By: Revanche

Going another round with the what-have-you: Chapter two of accidents and aid

July 7, 2014

In the fifteen months we’ve been in office, what kind of luck have we had? Ginger?
– Toby Ziegler, The West Wing

I’m feeling a bit Toby today. It’s going to sound mean but I have PiC to thank for this post as we carry on our dance with Murphy.

Let this be a lesson to you: Get ye your first aid kits together!

He showed up at the front door bleeding profusely the other day, and I actually didn’t even notice the blood at first because I was surprised to see him at that time. Then I saw the blood.

Now I’m the klutz in the family, we all know that. I run into walls, fall off things, trip over mothballs. There’s just nothing I can’t fall over, into, or off of; it’s laughable.Ā  But since it’s always me, I’d really slacked off on getting together our medical kit because I’ve always been able to cobble together a passable bandage with what we had on hand. In the face of his hurts, though, I had to get myself to the store and stock up on medical supplies post-haste.

Walgeen’s is running a first aid supply sale in-store and at least some things are marked down online so while patching up most of PiC multiple times, we had enough left to for the home and travel kits, all for $55.

$40 of that is FSA eligible, can anyone tell me why bandages are eligible and anti-bacterial stuff is not? They’re both OTC. Weird.

I got a free first aid bag with the purchases so that was convenient since we only had a bag for the car. Filled them both these Buy One Get One 50% off finds:

* Rolls of gauze
* Tearable cloth tape
* Tearable flexible plastic tape
* Regular bandaids for the really minor cuts in all sizes
* Gauze pads – 4″ by 4″ for maximum flexibility if we’re facing big injuries.
* Neosporin – I’m going trade our second Neosporin for the Neosporin for Kids which is a double antibiotic instead of a triple. Apparently we don’t like neomycin anymore for injuries as people are coming up allergic to it.

I also picked up a couple seriously heavy duty bandages for profuse, artery pumping, life threatening injuries for the emergency kit, tossed one of those into the car kits, the other’s for the home EQ kit.

Still Need:
* Bandage scissors for bandage removals/cutting cloth as necessary for both human and canine
* Kid’s scissors from Target when they have their back to school sales for cutting up the gauze, etc.

Still need, but pondering quantities:
* Hibiclens – As it turns out, we are also now being discouraged by medical professionals from using hydrogen peroxide to clean wounds anymore as they find it causes tissue damage. I grew up being bathed in Betadine, I don’t think that’s still in favor either, luckily for us all. @stardotgeek confirmed that she’s discovered an allergy to neomycin recently and suggested the Hibiclens.
* Tylenol/Ibuprofen – I go through this stuff so quickly it seems like the ones in the kit would be forgotten and expire; I don’t like to buy the single dose packets since we have the enormous lifetime supply bottles.

***

The Minor Injuries clinic didn’t seem to do much good, other than supplying us with antibiotics for the infection I worry he’ll get and a handful of bandaging supplies, but I’m glad we went for the medications anyway.Ā  It’s a darn good thing very little about trauma/injuries turns my stomach because I’ve been changing his bandages three times a day and his injuries are gnarly.

Take it from me, you’ll want to pick up supplies on sale if you had to go through stacks of gauze pads and rolls everyday.

6 Responses to “Going another round with the what-have-you: Chapter two of accidents and aid”

  1. NZ Muse says:

    Oh my goodness, what did he do?!?!

    We definitely need to get onto this too. Years ago I caught my fingers in a door and ripped off a bunch of skin and that was straight to the doctor, and once T got glass in his foot and it was off to ER, but we never really had anything to help with the wound in the meantime…and there was that motorbike accident that required a doctor’s trip too…
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    • Revanche says:

      I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what he did since he’s pretty grumbly about it. Unlike ME, who tells everyone what she did to herself without shame šŸ˜‰

      It’s likely that this will just encourage me to continue not going to the doctor for things like slashing myself open. But it is really helpful to just have this stuff at home.

  2. Ouch – I hope PiC ends up okay! A wound with bandages that need to be changed that frequently doesn’t sound great.
    First aid kits are something I forget about, most of the time, but we have enough of the freebie company branded ones around that I think we’d be okay. We also have tonnes of things like athletic tape due to us breaking ourselves in the past. I am pretty happy that Spouse took a fairly intensive first aid course for work a year or two ago, as it’s really not my thing and it’s a great skill to have around.
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    • Revanche says:

      Thanks! It’s definitely not great, it’s been really gross for a while. But I have good hopes for his healing up soon šŸ™‚
      As long as one of you knows what to do in case of injury!

  3. Karen says:

    I hope PiC is ok!
    Are you opposed to using the bandage scissors for cutting gauze?
    You might want Wound Seal to help stop bleeding. My dad is on blood thinner and sometimes a cut doesn’t clot. I think this is the stuff I got him.
    I’d make further comments on FAKs, klutzyness etc but I don’t want to jynx myself.

    • Revanche says:

      He will be. I am not opposed to using the bandage scissors for cutting gauze, I think I’m just going back and forth on why I instinctively wanted the other scissors too.
      Thanks for the suggestion – we clot fine but for really big wounds it would be really useful.
      *crossing my fingers for you!*

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