Preparedness for when

2tonsils

lally666young wrote: »

Ohh I feel for you. It must awful. I wouldnt stockpile as drugs are dated and you cannot use them past their date. You want to see the amount of drugs The NHS dispose of every year, its shocking. Were I work you can see the out of drugs getting ready for disposal cages and cages full of them. It makes my blood boil. Good luck for the fifth of Novemeber.

The thyroxine (for me) and blood pressure drugs for OH both have 2014 on the use by date on the packets. Many of the drugs are manufactured in Greece so they usually have long dates on them. They are kept in ideal storage conditions in the pharmacies then also when we bring them home.

People are so short of some drugs that an organisation has been set up to collect drugs no longer being used.... so people with no money can get them if they were prescribed them previously for a long term health problem. They have branches in most major cities in Greece now.

Thanks for your good wishes xx

Popperwell

2tonsils wrote: »

my doctor told me months ago to build up some reserves of meds as he was sure there were going to be shortages...he gave me extra on the prescriptions but also told me I could buy them over the counter as long as I bought the same dosage until told otherwise.

Talking of drugs...there is a bit of a scare going on and some of the flu vaccines have been banned for use here and in Italy until they do further testing on them because of unexpected side effects. I am adding the link for you to have a read:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_25/10/2012_467448

Good news on my thyroid blood tests...they are near perfect and getting very close to where my endocrinologist wants them to be for optimum health and well being for me. I go for the scan on my thyroid on 5th November. Well pleased....

Such sad news Annie about your DIL's Uncle...the Human side of when things go wrong...:(

Wonderful new 2Tonsils

Have yet to read the link on Flu jabs yesterday I found a trusted website and they said try and avoid having a flu jab because it is linked to dementia, true? Perhaps I don't know but there seemed genuine concern...

My drugs have good long dates on them and I have somehow built up some spare items so whilst I can I will...it wasn't planned.

wondercollie

Well to some North Americans the fan is spraying feces as I type. The NHL season looks like it's being cancelled due to the lockout!!!! A hockey free year (my idea of heaven)

It's snowing lightly today and the high was -4.

Speaking of the '80s. We used to live on a NATO camp. Nuclear war was a real threat. They used to have warning posters about Russian tank commanders posing as long distance truckers up in the Canex, Naafi, etc. It was a grim and scary time to live in northern Germany.

Anybody remember the post nuclear war scenario movies that came out in the mid-80s? The UK one was pretty graphic. How the UK was affected by the nuclear winter. I remember so well the scene where a girl/woman was left holding a birdfood box and watching reruns of Romper Room and the test pattern. The American one was so/so. Loads of americans trying to flee the cities and crowded highways.

Cheerful stuff.

elona

I just had the flu jab a couple of days ago :eek: My arm is a bi sore if I sleep on that side but fingers crossed that is the only effect I have noticed.

We managed to replace our old gas fire in living room and it warms the whole room rather than just whoever is sitting near it. DH bought a calor gas heater as well in case of severe winter or power cuts and I have just ordered two solar table lamps from I**a.Decided that having stuff is only useful if you can find it and use it so tackling the area under the sink and generally clearing out junk and sorting out what is what.

Might need another AF shop to stock up cupboards a bit more for winter in case it is icy outside or I just don't feel up to going shopping.

PipneyJane

vanoonoo wrote: »

nope no zombies here - we've slayed them all! :beer:

Oh, in that case, can I cook them? I'm a dab hand in the kitchen. :rotfl: (Only kidding.)

While some scenarios discussed here may be a little extreme, I think the sharing of knowledge is a good thing. Let's face it, the most extreme things we're likely to face in Britain are power shortages, snowy winters and "drought", coupled with the odd flood. I grew up with the threat of cyclones, floods and bushfires every summer, coupled with droughts and water shortages that lasted years. From childhood, you watch the news, listen to the radio and plan how you'll cope. Where's the safest place to be in the house when the cyclone makes landfall? Or do you pack up the car and evacuate? If so, what do you take? Ditto bushfires - you make sure there aren't any trees growing too close to the house and that the gutters are clear of leaves. You stash rags to block the downpipes and fill the gutters with water when the siren sounds. And you don't feel complacent just because you're living "in town" - when the Dandenong Ranges burned in 1983, we had burning leaves land in our garden 25 miles away.

I put "drought" in inverted commas earlier because even in a dry year, Britain gets plenty of rainfall. It's just not managed very well.

Thinking of water, made me remember a tip: how to get water out of leaves. In a sunny spot, dig a hole in the ground deeper than your collection container. Line the hole with as many green, juicy leaves that you can find, preferably on the branch. In the centre, place your mug/ice-cream container/bowl. Cover the whole thing with a black plastic bin bag (clear will work in a pinch) and weight down the edges so it doesn't blow away. Position a small stone on the bag, directly over your container. After a few hours, the leaves will have transpired water, condensation formed on the plastic and drained into your collection container.

The water may taste a bit funny (particularly if you've used leaves from Australian native trees) but it will be perfectly drinkable.

GreyQueen

lally666young wrote: »

My husband has a false leg, cardio problems and asthma, I have bi-polar, asthma and I need new knees. But you dont think about it or you would just panic. If you feel like that I would recommend that you look for a natural homopethy book or James's Wong's which is very good. What did people do before all these wonderful meds???? Are they are help or are they a hinderance?

Well, in cases of people with my group of illnesses, until the mid-twentieth century, the answer to how you coped was that you didn't cope. You went into a decline, slow or fast depending on how far you were along on the disease process and other mitigating factors, and then........you just died.:(

I'm not exactly over-the-moon at having a life-time dependancy on a prescribed drug but it's better than being dead. My drug is very cheap for the NHS (pence, a hospital pharmacist told me) and I get prescribed an amount which would cover me for about a month at a time. My GP practice is bit slack about signing-off repeat prescriptions (it easily takes a week) so, as you may appreciate, I never run myself down to the last few tablets.

My tablets have a BB date 21 months away. What I do is that I've finessed my prescription filling-frequency so that I have plenty by me. When I get a new prescription the new meds go into the bugout bag (BOB) and the ones already in there go into the drawer, pocket and workbag where I use them from. And repeat. The ones in my BOB are good until July 2014 and will be used Nov-Dec 2012.

I figure this constant rotation, which is very simple to remember, will always ensure that my meds are well in-date and that none are ever wasted.

If I have to run with the BOB, I know that I have enough meds to keep me alive for a month. If I have a few more seconds to go from the bedroom to the living-room, I can grab the meds in the drawer (they are deliberately kept in a ziploc bag to make any such grabbing very fast). I have always carried my prescription in my wallet as well as a warning card and wear med alert jewellery.

I figure I have taken reasonable but not excessive precautions to keep the life-saving meds with me at all times. If there is a total and permanant breakdown of society, to the degree that the manufacture and distribution of medicines ceases to happen, I shall be an early and unfortunate casualty.

Yep, pretty p*ssed off about that, but that's my reality and I have to deal with it. If it all goes irredemably pear-shaped, I plan to loot every pharmacy in town for my meds before I lay down quietly and drift off into a coma and die.

Very sorry to hear about people's individual experiences of the riots, and that poor bereaved man who was burned out.....my heart goes out to him.

Brings it home that there are real and different dangers to those of us who live in highly-populated areas. We had at that same time what looked like the start of some serious trouble (a very large group of non-resident rowdy, hyper youths congregating by the Towers one evening, in a place where they were close to the shopping precinct but hidden from casual view). Something not seen before or since. I called the Police and they moved them on. We didn't have any riots here but they were being very alert anyway.

Previously, at Shoebox Towers, we've had the Fire Brigade running around and banging on your door in the middle of the night yelling GET OUT!! GET OUT NOW!!!! Gas explosion and fire. SuperGran was involved. Very sadly, the behaviour of a particular person with very severe mental health issues is making us very jumpy and we're thinking it's only a matter of time before some serious S hits as a result.

Hey, you think of/ or even call me a daft beggar if you like, but it makes me feel a leetle bit better. I have no control over what my ill neighbour does (nor, it seems, do the mental health agencies) so I can only try to Be Prepared for a worst-case scenario. And keep my fingers crossed, of course.:D

lally666young

GQ I totally agree with you, but I work in the NHS and the amount of people who abuse meds and it saddens me. I went to the Physic garden in London and the amount of natural alternatives available is amaizing. Yoiu just have to believe in Alternatives sometimes.
I am lucky I do live in the country but I live inbetween two places one a city and one a smalish town, both have their tinder box moments, the smalish town more so than the city. So I do have an emergency box by the door, vital documents ready to go and a specialist medi sack ready, I got it given off a drugs rep and it is a shame you cannot buy these. But I still say common instict and training helps a great deal.
It angers me as the police cannot really cope in these situations, so bring in a heavier presence such as the armed forces people would soon behave. they do it overseas, so why not here?

D&DD

Morning preppers

Linda glad you got it sorted I felt very relieved to have done mine

2T good luck with your tests

Remember the submarine thing I was on about earlier its coming here will add tv details in a mo..It does have copious gratuitous shots of muscley navy seals so be warned...:whistle:

DS1 is off to meet the stars this weekend I've told him my list lol He's getting Grandad to sign my Cockneys Vs Zombies dvd and hopefully meeting Dale and Jim from The walking dead so they can sign that..

I've got Protect and Survive and Threads in my collection,War Games is another all totally depressing but carry a lot of good info in them

I found No Blade of Grass online recently too I'd been after that for a while since I read the book,the film's a bit dated obviously but a decent one none the less..
One of my favourites is Panic in the year Zero..another really old one but very good.

Has anyone had snow? It's noticeably colder here this morning so have fleeced the potatoes which remain outside,they've been in 11 weeks already so will be having a rummage in a few weeks,the Anya's are still storing well so far. With the prices rising so much I'm planning on substituting an extra meal each week with pasta/grains/rice instead of potatoes so it'll eke my supplies out and use up some of the couscous mountain..

mardatha

Lally, they can't send the armed forces out on the streets to cope with the riots because they made them all redundant and there's none spare

D&DD

Last Resort starts on Sky1 on tuesday at 8pm

Mar glad to see you're not under a foot of snow just yet!

Sunshine hope you're feeling a bit better today

Maryb hope the recovery is continuing well

Nuatha and WLL hope your partner and mum are doing ok too X

Lally I have a few herbal books and I do like to read about how diets affect certain illnesses etc We have had great results here from tweaking food over the years so its something I am very interested in.I've planted a few more herbs and things this year to start a 'medicinal plot'