Category: First Aid/Medical

When considering the question of appendicitis at TEOTWAWKI the most important questions are these: 1.     What is the cause? 2.     How can it be recognized? 3.     Who is most at risk? 4.     Is it always fatal? 5.     Can it be treated non-surgically? 6.     Should it be removed before TEOTWAWKI? Appendicitis is caused by a blockage of the appendix, which varies according to age.  In children and young adults this is usually due to infection.  In the elderly it is usually due to hardened feces.  In developing countries appendicitis may be caused by parasites.  In people with an inflamed bowel it …

Sir: I am an Emergency Room physician in Arizona and a preparist.  When I treat people with Type 1 diabetes I routinely mention the need to stockpile and safeguard insulin and diabetes supplies.  When the patient is agreeable I write prescriptions for extra supplies on the spot.  One of my patients told me about Wal-Mart’s ReliOn brand of regular insulin, which is about half the price of other U-100s.  Those SB readers who are physicians and other healthcare providers have an obligation to their patients to inform them and help them obtain the medication and supplies they will need when …

About five years ago, my husband started worrying about many things happening to our country and the world in general.  Bird flu, inflation, resource grabbing, bank bail outs, government policies, Peak Oil… and more provided fuel for his concern.  As I listened to him talk about what was happening in the world, I began to think about what to do in a situation that would dramatically alter our “way of life”.  We already had goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and chickens.  We already had a nice sized garden and I already canned what we didn’t eat fresh, but it wasn’t done …

Sir: I have a medical question that I thought that maybe you could forward to Dr. Cynthia Koelker, your Medical Editor, on perhaps she could write an article.   My appendix was enflamed recently and they performed emergency surgery to remove it before it burst. My doctor said that his granddad, also a doctor, performed preventative surgery to remove his daughter’s (my doctor’s mom’s) appendix. He said that there is really no purpose for the appendix except to get infected and inflamed and burst. I agree that he is probably correct in this day and age, but when I asked …

JWR, In my military life I can relate the reason for the expiration date on the bag is due to the bag not the fluid.  Plastic is not impermeable.  The rationale is after the date of expiration enough time has passed to question the integrity of the fluid.  The purity of the fluid can be compromised.  If you started a line and pushed the fluid you have a increased risk of infection.  The fluid is perfectly good for oral use.  It doesn’t taste very good but in a pinch it works. – Ken L.

JWR: I know you are not a medical doctor, but I had a question about Sodium Chloride .9% IV bags.  They have an Expiration date on them.  Is this information valid.  It is sterile water and salt so could something like that go bad?  Is it because the plastic might leech something out over time?   We just had a lovely “stick” class with my group where we each learned how to put in an IV on each other.  We determined who was good at it, and who should never, ever approach people with a needle.     Each person was out …

James: While the article Nursing an Infectious/Infected Patient Post-Collapse, by P.C., RN, shares some common methods of treatment for general conceptual care of some common childhood diseases of infectious patients, it does not consider that in the treatment of diseases without available treatment of antibiotics, of diseases that are airborne and highly contagious, like Tuberculosis, SARS, Pertussis, or the Blood borne pathogens like Ebola, Active Hepatitis B, C or D, HIV PCP (Pneumocystis Pneumonia) or Ebola. In these cases you do not want an open window to be allowing any escaping infectious droplets. Use of an airflow HEPA filtration system …

Sir: Regarding your recent link to the US News article: “Doctors Struggling to Fight ‘Totally Drug-Resistant’ Tuberculosis in South Africa”, I would like to comment.   As an infectious diseases research scientist with a specialty in tuberculosis (TB) the term “Totally Drug Resistant” peaked my interest, considering the World Health Organization (WHO) does not recognize this term.  To express the resistance to anti-TB drugs, we use very precise terms, where multidrug resistance (MDR-) represents resistance to two specific drugs, isoniazid and rifampin, and extensively-drug resistance (XDR-) is resistance to any of the second line drugs and one of the injectable …

Nursing today is a complicated, technological process involving multiple disciplines, technology and advanced fourth generation antibiotics, none of which will be available in a TEOTWAWKI situation.  It stands to reason that we have to prepare ourselves mentally for the fact that none of the equipment or drugs that are such an integral part of medicine and nursing today, will be available for our use.  There will be no antibiotics for chest infections, no IV fluids for dehydration, no advanced medical treatments for wound infections; It will be a return to nursing at the level of the 19th century.  Now that …

This past week I had a pharmacy call me about a multi-year prescription I had written for a fellow prepper.  The pharmacy would not fill the prescription, and didn’t even know if was legal.  At first they told the patient I would have to write a note regarding the purpose of so much medication, and that the drug might not even be good beyond a year.  On further consideration, they informed him that he would have to get a new prescription written for a smaller amount.  It seemed they did not even want to keep the written prescription in their …