Category: First Aid/Medical

Letter Re: Seven Secrets of Medical Prepping

Hugh, As a relatively recent addition to the prepper society, I am a HUGE fan of everything and anything on SurvivalBlog.com and all things James Wesley, Rawles. Kudos on all that you, JWR, and the team do on a daily basis. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. I glean and digest all of the information that I can from the website and JWR’s novels. I am currently reading Expatriates and have already read and passed around to friends and family Patriots, Survivors, Founders, and How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It. I take the information in …


Letter: Mastitis

HJL, Mastitis nearly killed me. In a more primitive country, I could have been another maternal death statistic. Mastitis is just one path of infection and death for new mothers. Mastitis cannot be downplayed. Nor can the value of breast feeding “support” be over estimated. While my response to the excellent and informative article by Dr. Goscienski is intensely personal and private, perhaps in the future it may save a baby or mother’s life. I come from a comfortable family, in the socio-economic sense. It would not be correct to just say we are advocates of breast feeding. Simply, everyone …


Seven Secrets of Medical Prepping, by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

Someone once commented that my book held no “secrets” to medical prepping, that everything in the book could be found elsewhere. I’d have to agree, but it would take you hundreds of hours to compile the information. My experience has taught me to be cautious of secrets. Don’t they usually just cause trouble? Nothing in medicine should be secret, anyway. In fact, the subtitle to my Survival Medicine courses is “Taking the Mystery Out of Medicine.” Still, “secrets” can be fun, and what follows are seven “secrets” you should know, if you don’t already: Out-dated drugs aren’t actually expired. Drug …


Letter Re: Breastfeeding Babies

Hugh, I wanted to add something to the great blog about the benefits of breastfeeding. It has to do with my experience having breastfed four babies that are now all teenagers. I had many difficulties with breastfeeding. My mom was encouraging, having breastfed all four of hers, too, but I had one problem after another. I could write a book on my stories, but I’ll simplify to make my point. I struggled through with determination, having to bite down on leather at some points because of the pain. I came down with multiple cases of mastitis with each child. There …


Letter Re: Feeding Infants at TEOTWAWKI

Hugh, That was an outstanding article that was supported by facts and dispelled many myths. When I was in PA school, we had an entire lecture dedicated to learning the facts as this article has described. When I nursed my infant (for nine months), I had to fight against two guilt-driven grandmothers who believed I was harming my baby by not giving him formula, despite my medical background. Indeed, this article takes a sledgehammer to the consumer driven culture of formula feeding. I’d like to add that learning about the “techniques” involved in breastfeeding is best done pre-collapse. It’s not …


Feeding Infants at TEOTWAWKI: The Critical Advantages of Breastfeeding, by Dr. Goscienski, M.D. – Part II

As stated earlier, in Part I of this article, milk is the primary source of nourishment and hydration for infants during the first two years of life. We have become so accustomed to the ready availability of cow’s milk, or sometimes other sources, such as goat or soy, that we have neglected the best source– the human breast. What is not often appreciated is that human milk, according to one expert on the subject, “exerts effects far beyond its nutritional value.” The full impact of that concept in a TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know It) situation …


Feeding Infants at TEOTWAWKI: The Critical Advantages of Breastfeeding, by Dr. Goscienski, M.D. – Part I

Milk is the primary source of nourishment and hydration for infants during the first two years of life. We have become so accustomed to the ready availability of cow’s milk, or sometimes other sources, such as goat or soy, that we have neglected the best source– the human breast. What is not often appreciated is that human milk, according to one expert on the subject, “exerts effects far beyond its nutritional value.” The full impact of that concept in a TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know It) situation is the subject of this article. An adult can …


Letter Re: Low Calorie Diet

Hugh, In response to the low calorie diet, I would like to put my wife’s experience as an example. She is allergic to wheat and as such has converted to a paleo diet. Google “paleo” if you have wheat issues. In her case when going off the high sugar, starch, and carb diets she experienced the weak and low energy days too. However, as her body adapted to it in about 3 or four days she felt normal. Your body will adjust and “retool” to the new foods as well as the lower calorie intake. You may not have stayed …


Letter Re: First Aid Kits

HJL, On the subject of first aid kits, a great item to have in the kit is an emergency manual, such as “Mosby’s Outdoor Emergency First Aid Manual.” The book is spiral bound and indexed to common injuries. You need to update the CPR instructions– rescue breaths are out; only chest compressions are in. To get the proper number of compressions, try humming “Another one bites the dust” by Queen or “Staying Alive” by the Beegees. EMTs and nurses carry pocket manuals all the time. In a stress-filled situation you don’t want to rely on an adrenaline soaked brain to …


Letter: Cataracts

Hugh, I was diagnosed with a cataract about ten years ago. Because it was new, I was having depth perception issues and even had a rear end car crash. An alternative newsletter by a doctor at the time recommended the following drops. I still have one cataract, but the other one never developed. My eye doctor nurse tells me I have what people pay to have. I see distance with one eye and up close with the other, which has the cataract. I use reading glasses for certain focal lengths, such as a computer screen. My vision has not changed …


Letter Re: Eye for Eyes

B.A. makes some very valid points. I have worn glasses all of my life for distance and now need them for small print as well. During my most recent annual exam, the doctor told me I was developing cataracts. In all my years of going for eye exams, I had never been told, until that visit, that to slow the progression of cataracts sunglasses should become my best friend. I was advised those with lenses rated at UV 400 were the best. I have found one type by a company called Cocoon, and there are others that make sunglasses to …


An Eye for Eyes, by B.A.

Dear Reader, As a person who has been blessed with not needing reading glasses, I am usually happy to read lists on prepping that tell the readers to make sure that they have extra prescription glasses in case they break their everyday glasses and cannot get new ones due to unforeseen circumstances. It’s one more place I can save a few dollars. That’s great, but is it really that simple? Many times I have glossed this fact in my mind. I wear sunglasses everyday. They are cheap and available everywhere, which is a good thing because I am a little …


Three Letters Re: Dealing With Asthma When The SHTF

Hugh, A.C. wrote a very good article on asthma, but left one important care plan out– immunotherapy. Immunotherapy, also known as allergy shots, helps a person’s body become tolerant of the things they are allergic to. After allergy testing, the allergist can prescribe allergy injections for what a person is specifically allergic to. A person can receive weekly allergy injections starting at a small concentration and dose of these allergens and working up, to build up a tolerance for their allergies and possible asthma triggers. This can take three to five years, so I’m not sure if there is time …


Dealing With Asthma When The SHTF, by A.C.

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HJL Notes: There are quite a few links in this article. Some are to procedures performed on YouTube. The reader should be warned that while SurvivalBlog made a “best-effort” to verify every link for the medical information, some also contained references to homeopathic and eastern medicine with some eastern religious gestures honoring a false god. When I was about 14, my younger brother, who was 10 at the time, became seriously ill with pneumonia. It started out as a “chest cold”, but after a couple of weeks developed into a deep, body wracking cough along with a high fever. He …


Survival Medicine, by Confederate Preacher

The area of prepping has grown enormously in the past few years, with a diversity not seen in other current mindsets. Some people prep for economic reasons, others for biblical reasons, others for political reasons, while some seem to have no reason at all or a combination of each. I am sure the list of reasons could extended many times over. Each person also has their areas of focus in which the majority of their prepping focuses. Many people are consumed with water storage and/or water purification. Water is the most important supply when dealing with long-term, off-grid survival. Water …