MRSA Notes

You never think you are going to be in an emergency - we all know we should be prepared, but are you? During the nightmare that was Hurricane Katrina a couple of years ago, we had all manners of people having to walk for their lives chest deep in filthy bacteria-laden waters. What if this happens to you? What will you do?

In that situation, people were just at the mercy of nature and the kindness of other people. As time went by during and after the disaster, there were plenty of people who suffered and even died as a result of infection. That was almost impossible to avoid, but we can be somewhat prepared for many emergencies, and as a part of that preparation, you need to have some supplies for wound care. These are the contents of a good wound care kit:

• Big roll of clean gauze (for cleaning and dressing wounds)
• Latex or suitable material gloves (to keep yourself from being contaminated while dressing a wound)
• Soap (for general cleansing and wound cleansing)
• Bottled water (for cleansing and drinking if necessary!)
• Antibiotic ointment (Neosporin, Staphaseptic or something similar)
• Several sizes of bandages, including large ones - sealed on all 4 sides
• Butterfly closures (for a wound that needs stitches)

Hopefully you will never be caught in an emergency like Hurricane Katrina, but accidental wounds happen every day. Last year around this time I was trying to move a metal gate, and it sprung free, hit me in the ankle, and cut it all the way to the ankle bone. The blood was shooting a foot out from my ankle. No one was home to help me, but thankfully, having been through this illness with Marshall, I had a good wound care kit, and I knew exactly where it was. Why don’t you get your kit together so you are prepared when emergencies arise too. And don’t move any metal gates unless you have boots on and a cell phone in tow.

Did I miss anything on this list - what else do you have in your wound care kit?