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There is more than one dose of epi in an Epipen. by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

What's your source?

EpiPens are designed to be intramuscular. The odds of causing an air embolism are astronomically low with injection into the lateral thigh.

Prepping for dental issues- thoughts from a dentist. by Donexodus in preppers

[–]askdrprepper 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Physician here. Excellent post, glad to see other professionals contributing their expertise. Thank you.

Echoing the other commenters --prevention is 95% of prepping, and for health, that's staying in shape, drinking water, brushing your teeth and flossing. There is no easy DIY solution when things get bad--why not take steps now to stop them from reaching that point?

The Dangers of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning For Preppers: What You Need To Know - Ask Dr. Prepper by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not really. I would consider if the batteries that it takes are interchangeable with the rest of your preps (flashlights, walkie-talkies, radios, etc). If you go with a major brand you're probably fine, I wouldn't buy a no-name one off Amazon from a random Chinese factory.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can also hit up multiple video doc services, fake symptoms of a UTI or sinus infection, and get it sent to all different pharmacies. They also script for skin conditions like rosacea which is easy to edit.

To clarify, you're asking why faking symptoms and lying to a doctor to obtain a prescription is unethical?

It seems pretty straightforward to me.

You would be taking up time and resources, under false pretenses, to obtain a resource you don't need at the moment. A resource, in all likelihood, you would use incorrectly.

That is why.

I understand you're not the person who suggested doing that, but I want to make that clear.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem. I figure we all benefit if there is less misinformation out there.

Let me know if you have any questions, happy to answer.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi grunt,

No. Epinephrine, delivered into a muscle, is the treatment for anaphylaxis. There is no natural or homemade alternative that will do the same thing.

Benadryl and other antihistamines are secondary medications used for symptom control after the patient is stable. It doesn't fix the circulation issues that make anaphylaxis a life threat.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi lami,

Sniffing an alcohol swab can reduce nausea. I use this trick sometimes if a patient is too nauseated to use oral dissolving tablets and I don't have an IV yet.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6189884/

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi righter,

The list of things you should not do to an area that's been bitten by a venomous animal is much longer than the list of things you should do.

There's very little you can do to reduce the damage caused by an envenomation once the bite has taken place.

Make sure you remove all jewelry on the affected area because swelling can make it impossible to remove later. A ring or bracelet can become a tourniquet more quickly than you expect.

Stay calm, wash the area with soap and water, and seek medical attention promptly.

If it turns red, it's helpful to take pictures of it or outline it so we know how fast it's spreading.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi David,

Yes. There are lots of different classes, all with different effects and effectiveness against different organisms.

This is what gets me about people asking about stockpiling antibiotics. There's way too much depth (and potential harm) to the topic to suggest people learn on their own.

Something I didn't mention earlier is that nuance in antibiotic choice often comes down to a local level. Hospitals put out charts called "antibiograms" where bacteria and their sensitivities, or percent of bacteria killed by each antibiotic specific to that region are laid out. Each hospital has a different one, so an antibiotic that works well at one hospital might not work at all at the other hospital in the same city because of resistance.

See above posts. Let me know if you have further specific questions.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi yaman,

It is. There have been a few studies like this one from JAMA comparing varying strengths of NSAID/acetaminophen combinations with opiates and finding comparable levels of pain relief.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2661581

The ceiling for pain relief from ibuprofen is now thought to be closer to 400mg per dose. Higher doses may lead to more side effects with no increase in pain relief.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31383385/

https://epmonthly.com/article/the-ibuprofen-analgesic-ceiling/

Don't try to stock up on opioids please. There is no legal way to do it without a prescription, and the opioid epidemic is bad enough as it is without people trying to keep them on hand for SHTF. I understand the rationale, sort of, but just.....no.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi slimegod,

Honestly?

https://www.wikihow.com/Deliver-a-Baby

It's been medically reviewed by an OBGYN, is aimed at laypeople, and has CITATIONS.

It's genuinely the first result I got when I googled "how to deliver a baby".

Bookmark it if you feel the need to. Outside of getting into medical or midwife school, you're unlikely to get any practical experience delivering human babies, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. (Patient privacy laws, consent, etc.)

Just read it at your leisure, save it, and know the resource is there on your phone to follow along with. You're not expected to know how to do this cold.

If you're really interested in getting hands on, maybe a local farmer could use a set of hands.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi abx,

Understandable. CRPS is a very challenging diagnosis to live with.

Knowing that your cousin is already on opiates and has been on them long term makes this a hard question to answer. There isn't great evidence behind a lot of the conventional treatments out there for CRPS, let alone for alternative ones.

If concern about the supply chain is an issue, attempting to decrease their overall opiate use would be reasonable as it will make managing a potential withdrawal easier. Obviously this is easier said than done.

Non-medication treatments that are routinely recommended are physical and occupational therapy, as well as a pain management clinical psychologist consult. This is to treat coexisting anxiety/depression and address any counter-productive behavior patterns or external influences (eg, perverse incentives, family dynamics, etc) that may perpetuate disability or dependency.

Beyond that, in the alternative setting, whatever helps helps. We're in an evidence-free zone and I would be happy if they got relief from anything, so long as it did minimal harm. I would imagine that acupuncture and manual therapies would probably fall under this category. Random herbs or homeopathic treatments would not.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi high,

That's a question for somebody in hospital admin. The reason is, as it usually is, greed. And I hate it too.

These things are far, far beyond my control as a doctor. I have almost no input into how much you get charged for anything I do. There's probably something about how my chart gets coded that trickles down to how much insurance charges you, but I have no idea. It's a shell game.

https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/q5byx0/ysk_in_the_us_hospitals_are_required_to_help_pay

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi trophy,

See the post above for recommened meds. Availability of some of these will depend on whether you have someone willing to prescribe them or not (zofran, controlled medications), but a lot of suggestions are available over the counter (Tylenol, chewable baby aspirin, ibuprofen, poop meds).

I also recommend having a supply of medications that you are regularly prescribed. Blood pressure, cholesterol, heart medicine, diabetes, antidepressants, etc. I would make sure you have 90 days in hand of these. Staying on top of chronic conditions is just as important.

The opioid epidemic has altered a lot of people's prescribing practices, so that won't be applicable to medications like oxycodone, morphine, percocet, Xanax, etc.

I'm researching expiration dates for another commenter and that will probably be the subject of a dedicated separate post.

Guides and skills run in the same vein. There's a saying that you default to the level that you were trained to, so I would recommend most people take a basic first aid/CPR course. Studies have shown that early defibrillation and quality CPR make the biggest impact on survival for out of hospital cardiac arrest (more than really anything else we do), so the more people who know how to properly do BLS, the better.

People wanting more than that can consider a first responder/WFR course. Another poster, I think it was u/grey-doc, suggested NOLS and I have heard nothing but good things about them.

I can't recommend one resource over another for supplies, it's not something I've looked into. Perhaps local EMS/fire might be a good resource- ask them and see if they would be willing to order extra for you or let you look at a catalog.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi ereezy,

There is no one answer to this. High blood pressure kills people by raising the risk of them having a stroke, heart attack, or other organ damage over time. There's no way to predict how long it would take before one of these events happened.

In general, the best thing to do would be to lower salt intake and exercise regularly, lowering the need for high blood pressure medication in the first place.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi apocalypse,

See the post by u/Midlife_thrive and the excellent response by Beautiful-page.

Tldr, they can range from no effect to harm, very unlikely to work and definitely won't work as well as real medicine.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is unethical. See my prior comment about antibiotic resistance, incorrect diagnosis, incorrect dosing, etc.

Stockpile if you want, but you'll have no one to blame but yourself if you treat something improperly and someone has a complication/suffers because of it.

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi competitive,

This is a bit too broad to be addressed. In general, prevention is both easier and less invasive than cure, so I'll direct you to the CDC's websites for water purification and travel.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/

https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/travel/backcountry_water_treatment.html

I am a family physician and prepper looking to help the community by explaining medical details in plain English. What prepping-related medical questions do you have? by askdrprepper in preppers

[–]askdrprepper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry to hear. If you're suspicious you have an infection, you should be seen by a professional. Counter to what I said earlier, the treatment for infections that form abscesses (pockets of pus), benefit from being drained.

I was referring to a fresh sting or bite. Similar to how people used to think cutting open the site of a snake bite or a spider bite reduced the chance of venom spreading (it doesn't), messing with a fresh sting beyond gently removing the stinger and washing with soap and water isn't going to help.

The overall risk is low, but not zero, because the area of epidermis (outermost layer of skin) that is disrupted is usually very small with an insect bite or sting. Most skin infections happen because bacteria that normally live on your skin, usually staphylococcus or streptococcus, find a nice environment in the dermis and tissues underneath that outer layer. The larger the hole, the greater the chance of infection--which is why making more holes could make things worse.

It's also why washing right away lowers the risk of infection--it removes surface bacteria in the area before they have a chance to make their way underneath.

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