No class of drugs has saved more human lives than antibiotics. Using them properly is vital though, as taking them improperly is not only wasteful but degrades the usefulness of the drug in the long term within your own body. More on that here:
PrepperMed 101: Two Keys to Prepping Against Antibiotic Resistance
Suppose there is no physician handy. If you have determined that taking an antibiotic is required, and hopefully understand that taking a full course is important … how do you know what a ‘full course’ is? How do you select how much to take and for how long?
I myself am not a physician, so I’m not going to tell you how much of a prescription drug to take. I will share some thoughts on how I’d make such a decision and you make your own choices.
What antibiotics doses does your doctor prescribe?
Some people have recurring issues. As a prep, you might consider writing down drug name, quantity per pill, dosing instructions, any significant precautions, and for which diagnosis it was given. All this information can be found in the fine print papers that come with every prescription — which are very useful to read anyway. What’s most helpful is the chemical name, not just trade name (such as azithromycin, not just z-pak); as veterinary antibiotics are usually sold by the drug name.
Preppers who stock antibiotics usually stock the veterinary forms, as they are available without prescription.
If you are getting the antibiotics for a child, also note how big the child was when prescribed. Children have this habit of growing; and doses are size dependent.
Storing antibiotic dosing information with all drugs
If you go to a search engine and type in a drug name followed by dosage, you can find a selection of good sources that report the normal dosing schedules for that drug, as well as significant side effects to watch out for or related problems (such as taking with food or avoiding sunlight while taking).
All of that information can be printed out and stored right with the drug, perhaps in the same ziplock bag. Wouldn’t that be great to have if you ever needed to decide how much to take?
A general reference would be great
More on this in a later post, but a reference book that provides dosing information for a wide variety of conditions would be extremely handy. Not every condition requires the same doses.
For more information about prepper medicine and health, check out our PrepperMed101 series!
That’s a great point about keeping notes of what antibiotics ones doctor prescribes you so that you know that works for what it was prescribed for. For me Keflex works better than augmentin for a sinus infection for example. Many preppers (including me) put aside different types of antibiotics because X, Y, Z said so while they really only need two or three types that will cover 90% of their needs. There’s a couple blogs out there while the info is dated a few years has put out a great reference of type, name and what’s it used for.