Category: First Aid/Medical

Letter Re: Preparations for Eyesight and Hearing

Mr. Editor: Just a quick note to follow-up regarding preparations for Eyesight and Hearing. I checked into lasik and contacts long ago (I am slightly near-sighted – too many hours staring into cameras and computers I guess). Although Lasik advances have come a long way, please be sure you talk to your eye surgeon at length before you commit to this serious expense. If you are near-sighted, a successful lasik procedure will improve your long-distance vision, but may impede your “up close” vision. I talked with my eye doctor at length about this, and after many questions he acknowledged that …


Letter Re: Preparations for Eyesight and Hearing

Hello Mr. Rawles, This is just a quick note from a new reader. If what I mention to you has been covered on your site, I apologize; your site takes more than a few multi-hour reads to digest! I see very little talk about contact lenses/solution and hearing aids/batteries post-TEOTWAWKI in most preparedness articles. I would think it would be most unfortunate to train, learn and prepare for any upcoming abnormalities and shortly thereafter not be able to see or hear. It would seem to me that at least a couple year’s supply of contact lenses on hand at all …


Is Prepping an Insurmountable Task?–The Beginner’s Primer, by Gary T.

Once you realize the importance of being prepared for coming hard times, you may ask yourself, “How can I possibly prepare for any scenario?  This is an insurmountable undertaking.”  The more you ponder this, the more the reality of this seems to be confirmed.  Let not your heart be troubled.  As with almost any endeavor, the road to success begins with the first step and continues one step at a time.  Consistent, prioritized, careful preparation over a period of time, preparation built around what your personal situation (budget, job, family, medical needs, etc.) will allow, can get you in a …


Hypothermia Prevention and Treatment Part 1–Staying Warm, by Lumberjack

This two part series of articles is meant to address a basic physiological need that may be severely threatened both in a TEOTWAWKI situation and any time a lesser emergency takes us out of our bubble of comfort and preparedness. That issue is warmth: specifically how you stay warm and avoid hypothermia when your car slides off the road in a snow storm or you don’t get out of dodge fast enough and find yourself hoofing it overland with only what you can carry, through rain and wind. Part two deals with the possibility you or a loved one or …


Two Letters Re: Preparedness Information for Diabetics

Dear Mr. Rawles, I have a few suggestions to add to the recent article about survival and preparedness for diabetics, particularly type 1 diabetics. I’ve had type 1 diabetes for 13 years and one of the few things I learned pretty quickly is that the power will go out and even if the bottle of insulin is unopened, temperatures higher than 40 degrees Fahrenheit for a long period of time will degrade the activity of the insulin. This will require a much higher dose than what would otherwise be necessary if the insulin is stored properly, if the insulin works …


Preparedness Information for Diabetics, by Chuck Fenwick

I ran across an article on survival and diabetics written by a nurse. It was what we call a basic brush and floss kind of article that quoted from some well-known medical books. I call it a brush and floss article because it contained mostly information which a diabetic already knows, much like the way a dentist tells you what your mom has told you a bazillion times about brushing your teeth. However at the end of the article the nurse pretty much consigned type 1 diabetics to doom and even referenced Darwin and the “survival of the fittest”. I …


Letter Re: Advice for a Post-Thyroidectomy — Potassium Iodide?

Mr. Rawles, I have read your blog for awhile, I would like to know if you about the following: I was diagnosed with Graves Disease over two years ago. They cured the Graves Disease and the way that was done was to completely remove my thyroid gland, If the main concern with radiation is thyroid cancer, without a thyroid what would radiation do are what organ would it damage the most. I would like to also know if there would be any need for myself to take Potassium Iodide (KI). JWR Replies: There would be no need for you to …


Basic Survival Skills for Children, by M.L.

Children play a part in many of our lives. Protecting them becomes an important issue in daily life as well as in an end of the world as you know it moment. However, what happens when adults can’t be there to protect them? What happens when they may need to protect us?             Our government and even many schools across the country, as well as parents and other adults, often do not see the potential in children. I am not talking about the educated potential one might find in the youth of a suburban school, but the potential to rise …


Preparedness Beginnings, by “Two Dogs”

I am a retired Marine Corps officer and Naval Aviator (jets and helicopters), commercial airplane and helicopter pilot, and most recently, an aircraft operations manager for a Federal agency. I graduated from numerous military schools, including the U.S. Army Airborne (“jump”) School, U.S. Navy Divers School, Army helicopter, and Navy advanced jet schools. In addition, I have attended military “survival” courses whose primary focus was generally short-term survival off the land, escape from capture, and recovery from remote areas.  Like most Marine officers, I attended The Basic School, an 8-month school (only five during the Vietnam era – my case), …


Letter Re: The Virtues of Fasting Experience for Well-Rounded Preparedness

Greetings! I have an idea that I have been wanting the patriot survival community to consider. Here it is: Basically we are able to go without food for much longer than most people know. This is not true with water to be sure. A normal, reasonably healthy human body is easily capable of going three to six weeks on very, very little nutrition and remain completely mentally alert and even physically active. During a prolonged fast you will not be able to pick up as much furniture as normal but you may easily be able to walk for 100 miles! …


Gear Up — Appropriate and Redundant Technologies for Prepared Families

I frequently stress the importance of well-balanced preparedness in my writings. All too often, I’ve seen people that go to extremes, to the point that these extremes actually detract from the ability to survive a disaster situation. These range from the “all the gear that I’ll need to survive is in my backpack” mentality to the “a truckload of this or that” fixation. But genuine preparedness lies in comprehensive planning, strict budgeting, and moderation. Blowing your entire preparedness budget on just one category of gear is detrimental to your overall preparedness. Another common mistake that I see among my consulting …


Controlling Pain Where There is No Doctor, by Bill R.

Some of you are probably asking yourself what this has to with Survivalism. Pain is our brain’s way of letting us know that something is not right. You touch a hot stove and it warns you to pull away. With any number of things that can set off TEOTWAWKI,  The result will be the same. Traumatic, stressful, pick your favorite term; it’s all the same. Increased stress levels in the body create tension. We have all heard the term ”your psychology affects your physiology”, nothing could be more true. I think it is an excellent idea to go through practice …


Five Letters Re: How to Build a Deeper Supply of Prescription Medications

Dear Mr. Rawles, Pat C.’s recent post regarding the acquisition of prescription drugs in quantity includes many good thoughts. As a pharmacist of more years than I like to admit, I feel compelled to add to a few of Pat’s points. Pat mentions FDA restrictions on quantities of several types of medications, including some “powerful antibiotics, pain drugs, and highly abused drugs”. I’m unaware of FDA restrictions on dispense quantities of any drugs, except regarding a very small number of drugs with unusually high-risk of adverse reactions. These few drugs would rarely come into play in stocking for calamities. The …


Letter Re: The Latest Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook

Jim, Among the books listed by the recent "favorite books" survey respondents was the US Army Special Forces Medical Handbook (ST31-91B). This book is obsolete and has been supplanted by the Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook. The best summaries as to why the one is obsolete I’ve found are: “That manual is a relic of sentimental and historical interest only, advocating treatments that, if used by today’s medics, would result in disciplinary measures,” wrote Dr. Warner Anderson, a U.S. Army Colonel (ret.) and former associate dean of the Special Warfare Medical Group. “The manual you reference is of great historical …


How to Build a Deeper Supply of Prescription Medications, by Pat C.

Most well-prepared individuals with chronic health conditions want to keep a deep supply of medications on hand, in the event of disaster that would disrupt normal chains of supply. Medical insurance plans typically have a 30-day limit on the amount of medication that can be obtained at one time. There are various reasons for these limitations – medical complications, FDA regulations, and cost-containment by your insurance company. However, there are ways to get around these limits and build a deeper stock of meds as part of your survival planning. Multiple Scripts Ask your physician to write several prescriptions, each of …