Prepper tutorial - Building a micro pharmacy
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By comparision, the part one of this tutorial is by far the easiest. Acquiring and storing water is relatively easy, even though it is the most important part of your backup kit.
Part two is about first aid. I want to use this tutorial to convince you to build your own first aid kit that you keep stocked at your home that is in addition to a store bought off-the-shelf kit.
Store bought kits are easy and come with a lot of items you may not think of when putting together your list for first aid. The problem with store kits are they do not include that are important to your personal health. They are generic kits for cuts and minor health issues. They will not cover the important health items you or your family needs that are outside of band-aids and aspirin. The other issue with these kits is they are hard to maintain. The case can only hold so many items and only in small quantities.
Remember, this isn’t a prepper setup, this is a backup kit. By having a first aid station in your house, you will be better prepared for when someone or yourself (or all of the above) get sick or need first aid.
Building your kit
Instead of thinking of it as a small, easy-to-carry box, I recommend you pick a shelf in the kitchen, bathroom, or bedroom that will be like a micro pharmacy. Doing it this way will ensure you fill it with the items important to you and will get regular use, rather than being a box will be forgetten or used up and never refilled.
I think a kit includes these sections:
- Fever
- Infection & germs
- Dehydration
- Personal items
Fever
This section is for controlling fevers. You want to have multiple options in case you need to stack fever reducers by rotating active ingredients. This also works for pain management, which is the first example of why a customized kit is important. We all respond differently to these drugs. Plus, if you need to treat children, fever reducers have different dosages depending on weight and age. For example, you can’t give a 4 year old adult aspirin in pill form. Your kit needs to cover everyone in your home or the people you will be caring for in an emergency.
My kit includes:
- Advil
- Tylenol
- Children’s Motrin
- Children’s Tylenol
- Oximeter
- Oral thermometer
- Touchless thermometer
Infection & germs
Cuts and scrapes happen and in an emergency situation, you need to treat open wounds seriously before it becomes a problem you can’t care for at home. You also may need to disinfect surfaces to slow down the spread of germs.
The reason to customize this kit over relying on a first aid kit is that most of this list isn’t in a kit. Store bought first aid kits don’t include disinfectant cleaners or skin care items. For example, in our house we have a few people you suffer from routine skin conditions. We need to have items for treating rashes, excema outbreaks, and staph infections.
My kit includes:
- Band-aids
- Disinfectant cleaner
- Lysol
- Paper towels
- Cotton balls
- QTips
- Bleach
- Rubbing alcohol
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Antifungal cream
- Neosporin
- Lotion
- Anti-bacterial soap
- Sealed, new sponges
- Surgical and N95 masks
- COVID-19 tests
Dehydration
This gets its own category because dehydration is extremely dangerous. Becoming dehydrated not only makes your symptoms worse, it also greatly affects other parts of your body such as your liver and kidneys, which could cause other health issues like bladder infections.
Included in this section are also items for controlling stomach issues because you can become dehydrated quickly when throwing up or dealing with diarrhea. Having those could be from being sick or having an allergic reaction, which is why allergy medication is listed here as well.
The reason to customize is because everyone has different allergies. Plus, there are different medications needed for children or pets. For example, my son is allergic to Pepto Bismol, so we need a different solution for him. In addition, we also have someone with a nut allergy, which we need to have an EpiPen.
My kit includes:
- Pedialyte packets
- Pepto Bismol
- Tums
- Omeprazole
- Benadryl
- Bladder infection test kits
- EpiPen
- 7Up
Personal items
This is the section that is completely customized to you. Do you need feminine products? Condoms? Do you have excessive joint pain? Do you get blood clots in your legs? Do you wear contacts? Do you need sleep aids? For example, I need to monitor my blood pressure and I have a battery powered cuff in my kit.
Side note: You will see on my list it doesn’t include common over-the-counter cold and flu treatments. The reason for that is they are useless. They are not medications that cure a cold or flu. OTC cold and flu medications only alleviate the symptoms of being sick. In general they are a waste of money. In fact, there is even a recent study that a common ingredient in these medications, phenylephrine, are no different than a placebo. This includes medications like NyQuil and Theraflu.
You need to think about what other ailments you need to manage regularly so that in an emergency you can stay out of the hospital (as best you can).
And that is the crux of having a first aid station or micro pharmacy at your house. Your goal is to have the items you need to keep you or someone in your house out of the hospital and treat what you can before it gets out of control.
The idea here is for you to think about what you need to have in your micro pharmacy, create a list, and start picking items up on various shopping trips. Your micro pharmacy will never be perfect and you won’t be able to get everything in one purchase. I recommend you make a list in addition to purchasing an afforable off-the-shelf first aid kit. There is no turnkey solution and making a good kit requires you to spend some time thinking about it.