Storing Bandages

I was inventorying my medical supplies, and found that I had a lot of over-the-counter medicines (which I need to rotate) but I really didn't have many bandages or supplies to treat wounds or cuts.

I went to Target and bought all of these items, hoping I don't ever need to use them.  I am hoping I won't need to rotate them very often.  The only thing I see that might go bad over time is the adhesive on the bandages or tape.  The items without adhesive might be good forever.

Tick Key

We found this tick attached on the top of my husband's head. (Yuck!)  This tick key was very simple to use, and as you can see, the tick is still alive and intact.  They say that pulling the tick's head off is a bad thing, I suppose you don't want the head to stay imbedded in your skin.  I have also heard that you don't want to upset the tick because it will excrete more poisons/lyme disease into you.  I would buy a couple of these if you don't have one.

4 Free Books I Hope I Never Have to Use

I have heard great reviews of these four books, and have always wanted to buy them.  These books are ones I hope I never have to use, but I feel that the information inside them is important for everyone to have in their home libraries.

"Where There is No Doctor"
"Where There is No Dentist"
"Where Women Have No Doctor" and
"A Book for Midwives".

For a short time, all of these books are free to download.  Go to http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php to download them.

During the last days, we may be in a situation where we have to deal with these situations.  I encourage you to download these books, just in case.

Patriot Nurse talks about feminine hygiene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ElAkrqGofI  "Patriot Nurse: BUGOUT and SHTF Feminine Hygiene"





We LDS people have been taught to have a one year's supply of food and necessities of life.  We must think about feminine hygiene products as well.  Here is someone who is talking about this subject.

Patriot Nurse is not LDS, as far as I know.  She is a "prepper", someone who prepares for the worst case scenario.  ("Prepper" is the new term for "survivalist".)  So you may not understand some of her terminology.

"Bugging Out" means evacuating from high population areas to somewhere safer, such as a fortified location.

"When Poop hits the fan"- thats what she says instead of the usual Prepper phrase, when "stuff" hits the fan, or SHTF.

I know it isn't pleasant to think about a scenario where we will not be able to go to the store to buy tampons and pads, but remember President Kimball's statement:

"I remember when the sisters used to say, 'Well, but we could buy it at the store a lot cheaper than we can put it up.' But that isn't quite the answer, is it?....Because there will come a time when there isn't any store."  (April 1974 Welfare Session.)

Patriot Nurse: A Medical Kit for $50

Here is another great YouTube video by Patriot Nurse.  These are what she considers the most important things to include in your home medical kit, on a budget of $50.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePatriotNurse#p/u/26/NLwI9PSAdy0

Patriot Nurse: What to put in your first aid kit

I have just discovered Patriot Nurse and her YouTube videos.  Here are two on what to include in your first aid kits:

"Medical Kit: A Nurse Gets You Ready, Part 1"
http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePatriotNurse#p/u/33/t3qLk9VXMr0

"Medical Kit: A Nurse Gets You Ready, Part 2"
http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePatriotNurse#p/u/32/bIkze84k-bQ

If you want, you can check out all her other videos.

Random Sampler- 2 articles- March 1992 Ensign

Here are two good articles that were in the Random Sampler of the Ensign, March 1992.

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=74ce94bf3938b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD


First article:
Pam Taylor, “Taking the Bite Out of Food Storage,” Ensign, Mar. 1992, 72

Step 1: Learn the basics of home storage. Doing so will save you time, money, and effort. An excellent primer is Essentials of Home Production & Storage (booklet, 1978), available at Church distribution centers.

Step 2: Acquire an emergency supply of life-sustaining foods and water and store them properly. (See Ensign, June 1989, pp. 39–42, for details.)

Step 3: Build up your storage gradually. It’s amazing how fast storage shelves can fill up when you buy commodities in double quantities—for example, one can of beans for regular use, the other for storage. I buy some sale items in quantities to cut costs and to add a variety of familiar foods to my storage. Bulk buying is a money-saver too, and you can get even better deals by sharing the cost with someone else and buying larger quantities. Be sure to check the expiration dates on bulk items so they won’t spoil before use.

Step 4: Eat what you store. You can become ill by eating foods you’re not used to eating.

Second article:
Janice J. Harrop, “Beyond Band-Aids,” Ensign, Mar. 1992, 73

Families who want to put together their own supply of first-aid items or expand what they already have will find her list of medical/first aid supplies helpful.

Websites: Food Storage, Pandemic

I found two excellent websites about food storage. The first is called Food Storage Made Easy, written by Jodi and Julie. Check it out.

One of their posts that I really liked was entitled "Lies about Long Term Food Storage Debunked!!" You can find it by clicking HERE.

The next website is one that tells you how long the shelf life is for all different foods, including the ones opened in your fridge. The website is called StillTasty.

Masks for Flu Pandemic

After studying the bird flu pandemic for months now, I finally bought a supply of N95 face masks. (Every article I read said to buy "N95" masks.) The cheapest price I found on the internet was from ZefonInternational. I was able to get 3M 8000 N95 Particulate Dust Masks, 30 per box for $9.85 ($0.38 each). (For comparison, Emergency Essentials is selling these for $12.99 for a box of 20, $.65 each.)

These have a metal bar that can be shaped across the bridge of the nose, and would be worn for short times and then discarded. (Note: Since I bought mine, the 3M 8000 Dust Masks have been repackaged as 3M 8200, which come 20 to a package for $8.75, which equals $0.437 each. So the prices are going up.)

I also bought the fancier ones, with the valve in front to help you breathe longer without moisture building up inside, and then discarded. Those were 3M 8511 N95 Particulate Respirators, 10 per box for $15.80 ($1.58 each).



Those were the ones I bought, March 2009. I can't tell you if they were the best for the job or not, just that they were the best prices I found when I searched the web.

More Information:

Why to store masks, who is storing masks, what kind of masks to buy.
"Pandemic--Face Masks"

How many you need, what sizes.
"Pandemic-N95 Face Masks and an update on the Peanut Butter Recall" written Jan. 1, 2009

The following quote is from the article "FDA Clears First Respirators for Use in Public Health Medical Emergencies"

"An N95 filtering facepiece respirator is a type of face mask that fits tightly over the nose and mouth. It is made of fibrous material that is designed to filter out at least 95 percent of very small airborne particles...

"While the exact nature and concentration of the biological agent or germ may not be known in a public health medical emergency, we believe that minimizing exposure will help reduce risk," said Daniel Schultz, M.D., director, FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. "These respirators are only one part of a combination of approaches that can be used to help reduce the spread of infection between individuals during such events."

I thought this was important enough that I wanted to spend some of my food storage money on it.