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Message started by Oldfeller on 07/03/08 at 17:27:28

Title: Saddle Bag Emergency First Aid Kit
Post by Oldfeller on 07/03/08 at 17:27:28

You carry occasional use tools in your saddlebag, you should also carry a multi-use first aid kit. And I don't mean a snakebite kit, I mean a Dragon bite kit (a road rash kit).

This is not heavy or massive and it can fit inside a doubled up set of zip lock baggies very easily. Don't be 30 miles from no-where and be needing this kit unless it is already sitting there in your saddle bags.

Contents:

2) sterile pads (large, flat, folded)

1) 10 plus yard large roll of super wide width sterile gauze (you can lose the hard box and double baggie it)

1) tube of vasoline grease type triple antibiotic ointment (Walmart still sells it under the Equate Brand)

Instructions:

Immediately bare the road rash area by pulling up/down pants or pull shirt off as case may be. While the blood is still flowing use one sterile pad to brush the dirt and gravel out of the grooves. Wipe it all as clean as you can using flowing blood as your wash solution. #1 most important job is to get all the trash out of your wounds with that first pad or you will get an infection from trash left in the wounds. You are still in shock, so wipe away -- the pain won't start for a few minutes so get it done quick.

Next, as the bleeding starts to stop slather the whole area liberally with triple antibiotic cream, working it into the grooves as much as you can stand. We would use the word Neosporin here except they gave up on the grease based stuff in favor of a cream type that dries and hardens and isn't as near good as the grease type for road rash applications. Walmart Equate Triple Antibiotic is what you need to carry in your saddle bag.
(please keep it current to its use date please -- the Equate grease type also keeps longer too)

Stick the second flat sterile pad to the heavily globbed-on Triple Antibiotic grease stuff and then wrap the whole affair up firmly with the wide long roll of gauze. Put your clothes back on, get your bike running again and beat it to the nearest medical facility. The emergency room people will say good things about what you did as it makes their job much easier as the grease neosporin keeps everything soft and easy for them to clean up when they start working on you.

If you screwed up and bought the cream stuff that dries up stiff and hard, pulling the contact bandage off will teach you the real reason the vasoline grease type neosporin is better, much much better. You'll remember next time, believe me.

Dermotologists hate road rash -- it inevitably is an infected mess that makes them think about skin grafts and other expensive modern therapies by the time they get to see it. Yours won't require this as your infection will be minimal.

By having applied your road rash kit before the bleeding actually stopped you will have slowed your infection cycle to a crawl and your doctor may be able to treat you with simple oral antibiotics and more normal methods.

He won't like what you did if you tell him (but if pressed he couldn't tell you anything that would have done any better apart from having an emergency room right down the block).

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Muffler burns

Treat them the same as the road rash except you have no initial bleeding and no dirt and gravel to clean up prior to applying the grease based triple antibiotic cream. Don't rub the surface of the burn, just slather on the cream and apply the pad gently and wrap it gently.

I'd wrap it much looser with the gauze wrap as a big blister is going to form and you don't want to pop this too early by any form of exterior pressure.

=======================

May you never need your first aid kit -- but if you do need it you will be glad you had it in your saddle bags.

:-?

Oldfeller

Title: Re: Saddle Bag Emergency First Aid Kit
Post by Savage_Rob on 08/22/08 at 13:20:54

There's a book by Flash Gordon, M.D. (no kidding) called Blood, Sweat and 2nd Gear that has some very practical advice. Seems like his roadrash recommendations highly recommended carrying a bottle of sterile saline solution for rinsing crud out of the rash as quickly as possible to lessen infection. Even the stuff for contact lenses is good. I just recently bought it and haven't finished it yet but it's a good book with good advice.

http://www.whitehorsepress.com/images/products/large/bs2g.jpg (http://www.whitehorsepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=5708)

Title: Re: Saddle Bag Emergency First Aid Kit
Post by Ed L. on 09/16/08 at 18:57:13

A small pair of scissors can be helpful for cutting the gauze down to fit the road rash area. You can trim the center of bandaid down with them to make a quick butterfly or cut tape. An ace bandage for twisted limbs and ankles can be helpful, it can also be used over the sterile gauze on larger areas.
Other things to carry should include an extra foot peg or two and some 5 minute epoxy for cracks in the case, just don't ask how I know about the last two items. ;)