PrepperMed 101: What Goes In Your Med Kit

There is So Much Stuff one could put in a medical kit. This is especially true for preppers, who are thinking about longer time frames and less access to services than your average household. However, money and space and weight are not infinite. How do you decide what needs to go in the med kit?

What brought this up?

I recently learned about a newly developed medical device. It’s a form of abdominal aortic and junctional tourniquet (hereafter called AAJ tourniquet). When I started reading about the thing I was really psyched at first. Apparently, it’s both easy to use and very effective.

More critically, the AAJ tourniquet works on injuries that are very often fatal without this device: massive bleeding injuries to the lower torso or at the junctures where arms and legs meet the body. Those sites make controlling bleeding very hard. Normal tourniquets don’t fit.

Also, this new AAJ tourniquet is very easy to learn to use. My friend the firefighter got competent with it in just a few minutes.

This seems to be a great product, and I’m glad it exits. I’m not putting one in my med kit though.

So you can put one of these new AAJ tourniquets on someone with a crushed pelvis, or who’s had a shoulder mangled by a bear or something, and they’ll survive to the hospital. That’s a big deal, and I’m very glad first responders have them now. My first urge was “Get one for the med kit!”

Why there won’t be an AAJ tourniquet in my med kit

I won’t be getting one. Even if it *weren’t* $525 I wouldn’t be getting one. Why?

If hospital services are available, I’m calling 911 for these types of injuries, no question. If hospital services aren’t available … a tourniquet in my hands is not going to save the poor soul with that sort of injury.

Blood transfusion would probably be needed. Surgery would probably be needed. I’m not a physician. It’s beyond my pay grade. It’s so far beyond my pay grade that I wouldn’t attempt it even in there was no other option. We all have limits of what we can do.

That leaves only a tiny slice of situations in which an AAJ tourniquet would do any good. That small a risk of need does not warrant stocking the med kit.

Your med kit should reflect your limits

I don’t mean never supply a med kit with things you don’t know how to use. We’ve a thing or two on hand neither of us can use. However, we live very near people who Do know how to use them. They’re disposable items those skilled people probably don’t have on hand. Our plan is to have the items and trade for the service. 

So all of the stuff in our med kits fits our limits in one way or another:

1. One way: Stuff Salty or I can use
2. Another way: Stuff people we know nearby can use, and whose use is not so time-critical that we’ll have time to talk them into helping

Your med kit should reflect likely

We also stock most of things that are most likely to be needed. Bleeding control. Over-the-counter medications for common ailments, including allergies. Insect repellent. Antiseptics. Burn and blister care. Stabilization for sprains and breaks. 

Another important element is backup prescription medications. Our supplies of those aren’t extensive, but our providers have allowed us a bit of a cushion when we explained why we wanted them (travel and emergencies). It at least assures if we need to grab and go that’s a problem we’ve got a little time to solve.

Yeah, I know it’s not glitzy. But it’s useful. I’d take a bottle of anti-diarrheal medication over a camou-patterned tampon any day; because I know which I’m more likely to need. (Seriously, I saw those for sale once. It was a product designed to be put in med kits to stop bleeding from a gunshot wound without the bearer losing those all-important man points. I couldn’t Make this stuff up!)

Your med kit should reflect what’s needful

I get frustrated with the small first aid kits. Not because they’re small; sometimes one can’t afford much space, money, or weight for the med kit. I get frustrated because they’re essentially useless. 

Bandaids. Lots of bandaids. If I have a wound small enough that a bandaid would cover it, I probably don’t need it covered at all. If I do, I need it covered with something more effective at keeping dirt out than a Power Ranger bandaid.

Wow! Two hundred items! Lookit all the BANDAIDS! Plus some bad forceps!

When I pack a med kit for hiking, when every ounce counts, it’s not bandaids and ‘insect sting pads’ I’m packing. It’s an Israeli bandage, a SAM splint, and an elastic wrap. That’s because they treat the things that are most likely to keep me from getting home on a hike. If I scrape a knuckle, I’ll somehow learn to cope.

A med kit should reflect those you intend to travel with too

Will your dog be bugging out with you? And if so, do you have something to shave enough hair to be able to treat his wounds? Do you intend to accompany any adult women to safety, when they haven’t made their own bug-out bags? Because those feminine hygiene products can be a big deal. S’ok, buy the camou kind if it’s easier.

The point is, if you care about others you expect to be with you, consider their needs too when building your kit.

Customize your med kit, and know it

There are very good med kits for sale. If you buy one, I strongly suggest you look through it carefully. If it needs things that aren’t supplied (like your prescription meds), add them. There’s usually some fluff that can be removed to make room. Position it how you want it, with Need Right Now things very easy to find.

Then open it once a year at least and poke through it. Swap out meds and tape that may be getting too old. If your needs have changed, update the kit. Even if everything’s ok, you need to remember where everything is and what you have on hand.