Blessings Darlings!
Today I saw a FaceBook post from a friend. He's teaching first aid, and wanted to know what to teach along with that. This is my reply ....
About
a decade ago, my boss collapsed - Atrial Fibrillation. It took 18
minutes for the EMTs to arrive (that's a story for a different time).
One of my coworkers was a volunteer firefighter, had spent the past year
and a half I'd worked with her claiming how ready she was to deal with
anything.
That
coworker froze. I, along with a woman from the loan office housed next
to ours, did CPR and kept the boss going until the EMTs got there and
defib'd her.
Why
did the 'trained' person fail, while I could function (even tho' my CPR
training had been two decades earlier)? Because in ALL things I didn't
procrastinate, instead my habit was to deal with problems as them came
up (and try to head them off, of course, but that, too, is a story for a
different day. OTOH, my coworker was the youngest child of many, and
her siblings would usually step in to 'help' her if she was slow in
doing things, or her boyfriend would handle unpleasant things, etc.
Cultivating
the habit of handling problems (that you failed to prevent) as they
happen, so you don't freeze and act out the habit of putting things off
and having others handle them, is to me the most important thing to
learn along with the skills involved in first aid.
Frondly, Fern
Showing posts with label first aid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first aid. Show all posts
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Emergency!
Blessings Darlings!
The other day, in "The Life You Save", I pointed out how a volunteer firefighter was useless in the face of an emergency. She's no longer my problem now that I don't work with her. My problem is that the Chubby Hubby is useless in most emergencies!
Take that one Christmas. At 5:30 that cold morning we were awakened to the sight of a car on fire across the street. Turned out that an arsonist had lit 4 cars in our city and the close by village, and one was across the street from us. My husband stood at the window in his tighty whities staring at the fire. I called 911, and got dressed. He did eventually dress and join me and the neighbors outside as we did what we could with fire extinguishers (useless) and moved nearby cars.
Or take the day the Spawn was stung by a bee at school. I was working outside the home at the time, so it must have been towards the end of grammar school, say 5th grade. Sting was by eye, it was near the end of the day - they removed stinger and had CH pick Spawn up. CH called me in a panic about what to do. Okay, CH, here's what you do: give him a dose of Benadryl, give him some ice in a washcloth for the eye, if he starts swelling up and/or has trouble breathing go to the ER, and if you're still nervous call the pediatrician for more info. And I told my boss I needed to leave for a family emergency - because my husband was melting down over the Spawn's bee sting. For the record, Spawn had been stung before, and has no known allergy to bee stings. I got home in time to get the return phone call from the Dr's office. The nurse agreed with all I'd told the CH.
There was the recent incident when he got lightheaded the day after his abcessed tooth was removed and he was on HEAPS of antibiotics ... but you get the picture.
The time *I* am the one ill or injured I'm going to be in a heap of trouble, because he won't be useful. When I had a year of stomach trouble, he kept pushing me to have milk 'to settle my stomach'. It turned out I was lactose intolerant, FFS.
Help!
Frondly, Fern
The other day, in "The Life You Save", I pointed out how a volunteer firefighter was useless in the face of an emergency. She's no longer my problem now that I don't work with her. My problem is that the Chubby Hubby is useless in most emergencies!
Take that one Christmas. At 5:30 that cold morning we were awakened to the sight of a car on fire across the street. Turned out that an arsonist had lit 4 cars in our city and the close by village, and one was across the street from us. My husband stood at the window in his tighty whities staring at the fire. I called 911, and got dressed. He did eventually dress and join me and the neighbors outside as we did what we could with fire extinguishers (useless) and moved nearby cars.
Or take the day the Spawn was stung by a bee at school. I was working outside the home at the time, so it must have been towards the end of grammar school, say 5th grade. Sting was by eye, it was near the end of the day - they removed stinger and had CH pick Spawn up. CH called me in a panic about what to do. Okay, CH, here's what you do: give him a dose of Benadryl, give him some ice in a washcloth for the eye, if he starts swelling up and/or has trouble breathing go to the ER, and if you're still nervous call the pediatrician for more info. And I told my boss I needed to leave for a family emergency - because my husband was melting down over the Spawn's bee sting. For the record, Spawn had been stung before, and has no known allergy to bee stings. I got home in time to get the return phone call from the Dr's office. The nurse agreed with all I'd told the CH.
There was the recent incident when he got lightheaded the day after his abcessed tooth was removed and he was on HEAPS of antibiotics ... but you get the picture.
The time *I* am the one ill or injured I'm going to be in a heap of trouble, because he won't be useful. When I had a year of stomach trouble, he kept pushing me to have milk 'to settle my stomach'. It turned out I was lactose intolerant, FFS.
Help!
Frondly, Fern
Friday, October 19, 2012
Man Down!
Blessings Darlings!
I have a VERY good first aid kit. Full boxes of face masks and bandages and other supplies, full bottles of alcohol and such, lots of pressure wraps, 1st aid book, arm slings, eye patches, etc.
Yesterday it came into use.
I was outside hanging laundry. The Chubby Hubby decided he wanted breakfast, came up to the kitchen to pour a bowl of cereal/etc. Discovering he was too low on cereal for a full bowl, he headed down to my office to grab a fresh box of cereal. Box in hand, he hurried back upstairs ...
and tripped on the stairs. Landing hard and at an awkward position on his right leg - momentum making that awkward knee/leg alignment taking even more of an impact than his already too-substantial weight. Pain ensued.
I came back in at this point, finding him gasping in pain. Quick evaluation - whatever it is, we don't have a car to get it X-rayed right now. He didn't hear a pop (he wouldn't have, even if there WAS on, his hearing rather sucks), nor did he feel a pop (better evidence than his hearing). RICE is clearly called for - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. He agreed to only some of that. He can't work in the lab with Elevation, but I can be his servant for getting things (rest), I grabbed compression wraps from the 1st aid kit and snugly wrapped the knee (compression), and I filled a bag with crushed ice and tied it on to his knee. And he grabbed some NSAIDs.
The compression made an IMMEDIATE difference in how the knee felt when moved. And the knee didn't hurt when NOT being moved or when NOT bent. He also didn't feel anything inside 'rubbing oddly' or 'rolling around' when moving.
Today the knee is not as painful when bent. He's still avoiding bending it, it's been re-wrapped for compression after his shower, etc. There is no 'unsteadiness' in walking on it when unwrapped. So he PROBABLY didn't tear anything.
It seems to me that being able to immediately compression wrap the knee made a huge difference. It didn't swell, complicating anything. It made the CH feel better - always a good thing. I didn't have the stress of knowing what to do but NOT having the supplies on hand, nor a car to get the supplies. Biking or walking to the store could have been done, but being cash-strapped just now buying the supplies would have been another stress.
Also, I just got off of chat with NARIC, the National Rehabilitation Information Center. They are a not-very-well-known font of information and referrals. I only know about them because some of folks there are friends of mine. If you need info on ANY sort of rehab issues, they are the folks to ask.
Clearly this 'event' is not yet over. But at least it seems to be moving in the right direction.
Frondly, Fern
I have a VERY good first aid kit. Full boxes of face masks and bandages and other supplies, full bottles of alcohol and such, lots of pressure wraps, 1st aid book, arm slings, eye patches, etc.
Yesterday it came into use.
I was outside hanging laundry. The Chubby Hubby decided he wanted breakfast, came up to the kitchen to pour a bowl of cereal/etc. Discovering he was too low on cereal for a full bowl, he headed down to my office to grab a fresh box of cereal. Box in hand, he hurried back upstairs ...
and tripped on the stairs. Landing hard and at an awkward position on his right leg - momentum making that awkward knee/leg alignment taking even more of an impact than his already too-substantial weight. Pain ensued.
I came back in at this point, finding him gasping in pain. Quick evaluation - whatever it is, we don't have a car to get it X-rayed right now. He didn't hear a pop (he wouldn't have, even if there WAS on, his hearing rather sucks), nor did he feel a pop (better evidence than his hearing). RICE is clearly called for - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. He agreed to only some of that. He can't work in the lab with Elevation, but I can be his servant for getting things (rest), I grabbed compression wraps from the 1st aid kit and snugly wrapped the knee (compression), and I filled a bag with crushed ice and tied it on to his knee. And he grabbed some NSAIDs.
The compression made an IMMEDIATE difference in how the knee felt when moved. And the knee didn't hurt when NOT being moved or when NOT bent. He also didn't feel anything inside 'rubbing oddly' or 'rolling around' when moving.
Today the knee is not as painful when bent. He's still avoiding bending it, it's been re-wrapped for compression after his shower, etc. There is no 'unsteadiness' in walking on it when unwrapped. So he PROBABLY didn't tear anything.
It seems to me that being able to immediately compression wrap the knee made a huge difference. It didn't swell, complicating anything. It made the CH feel better - always a good thing. I didn't have the stress of knowing what to do but NOT having the supplies on hand, nor a car to get the supplies. Biking or walking to the store could have been done, but being cash-strapped just now buying the supplies would have been another stress.
Also, I just got off of chat with NARIC, the National Rehabilitation Information Center. They are a not-very-well-known font of information and referrals. I only know about them because some of folks there are friends of mine. If you need info on ANY sort of rehab issues, they are the folks to ask.
Clearly this 'event' is not yet over. But at least it seems to be moving in the right direction.
Frondly, Fern
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