As the Covid pandemic worsens where we live, Charles and I have realized that there is an area that we forgot about concerning living a more prepared life.
Hospitals in our state are struggling, we have had record numbers that are breaking record numbers and no more room for incoming patients, shortages of nurses and doctors and it is so bad now here that military help has come to our largest hospital in our city because there is no available civilian help. Our state has now joined a list with other states that have had to ask for refrigerated portable morgues. These morgues are for situations there are mass casualties. Our state doctor said unfortunately we qualify for those requests now.
We cannot be okay with this. Right? No we cannot be okay with this. We should not need official lockdowns, or mandates, we should have enough common sense to do this on our own, this is what our generations before us did.
So what do we do about this? We pray, we do everything that is right to do. Then we hold on to the home front. We take care of our home, our family, those that we can and we stop becoming part of the problem. We also stay out of the way.
Our first aid cabinet is located by our back door.
I went for a heart check up last week, a scheduled appointment with my heart doctor to see how my pacemaker is doing. My heart doctors office is in a doctors building that is part of our largest hospital in our city.
When we arrived at the hospital I could feel it, I could see it when pulling up to the hospital. Things have changed, there is an exhaustion there that I could feel to my core. My doctor that I have seen for over thirty years was solemn.
I asked him if he was okay and he said, it cannot get any worse than it is. Then he went on to explain to me the seriousness of the situation at the hospital which confirmed what I had read in the news only now I knew more. It was too real, I wanted it to be just a nightmare.
On the way home Charles said, "Maybe we need to buy a suture kit." His mind and my mind was turning over all kinds of scenarios. For the first time ever we realized we are in a situation that we might not be able to get medical help right away for something serious and if we did it most likely would take hours or days and what if gets so bad it is longer than that?
We already knew that things were progressively getting worse before this day but now we understood things need to change in our home.
So what is the first thing that happens after we find out we have a medical crisis in the city that we live?
Charles gets up at 12:20 a.m. to go to the bathroom and has a very hard fall in the bathroom. I heard him fall, I was awake because he has arthritis and when he gets up his ankles are stiff and he normally bumps against things such as the chifferobe, the bedroom doorway and our floors are wood and there is a slight crack sound as he walks through the hallway.
What appeared to be a compound fracture in the first moment of seeing him was actually a very fast swelling and contusion on his right forearm and the bleeding from a cut made it look much worse. He also bruised his hip and leg very badly.
What was the very first thing I did after turning on the bathroom light? I wet face cloths and put them on his pale face and I ran to our small freezer on the top of our small fridge and grabbed a bag of frozen beans, a clean towel and plopped it on his arm. Isn't that what you would do?
After getting him back into the bed so I could take care of all of this, we both had a moment that knew we had a situation that we had to take care of his injuries ourselves.
I took care of the wound by cleaning it and bandaging it, found the real cold pack from the back of the freezer, aced wrapped his arm to compress it and then laid the cold pack across the area swelling and another wrap to stabilize the whole thing, propped it up on pillows. I inspected his head to make sure he had not hit his head and he said he did not hit his head.
So I told him that he needed to go to sleep since his head was not injured and it was a long time before daylight. We would re-access in the morning.
I can say that it is a very strange thing to live in the united states and for the first time realize that it could be a long while to get medical help if we needed it.
I knew I would not be able to go back to sleep because I was worried about him. I had remained calm because I had to but I was very concerned.
So what do you do 2:00 a.m. after something like this? I went on amazon and ordered some medical supplies that I could not purchase locally. Items that I needed to add to our first aid cabinet and kit. Reality set in, we never thought about being prepared for a level 39 million two hundred thousand, plus. I wrote out a list of things to do.
So it was time to pull out everything from our first aid cabinet, go through it, check expiration dates, go through the other cabinet that holds soap, peroxide, alcohol and things like that.
Time to open this flashlight to see if the batteries were still good. Check the date on the eye wash...
Make a list of items we need more of or to replace.... Find the first aid information and book.
This is a narrow 4 shelf cabinet that Charles built many years ago that we have by the back door off our dinning room.
Once again we were reminded to remain steady, diligent, do everything we know to do to live a prepared life as we have been doing, re-access when needed and keep trying to make our life as comfortable and less stressful as we can. Then share it with you all so you can think out your situation and needs.
On the lower shelf to the right we have a small basket with items needed to bandage a wound with tape, scissors, pads and ointments. We use this for simple wounds.
Two lower shelves.
Over a lifetime a first aid kit can accumulate many things, it is part of a history look of all the accidents or medical issues. I took care of my fathers skin cancer surgeries. I have had my own. We garden and do our own repairs so things can and do happen unfortunately.
It might be a burn or a splinter, a cut or scrape. A sprain or something that needs to be soaked in Epsom salt.
Two upper shelves. Stretch wraps, masks, the new splinting rolls, extra tape. finger splints, extra gauze.
It is good to have a sling. These can be made easily but this one was from an old injury.
A tick remover is a very good thing to have as well as chigger treatment.
Our first aid cabinet has Benadryl in case of allergic reaction.
Also a allergy spray for insect bites.
I keep the Epsom salts in a cabinet across from our bathroom along with alcohol, witch hazel, peroxide, soap, other medical items, thermometer, blood pressure machine, pet medications and ear cleaner and things like that. Also gloves.
I will also mention that I have had several skin cancers removed and each time I am told to use one tablespoon of white vinegar into a pint of water to soak the wound and then pat dry with a sterile gauze and use a thin coating of Vaseline over the top after patting dry with a sterile gauze. I am just sharing with you what I was told to do and you can do your own research.
I had another post to write and will still write that one but wanted to post this before more hospitals are overfilled because at this time this is what is happening. My friend just sent me some information that her state is now going through what we are going through.
We should all consider what would we do if we need to get ourselves through a injury crisis if we cannot get help right away? I feel we should still try to get help of course if it is serious. But what if it is hours like a friend of ours recently talked about last week where her cousin could not get medical help for 10 hours after an accident. We need to have the things to help us with immediate attention while we are waiting for help. It is just another level of being prepared and I always say if we are prepared then we can just go on with things.
Another thing I cannot say enough, Knowledge is power. It is the power to handle situations. Study about things that are not familiar or you have no experience with.
I have taken several red cross first aid classes, basic and advanced and also CPR which is something we all need to know. I am sure I need refresher courses on these things because sometimes they change. Maybe they have something online now due to the covid, I have not checked. I also worked in wound care and injuries so that helped but I left work years ago to become care giver for my parents and then I retired.
Charles has been very sore from his fall, badly bruised hip and arm but he is healing well and moving around well.
There are many things I could go into on this post but I mostly want to hopefully inspire you to think about your situation and your needs for your family. There are many other items that can be kept from store bought and herbal.
Some of you may remember that I did a post about knitting your own washable stretch bandages as they did during world war 1 and world war 2. I think I will get back to doing that again and here is a link to that post.
I now have an image in my mind of a vintage wound care satchel filled with knitted and sewn bandages that can be washed and sterilized. Remember to use 100 percent cotton thread to knit these bandages.
https://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/bandages/
For a Hurricane update.
Hurricane Ida went in to our west. We are safe and no damage here, except just as I started typing this our city tornado siren's went off because a tornado was on the ground nearby. I thought the last of our feeder bands had finished but another developed and decided to make a noticeable exit for our area less than an hour ago. Another reason for a upgraded first aid cabinet. I hope all of you that are still in the path of the remnants of hurricane Ida will be safe.
Okay, I have to get this blog posted because once again our city siren's are going off for a tornado.
* Update, I just posted this a couple of hours ago and three tornadoes hit in and around our area. We are okay here, there are power outages and some damage. Please excuse and typing errors because I had to keep stopping and restarting due to tornado siren's.
I will do a video on the next post. Be safe, Grandma Donna
