The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Nargleblast

I would advise people not to worry or obsess about getting a pulseoximeter unless you have a long standing health condition which means you need to constantly monitor oxygen saturations. Likewise thermometers, if you are undergoing chemotherapy for example you need to have a thermometer to hand for those occasions when you feel under the weather, to make sure you're not developing neutropenic sepsis. For most people, if you have these gadgets, fine, but they are not essential. What is far more important is to learn how to look, listen and feel for signs and symptoms of developing serious illness and deterioration in condition.

Medical equipment and machines have their place, but the most important machine is the one in the bed.

MingVase

markin said:

Any room with an open flame should have a vent installed, so you have to crack open a window if you don't have vents.

And a co2 alarm would be an idea.

Yes we have both a vent and an alarm, the HA fitted them in livingroom and kitchen.

MingVase

A post in another forum this morning saying get in some Clove Oil. They were put into self-quarantine and got toothache..

unrecordings

Nargleblast said:

I would advise people not to worry or obsess about getting a pulseoximeter unless you have a long standing health condition which means you need to constantly monitor oxygen saturations. Likewise thermometers, if you are undergoing chemotherapy for example you need to have a thermometer to hand for those occasions when you feel under the weather, to make sure you're not developing neutropenic sepsis. For most people, if you have these gadgets, fine, but they are not essential. What is far more important is to learn how to look, listen and feel for signs and symptoms of developing serious illness and deterioration in condition.

Medical equipment and machines have their place, but the most important machine is the one in the bed.

Well said. I was recommended to get a thermometer while on chemo. I barely used it. Bed rest on the other hand, even if for just an afternoon nap, can have a really positive effect - even if, like me you 'don't do afternoon naps'

herlig

When a serious virus/bacteria infects the body the most progress is made after a period of sleep.

Rest, absolutely. Sleep, definately. Sleep is our best tool. 

Nargleblast

It's simple logic, rest and don't expend energy unnecessarily so your body can use all its reserves to fight the invader. 

[Deleted User]

We have a forehead thermometer in our first aid kit, always have had one of the glass ones as a matter of course since the girls were born, do people NOT keep in basic items like that these days? we also always run with Dettol, cotton wool, bandages, plasters, antiseptic cream and things like tweezers for removing splinters and I find it odd that people have needed to dash out and buy such things as thermometers in a hurry, surely (well it was years ago) it's the norm to have a basic first aid kit in every home?

[Deleted User]

I read a blog called Generations Before Us by Grandma Donna, a lady of absolutely superb common sense and feet on the ground advice who lives over in the USA.  The post today is KEEP CALM AND RUN.  It is a very long read but so choc full of how to's and advice of the most practical nature for coping with and living through this coronavirus period that if you are wanting some ideas and advice it is well worth a read, several times through to perhaps assimilate all the sense and practicalities it contains.

CRANKY40

I'm asthmatic and I have a pulse oximeter - only because my best friend works in a hospital and wanted to know if the cheap ones worked as well as the ones that the hospital is currently being charged a lot of money for.

My best piece of equipment is my peak flow meter. It's just a tube that you blow into which records your outgoing breath (you blow into it three times as hard as you can while standing up and take the best reading of the three). Any asthmatics will probably have used one in the doctors if they don't have their own. Being nervous of making a fuss over nothing, I talked to the nurse at my asthma review and I know my normal good reading, the number on the tube that means see a doctor and the number that means call an ambulance. It's a great tool because if I'm struggling I call the doctor and instead of saying I think I have a chest infection or asthma attack I give them numbers eg normal peak flow 420, now down to 320 for 2 days and they give me an appointment. It cuts out all the "maybes" and "what ifs".

I've been reading along as a long time prepper by the way. When my son was small I prepped as my husband worked away for months at a time. If my son or I were ill it was useful to know that I had supplies in. When my husband died I carried on for the same reason. My son is 15 now and can be left alone if he has a cold etc but my prepping continues. Usually stock gathers pace around September/October ready for winter and is run down in spring. This year I'm keeping stocks at winter levels which feels strange but is doable. 

Lady on the till in Asd* yesterday said people have been buying more Pot N00dles (yuk but each to their own) and microwave packet rices. Our local H0me B@rgains was stripped bare of all kinds of anti-bac wipes - I have plenty of those because we have a cat whose food consumption sometimes outstrips it's bodies ability to deal with it's intake. Nothing else to report 

pineapple

I've just come out of hospital after being re-admitted due to a massive blood loss following a gallstone procedure. I couldn't breathe and needed an emergency blood transfusion in Resus. But I do have a lung condition anyway and have an oximeter as standard.   Discharged with a cold - patients coughing all around me. Hospital can be a bad place to be when you are poorly! But it was doubly worrying to hear that one hospital has been put in lockdown. Plus a staff member at the hospital I was in has tested positive after returning from Italy. Fortunately they hadn't got round to returning to work. Re temperatures, I normally run on cool and with me, anything over 37 constitutes a temperature. Think I'm going to get myself an ear thermometer.