Let's be careful out there

I had a friend named JC I worked with at Virginia Chemicals who was a true mad scientist. He built a lab at his house that was out of a sci-fi movie. After he retired, he went into formulating chemicals ( yes, in his house) for government research projects. They advertize in some profesional journals to purchase odd molecules and compounds in smal quantities. The big companies don't want these jobs, so small labs and guys like JC make them up amd sell them at pretty good prices. They wanted a theoretical lithium compound that was for research in super high output lithium batteries. It only existed in a theoretical state , just like H2O3. It took him a while, but he found a wy to make it stable ... and sold the Govt. 32 grams for $8000 a gram.

In my early days as a goldsmith, he formulated purple gold for me with Thorium ... yeah, we would both be in deep trouble today. Gold was prety reasonable then, and I didn't ask where he got thorium.
 
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Like some others have said, I’m not that great when it comes to cleaning or dressing wounds properly. The usual fix is a piece of blue shop towel and some electrical or duct tape. Often I finish what I’m doing, maybe an hour, maybe 6 hours later, then when I get home I use the polysporin and a bandage. Been lucky enough to never really have anything get too infected or bad off.

The worst few have been from fish bites or pokes. Walleye fins will stick you like a needle, and although I have never had them swell or develop puss, they itch like crazy for a couple days. I also regularly get cut handling big northern pike. I hate boga grips, and have always just slid a hand inside the gill opening on the bottom of the jaw to hold them in the water to unhook. For those that don’t know, a big pike has razor sharp teeth over 1/4 inch long (up to half inch or more) and the entire roof of the mouth is razors like shark teeth. Usually it works out fine but a while back I had one over 20 lbs flail on me and I ended up with my thumb in the side of its mouth. I didn’t even register I was cut until my buddy saw blood pouring down my forearm and dripping off my elbow while holding the fish for a picture. I cleaned it as good as I could in the middle of nowhere and it seemed alright the rest of the trip but a bit itchy and sore. When it started to swell after getting home a few days later I squeezed a bunch of grossness out and noticed something hard. I hadn’t realized that when I drunkenly “cleaned” it and bandaged it, there was about a 1/16 long piece of tooth still in there. It healed pretty quick after removing it and cleaning, but it could have been much much worse. I will say, while pike teeth can leave terrible cuts full of bacteria that take a long time to heal, as a knifemaker, I am in awe of just how sharp their teeth can be, and how incredibly clean and deep the slice they make is.
 
Knife people and anglers need to stay up on tetanus shots. My hazards are catfish spines on the water and sometimes just dirty water.

A guy I know went to the Amazon and dropped a catfish on his leg. He didn't realize the spine broke off. Had a nagging wound for a month then the spine began to come out the other side. Lucky as hell it passed through without hitting something vital or got stuck.

Jim
 
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Okay...two stories. When I was a teen I managed to drive a nail I was holding through my pinkie finger when the hammer glanced off the nail I was trying to hit. Pulled it out added a bandage and kept working. Couple days later my pinkie swole up like a sausage. Doctor cut it open and I got lots of antibiotics. Learned my lesson.
25 years later I was pulling on an arrow that was stuck in a log. Managed to stab the back of it about 4 inches into my leg when it came loose. Brought back memories of the nail incident. Told the kids we wouldn't be shooting anymore and headed into the cabin to find some antiseptic. Found a 10 year old bottle of Dettol and got the bright idea to use the turkey baster to get the Dettol all the way in. Meanwhile the kids had gone to the beach to tell on me. My wife who is a nurse came up to the cabin to find me lining up the turkey baster of Dettol with my puncture. My wife used a lot derogatory language to let me know how lucky I was to have her around and how much work it was on her part to keep me from doing completely stupid things. She had recently had a patient who had injected his infected earlobe with antiseptic and had to have most of his ear removed because the antiseptic in his earlobe had killed the healthy tissue too. I know now that you irrigate a wound....you don't inject it. At least I hear my wife talking about irrigating wounds...I don't really know more than I am required to go the doctor's now.
 
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Two points:

1. Sealing a cut with superglue is done a lot and is quasi-safe. Dermabond is the medical equivalent. However, before you do this, the wound must be completely free of debris or you will guarantee yourself one hell of a bad infection.

2. Infections from cuts and punctures are not tetanus. Tetanus is "lock jaw" and is a severe infection associated with uncontrollable muscle spasms which can kill you and has a recovery period of months. It comes from a sealed puncture contaminated with soil bacteria (C. tetanus), which is yet another great reason to not seal your cuts with superglue and to keep up on your immunizations. C. tetanus is pretty much everywhere where there is dirt.
 
Let's plan a good shop trauma kit. I will list things that can be bought at any Walgreens/CVS/Rite-aid/etc.:

A large squeeze bottle of saline eye-wash. It can be used to wash out eyes or to irrigate a wound.
A small bottle of 4% Chlorhexidine gluconate antiseptic skin cleanser. Hibiclens is one brand, but the cheaper store brand skin cleanser is the same.
2X2" gauze pads (10 or more)
4X4" gauze pads (10 or more)
2 or 3 couple rolls of 2" gauze bandage.
Tube of Neosporin ( check expiration date)
1 box of cheap 1"X3" cloth type adhesive bandage. You can buy them at Costco or on Ebay in 100 packs for less than a small box of the name brand at the drugstore.
A roll of 3/4" or 1" adhesive tape.
Good tweezers with a fine tip.
Scissors.
A #11 blade scalpel is nice to have for trimming away skin flaps and opening up a splinter hole. Buy them on Ebay for $7 a dozen. They have other knifemaking uses.
(If you have a friend at a doctors office or other medical person, they may give you a suture pack/kit, which has scalpel, tweezers, scissors, etc. You can buy them for $8-10. They are sterile and ready to open when needed.)
Small roll of paper towels,or a dozen or so folded up and put in a ziplock bag.
Disposable single use tubes of super glue (dollar store five-pak)
A clear plastic box with a tight top to hold all the above.

Extras that are good to have:
A modern one-hand tourniquet. Thes cost less than $10.
A sling.
A roll of 3" kling gauze.
3" Ace bandage.
Box of finger cots
Rubber gloves ( 6 pair is enough). The nitrile or latex gloves for shop work are OK.
Illuminated manifier
Small flashlight
Optivisor hood - the cheap $15 ones will work here, as it won't be used daily.
Tube of 20% benzocaine. Either get some from a tattoo guy, or use a tube of oral analgesic. If you have to dig out a deep splinter, or open up a puss pocket, this is nice to have. It also will make throbbing fingers easier to work with after a small cut.

Put all the items in ziplock bags for clean and quick access. If you are bleeding, you will get blood all over everything. Better to replace some plastic bags than to replace everything in the trauma kit.


Anyone have some other things to add?
 
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I'd add a roll of 3m vet wrap. Veterinarians, and quite a few pet stores or farm stores sell it. It works very well both for holding gauze over a bad wound, and for holding Band-Aids on minor cuts in difficult places such as knuckles. I also used it to fashion an improvised splint when the buffer dislocated/tried to remove a finger several years back.

I also have a Canadian military issue (current from a friend in the military, not an expired one) dressing kit, the sort of thing intended to use if you get shot. I'm sure there would be over the counter versions available somewhere. I'm not sure its the most critical thing, but it wouldn't hurt to have around..
 
OK, I'm going to throw this out there for opinions. A defibrillator.
and here's why I'm thinking about one. I live in the city now, close to hospitals.
I'm building a shop on 30 acres pretty deep in the north Florida woods this fall or next spring.
the house went in last summer and I'm moving there in 3 years, at that point I'll be 60.
any first responder or ambulance is a minimum 30-45 min. out.
people I work with now think it's odd but I'm thinking it's the biggy in life saving equip. out in the boonies.
I've looked at the ones we have at work and they fire if your in arrest and don't if your not, pretty foolproof.
I'd let the neighbors know I got one and show them where it's hanging in my shop, and to call me if they need it.
they are pricey...but you can't take the money you save with you if you don't have one and the big one come's on.
I've been thinking about getting one of these when I move up there and starting a de-fib fund now.
 
I was thinking of the normal shop emergency supplies.

Anyone who has seen the trauma kit I take to places like Ashokan, where medical treatment may be a ways away, will kmow that I pack stethascopes, BP monitors, oxygen, and a suture kit .. including lidocaine for the whimps. Years back I used to pack IV saline. I really have been thinking of adding a defibulator when they come down in price. Most places have one today, so it isn't a necessity. The firts thing I do in most large buildings is find where the defib is and check it out. At Ashokan, it is just outside the dining hall by the bathrooms.
 
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