Prepping 101: Survival Medicine

Authors Paul Helinski Prepping 101 Uncategorized

I think it is good to start with a basic stocked trauma bag. then you can add more of what you think you might need.

I think it is good to start with a basic stocked trauma bag. then you can add more of what you think you might need.


It is almost laughable when you hear people say “I don’t want to survive in whatever world is left after the collapse.” I promise you that every one of them will be singing a different tune when they are wasting away from thirst and hunger. “I don’t want to die like this!” That is what they are going to be saying. You can bet on it. That also goes for injuries and sickness. Nobody is going to say “Nah, don’t try to stop the bleeding! Don’t give me antibiotics to get rid of my Malaria! I really don’t want to live anyway since the world is so crappy now. Go help someone else.” Nobody wants to die when the time comes. Nobody.

That is why it is vital to include medical supplies in your Prepping 101. You can’t prepare for everything, but don’t let that vapor lock you into inaction. Your medical kit can be simple or it can be elaborate, but being able to stop the bleeding on an open wound is an absolute must. I have researched making your own kit versus buying a stocked kit and my answer is, do both. It is good to start with a stocked kit, and if you search Amazon or, for a huge array of choices, Ebay for “trauma bag,” you’ll see a good price versus what you get comparison. Per item, you pay a little more for a stocked kit, but it gives you little things that you wouldn’t think to buy on your own.

Your kit should have a blood pressure cuff and stethescope.

Your kit should have a blood pressure cuff and stethescope.


Adding to your basic kit is really up to you. I personally added a whole bunch of stuff using Ebay. There is a “Medical Instruments category, and you can find really anything in there that you would see in an emergency or operating room. Forceps, tweezers and scissors are going to be absolutely required in any trauma situation. Small kits of all of these things go for under $20, shipped. Also search Ebay for “trauma bandages” and you’ll find that surplus battlefield bandages are plentiful and cheap. Add to your kit some zip ties of varying sizes, some duct tape, and make sure you have a stethescope and blood pressure cuff. They are available on Ebay and Amazon in the $50 range and they work great. Taking blood pressure is a big part of triage, trying to figure out if someone is going to make it or not.

This is why I also can’t suggest strongly enough to immediately purchase the book that has the same title as this article, “Survival Medicine.” It covers how to triage and diagnose most common health issues that would happen in a collapse, and it will give you a wealth of knowledge that nobody is going to be able to help you with once this thing goes down. It also has an extensive “for further reading” if you want to invest in a medical library. Even medical doctors haven’t seen a fraction of what might come up in a survival situation. Get a doctor on your survival team if you can, but even if you can’t, should a doctor show up, they can’t do anything with some reference material, and some basic tools.

Minor surgical kits are also very cheap and contain a lot of stuff you will probably need.

Minor surgical kits are also very cheap and contain a lot of stuff you will probably need.

Fighting Infection & Disease – Antibiotics, Anti-Malarials, Etc.

There is a massive control grid in the United States that feeds the medical industry our money. You can’t get a simple antibiotic for your kid’s ear infection without paying through the nose to see a doctor, or getting yourself on the hook for hundreds of dollars a month for insurance. Obamacare has made the system worse, not better, and we are all going to be on the hook for big insurance and medical bills for the foreseeable future. You can’t just stock up on antibiotics you might need without a prescription. If you want antibiotics on hand to stop infections from wounds, to treat diseases caused by contaminated water, or just regular life sicknesses, you really need to find an alternate route.

Fortunately, you can buy common multi-purpose antibiotics without a prescription. There are two ways. One is to purchase fish antibiotics. Believe it or not, the same drug you absolutely can’t get for yourself is available free and easy for your fish. If you just Google “fish mox” you’ll see many websites like https://www.fishmoxfishflex.com/ come up, all selling Amoxicillin, Metronidazolle, Erythromycin and many other antibiotics legally and directly to the public. The antibiotics given to animals are exactly the same as those given to people. Is it unfair? Yes. Our medical system is corrupt to its core. But from a Prepping 101 standpoint, at least you can get something.

Buy this book right now. It covers just about everything you need to know, including actual minor surgeries and the use of antibiotics.

Buy this book right now. It covers just about everything you need to know, including actual minor surgeries and the use of antibiotics.


If you want to take it one step further, you can order what are called “Schedule H” medications from India. India has a very lax system to police the export on this special class of non-narcotic pills. Included in this list are all antibiotics, anti-Malarials, birth control pills (you don’t want to get pregnant post collapse for a while), many blood pressure pills, and even ED pills.

Like most people, I am afraid of our burgeoning police state, as well as getting ripped off and my identity stolen online, so I used one website to order a small amount of a blood pressure medication that I had a prescription for. Go try to Google the question asking if ordering these Indian Schedule H drugs in the US is illegal, or what the penalty would be. I have tried quite a lot and haven’t found a reliable answer, so I’m sticking to the fish products. But FYI I did get my medications from India. They were as ordered, in a box that came international air mail, wrapped in cloth. It had come properly through customs and apparently was perfectly legally fine. I don’t know.

The website names from India churn quite a bit because of Google’s cloudy policy of blocking them from search results (they claim to not but it is a complete lie). But I have found that the website https://onlinepharmacysearch.net/ keeps a pretty updated list of which domains are currently online. These are the current websitesfor the store that I tried. Please use it at your own risk and peril. The black helicopters may land in your yard for having too much Tetracycline without owning any fish.

The best source of antibiotics is your local fish store. Online sellers can be found by Googling "fish mox".

The best source of antibiotics is your local fish store. Online sellers can be found by Googling “fish mox”.

If you are on prescription medications, long term survival is probably going to be a crap shoot. If you can score a couple extra months of meds from your doctor by claiming you lost them, do so. Medicines have a very long shelf life, much longer than it says on the bottle. Non-narcotics are usually pretty easy to double fill for vacation or whatever as well. Your insurance may not pay for them though. If we are in chaos for two months before they bring in the new global currency, it may just be that two months that things are bad enough to not be able to get food and meds. You just never know.

There are also a number of sites selling what are called "Schedule H" medications from India. Be careful with getting ripped off, identity theft, and of course, what is legal and not legal to import into the US.

There are also a number of sites selling what are called “Schedule H” medications from India. Be careful with getting ripped off, identity theft, and of course, what is legal and not legal to import into the US.

Ebola! Is This the END?

There has been a recent Ebola scare across America because an infected individual almost came to the US, but fortunately dropped dead before he could get on a plane. Currently four countries in Africa have experienced outbreaks, and it is getting a little scary. But keep in mind that the governments of the world have been weaponizing diseases for decades. Lyme disease supposedly escaped from a facility on an island off the coast of Long Island New York. Over a million people per year, mostly African children, die of Malaria every year still. A global pandemic could happen at any time, but so could a lot of other stuff. There has been a great deal of speculation that the occurrences in many cities at the same time with no known human link points to planting of the infection, but who knows. It could be just a test for something they plan for the future.

The important thing to realize is that whether it is Ebola or any of the myriad other deadly diseases that could be unleashed on humanity, we know how diseases spread for the most part. This isn’t the Dark Ages, where half the world’s population was wiped out by the Black Plague carried by rats, and nobody knew. In a pandemic, follow the same rules we have said since the beginning of this series. Stay in the house, or your perimeter, at all costs, and don’t let anyone know you are even alive. Prepare now so that you don’t need to go out to get water, for months at the very least. Buy toilet paper for heavens sake. Think of everything you need to survive, and just play board games and solitare, until things calm down.

The online India pharmacies do carry anti-Malarials which the fish store does not.

The online India pharmacies do carry anti-Malarials which the fish store does not.


Almost every day now something new is popping. It’s a war. It’s a disease. It’s Russia making non-dollar deals with China. It’s a completely phony GDP number this week. It is something. And one of those somethings could erupt any day. Make yourself a good trauma kit and get some basic antibiotics to treat infection from injuries. It is just as important to survival as food and water.

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  • King of Macedonia June 15, 2015, 5:23 pm

    This article plays into the popular fallacy that you can save lives with a couple of pounds of gauze and a blood pressure cuff. You can’t, trust me. I am a paramedic with 30 years experience, I know. In a $150,000 ambulance stocked with $50,000 worth of supplies and equipment, with two trained and experienced medics, I can’t save lives. All I can do is keep them alive long enough to get them to the hospital where they can save them.

    With really good medical care, in a university hospital, less than 7% of all cardiac arrests survive, even if they had timely advanced life support in the field or arrested in front of staff at the hospital. Only 24% of patients who have suffered a traumatic injury to their upper airway requiring surgical intervention-pre-hospital and in the hospital-will survive. (I could go on with the statistics, but I think I made my point.)

    Here’s a couple of problems with the beliefs stated in this article:

    So, we know what a person’s blood pressure is, do we know what that reflects? For example, do we know what a narrowing pulse pressure indicates? (cardiac tamponade, pneumo- or hemo- thorax or mediastinum, etc; none of which can be treated in the field. All have a high degree of mortality. If you recognize tamponade, are you ready to treat it? It involves sticking a needle into the pericardial sac that surrounds the heart and drawing off blood.) There are a million other problems you can identify with knowledge of the blood pressure and other assessments. If one is not trained, they, of course, don’t know that.

    Con your doc out of antibiotics? It’s not a good idea to lie to one’s doctor in order to get more meds than you need. (Or about anything else for that matter.) Most insurance companies would consider that fraud and most prescription medicines can only be dispensed in controlled amounts-like enough for the usual course of antibiotics-without attracting attention. If there is a potential allergy to penicillin, do you know what others are unsafe and which are safe to give? Are you ready to deal with the massive side effects some antibiotics have? Giving antibiotics by mouth only works in conscious patients with intact gag reflexes and has nowhere near the potency of IV antibiotics. And most have neither the training or equipment to even start an IV or know how to give the antibiotics without killing someone. Most people have no idea what types of antibiotics are effective for which infections and/or which don’t even work. Etc. Let’s not even mention that antibiotics are only one small part of the treatment of sepsis.

    You can’t put a hospital with trained personnel in your bag. Without a hospital, a lot of people are going to die. Even with advanced pre-hospital care and the best emergency departments, a lot of people die. In a situation without appropriate medical care, most of what one can deliver will be palliative care–make people comfortable while they die. Of course, most don’t know that because they have no training or understanding of the realities of medical care in the 21st century. Employing a ‘trial and error’ method wastes resources for no reason. With a bag’o’gauze, one would be all set up to treat skinned knees; unfortunately they are up the creek if that cut gets infected, septic or gangrenous.

    Get training (and, no, EMT is not training), Learn what is realistic and accept that a lot of people are going to die. That’s why it’s called survival.

  • Ghostmedic January 15, 2015, 9:18 pm

    Also one point worth noting. Just because you know a medic or EMT. Or are friends with a DR or PA doesn’t mean they actually know they’re head from they’re ass. I work with medics I wouldn’t let near my family and have delt with docs who have obviously let the medical world pass them by. Medicine is not static it is probably one of the most dynamic fields to work in and requires a high level of critical thinking.

    Additionally I feel it worth pointing out that a combat medic and a civilian medic are not one in the same. Combat medics are much more adept at triage/making the hard decision and trauma management/bleeding control. Civilian medics are significantly more adept at diagnosing medical conditions and dealing with cardiac emergencies. I am speaking from experience I work with both. But do not misunderstand I would put my life in a GOOD medics hands civilian or combat any day any time.

    Air goes in and out, blood goes round and round any deviation is a problem.
    99% of assault victims had it coming.
    If you drop the baby, pick it up.
    Labor is a god driven process all your doing is catching.

  • Dr. Robert McClimans August 8, 2014, 7:23 pm

    Dr. Allen
    Fully agree with “Doc”. Also highly recommend your local CERT. Hands on training is very essential – which requires those in the medical profession years to acquire proficiency – due to the innumerable and various presentations in urgent/emergent patients.
    You may sense the training is “too much” or “too complicated” to learn. Most of us in medicine felt the same when we attempted to look at the entire effort that was required. However little by little (one bite at a time) is what worked. Just start and be persistent and locate an already proficient teacher in the true healing arts (that is already interested in disaster training/preparation). You will gain necessary experience over time – if you do not give up.

  • Doc August 8, 2014, 3:28 pm

    One of the best books you can carry is the field guide issued to Navy Corpsmen — but then you have to have common sense, know when to use it as a Bible and when to use it as a general guide. — If you have not taken a very basic EMT-I course offered though most volunteer fire departments and many community colleges, DO IT. And do more than DO it, PAY ATTENTION — a LOT of data is presented by good instructors — take it twice from two different instructors — and DO YOUR ER TIME!!!!! – YOU WILL LEARN A LOT that you don’t think about and won’t learn in a book. —

    Your BEST bet, its to go through either the Navy Corpsman training manuals — they Deal with trauma you might face, but they don’t really deal with ‘long term nursing care’, Your SECOND best bet is the EMT-I training (And EMT-II, unless you want to go to school and sit in on paramedic courses). Don’t forget to take a class in anatomy & physiology so you learn HOW the organ systems are connected, and what might go wrong with each one – most instructors will mention how abnormally functioning organ systems present. LEARN IT.

    Remember: Only a Fool has himself as a patient. That’s why even MD’S have their own MD to see for annual physicals. You also might want to think about enrolling in a GOOD CNA – certified nursing assistant – course at your community college (yes, the books ARE expensive) because when you learn WHY you do things, you can generalize out to other things. The practice of Medicine is NOT easy — and it’s FAR more complicated than one would think at first sight. — Let me ask you all ONE very basic question — What is the difference between the flu and a cold? — (I won’t tell you, you’ll have to look it up). If you DON’T know, you’ll be wasting VERY valuable resources without reason.

    Question two: Name TWO VERY serious problems when a pt presents with ‘lower back pain’. 1) cracked (not broken) back bone, 2) Heart attack.

    If you are going to play Doctor, you best KNOW YOUR STUFF INSIDE OUT. What’s the difference between Amoxi and Amplicillin? Can they be sued for the same thing? What happens if you pour one or the other into a large open wound? How do you prevent it? (Seriously). Why would NEVER give CPR to a person who’d been ‘down’ for more than 2-3 minutes?

    I think I’ve made my point. Get the course work for Navy Corpsman then take a CNA class and you MIGHT be ready, but most studies show skills not used go away– 75% the first year alone. At 5 years your remember only about 5% of what you really learned, so you need to keep in practice. And, just BTW, what ARE the normal vitals for a healthy 20 year old vs a normal 50 year old? If you don’t know – you best learn. What Is THE most basic way to deal with hpertension? “Hypotension” is your clue.

    Some stuff you can’t learn from a book. If you don’t have ‘hands on’ training you’ll be screwed. Your pt will be even more screwed.

    I’m NOT saying don’t do it, I’m saying you better know what the F you are doing or you will KILL someone — quick!! Name me the BEST way to test for a drug allergy in about 5-15 minutes? Give a drug the pt is allergic to, you and them are screwed. — so LEAN – HANDS ON IF YOU CAN (yes, sometimes important tings mean you have to learn them the right way, practice only makes permanent, not perfect.). Good luck in your endeavors. (PS a real trauma kit will cost you between $300-$400 for a basic kit, more if you want to do ‘advanced’ things like close wounds, set bones, R/O-R/I real causes by presenting symptoms of the pt. (BTW, how DO you do a basic neurological?). Just saying ‘medicine is not easy’ if you don’t know the entire scope of what you are dealing with.

    • Roy DeSoto June 15, 2015, 8:10 pm

      A Navy corpsman deploys as a part of a unit. They are backed up with huge resources. They don’t function independently, they do what someone else tells them to do. They don’t save anyone, they get people to doctors/hospitals who save them. In a survival situation, you’re not going to be part of a unit, you won’t have any resources to back you up and you definitely won’t have access to a hospital.

      I’d be more concerned about allergic reactions to drugs; knowing what each antibiotic was effective for what; when it isn’t effective; what are the potential side effects; whether I am making the right decision in giving it to a patient in the situation we are in; and making sure I am not wasting resources. I’d also be trying to figure out where to get IV antibiotics and IV equipment to administer them.

      MI wouldn’t be a reasonable differential diagnosis for a patient who presented with isolated low back pain. In the absence of concomitant signs of cardiovascular illness-shortness of breath, palor, sweating, arrhythmias, heart failure, a history of heart disease in the patient or the family, etc-it wouldn’t indicate an MI. Although, it has been claimed that MI pain can radiate anywhere, isolated pain is not a sign of a MI. Particularly if there is a recent or past history of acute trauma or chronic back pain. The first thing they teach you is “When you hear hoofbeats, don’t look for zebras.” Connecting isolated lower back pain, with no other symptoms or indications, to an MI would be a zebra.

      American Heart Association standards recommend resuscitation begin within 5 minutes and that advanced life support should be delivered in 8 minutes. That’s a pretty good argument for performing CPR after 1-3 minutes–that and it would be negligent to not do it. CPR isn’t noted for it’s effectiveness, most of the time you don’t get the outcome you want. However, 7% of cardiac arrest victims survive, so I’d do it anyway. The more important question is: If you have no resources available–like an advanced life support ambulance and a hospital–and there is little to no chance you will gain access to these resources in a reasonable amount of time for this patient, is it appropriate to perform CPR, at all? If there are co-morbidities-CHF, COPD, HTN, diabetes, arrhythmias, etc–that will lend to mortality, the decision is even more problematic.

      In a survival situation, with no resources to rely on, people are going to die. Frequently. Particularly from trauma, which is already the leading cause of death between 4 and 40. Even if you are an MD with years of experience, the lack of tools will limit your practice severely. In a true survival situation–not a situation where your bubblegum supply is cut off for a couple of days–you’d have to get used to people dying from what were, previously, considered preventable causes.

      I disagree with your statements.

  • Tom Welsh August 6, 2014, 7:09 am

    what a bunch of pure idiots
    write some more garbage
    I’m sure we’ll all believe it

    • dink winkerson August 6, 2014, 12:56 pm

      Your inability to state a case speaks VOLUMES.

  • Don Dineen August 4, 2014, 8:56 pm

    When it comes to first aid supplies think big quantities. I hit my reserves following a couple surgeries. I thought I had quite a few things stuck away and went through most of the bandages, pain killers and tape so fast I was thinking what I thought would work for a month or more didn’t last a week. One wound took over 75 bandages/compresses over a two week period. Buy a lot. It pays off.

  • OFBG August 4, 2014, 4:28 pm

    I you are right about the folks who will be whining after having failed to prepare for disaster; heck, just look at the number of people who don’t even bother to keep some bottled water and batteries on hand for weather emergencies. I think, however, that you have misinterpreted the statement “I don’t want to survive in whatever world is left after the collapse.” I believe that people who say that actually mean that they “don’t want to live in whatever world is left.” They want to be among the first to go (quickly they hope, so as not to suffer) as in a nuclear attack, not later and slowly as you describe.

  • dink winkerson August 4, 2014, 12:51 pm

    Nice to see so many people getting prepared. The problem I see with the 101 articles, they all assume we’ll be able to stay home. Unless we HEAVILY fortify our houses, this may not be possible. We better learn how to survive in the wilderness, it may be our only option.

    • Russ August 4, 2014, 3:16 pm

      Hey Dink, HEAVILY fortify might be the call.
      The wilderness will have many human dangers.
      I could easily survive in most wilderness situations, alone.
      But my wife, son and daughter, with her husband and newborn baby girl would have a real problem, and so would I trying to support them. My son and I are the only ones seriously considering survival.

      Hear me out on my thoughts;
      Many people will try to escape to the wilderness.
      They will encounter each other with mistrust and a real hell will break loose.
      Hunters, x-military, civilians, prepers, gangs, bums, and a few Bobsmiths may show up.
      All with territory claims and different ideas on how to survive. “Hell on Earth”
      I’m going to try as long as possible to hunker down, self contained.
      Give things a chance to work out or unwind before I absolutely must leave or go for deep sewer cover.
      Conserve ammo, Lead and gold will be your new currency. Your dollars are worthless.
      Hope to see smart/nice people in the future, Good Luck!

      • dink winkerson August 5, 2014, 12:23 pm

        Read my post again and i wasn’t quite clear enough. My primary point was supposed to be that we need a serious plan b, c, d, and so on. We also need the flexibility of mind to be able to change plans to adapt. I do know and fully believe everything you said, and appreciate your added insight. AS for Bob, someone will take his stuff and more than likely kill him because he is unprepared.

      • dink winkerson August 5, 2014, 12:26 pm

        Forgot to mention, lead will most likely be more precious than gold.

      • Bruce December 31, 2014, 9:32 pm

        I am pretty sure that the “Bob Smith’s” of this world “ain’t gonna make it” into the wilderness much less past day 3 at home w/o coming over to the dark side with a little prepping. More likely to fall victim to looters, starvation etc. Those who head out for the wilderness will prey upon one another for a while. Those who plan and band together reasonably will do better. Myself, I am off to a nice village on an island with a low overall population in SE Alaska with plenty of good friends, eternal rain water, abundant wildlife, fish, edible plants, gardening etc., and a strong independent yet interdependent community. In fact my wife and 99% of my household are already in place. Its good to have a retirement plan in the works!

      • Richard M. Nixon June 15, 2015, 6:31 pm

        You can’t eat gold. That’s why I took us off the gold standard. It’s worthless.

      • Bob Marshall June 15, 2015, 9:14 pm

        Where I live, there is 1 million + acres of trackless wilderness. Right alongside nearly a million acres of national forest. With an adjoining national forest that covers 2.4 million acres. And that’s not even a tenth of the undeveloped land in the state. Ted Kacynzski lived here for 25 years and no one noticed. You could dump the entire population of the state in these three places and no one would ever see anyone else. Utah and Nevada are similarly unpopulated.

        It gets to -70 degrees here. Windchill brings it down even further. You can get frostbite in five minutes at those temps. Even everyday living takes a lot of planning.

        You aren’t going to find wilderness like this in New Jersey.

    • Gregg August 4, 2014, 3:41 pm

      Hell I live in southern Oklahoma isn’t any wilderness so at home I stay and do the best I can.

    • Édouard Daladier June 15, 2015, 8:55 pm

      Yes, FORTIFICATIONS!

      Because the Maginot line worked out so well for us.

      We would have all been better off without the Treaty of Versailles.

  • Ken August 4, 2014, 12:51 pm

    Well now, let’s see, there were a few inaccuracies in the article, but over all fairly informative. There are a lot of ‘Bob Smiths’ in this Country and they have the right to feel as they do, but they are obviously not looking at the entire picture of what can happen. Looking back at ‘Katrina’ and the incidents down there shows how being prepared to survive for a length of time is critical to making survival not be an ‘ordeal’ to get through. With a degree in Emergency Management, and working in that field for many years, I have always heard FEMA’s line of the ’72 hour kit’, but from the inside, FEMA even knows that they cannot get to some areas that fast in a serious disaster. One of the big things that scares most emergency management (EM) planners is the New Madrid fault. It is overdue for a release of energy and the last time it went it caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards in areas and rang church bells in Boston. If it releases that king of energy again it is most likely that none of the bridges over the Mississippi will be safe to cross, if they are still even standing, and the power grid will be toast too. Since most of the materials and goods are moved by rail, we are going to have a serious problem in getting stuff or even getting materials to manufacturers to process to deliver to people. Medicines that you rely on will quickly become unavailable and the ‘Strategic Reserve’ supplies are geared to supply stuff for pandemics of bacterial or viral causes, not heart medication, insulin, or thyroid problems. How will you get these? Even if they can get the supply chains up and running in a couple of weeks, how long will it be till they filter down to the general public? No one in EM really knows that answer, there are too many variables. As an assistant EM and a spouse that worked in bio-terrorism epidemiology I have seen the plans and planning that has been going on. Every law enforcement agency that I have worked with between OK and TX and some from both East and West coasts say that they are gearing up for some type of civil unrest, again no one really knows when or how long it could be. We buy insurance for life, houses, cars, boats, etc., we keep fire extinguishers and fire alarms around for that “just in case” scenario, why not keep some of the items that you know you will need to ‘make surviving’ a little bit easier for you and your family. I could go on, but the “Bob Smiths” of this world will never understand no matter how many scenarios or pieces of advice I put down.

    • Hippocrates June 15, 2015, 6:26 pm

      “Good job, Brownie.” And in hearing those immortal words, I concluded I wouldn’t count on FEMA to save me. Not that I would have relied on the government for anything, anyway. (I don’t care who’s president or what party they belong to.)

      You’re talking about the big picture, based on the belief that the government will, eventually, get around to saving us all. In a survival situation there will be no government to save you.

      Show me one police force that hasn’t been spoiling for a fight since 9/11. One man’s ‘civil disobedience’ is another man’s fight for survival. There is nothing in the constitution that allows the government to declare martial law. If they did, anyway, I figure if the constitution and laws don’t constrain them, they don’t constrain me, either. Besides, if something really bad happens, the cops will be in the street trying to scrape out a living along with all the rest of us.

      Based on past experience–the OEM held an exercise near my house and started a fire that burned down everything right up to my house–I really don’t think OEM has much to offer.

  • Mark August 4, 2014, 9:13 am

    But what if… what if there was no survival? I know a lot of preppers and they all feel the same way. That they would just come out of their shelters a few weeks/months later and pick up the pieces. But what if that wasn’t possible? Call me crazy but I made a movie about the alternative.
    https://vimeo.com/100648213

  • Jim August 4, 2014, 6:31 am

    I love your artical. I m retired and on a controled substance for back pain. Trying to get off but pain is to great . I blamed doctors for getting me on this crap now they need to get me off without going through withdraw.
    We have good size garden and do a lot of canning, have a 1 acre pond in back for water and r on septic and well. Don’t count on utilities to work. ,have several cans of spare gas for the genny .it is big enough to handle most of the house. Have fuel for camp stove when nat.gas goes down, keosene for space heaters.and several cords of wood. Weapons for long and close range and spare guns for trusted neighbors.

    • Doc August 8, 2014, 2:50 pm

      Jim, If you REALLY want off pain killers: treat the symptoms. First: Craving is the hard part, cowboy up and deal with it, WANTING something REALLY REALLY BADLY is just like being a little kid, and the emotional power behind the wanting is just as bad as the kid who wants a new game or doll. Deal with it. SECOND: DEAL WITH SYMPTOMS: That means, you will probably have a runny nose, so use diphenhydromine to get rid of that (and yes, it will make you sleepy, and yes you CAN cause some damage to your body, but it’s only about a week, two at the most, so deal with it and live with whatever problems diphenhydromine will cause); you will have diarrhea (by this time everyone should know how to symptomatically deal with the problems, but I’ll go through the list) use Imodium, just make sure you back off every other day so you CAN poop, you don’t want an obstructed bowl (if you get one, how do you know that’s what it is, and how do you deal with it come on, quick! you should known this stuff!!!) — painful abdomen, point-tenderness WITH the HxPI – use whole bran, along with a phosphate based liquid med) — Keep up with your multivitamins since you might die without them – depending on how old you are – OK, everyone, WHY will he run the possibility of dieing? you should know this. — His electrolytes can go whack-o on him, and he could have a heart attack. Multivitamins will help correct this problem. KEEP UP YOUR INTAKE OF WATER — why? because he needs to flush out the ‘repair’ of his cells – so keep the liquids coming — diarrhea starts up, you know how to deal with it. So, eat and drink like normal, deal with the symptoms, and you are off. You are on pain-killers BECAUSE YOU HAVE A MEDICAL CONDITION – So, if you want off, just follow the above and you’ll be ‘clean’ inside of a week. Keep an eye on your vitals, and keep them recorded, remember what stroke level is for BP, and know the eventual dangers of V-tac and where hypocardia (and bradycardia) starts FOR YOU. — ONE WEEK – you are ‘clean’ – TWO weeks, and the ‘craving’ is gone. The feeling? Like the flu for about 3-5 days. It’s that easy.

      Only the ‘I WANT MY TEDDY BEAR!!!!’ WILL STOP YOU FROM WITHDRAWAL. Monitor your vitals every couple of hours and treat symptomatically. You are now ‘clean’. Ok, EVERYONE – quick!!!! what do you do if he vomits a lot during withdrawal??

      So, it’s that simple – if you REALLY want off. Just cowboy up and you are now ‘clean’ but you will still have back pain. Too much pain? Deal with it. Marine up! and just deal with it — this is absolutely the easiest way off of ANY pain med. It’s not ‘fun’ — but it’s absolutely safe if you keep your vitals an chart them!!!! and KNOW when to turn to alternative medicine or see your doc when you are border line crashing. There are MANY ways to come off of pain meds, this is only one of them, but the cheapest and easiest. If you might need other Rx drugs around — make sure you have them –

      Some people who live in medical cannabis states may find that useing that to help mellow you out during times of ‘I WANT MY BLANKY!!!” —

      So, James – there is how it’s done the quick and easy way. DO NO TAKE THIS AS MEDICAL ADVICE – I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT OTHER MEDICAL PROBLEMS YOU MAY HAVE, SO SOME OF THIS CAN KILL YOU IF YOU HAVE OTHER MEDICAL PROBLEMS!!! — Just remember that I am not responsible for how you chose to lead your life, or how you chose to ‘come off’ what ever pain med you are on. IF you are healthy, this will work 100% of the time. The big problem is YOUR mindset = do you REALLY want off, or are you just saying you want off? Only the first will get you off your pain meds with as little discomfort as possible. (hint: you probably don’t want to be around people on days 2-5-6 because you’ll fell like shit itself. Good luck. (honest.)

      • bbbs53 June 15, 2015, 2:18 pm

        I hate to say this, your method of withdrawing like that may kill him. It is far better to be titrated down gradually. One thing they do is mask other symptoms. I broke my back, 6 places and my pelvis was shattered. I took oxi for 12 years, up to 60mg at a time. It took 12 months of 5mg reductions to get off, but it worked and it didn’t hurt. Do it NOW. You may not have the luxury of waiting. If you are taking a benzo, get off of them too. Very difficult to withdraw and could be dangerous also. If you take blood pressure meds, get a lot of them stocked, even if you have to buy them! If you stop taking them suddenly, it increases the chances of stroke/heart attack by a huge percentage. Statins are the same deal. This country takes way way too much medication to the point it is contaminating water. Obviously old Bob wasn’t a Boy Scout, their motto, BE PREPARED, since I was 11 I had a survival kit in case we got separated in the woods. It fit in a band aid box and had everything to make it out for a day or 2. It doesn’t matter when, if you are prepared you will be fine. In all these years, I never needed that kit, but I always had it, just in case.

  • bobsmith August 4, 2014, 2:59 am

    You don’t use antibiotics to treat malaria. It isn’t a bacterial infection. You can use one antibiotic as a prophylactic, but once you have it, you need anti-malarial drugs. If you can’t even be bothered to do five minutes of research to figure this out, I don’t think you’re the sort of person we should be relying on to give us post-apocalyptic medical advice.

    Also, preppers are raving, tinfoil hat wearing nutters, who would, in fact, be some of the first to die in any major apocalyptic event, due to their incredible lack of common sense. Your hoard of food and medical supplies won’t do you much good when you’re sucking down colloidal silver and praying to Jesus to save you from disease (or, in the case of the author here, using antibiotics to treat malaria).

    Grow the hell up, put that money into retirement funds instead of your hoard of useless supplies (anything more than basic, common sense disaster readiness is probably just mental illness expressing itself), and you might live a little longer.

    • johnsmith August 4, 2014, 9:10 am

      Bob Smith – professional or part-time troll? Why would you waste your time reading this article if you’re so confident of the sound fiscal and foreign policies of what is still a great nation?
      He never said take antibiotics for malaria dufus. He gave good references and good suggestions to research independently. What you don’t know is that we aren’t lemmings, we can think for ourselves. I didnt read any ‘I am the global authority’ on anything he said. So, tuck into your nice warm IRA and good luck waving anyone down to stop and pick up your arrogant ass waving on the side of the road. FEMA trucks will be right behind us to pick you up

      • Russ August 4, 2014, 2:33 pm

        Thanks for telling him off, that was funny.

        I’m trained as a lifeguard, but all I have are a few first aid kits.
        I guess I’ll trade guns and ammo if I need something special. 😉

      • RangerRick December 31, 2014, 3:48 pm

        Had to smile.

    • BUURGA August 4, 2014, 3:51 pm

      In addition to this jerk’s trashing of belief, his is the response of the ‘threatened’. Preppers are seen as delusional misfits suffering from acute paranoia of the future. They are anti-civilization morons who ,of course, tend to be white, reactionary, and a threat to good, normal folks, don’t you know. Its the idea of individuality, and self-reliant conduct that is the threat to him. Liberal’s love to box people, and individualism just doesn’t fit in a box too well. To be true, the far end of the preppers can get a little spooky, but by and large taking care of yourself is never a threat to sanity, or really anything else – except, possibly, radical social engineers, and their followers.

      • Al August 6, 2014, 6:07 pm

        Yeah, he’s a troll. But he’s also forgetting something: Our own government is telling you to be prepared. There are government disaster drills all the time. I personally don’t worry much, but it’s like fire insurance: If your house doesn’t burn down did you throw away your money on having food and water, or a first aid kit in the house? How did people make out after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, leaving them off the grid while the police walked off the job to tend to their families? To a collectivist like Bobsmith, self-reliance is his worst nightmare. It turns dependency on it’s head. “How dare you survive and not suffer like the rest of us!!” The rabid hostility of his vitriol says it all – but he’ll be knocking on your door for his next meal when the chips are down. I think it’s hilarious.

    • nate August 4, 2014, 6:14 pm

      “Included in this list are all antibiotics, anti-Malarials, birth control pills”

      Those damn commas will get you every time Bob.

    • sksguy2 August 21, 2014, 1:48 am

      along with malaria virus/protozol comes bacterial infections secondary to dehydration/malnutrition/infection. just to set the record straight. now im a prepper v/s survivalist. i prepare for when something happens not IF something happens. a little preparation can go a long way when wife and kids are looking at you for the answers. i mean just a thought.

    • OldMarineFE December 31, 2014, 12:28 pm

      Speaking for myself, clearly, you are a deranged, obamabot, useful idiot and you deserve all that obumboy has planned for ya. As useful idiot and a warm body, you excel. I’d suggest for your own, basic, common sense disaster readiness kit, a pair of stout gloves, as the wire fences at the FEMA camps tend to be rough on the hands.

      Please be sure to plainly identify yourself as an obamabot, to the immature, healthy, FREE, raving, tinfoil hat wearing nutters, who are wandering around outside the fence, when, not if, the SHTF, so they will not waste any time, sharing the wrong medicine, trying to save your sad, sorry, little self.

      In fact, I’m gonna pray to Jesus Christ, that He cures your mental illness, in time to save you. However, since you’re so set against Americans working together, working hard to be prepared for the coming “whatever”, worrying about saving your sad, sorry, speck of humanity, appears to be a moot point….

      In a Christian gesture, hopefully, the soup that you make from of all your money will cure and sustain you and your loved ones.

      Glory to our Lord, Jesus Christ. God bless America!

    • Bruce December 31, 2014, 9:19 pm

      It appears that someone’s mother SHOULD have used a prophylactic BOB…(it’s only an insult if it applies)! After 29 years working for the feds and having lived in several countries, having my investments in reasonable order, I tend to side more with the preppers as an investment in the security of providing as much as possible for my family. Kind of like having a diverse portfolio with plans for WHEN (not if – in case you are also naive enough to believe that Kinsean economics of Quantitative Easing will be able to go on supporting a false market in perpetuity). Heck the more I type the more I am convinced that you have to be a Berkley medical student with all of the answers, or just an arrogant lib-tard…but then again I repeat myself. And yes, while we are at it Michael Brown like Treyvon Martin, could also have been one of Obama’s illegitimate children….(figure you for a Fergusson terrorism supporter) Happy New Year Comrade!
      P.S. – I have typed this slowly as it is obvious that you probably can’t read too fast!

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