Mastodawn

Phil (ascentale)Mar 20

@bobjonkman @bikenite A6. I admit to not really carrying any first aid supplies! I had some adhesive bandages before, but they all got messed up due to infrequent use and the bag getting wet a couple of times.

Mx. Eddie R Mar 20

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite
A6.
Bike first aid kit, that's a fine idea! All kinds of learning and talking about safety equipment this week.
I'll probably start with an OTS first aid kit, probably a small automotive one; bandages and antiseptic and stuff for falls and scrapes, AfterBite, sling and splints for arm & hand injuries from a fall. Gloves and whatever in case it's a stranger who's bleeding. Mylar blanket in case you get caught in a storm.
#BikeNite

FeloniousPunk Mar 20

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite A6. Needle and thread. Sometimes something bad happens. And thankfully - rarely - something REALLY bad happens. 😬

Kim Mar 20

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite In my experience, cycling-specific first aid usually involves allergies (insect stings/bites), road rash or objects in the eye. As such, one of the most useful things to carry, apart from antihistamines and the usual wound dressing stuff is plain water. I always take a bit more than I expect to drink, and on the rare occasion I have something sugary in one bottle, I have plain water in another.

Related tip, though not really first aid: Large, good quality sanitary towels are great for cutting up and using as dressings for oozing road rash.

Gudroot Mar 20

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite space blanket. Mobile phone.

Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲Mar 21

@gudroot @ascentale @[email protected] @bikenite

A6.
Mobile phone is an emergency aid, thanks for pointing that out

nick Mar 21

@cainmark @gudroot @ascentale @bikenite Satellite beacon / transceiver, if you're going somewhere out of mobile range. A lot of first aid stuff comes down to "stop it getting worse, conserve energy and wait for help to arrive."

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Mar 20

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite #BikeNite A6. Too lazy for pix right now, but I did just write about this a bit earlier today. I carry an EDC first aid kit in a zipper pouch in my handbag to deal with minor scrapes and cuts on the go, mainly adhesive bandages/plasters/tape, plus pain, allergy, and antacid meds, KN95 mask and nitrile exam gloves, antiseptic/disinfectant. My on-bike toolkit contains additional nitrile gloves to keep grease/dirt off my hands in the event of a roadside repair.

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite Inside the zipper pouch, everything is organized in small 4 mil ziploc baggies, to ensure everything stays clean and dry until needed. I use a Brother P-touch label machine to label the pill baggies, just in case anyone else sees them—acetaminophen (paracetamol) 500 mg, ibuprofen 200 mg, diphenhydramine HCl 25 mg, cimetidine 200 mg, etc.

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite I don't carry anything more than this, because anything that my first aid kit won't handle is likely to need so much more in the way of medical supplies that there's no feasible way to carry it all.

That's why my first aid kit essentials always include: telephone, identification, credit card (I don't have health insurance, or I'd carry that card, too).

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite I should probably also mention that the last time I had a crash or injury on a bicycle that was more than getting scraped by my pedals was so long ago that I cannot remember when it was. The last crash of any kind I can remember was my rollerskating crash in 2013 that left my knee permanently wrecked. Externally, all I had was a few bloody surface abrasions. I had a cigarette and kept skating. The extent of my injuries was not fully apparent for a couple of days.

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite I quit smoking later that year, and have been tobacco-free for over 12 years, now.

https://www.lysol.com/products/disinfectant-spray/lysol-disinfectant-spray-to-go/

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite You are not really supposed to use Lysol-to-Go on open wounds, but it will work, in a pinch, for road rash.

I always have a small can of this in my handbag toiletries kit along with a 30 mL spray of 70% isopropyl for dealing with public toilets, especially when travelling by train or air (must go in the 1 qt liquids baggie). And yes, I have sprayed it on open wounds, when I had no other immediate antiseptic. Yes, it fscking hurts.

Disinfectant Spray To Go - Crisp Linen® | Lysol US

Kills 99.9% of viruses and bacteria, including cold and flu††Kills the COVID-19 virus and emerging variants**Sanitizes soft surfaces*Helps to control and prevent mold and mildew*

Lysol US

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite Oh, and I should mention that you should always carry a water bottle when cycling, because if nothing else, you can use it to flush a wound or clean your hands. It's better than nothing.

rowmyboat Mar 20

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite A6: after I had a bee fly down my shirt & sting my tum, I started keeping Benadryl in mine. #BikeNite

Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲Mar 21

@ascentale @[email protected] @bikenite

A6. Mine is simple. Band aids. Antibacterial cream. I should have more but that's all I think about because it's all Ive ever had to deal with myself.

nick Mar 21

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite #bikenite A6: Good question, I have various crap stuffed into a small waterproof box but need to review it. Also snakebite advice has changed so I need to update for that.

ajft [SEC=continvoucly morged]Mar 21

@nickzoic @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite what he said!

Cassey Lottman Mar 21

@bikenite
A6 - re bike first aid kit

on a ride last fall my mom got a bug in her eye - I’ve been meaning to find some small sanitary eye rinse to keep in our bike first aid kid.
#BikeNite #BikeTooter

LovesTha🥧Mar 21

@cassey @bikenite A6 #BikeNite
While something cleaner is great, if the advice from Glaucomflecken is good, clean water is fine.

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite A6: kerlix, disinfectant soap, scrub brush, water, ace wrap, large adhesive bandages

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite bonus for epinephrine or diphenhydramine

@autolycos @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite Diphenhydramine seems wise (ie swallowing a bee, etc.)

@ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite i used to commute through bee country on an 11 mile commute

A no fun commute is catching a solid bee sting at the halfway point

Neil Mar 21

@autolycos @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite
Speaking of bugs, a tick removal tool has already proven useful to me.

@Neil @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite I tend to use a curved mosquito hemostat for that purpose, good addition!

@autolycos @Neil @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite Duly added diphenhydramine to the kit, i should have thought of that before, lol.

Asphalt and Earth Mar 22

@autolycos @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite I once got a wasp in my mouth that stung my tongue before I bit it. Very painful. Stopped and bought a ice-lolly to try and relieve the pain.

Darth Osler Mar 22

@AsphaltandEarth @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite nightmare fuel!

@AsphaltandEarth @ai6yr @ascentale @bikenite

Bob Jonkman Mar 22

@autolycos

> nightmare fuel!

Anything that ends with an ice-lolly can't be all bad!

#BikeNite A6 #AlwaysLookOnTheBrightSideOfLife

Asphalt and Earth Mar 23

@bobjonkman @autolycos @ai6yr @ascentale @bikenite it certainly ended the ride. I headed straight home after the lollies!

AI6YR Ben Mar 22

@AsphaltandEarth @autolycos @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite Ouch!!

Raccoons Mar 21

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite #bikenite #bikeTooter A6 One day last year I was riding with a friend and was crippled by ridiculously painful gas pains. I had to call Lea who came to my rescue with GasX. I carry GasX with me now on every ride 😫

Demian Mar 21

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite A6. First aid kit, what's that!? ;-)
Seriously though, I need to get one for longer road rides. I've got a small pre-packaged one for when I go MTB'ing. I'll be really curious what others include.
Phil Gaimon posted a good video on how to treat road rash at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9k14gtSK-s
#bikenite

How To Treat Road Rash for Cycling Crashes - Ask a (Retired) Pro Cyclist

YouTube

kimu Mar 21

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite A6. I carry a variety of first aid supplies, mainly focused on stuff for road rash (wipes, gauze, that kind of thing). But also mentioning: I carry Narcan as part of my kit. Added that to my kit after seeing a few things while biking around town - I’d rather have it in case I ever come across someone who needs it. #BikeNite

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

Brownian_motion Mar 21

@kimu That’s a great add. I will have to get this on board.

edd Mar 21

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite A6. Maybe some wound cleanout spray would be good, though mine is just bandaids, gauze, some ointment, and pain killers. I don't think you generally need much more than a normal one unless you're going way out there by yourself.

I think a group ride organizer is probably fine with the basics, unless again out on mountainy trails, but I'm not the best to ask about that.

Brownian_motion Mar 21

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite As far as emergency first aid, I always have in my trunkbag: Sterile pressure bandage/tourniquet, large sanitary pad in plastic wrap, 6 pack of baby wipes, mylar emergency blanket, 2x12 inch+ sections of old inner tube, sanitizer and bandaids. Only bandaids have ever got used. I carry the rest becuase when I needed it, I didn’t have it, so now I do. #bikenite

@ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

#BikeNite A6.

Various gauze
Various bandaids
Self adhesive bandages
Triangle bandage (good for broken clavicles)
Nitrile gloves
Kerlix
Gultose (for treating a diabetic emergency)
Elecrolytes for mixing into water
not shown: benadryl (just added thanks to BikeNite)
Hand sanitizer

#FirstAidKit

@ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

wth dude, where's the tourniquet??

@MsMerope @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite Hmm... Yeah, don't have one. Maybe useful bicycling. I do have a few tubes on one of the bikes I could use to improvise one?

@ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

depends on how stretchy the tubes are.
you may be twisting until your face turns blue before you stop the blood flow.

@MsMerope @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite if you have a handkerchief/cloth strip & you have a long thin object like a pen you can improvise a tourniquet by tying one lace somewhat loose upstream of the bleeding & then using the pen to spin in a small loop in the cloth until it is tight enough to limit bloodflow, which is REALLY tight. It will of course come loose if you let it go so it needs to be either held in place by hand or fastened with the second cloth.

Edited for bad info.

@MsMerope @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite A tourniquet should only be used if losing the limb entirely is acceptable, such as an egregious wound that has caused life-threatening bleeding, & it can be very hard to get the tightness needed to cut off this severity of bleeding without this setup. Seriously, it needs to be FUCKING TIGHT & is incredibly painful, but can save lives.

Of course if you just need a tourniquet for injections this isn't an issue, but i assumed street medic stuff.

@itsmeholland @MsMerope @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite LOL I'm a Wilderness First Aid trainer and MsMerope is an EMT/First Aid Trainer (and even more, Stop The Bleed trainer as well... 🤪 ). Ask her to show you her blood spurting simulation toys sometime (probably not right after dinner 🤪 )

@ai6yr @MsMerope @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite haha sorry, didn't know that particular detail of your background. 😅 Wasn't trying to 'splain to you. Oh well not bad info to go over in a thread i hope? 🤔😬

@itsmeholland @MsMerope @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite No harm at all!

@MsMerope @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite so just carrying some extra handkerchiefs would be good & maybe some strong thin objects that won't bend or break under pressure, maybe titanium straws might work since titanium is hella strong & super lightweight. They're a bit expensive tho so steel would probably also be fine. Idk i'm just spitballin here, use whatever long thin thing won't break with modest pressure, even a good stick from the ground in a pinch.

Edited for bad info.

https://kingcage.com/products/titanium-straws?srsltid=AfmBOoq_dw4k4A9SXk5DecYZghbSwdDaRnM_RpAk0rUIQPolmoUn5-CC

@MsMerope @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite King Cage is incidentally a bike rack maker who also makes titamium straws out of the 1/4 inch titanium tubing that's leftover from making the racks! These ones are quite cheap actually.

Titanium Straws

@itsmeholland @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

improvised tourniquets should be ~1.5 - 2 inches wide. with a thinner material you run the risk of digging into the skin or as we call it "cheese slicering" the limb. Likewise the windlass should be at least an inch in width of sturdy material that will not break under the strain.

The American College of Surgeons - the STOP THE BLEED® people - do not recommend the use of improvised tourniquets unless one has been trained in their use.

Yes, I am a StB instructor.

@itsmeholland @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

there are STOP THE BLEED® courses that you can take online

https://www.stopthebleed.org

ACS Stop the Bleed

ACS Stop the Bleed offers the premier bleeding control course and kits. We are the largest global provider of bleeding control training and empower anyone to save a life by learning 3 basic actions to control severe bleeding in an injured person.

ACS Stop the Bleed

@MsMerope @itsmeholland @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite LOL I once watched a TV news story where somebody had pot shotted some people with bird shot in the butt at a mall, and people were attempting to put their legs in tourniquets (no bleeding apparent, mind you). I was yelling at the TV the whole time.

(almost as bad as me yelling at people dragging people out of cars that have gotten in an accident, and the cars are not on fire."YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE THEM A QUADRAPLEGIC PEOPLE! DON'T MOVE THEM! !! C SPINE!!! CSPINE!!!")

@ai6yr
when we teach Basic - and our first aid classes we call out our "yelling at the tv moments"

you don't shock asystole...
don't put severed body parts directly on ice

or omg that one Chicago Fire the other week where the firefighters were slowly passing out and I'm yelling at the tv "PUSH THE ORANGE BUTTON!!!"

(fire service 800MHz radios have an orange "firefighter down" button on the top. radios are assigned to a rig, or a person and dispatch knows immediately that someone is down and needing assistance. There were FOUR of them in that truck and nobody thought to push the orange button?!?!? wth is your training??)

/rant off

@MsMerope @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite OK my bad, I'll amend my post to avoid bad info. Forgot the cheesecutter possibility with shoelaces! Sorry y'all! I had CPR training a while back so I'm not a medic or anything like that but yeah improvised tourniquets are never good unless you have literally no other option.

@itsmeholland @ai6yr @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

the last time we had a training with a trauma surgeon [pre covid so it was awhile back] he was telling us that vascular surgery has come so far now that a tourniquet can be left in place for 6-8 hours without losing function in the distal portion of the limb.

@MsMerope @itsmeholland @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite Yeah, the training and the book we teach has changed as a result of that. Though it is amusing they have a lot of diagrams about how to write the time on someone's head with a piece of tape. 🤔

@ai6yr @itsmeholland @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite

not that the person would be diaphoretic or anything.

CATs come with a little velcro dohicky to secure the windlass that has a place for the time to be written. We teach put a T on the person's forehead. In simple terms: most tourniquets are black, people wear a lot of black clothes and a tourniquet might be missed.

[In our lay classes we don't teach "expose"]

@ai6yr @MsMerope @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite oh yeah I figure a medical team could readily do that. This is just what they told us in the CPR & first aid class I took a while back regarding improvised tourniquets which of course... are not a go-to option unless someone is clearly dying right there. It's a shame to think of someone losing a limb from a crappy emergency tourniquet when they could keep the limb with proper medicine but it did convey the gravity of the situation.

David Dunham Mar 21

@itsmeholland @ai6yr @MsMerope @ascentale @bobjonkman @bikenite I took a “Stop the Bleed” course about a month ago. We learned how to use a commercial tourniquet, but were discouraged from improvising.