Wound Liklihood

[cayoung]

As a heating and AC guy, what I see the most often are small lacerations due to sheet metal. The occasional head bump on low equipment. And aches and pains from carrying stuff up and down stairs.

I'm working on the ever evolving first aid kit, and wondering what to put in it. Sound like a common question, right?

Curious what you have found to be the most frequent med probs to treat. Of course, a working rancher has a different spread than an EMS in a senior citizen community.

As for myself, small lacerations, aches and pains, and the infrequent crush wound (shoulda pulled my thumb out from under there).

I don't carry a radio, and I'm not a first responder. Though I might stop if it looked like I was first on scene.

Christopher Young

[Faint]

When not on a call, mostly I see little stuff-scrapes, bruises, blisters, and aches and pains. Pretty much what you're dealing with.

So what would I put in my first aid kit-
an assortment of good quality bandaids in a variety of sizes and shapes.

a small assortment of gauze pads and roller gauze for larger injuries

possibly some butterflies, but I'd rather head for the doctor at that point.

antibiotic cream if you use it. I prefer Tea Tree Oil with some little lint pads I get at the dollar store (think they're for removing make-up)

an assortment of OTC pain relievers

some Benadryl in case something nailed me.

some sheets of moleskin-say I sliced myself near the elbow but needed to rest my weight on the elbow to work, the moleskin would be applied around the injury for some padding.

a small mirror in case something got in my eye.

in addition to any drinking liquids, a commercially bottled water bottle with a pull-top so I could more easily irrigate my eyes or in or around wounds.

some jerky or something else to eat NOT CANDY. Working hungry is working stupid.

Possibly something like Nu-Skin (sold for office worker's paper cuts) or some of the kiddie skinned-knee sprays for minor (very minor) wounds I wanted to keep clean. I'm allergic to Nu-Skin so can't really say how well any of these items work.

Any other OTC remedies I'd rather have with me instead of leaving work to search for a store (or a bathroom, NOW).

a pair or 2 of exam gloves in case I needed to treat a co-worker or ask a bystander to help me bandage myself.

spare eye and hearing protection, spare work gloves.

maybe an Ace bandage and/or some OTC knee or elbow braces for when I was twinged but needed to keep working.

A ziplock bag with some folded up paper towels-good for compression on a serious cut (over gauze), cleaning up afterwards, etc.

Some waterless hand cleaner.

Some non-first aid comfort items-spare pens and a notebook (even a couple sheets of paper folded up), toilet paper (I no longer have a gall bladder, bathrooms are my life), possibly some little travel packs of tissue (worthless as TP, squish a roll of toilet paper instead), some phone change, $10-20 for gas or something. spare flashlight batteries, that sort of thing.

If you look in the kitchen area of stores, they have lots of little square and rectangular food storage containers which work well either by themselves or in a larger container. You can put all the OTC pills in one, bandaids in another and so forth. Generally they are clear enough that you can tell what's in them, or just tell a bystander to go get all the Tupperware.

Seems like I'm forgetting something terribly obvious, maybe it'll come to me later.

As for a first-on-the-scene kit the sky's the limit. Gloves. Bleeding control. CPR masks. There was the recent thread we had going called First Aid Kit Levels that has some good ideas in it for what to carry.

Faint

[Hari Seldon]

BANDAID (I believe) is now marketing a wound "flush" solution. It is basically 4% lidocaine in a bufferred solution with some germicides too. It is sold to irrigate & flush out minor scrapes & cuts.

In certain stores, I have found some reasonably priced units ($3-4 for 6? oz, in a squirt bottle).

This product seems wotrthy of consideration for the firstaid kit.
- It is inexpensive.
- It cleans wounds.
- It is antiseptic.
- It kills pain.

[Hari Seldon]

http://www.band-aid.com/images/08_cleansing_product/hurt_free.jpg

[Faint]

I'll have to watch for this stuff Hari, thanks for posting it.

Faint