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absolutely nothing sold in a bottle is going to care, though of course you should make sure you have a way to keep track of expiration dates (or just commit to refreshing everything every two years or so)
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Mar 22, 2023 07:16
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Drug storage is really a case of "you really need to do your research". Pain medications will dramatically lose their effectiveness with age. Some will chemically change into things either completely ineffective or potentially dangerous. Still others can develop mold and/or bacteria. It also sucks when antibiotics "suddenly" aren't as strong as they were originally. Really look at what you are storing, how, and for how long. Take a long hard look (and risk assessment) on what and why is being stored. Weigh the effort you would need to go through to properly store said medication for 1, 2, 5, 10 years and see if that fits your risk profile and necessary mitigation (hint: for significant amounts of time they won't). I'm sure there are resources out there to help with specific medications. Ask yourself if the money/time to store said medications could be better spent preparing in another way.
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Mar 22, 2023 13:08
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ASAPI posted:Drug storage is really a case of "you really need to do your research". Yes, but military studies have shown that about 90% of drugs the military was studying in original packaging made it over five years past the original date… https://www.milwaukeemhtf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Naloxone-Resources-Stability-of-Naloxone-After-Expiration.pdf https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-legal-regulatory-and-policy-framework/expiration-dating-extension#slep
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Mar 22, 2023 13:14
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ulmont posted:Yes, but military studies have shown that about 90% of drugs the military was studying in original packaging made it over five years past the original date… Like I said, research needs to be conducted. I don't know what drugs, or how long are being stored. I am not going to scour the internet for all articles related to long term drug storage and then present a list of "safe" medications. I will continue to stress caution when a lay person is attempting to play doctor.
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Mar 22, 2023 13:33
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ASAPI posted:Drug storage is really a case of "you really need to do your research". There was a recent study showing that the decay was actually far slower than originally expected, with many aspirin and tylenol still retaining 80-90% efficacy after 10 years.
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Mar 22, 2023 17:57
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Yeah, I'm mainly thinking about tylenol/acetaminophen and similar drugs, if there would be a significant difference between buying a big bottle and distributing it vs buying multiple smaller bottles. Obviously possible contamination is a factor but there could've also been something about being packed in nitrogen or otherwise speeding up degradation once you open it.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:06
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zachol posted:Yeah, I'm mainly thinking about tylenol/acetaminophen and similar drugs, if there would be a significant difference between buying a big bottle and distributing it vs buying multiple smaller bottles. Obviously possible contamination is a factor but there could've also been something about being packed in nitrogen or otherwise speeding up degradation once you open it. That is cool, and you will likely be fine. I would wager that moisture and/or high temperatures would be your enemy, which is the case with most things. Most OTC drug packaging has (what I assume to be) an airtight seal that must be broken to use, I don't know if that is to keep oxygen away or to keep dirt/contaminants out. Just googled it, the seal is to prevent oxygen from getting in per this source: https://www.enerconind.com/sealing/...%20foil%20seal. So I would think keeping the bottle "as is" would be your best bet. I am now questioning my past decisions that are outlined below: I have used acetaminophen that was years old without issue (it was even open for those years). I have also thrown out years old forgotten stuff because it smelled... very different. I wasn't comfortable taking those. My first effort is to always consult a trusted source (ie, not random people on the internet) with these things because so much can go wrong. Especially so if there are underlying medical conditions/concerns that is prompting the need for whatever medication.
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Mar 22, 2023 18:54
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So here's something that may be controversial. But I talked with two of my doctors and told them that I am a worried about the future and that in case of supply chain issues, natural disaster, or an extended period of being stuck at work, that I wanted to have some extra medicine just in case. One of the doctors is my next door neighbor and the other is one that I've been going to for about 10 years. Both of them agreed to incease my Rx by 1 or 2 pills a day, so now I have an extended 120 day supply of two of my meds that I need to function. I am kind of maxed out on the dosage of my mental health / depression meds, so I can't really ask my doctor for more, but I've talked with her about a safe taper should I ever run out for whatever reason. It'll suck majorly but what can I do? My recommendation for everyone is to talk to your doctor about getting some breathing room with your prescriptions if you need them to function. Your doctor may be more understanding than you might think. I also have 1-2 boxes or bottles of OTC meds in reserve at all times kind of like a little OTC med pantry. Tums, Gas-X, Benadryl, Tylenol, Advil, Aleve, Pepto, Nyquil, Dayquil, Cough drops. I'd recommend everyone have a little pantry like this. Having the cold ans flu meds while the pharmacies were bare really, really helped me when the flu was rocking everyone's rear end and no one had flu meds anywhere. Bored As Fuck fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Mar 22, 2023 |
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Mar 22, 2023 21:41
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The only one I know is a clear problem past expiration is the Tetracycline family of antibiotics, like doxycycline (and apparently ciprofloxin?). As it ages it becomes more likely to cause severe kidney damage.
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Mar 25, 2023 00:05
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scotch is good medicine and it only gets better with age
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Mar 25, 2023 00:12
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The Voice of Labor posted:scotch is good medicine and it only gets better with age Only while it's in the barrel. Once it gets put into glass it stops aging.
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Mar 25, 2023 10:29
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Alarbus posted:The only one I know is a clear problem past expiration is the Tetracycline family of antibiotics, like doxycycline (and apparently ciprofloxin?). As it ages it becomes more likely to cause severe kidney damage. Yeah antibiotics are really sensitive and tend to break down quickly.
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Mar 26, 2023 00:06
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ulmont posted:Yes, but military studies have shown that about 90% of drugs the military was studying in original packaging made it over five years past the original date… I'm not sure how peer-reviewed this research letter is, but the gist of it is that the researchers found some pills from the 70s, did chemical analyses on them, and found that most of them held up pretty well, and the only substances in the pills they tested that didn't hold up well were acetylsalicylic acid, phenacetin, and amphetamine. So your aspirin and crank stashes won't live forever, but the bottle of T3s your dentist gave you five years ago that you never opened will be worth more than a tank of guzzoline well into the thunderdome era. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1377417
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Mar 28, 2023 05:01
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pantslesswithwolves posted:OK, to get back on track- Sorry if this is rehashing old debates but I seem to recall talking about CATs with a friend who had more medical training in the civilian side and mentioned that they aren't really common because of some other potential damage to limbs/parts I know that CATs had always been touted as the first line of self care but is the context of needing to stop the bleed in a firefight the same to use it in the real world? Don't know enough about them beyond training/application stuff.
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Mar 28, 2023 08:53
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If you are rapidly dying of traumatic blood loss it doesn't really matter what damage you cause trying to stop it. Would you rather have your leg amputated some time later or just die right now? Tourniquets are the only real way to stop that. That said, I'm not a medical professional, but the training I've gotten is that TQs aren't nearly as bad for limbs as previously thought, and the vast majority of amputations were due to whatever trauma caused the bleed, and not anything the TQ did.
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Mar 28, 2023 12:45
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Oysters Autobio posted:Sorry if this is rehashing old debates but I seem to recall talking about CATs with a friend who had more medical training in the civilian side and mentioned that they aren't really common because of some other potential damage to limbs/parts when i left civilian ems (so over ten years ago, jesus), a tourniquet was regarded as an extreme measure which was not to be used if you had other means to control the bleeding. In the six years i worked as an emt, i never needed to apply one, including on some nasty traumas; i remember an industrial accident where a guy’s arm got caught in a conveyor belt and half his bicep was missing. I was able to control the bleeding through direct pressure and elevation and we went cold (without lights and sirens) to the hospital, where the ER doc got hit with a spray of arterial blood when he removed my bandage (which I had just warned him to look out for!! listen to your emt!) arguably i could have used a tourniquet on that one, but demonstrably I didn’t need to. this relied on a couple things though: I was able to adequately assess the injury, and I had the skills to stop the bleeding with less severe methods. It was also a simple enough injury that I could apply my full attention to it; if there was chest trauma as well I probably would have slapped on the tourniquet. It’s a lot easier to train someone to put on a CAT than to properly teach the full spectrum of bleeding control skills, including the assessment skills to determine when the tourniquet is needed. I’d have been a bit pissed if one of the first responders had put a tourniquet on, because I wouldn’t have been able to do my own assessment and I had learned not to trust a first responder’s assessment, but in hindsight it wouldn’t have been wrong for them to do so if that was what they judged appropriate. I’d rather they use a tourney than fail to control bleeding. As for lasting limb damage: it is absolutely untrue that tourniquets are “safe” for limbs. A tourniquet that has been on for longer than an hour or so cannot safely be removed except in an operating room due to the risk of compartment syndrome. What’s more, a tourniquet must be removed within a certain time after application or the limb will die and require amputation. The exact length of this time period is not a closed question, but I would be extremely uncomfortable with tourniquet use in a wilderness scenario where extraction may be delayed, let alone a shtf scenario in which hospitals and ORs may be unavailable for a period of days. Amputations due to tourniquets are extremely rare in the post-MASH era precisely because the emergency medical system is so cautious about their use. You can argue overcautious, but you can’t use the success of that caution to make the point.
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Mar 28, 2023 16:24
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Network42 posted:If you are rapidly dying of traumatic blood loss it doesn't really matter what damage you cause trying to stop it. Would you rather have your leg amputated some time later or just die right now? Tourniquets are the only real way to stop that. Tourniquets are very much "Your limb or your life" situation. When I was trained in first aid in the military, they told us that if you put a TQ on, and the person did not get evacuated to proper care very quickly, they were going to lose the limb, basically guaranteed.
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Mar 29, 2023 00:38
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orange juche posted:Tourniquets are very much "Your limb or your life" situation. When I was trained in first aid in the military, they told us that if you put a TQ on, and the person did not get evacuated to proper care very quickly, they were going to lose the limb, basically guaranteed. This isn’t how the military trains tourniquet use any more, at least in combat lifesaver classes. There’s a lot of data from the GWOT showing most preventable deaths are from extremity hemorrhage or tension pneumothorax, so CLS is extremely aggressive about tourniquets and needle decompression and all the cool tactical medics are carrying CATs and ARS needle decompression kits on them at all times and blah blah and that poo poo filters into all the mil-cosplay-adjacent gear space. Which, I can acknowledge, is what this thread is for. The disconnect is, life-threatening extremity hemorrhage is not that common in civilian EMS, and is usually adequately managed without TQ when it occurs. TQs are great when you’re under fire and need to definitively treat the injury as quick as possible so you can return to combat, but they’re usually unnecessary if you have time to properly assess and treat your patient, and there are significant costs to both the patient (risk of ischemic injury) and hospital system (resources required to treat an otherwise simple injury) if they are overused. Tension pneumo, by the way, is an actual loving unicorn - if you surveyed all the career medics at my company, you might find half a dozen who had ever decompressed a chest. I saw a single case of pneumothorax (non-tension) in six years, which was pretty cool, but the only reason I even caught it was because the guy went to sleep off the liquor he’d drank before falling down the stairs, so the injury was around 12 hours old and there was a significant amount of subcutaneous air. I did not decompress this individual, but they did let me stick around in the ER to watch the chest tube get put in.
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Mar 29, 2023 01:59
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In my civilian, non-EMS background, I carry TQs during most of my outdoor activities and when I’m driving because at any given moment I’m at most three hours away from definitive care, and then it’s the ER’s problem. In most circumstances I would first try to control bleeding with direct pressure but I wouldn’t hesitate to apply a TQ if I couldn’t stop the bleeding, there were multiple patients, or it was some kind of situation where I didn’t have time to stop the bleed with less extreme measures. Of course, if we’re talking about a situation where medical care is hours or days away, that changes things significantly. I can’t fit a trauma surgeon in my backpack.
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Mar 29, 2023 02:10
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I am pretty sure the point behind when I was told "limb or life" was use the loving tourniquet so the person will be around to thank you later, because when you're under fire you're not going to have time to handle catastrophic bleeding from an extremity without one, and blood loss is far more immediate than potential limb loss if you can't get them evacuated in a good time frame.
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Mar 29, 2023 02:12
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hypnophant posted:
Thanks for the thoroughly detailed reply. I just wanted to say, as someone who (now) finds this stuff horrifying, I am honestly really glad there are folks out there who are fascinated by medical trauma. I think I'd want exactly someone who came up on me or a loved one in an extreme situation and said "that's siiiiick!" rather than panicking like I would
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Mar 29, 2023 09:43
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I once had a specialist tell me he was gonna send my data to some medical journal in a "look what I found" kinda context. That's how you know you're being looked after!
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Mar 29, 2023 21:51
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The fires that destroyed Lahaina, Maui have got me thinking about revisiting my “go bag” in a serious way. I’m specifically thinking about my two dogs and how I would evacuate them in case of a sudden, fast moving disaster like a fire- considering picking up some extra leashes, harnesses and muzzles (in case we end up in a shelter and they’re spooked having to deal with unfamiliar people) and another “rescue harness” that would allow me to carry one dog on my back while I climbed down the fire ladder we store in our bedroom. I would also pack like a week’s worth of food for them and have some toys and treats to bring along. Have any of you made special considerations for your pets, and if so, what have you done? Also potassium iodine pills in case the fire was caused by a nuclear weapon 
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Aug 10, 2023 23:39
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pantslesswithwolves posted:The fires that destroyed Lahaina, Maui have got me thinking about revisiting my “go bag” in a serious way. I’m specifically thinking about my two dogs and how I would evacuate them in case of a sudden, fast moving disaster like a fire- considering picking up some extra leashes, harnesses and muzzles (in case we end up in a shelter and they’re spooked having to deal with unfamiliar people) and another “rescue harness” that would allow me to carry one dog on my back while I climbed down the fire ladder we store in our bedroom. I would also pack like a week’s worth of food for them and have some toys and treats to bring along. Have any of you made special considerations for your pets, and if so, what have you done? Also look into shoes for your dogs if you haven't already. Just now, watching the news, they had a guy who really burned his feet.
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Aug 10, 2023 23:45
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pantslesswithwolves posted:The fires that destroyed Lahaina, Maui have got me thinking about revisiting my “go bag” in a serious way. I’m specifically thinking about my two dogs and how I would evacuate them in case of a sudden, fast moving disaster like a fire- considering picking up some extra leashes, harnesses and muzzles (in case we end up in a shelter and they’re spooked having to deal with unfamiliar people) and another “rescue harness” that would allow me to carry one dog on my back while I climbed down the fire ladder we store in our bedroom. I would also pack like a week’s worth of food for them and have some toys and treats to bring along. Have any of you made special considerations for your pets, and if so, what have you done? A wildfire, especially a wind driven one will move far faster than you can run or walk, and maybe even drive depending on road layout, so in the case of a fire evacuation, you need to definitely plan to be out of the area well before a fire is close, as it will move at the speed of the wind and will give no fucks about traffic. You want to be gone hours before a fire sweeps over an area, because it will be chaos trying to get out ahead of it if you wait until the last minute. E: on Maui, there's not really a lot of places to go aside from not being downwind from the fire. A wildfire in a remote place like that is really hard to escape. There's only two roads out of that village that got wiped out, to the north and the south, and if the fire is in a position to block both roads, then your only way is into the ocean in actuality. I don't personally have any pets with me but packing *fresh* emergency food (rotate your emergency food stocks for your pets, just like you'd rotate your own emergency food supplies for people), toys, treats, harnesses and all that is a really good idea. Also might be a good idea to have any potential first aid care you might need for your pets if they have an accident while you're evacuating. orange juche fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Aug 11, 2023 |
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Aug 11, 2023 00:07
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I always have a spare bag of dog food on hand, but that was more because they're sometimes not in stock when it's time to buy. I hadn't even thought about this, so yeah, an extra harness/leash/etc is a good idea.
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Aug 11, 2023 00:09
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Bored As gently caress posted:So here's something that may be controversial. But I talked with two of my doctors and told them that I am a worried about the future and that in case of supply chain issues, natural disaster, or an extended period of being stuck at work, that I wanted to have some extra medicine just in case. One of the doctors is my next door neighbor and the other is one that I've been going to for about 10 years. Both of them agreed to incease my Rx by 1 or 2 pills a day, so now I have an extended 120 day supply of two of my meds that I need to function. Also poverty. I’m 20mg celexa-generic every day. I recently lost my job and medical so I was trying to taper. Holy poo poo that is not a drug to gently caress with. After almost eating poo poo on multiple brain zaps, I just took the pill. E: It is good and cool (tm) to ask your doctor for backups of everyday drugs.
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Aug 11, 2023 03:17
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I've come to the realization that if we ever needed to truly evacuate fast for whatever reason, my cats simply aren't coming with us. We just wouldn't be able to get the two of them in thr crates. Even if we surprise and get one of them, the other will run away and hide. We even tried keeping the crates out for them and putting treats inside them every day for a week or two before vet visits. It still doesn't work. The other one runs and hides once they see their brother being put in a cage. I would be absolutely distraught if we had to evacuate without them, and so depressed.
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Aug 11, 2023 04:07
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You’re probably right but I will end up dying right next to two cat carriers. I take no offense on the face eating.
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Aug 11, 2023 04:48
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Can you just throw them in the car without a cage? I think if you actually live in a area with fire risks or really any other disaster that will involve you having to leave, it would probably be best to actually practice those procedures.
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Aug 11, 2023 05:51
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Dick Ripple posted:Can you just throw them in the car without a cage? I think if you actually live in a area with fire risks or really any other disaster that will involve you having to leave, it would probably be best to actually practice those procedures. Ah. You've, uh, you've never been in a car with a cat, have you. They... roam. Back seat, front seat, under seats, on your shoulder, onto the steering wheel, into the foot pedals, which are endlessly fascinating. They cuddle into the spot where the brake pedal needs to go. Imagine a very soft person actively loving with you the whole time you are driving, and they're actively trying to make you crash. And then the claws come out.
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Aug 11, 2023 07:17
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I use the same trick as I use for corralling a pissed off bird, a blanket. Toss a blanket over a cat and they won't be able to escape. Though, it may only work once or twice before the cats realize that blankets in your arms mean you're about to cage them.
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Aug 11, 2023 09:47
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Kesper North posted:Ah. You've, uh, you've never been in a car with a cat, have you. Yeah, we have a giant collapsible large cage for this. enough for the cats to roam and not completely lose their poo poo, but still contained so they aren't literally on the driver with claws. Cat wrangling in an emergency is stressful, but household priorities are such that we would also be dead next to the cat carriers.
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Aug 11, 2023 12:55
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Just put a box out, with pre-cut holes. Throw catnip in if you're in a real hurry. Throw all the other supplies in the car, come back, close box (which will already contain cats) and roll.
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Aug 12, 2023 20:01
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Godholio posted:Just put a box out, with pre-cut holes. Throw catnip in if you're in a real hurry. This is so true it hurts.
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Aug 12, 2023 20:29
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I get that you’re evacuating because you have bigger problems but the idea of giving catnip before a car ride seems…unwise.
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Aug 13, 2023 03:06
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If you give them enough, they get real lazy.
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Aug 13, 2023 16:09
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Yeah cats get real floppy once they get enough catnip, in general.
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Aug 13, 2023 18:24
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With Hurricane Lee coming, what preps are you guys doing last minute? I'm buying disposable bath wipes (the kind that you get in the hospital or see in nursing homes), as well as buying more waste bags for the luggable loo toilet in case we lose power.
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Sep 11, 2023 17:42
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Bored As gently caress posted:With Hurricane Lee coming, what preps are you guys doing last minute? Is it expected to make landfall on the east coast now?
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Sep 11, 2023 20:28
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