is twofold - you need information to give a primary care/urgent care physician to help diagnose and treat and you need to keep someone comfortable/from getting worse.

Keep a Record

If you take nothing else from this post, it's this - take notes. The format is simple - date, time, observation. Don't worry if you observation is "dumb" or you don't know the right words; any changes you think could be noteworthy, write down.

Take it with you when you or the person you're caring for goes in to be seen. Jot down a brief summary of the visit (name of facility, name of provider, symptoms discussed, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, plan of care/follow up) in case you need to seek care with a different physician (specialist, ER, etc).

Taking Vitals

Ideally, you'll want to be able to check a person's vitals. So these pieces of equipment can help:

Thermometer*

Pulse Oximeter

Automatic blood pressure cuff

While I recommend all of this, if you can only get one of these, I'd pick an oral thermometer personally since it's very difficult to tell the difference between different stages of a fever with your hand alone and can be found for pretty cheap. Be sure to wash it off after each use so as not to spread gems.

If you can't purchase the others, make sure you know how to take a pulse accurately, count respirations, and know the signs of low oxygen and blood pressure issues.

Keeping Someone Comfortable

This greatly depends on what a person is experiencing, but in general you'll want to fill what you can of these:

Painkiller

Fever reducer

Anti-histamine

Cough suppressant

Rash cream

Sleep support

I cannot recommend specific ones for each category since everyone has such specific needs. If you're concerned about picking the right ones for you, your doctor can make recommendations.

Fluids and rest are generally helpful in keeping someone comfortable and stable.

Treating Someone at Home

This is where the band-aids live. Most of what people think of when they think first-aid tend to be things in this category.

This is also one of the most difficult ones to give specifics on because people vary in their needs so widely. What might be a fairly common occurrence for me might be rare for you and vice versa.

So instead of theorizing what you might need, I'll talk about what I have in mine. Hopefully seeing my thought process helps you.

Bandages

When bandaging a wound, you need to clean it and then put on an absorbent layer and a cover to keep out debris.

I use alcohol pads to clean wounds and band-aids (since they are absorbent layer and cover in one) for small wounds. Most cuts and scraps only need this.

For larger wounds I keep some gauze pads and cohesive wrap to cut to size.

Ointments

Some wounds need further treatment. Some things need treatment to prevent them becoming wounds.

I keep triple antibiotic to put on wounds that are at a higher risk for becoming or have become infected.

I keep sting relief pads for insect stings and bites to prevent me scratching at them into wounds.

I keep burn gel for burns (including sunburns).

I keep hydrocortisone and calamine lotion for rashes.

I keep lavender balm for sleep/muscle tension and muscle balm for muscle strains.

For Blisters

This gets it own little section in each of my kits since I get blisters pretty often. Remember folks, the sooner you catch a hotspot or blister, the easier it is to treat.

I keep hydrocolloid bandages for blisters and athletic tape for hot spots. A lot of them.

If they open, then they're effectively a wound and I treat them similarly. But generally I try to prevent that.

Miscellaneous

I keep a tick remover (card style) because I find it easier than tweezers (though I have those too).

I keep instant cold compress packs - especially in our "sport" kit that's in the car my partner takes to her full contact sport. Her most common injuries have been jammed fingers and nail bent back - cold packs are great for both. They're also great for treating heat exhaustion, especially when you're away from a building with good AC.

In a similar vein, I specifically have several finger SAM splints coming in for that kit.

Gloves. Seriously they're so useful, I use them all the time. Dying my hair, chopping up spicy peppers, using cleaning products that might make me break out, keeping my hand clean for treating a wound, sexy times - they're good for all sorts of things.

12cc syringe in our sport kit for filling with water and flushing out bigger wounds (like scrapes from falls) away from home.

I'm probably forgetting some other things but I think this covers most of it.

Conclusion

I know this is a lot. There's no need to go out and get things all at once.

I started collecting supplies slowly when I was in college. I just established a box as my first aid kit and decided it would always live under my bathroom sink. When stuff came up, I grabbed supplies for it and then kept the extras (throwing out the medications as they expired).

If you make a list for yourself, you can grab things proactively when you have a little left over in your budget or they're on sale. Prioritize things based on what you think you're most likely to use.

Need to start small? A box of bandages, oral thermometer, painkiller/fever reducer, and an antihistamine are better than nothing and a great start to build on once you have more resources.

I hope this helps someone out!

[reasonsforhope]

"A large clinical trial in South Africa and Uganda has shown that a twice-yearly injection of a new pre-exposure prophylaxis drug gives young women total protection from HIV infection.

The trial tested whether the six-month injection of lenacapavir would provide better protection against HIV infection than two other drugs, both daily pills. All three medications are pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) drugs.

Physician-scientist Linda-Gail Bekker, principal investigator for the South African part of the study, tells Nadine Dreyer what makes this breakthough so significant and what to expect next.

Tell us about the trial and what it set out to achieve

The Purpose 1 trial with 5,000 participants took place at three sites in Uganda and 25 sites in South Africa to test the efficacy of lenacapavir and two other drugs.

Lenacapavir (Len LA) is a fusion capside inhibitor. It interferes with the HIV capsid, a protein shell that protects HIV’s genetic material and enzymes needed for replication. It is administered just under the skin, once every six months.

The randomised controlled trial, sponsored by the drug developers Gilead Sciences, tested several things.

The first was whether a six-monthly injection of lenacapavir was safe and would provide better protection against HIV infection as PrEP for women between the ages of 16 and 25 years than Truvada F/TDF, a daily PrEP pill in wide use that has been available for more than a decade.

Secondly, the trial also tested whether Descovy F/TAF, a newer daily pill, was as effective as F/TDF...

The trial had three arms. Young women were randomly assigned to one of the arms in a 2:2:1 ratio (Len LA: F/TAF oral: F/TDF oral) in a double blinded fashion. This means neither the participants nor the researchers knew which treatment participants were receiving until the clinical trial was over.

In eastern and southern Africa, young women are the population who bear the brunt of new HIV infections. They also find a daily PrEP regimen challenging to maintain, for a number of social and structural reasons.

During the randomised phase of the trial none of the 2,134 women who received lenacapavir contracted HIV. There was 100 percent efficiency.

By comparison, 16 of the 1,068 women (or 1.5%) who took Truvada (F/TDF) and 39 of 2,136 (1.8%) who received Descovy (F/TAF) contracted the HIV virus...

What is the significance of these trials?

This breakthrough gives great hope that we have a proven, highly effective prevention tool to protect people from HIV.

There were 1.3 million new HIV infections globally in the past year. Although that’s fewer than the 2 million infections seen in 2010, it is clear that at this rate we are not going to meet the HIV new infection target that UNAIDS set for 2025 (fewer than 500,000 globally) or potentially even the goal to end Aids by 2030...

For young people, the daily decision to take a pill or use a condom or take a pill at the time of sexual intercourse can be very challenging.

HIV scientists and activists hope that young people may find that having to make this “prevention decision” only twice a year may reduce unpredictability and barriers.

For a young woman who struggles to get to an appointment at a clinic in a town or who can’t keep pills without facing stigma or violence, an injection just twice a year is the option that could keep her free of HIV.

What happens now?

The plan is that the Purpose 1 trial will go on but now in an “open label” phase. This means that study participants will be “unblinded”: they will be told whether they have been in the “injectable” or oral TDF or oral TAF groups.

They will be offered the choice of PrEP they would prefer as the trial continues.

A sister trial is also under way: Purpose 2 is being conducted in a number of regions including some sites in Africa among cisgender men, and transgender and nonbinary people who have sex with men.

It’s important to conduct trials among different groups because we have seen differences in effectiveness. Whether the sex is anal or vaginal is important and may have an impact on effectiveness.

How long until the drug is rolled out?

We have read in a Gilead Sciences press statement that within the next couple of months [from July 2024] the company will submit the dossier with all the results to a number of country regulators, particularly the Ugandan and South African regulators.

The World Health Organization will also review the data and may issue recommendations.

We hope then that this new drug will be adopted into WHO and country guidelines.

We also hope we may begin to see the drug being tested in more studies to understand better how to incorporate it into real world settings.

Price is a critical factor to ensure access and distribution in the public sector where it is badly needed.

Gilead Sciences has said it will offer licences to companies that make generic drugs, which is another critical way to get prices down.

In an ideal world, governments will be able to purchase this affordably and it will be offered to all who want it and need protection against HIV."

-via The Conversation, July 3, 2024

[notbecauseofvictories]

it is interesting and terrifying to talk to my mother about aging.

she, my uncle, and my father all help take care of my grandparents, and during our call she flat-out told me that, at some point, my siblings and I will likely need to move my parents out of their house into continuing/graduated care. That step would have been so beneficial for my grandparents---for the aging parents of many of my mother's friends---but that generation seems so resistant, so stubborn; they want to age in their homes even if said homes have stairs, sharp corners, haven't been properly cleaned in years. "I am going to try and be more open to change," my mother said with a slightly-embarrassed laugh; we as her children just might need to remind her sometimes.

meanwhile I---a thirty-year-old woman who previously would have described her overall posture on aging as "that's a future problem!!!"---am quietly freaking out.

[tj-crochets]

So it turns out there's a big craft guild organization thing only a few hours from where I live (I saw an ad for their craft fair), and I got like half my holiday shopping done on their website, and the box arrived today! The thing I was most excited to see in person is fragile, though, and it's really well wrapped in bubble wrap and I don't want it to break when I mail it to the friend it's for, so I am not unwrapping it, but oh man the temptation is there lol I also got myself a little metal bug made of a bottle cap and some wire. It lives on my little corkboard where I put postcards and thank you cards now

[namranii]

do people actually like my content im wondering or am i just yappering for nobody ☹️ sorry for the deppressing post i just feel like i haven’t made much of a contribution to the community

[fox-bright]

Today I did the short online version of the Stop the Bleed course, which is a first-responder for civvies training. It's only 25 minutes and very basic, but there might be some things in there you don't know yet!

It goes very briefly through the proper methods for identifying a dangerous bleed, compressing a wound, packing a deep wound, and applying a tourniquet. It's ultra-basic, very simple terminology and low-stress.

There is no live gore; there is some animation, and very short videos of techniques being demonstrated on silicone limbs.

It takes about as much time as it does to make and eat a pair of sandwiches, so it won't cut into your day too much, and you never know when the information might prove useful.

[cvt2dvm]

Pay as you can Plan C Pill Protocols from $5, with future use pill protocols for $250. It's election season in the Post-Roe era. Pass it on for your sisters.

[megumi-fm]

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[greater-than-the-sword]

Let Bruce Willis star in a movie where he breaks a baby out of a hospital. Yes it would be political. I dont care

[asaemoryfanclub]

Vorta Cause of Death Analysis

My favorite little guys the Vorta have been shot!!!! 😨😨 Quick!!!! We must deduce cause of death. Just kidding it was us 🤫🤫🤪🤪

[prince-liest]

I'm starting my four week Emergency Medicine rotation today, and:

my first two shifts are from 4pm to 2am, which doubly sucks because 1) I am a morning person whose brain turns off after 8pm (alien concept, I know, sorry) and also 2) it means I still couldn't sleep past 7:30am so the whole day my brain has been stuck in a permanent state of "waiting"

that said, I traded all my overnight ends-at-6am shifts to my night owl friend's early morning shifts because waking up at 4:30am is preferable for me and I have no other evening shifts after these two, so that'll at least be over with quick

ALL of the shifts are either 10 or 12 hours, it's a 1 hour drive ONE WAY to get to the hospital, plus our school didn't put "feed the students" into the fucking contract so I have to pack a lunch or pay for the caf which, like, I am good at meal prepping, but it's still annoying. also no actual protected lunch break, just eating at the computer real quick. again, twelve hour shifts.

anyway, all of that is to say that everybody please expect a drastic slowdown in my ability to write fic and answer comments because I'm gonna be spending 12-14 hours a day not at home, hahahaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA qq

But, hey, at least after that it's gonna be much more chill 2 months until graduation! This is literally the only thing I'm doing in the second half of fourth year that requires effort. Love this part of medical school.

[mrbrrop]

I rewatched the first 2 eps of season 7 and for fuck sake I. LOVE. HOUSE MD!

I don't even ship Huddy that much, but they really fucking know how to balance humorous and depressing like I think my dad might have choked from laughter at the start of S7E2, and the "Huddy doesn't work because when they fight they now have something to loose"(by fighting I mean House's equivalent which is dishonesty) is a really intresting perspective to explore and remembering how it ends it REALLY is explored

Another thing I really love is that when House dates someone(Cuddy) He has to dilute himself to please them, because half the time they're right in a sane way (following rules and moral codes or something other) but he's not and will never be, he doesn't care about the societally accepted moral code, and that is usually the divide between him and any sane character but the conflict is 100 times more heightened when he's dating the sane person.

Also, little side note I got to write down my notes for my House-MD-Death-essay today :) :

It's basically just a list of the deaths (or potential deaths) and the topics they brought up like Adler(S1E1) and Wilson(S8) who brought up Dignity in Death or Amber and House's dad who brought up the idea of pretending you liked someone because they passed

[alfalfaaarya]

15 September 2024//Sunday

3 days to go for exams!

Today I studied :

Pharmac:

Lignocaine

Bupivacaine

Preanasthetic medication

Ketamine

Patho:

Leprosy: types, pathogenesis , morphology

Microbiology:

Pyogenic meningitis : causes , routes of infection, risk factors , clinical manifestation, lab diagnosis

[abrushwithdeath]

((I'm gonna try to be around a little bit today, so let me know if you want me to send memes your way!!!

This goes for people I'm already writing with AND anyone I haven't had a chance to write with yet, by the way <3))

[firminfollowing]

Pro tip: if you have to take Magnesium Citrate, get the lemon kind and mix it with apple juice! (Or anything actually)

You may throw up if you rawdog it, so be careful, mix it up, and go slow.

[thedeafprophet]

ive been feelin like such shit since the surgery got cancelled but i feel that is a justified emotion even if the delay was only a week

i was so damn close,,,, my grief at the disease as just been reopened. woe is me.