Cough, Hack, Wheeze! A Guide to Surviving Pneumonia

Thanks for all the comments and emails sent my way during my recent hiatus from blogging. It makes a girl feel loved when she is missed. :)

The reason for my long absence is that I have been so sick that I have hardly been able to drag myself out of bed. I think I am finally on my way back to health and now I can sit down at my computer and blog about it.

My story

It all started the day after a big family wedding. I woke up exhausted and sore but attributed it to the fact that  I had spent the previous day running around in high heels while wrangling my children, all four of whom were members of the bridal party. As the day went on, my muscle aches increased and I began experiencing a vicious cycle of fever and chills.

The next day I had more of the same symptoms, but with the addition of a tight feeling in my chest. I got  noticeably winded after completing routine tasks.  Four days later my fever had finally broken, but I was still experiencing shortness of breath. Hubby Dear is an MD and had wanted me to get a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia by about day two of my illness. After four days of misery, I finally listened to him and got an X-ray taken. The verdict: I did indeed have a bad case of bacterial pneumonia.

A chest X-ray showing pneumonia
Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult_pneumonia

Since my pneumonia was bacterial in origin, antibiotics were indicated. I was prescribed a Z-pack (azithromycin). I started to feel better and by the time I finished the last dose of the antibiotic, I would say that I was at about 90% of normal. Unfortunately, my coughing and shortness of breath started to increase again over the next week. I was then prescribed another antibiotic, Levaquin (levofloxacin). I'm on day two of this round of antibiotics and I really hope this finally kills off all the baddies that are making me miserable!


Pneumonia is not for wimps 

If you look at the leading causes of death for Americans 100 years ago, you'll find that pneumonia and influenza ranked at the very top of the list. Having experienced pneumonia, I believe it. Here's what you need to know about it should you face pneumonia in a SHTF scenario.  

What is pneumonia?

Simply put, pneumonia is a lung infection. Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or even dust or chemicals you breathe in. Anyone can get it, but it is very commonly acquired when your body's defenses are low, such as after you get a cold or the flu. We believe that I came down with the flu and that I caught pneumonia as a secondary infection.

Although anyone can get it, some people are more at risk of pneumonia. If you smoke, are debilitated, have existing lung conditions, suffer from an autoimmune disease, or are recovering from surgery, you are at risk.

Diagnosing pneumonia

Hubby Dear suspected that I had pneumonia based on the physical symptoms I described above as well as the way they presented. There had also been a rash of young, healthy people in our area coming down with sudden onset pneumonia. The tell-tale sign was when he listened to my lungs. I call it "Rice Krispie lungs" - they are continuously snapping, crackling, and popping.


A chest X-ray is an important tool for diagnosis. Not only does it confirm that the patient is suffering from pneumonia, but it also shows whether the pneumonia is bacterial or viral in origin. Obviously in  TEOTWAWKI, you may not be able to obtain a chest X-ray.


How to treat pneumonia

If your pneumonia is bacterial in origin, you're going to need to have antibiotics to treat it. You should be stockpiling a variety of antibiotics, either via prescription from a sympathetic doctor or with fish antibiotics. Here's some helpful links about fish antibiotics you might want to check out:
http://armageddonmedicine.net/?p=6490 
http://armageddonmedicine.net/?p=6532 
http://www.survivalblog.com/2010/07/a_doctors_thoughts_on_antibiot.html

As my experience attests, not all antibiotics will work for every infection. You should have a variety on hand in case the first kind doesn't do the trick.


Otherwise, the treatment for pneumonia is pretty simple.

• Rest. You need to have someone on hand to help with chores, children, etc. My bout with pneumonia confirmed for me the necessity of having a group of like-minded people that you can trust to help in times of need. I was flat on my back, unable to cook, clean, or even do my chicken chores. And the thing about pneumonia is that it commonly can take people up to a month to fully recover. 
• Take medications like Advil or Tylenol to control your fever. 
• Drink lots of water.
• Rest. Did I mention that?   

My recommendations for you: 

• Consider getting the flu shot every year. Since many cases of pneumonia develop after a person has the flu, preventing the flu will prevent pneumonia. Every member of my family gets the flu shot - except me since I am allergic to it. I'm the one who got pneumonia. Coincidence? 
• There is a pneumonia vaccine for young children and adults in certain risk groups. Read about it here: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/pneumo/default.htm
• Start a (legal) stockpile of antibiotics and learn how to use them properly. 
• If you smoke, stop! Smoking is a risk factor for pneumonia and pretty much every other disease out there.
• Remember that pneumonia and influenza were top killers 100 years ago. If we experience a massive societal disruption, I expect they will become so again. 

Wheezingly yours,

Emily 

Playing Taps for My KitchenAid and Other Miscellany

Back when I was a child bride, Hubby Dear loved to indulge me by buying kitchen equipment that we could not afford. I've never been one for jewelry, but I always want the latest, greatest kitchen gadget. For Christmas one year, he bought me the mixer of my dreams - a KitchenAid Professional 600

Rest in Peace, dear KitchenAid 

My KitchenAid served me well for over ten years. I was never totally happy with the job it did kneading bread dough; the dough seemed to just ride around and around the dough hook rather than get kneaded. Last week, I was making a double batch of EZ Whole Wheat Bread in it and things got truly ugly. First, I smelled a "hot" smell. I turned the mixer off for a minute or two, but I still had 7-8 minutes of kneading left, so I felt like I had to turn it back on. Big mistake. Smoke began pouring out and it quit running. I hoped that it would begin working again after a long cool down, but, alas, it seems like I killed it really and truly.

Hubby Dear and I debated fixing up my KitchenAid vs. buying a new mixer. From the research I did, it seems like it can be just about as expensive to fix a stand mixer as it would be to buy a new one. If I'm going to have to spend hundreds of dollars anyway, I'd just as soon get a new mixer, preferably one that is better for making bread. So I'm getting a Bosch

I don't think the Bosch will look very cute on my counter, but the fact that you can make up to 6 loaves of bread in it at once more than makes up for that! This month, many Bosch retailers are offering a $50 rebate, which helps make it more reasonable. Still, it's quite an investment. I hope it lasts me a decade like its predecessor.
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I bought an aloe plant this week, too. Much easier on the budget than a Bosch! ;)

Aloe vera

I'm not much on houseplants - if I can't eat it, I'm not interested in messing with it - but it seems like my neglect won't kill it.  As I read here, aloe plants need a bit of sun and very little water. I think I can do that. Here are some of the uses of aloe plants. I think an aloe plant is an excellent addition to our first aid supplies.  
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I was walking through the garden the other day and I ran smackdab into this:

Yuck! A Tomato Hornworm!

This is the first time we have ever had tomato hornworms in our garden. I can safely say that they are one of the most disgusting garden pests I have ever seen. Not only are they disgusting, but they are also very destructive. They can reduce a healthy tomato plant to a skeleton in 24-48 hours. Tomato hornworms are found most often on tomato plants (surprise), but they also like potatoes and peppers, which are members of the same botanical family.

Picking them off by hand is the preferred method of dealing with this pest. Yeah, um, no. I'm not going to do that. Have I ever mentioned that I have a serious phobia of caterpillars and butterflies? (Really. Long story involving a traumatic childhood incident.) This is the biggest, most foul caterpillar I've ever seen, and I have no intention of touching one if I can help it. Hubby Dear did remove it from the plant and then he sprayed our tomato plants with Neem Py (an organic-approved pesticide with neem oil and a bit of pyrethrin).

I was nervous that our outrageously healthy tomato plants would be consumed overnight, but when the next day dawned, everything seemed OK.

Last night, however, we saw three hornworms. There were two on two different tomato plants and one on our potatoes. Ick! Hubby Dear picked them off and then he dusted the tomatoes and potatoes with Bt, another organic-approved pesticide. Bt is actually a bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, that kills caterpillars. I'm crossing my fingers that this does the trick. I will cry if my tomatoes get ruined before we ever get to eat them, and by caterpillars to boot!


That's my week in a nutshell. What prepping/gardening/food storage -related things have you been up to?

"Where There Is No Doctor": A Review

Over the past few months I've used my prepping budget to build up our survival library. As promised, here's the first of many book reviews I'll be sharing.
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Have you seen the show on the Discovery Channel called "Dual Survival"? It pairs Cody Lundin, a barefoot, New Age hippy, with Dave Canterbury, a no-nonsense army vet. The most interesting part of the show is the dynamic between two extremely different people as they work together to survive in extreme scenarios.

Hubby Dear and I are a bit like that, I guess. He's extremely no-nonsense. I'm full of nonsense, which in this analogy makes me the hippy of the relationship. Hey, I do like granola.

One of the "dual"aspects of our relationship is that Hubby Dear is a physician and I... am not. We both took a look at the Hesperian Foundation's Where There Is No Doctor and we'll give you our separate perspectives on it.

Where There is No Doctor is often recommended. But is it really worth
adding to your survival library?

The Harried Homemaker's Take:

If you're looking for a book to learn about first aid or some at-home remedies for common medical ailments, this is probably not what you're looking for. This book was written as a handbook for aid workers and/or villagers in third world countries. I'd like to hope that the USA's medical infrastructure will always be around, but if it isn't, this book would become useful.

It covers basics like hygiene and nutrition - things we all learn in grade school here in the USA. It also gives basic instructions for childbirth, treating dehydration, setting broken bones, etc. Nothing is covered in depth, but it would be a useful starting point if you are truly without access to medical care. It is written in very simple language so that anyone should be able to understand it.

In short: this book isn't a substitute for routine care by a medical professional, but it could be useful in extreme, SHTF scenarios.

Hubby Dear's Take:

This book has an excellent breadth of topics, and it goes into a good amount of detail on a number of them. It covers things as basic as first aid, to ailments of specific organs/organ systems (e.g., the eye, the skin), to delivering children. Although as a family physician I do these things on a regular basis, I always have my trusty medical supplies with me in a controlled environment. This book gives ideas on how to handle these problems with common objects and under less than ideal conditions.

The authors of this book definitely have their own viewpoints on medicine, with some of which I agree, while with others I do not. For example, they are very much against the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in our culture. As a daily combatant in the war against the overuse of these medications, I appreciated their emphasis and explanations on this subject. However, they also are very much in favor of easy access for abortions, which I very much oppose. This really did not detract from the useful information in the book, though.

One somewhat minor point that I would like the authors to correct in any future editions would be in relation to the dosing of medications for pediatric patients. In general, we use weight to dose children, not age. All of the dosing in the book is by age. I think both should be there, with weight as the default if the child's weight is available. It's just more accurate and significantly decreases the possibility of overdosing or underdosing.

Overall, this book would be very useful to have in a situation where professional medical care is not easily available, whether that be in a far away village or during a TEOTWAWKI situation.

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Another dual aspect to this book is that you can buy it... or not.

The Hesperian Foundation makes this book available for free download on its website. Click here if you are interested in doing that.

We chose to buy a copy from Amazon.com because:
A) I don't feel comfortable keeping important survival literature only in a digital format 

and

B) It is easier and almost as cheap (by the time you add up printer ink and paper) to go ahead and buy the book rather than print it out on my own.


Didn't Hubby Dear do a good job with his inaugural post on the blog? Maybe if I'm really nice he'll agree to do a guest post or two.  :) Do you have any topics related to medicine that you'd be interested in seeing on the blog?

A Mommy Must: A First Aid Kit for My Purse

There have been several times that I have wished that I had a mini first aid kit with me. The instance I remember most vividly was the time that Mini Me scraped most of her epidermis at the over-priced parent trap that is Sesame Place. I tried to clean her up as best I could, but wasn't very successful in stopping the bleeding (or the screaming, for that matter). Thankfully, a kind stranger handed me a couple of bandaids, saying, "I'm a teacher and so I'm always prepared with a first aid kit." It dawned on me then that a first aid kit would be a pretty smart thing to put in my purse.

That incident happened in July 2009. I made my first aid kit today. What can I say? I'm a slow learner.

This first aid kit is NOT meant for wilderness survival situations. It is NOT meant to get your family through TEOTWAWKI. I have a more extensive first aid kit in my car and even more first aid materials at home. This is a small, light kit that will easily fit in a purse and cover the minor first aid situations moms face on a regular basis.

I had read about people creating first aid or survival kits and putting them inside Altoids tins.

I thought that was a great idea. An Altoids tin is fairly strong, holds a bit, and will certainly fit in any purse I carry.

Contents:

1. Medication dosage instructions printed on card stock. 
2. Band-aids in several sizes
3. Alcohol Wipes
4. Tweezers
5. Dermabond. This is basically sterile Super Glue and is useful for closing some types of cuts.
6. A couple of packets of triple antibiotic ointment
7. Individually packaged medications, including: Children's Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Pepcid Complete, Tylenol, Advil, Benedryl and Aspirin.

I tried to come up with the easiest, most space-efficient way of packaging each medicine separately. I found these baggies in the crafting section of Wal-Mart.

They are 2" x 3" in size. 1" x 2" would have been even better, but this was the smallest I could find. I labelled each baggie, rolled it up, and stuck it in the Altoids tin with everything else.

I originally had some cough drops that I wanted to put in the tin, too, but unfortunately they didn't quite fit.

Viola! Whether Hubby Dear gets heartburn or Mini Me has another one of her klutz-capades, I'm prepared. Mostly.  

Quick Tip: Stock up on Exam Gloves

This box of 200 gloves was $10.87 at Sam's Club

People are quite blase about H1N1 these days, but do you remember the frenzy in 2009? I have to admit that I was one of those who freaked out because A) I was pregnant and hormonal  B) Hubby Dear is in health care and regularly "brings his work home" and  C) I was a prepper and didn't know it yet!

I don't know about where you live, but the stores here quickly sold out of hand sanitizer and face masks the moment H1N1 reached our area. I unsuccessfully searched our local stores for those items and cursed myself for not being better prepared.

I've already got the hand sanitizer and masks in bulk and this month I added another pandemic/SHTF must - exam gloves. Think of all the uses these gloves have. Any time there is the chance you will come into contact with a sick family member's body fluids, you should use gloves. I can bring myself to do any number of gross things (clean up vomit, dispose of a dead rodent, etc.) if I have gloves on. And if the kids get really bored, they can blow them up into balloons.

Hubby Dear told me that I should remind you all that these kinds of gloves are not sterile. If you were, say, putting in stitches, performing surgery or delivering a baby, you would ideally have individually-wrapped sterile gloves. Keep that in mind when you need to take out Great Aunt Ethel's gallbladder post-TEOTWAWKI. ;)

Another thing to remember is that gloves come in several sizes. I bought size medium, which is the perfect size for me. It also works OK for Hubby Dear. I don't know about all brands of gloves, but these came with a sizing chart on the back. Hubby Dear works with people who wear anywhere between size small and size 2XL so you really need to make sure you check sizes before you buy a ton of gloves.

Sizing chart on the back of the box

Like most items you store, there are some storage considerations for gloves. Just like your food storage, they need a cool, dry place away from light.

Pick some gloves up the next time you go to the store. You might be very glad you did.

Keeping Hydrated in a Crisis

Unsanitary conditions spread disease

Unfortunately, Haiti is in the news again for another catastrophe. This time it is because of an outbreak of cholera. Cholera is a disease unknown to most Americans because we have an ample supply of clean water. Not so in Haiti and other disaster-ravaged places around the world.

Cholera is marked by severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. It inevitably leads to dehydration. If you can keep a patient hydrated, chances are they can fight off the bug themselves, although sometimes they need a course of antibiotics.

In the wake of a serious disaster, we too could find ourselves battling cholera. Even more likely, there could be another pandemic flu outbreak. Or what if you have a sick family member and are plum out of cash to buy some Pedialyte or Gatorade? You wouldn’t use a credit card, would you? ;) Or maybe there’s a blizzard and you find yourself snowed in with sick children for several days. Whatever the scenario, it is important that you are able to treat your family when dehydration is a concern.

Here’s a homemade electrolyte drink that was passed to me by an RN during the H1N1 scare. Print it off and add it to your preparedness binder.


MAKE YOUR OWN ELECTROLYTE DRINK:

1 qt water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt
3-4 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt substitute (You may wonder why this included. It has potassium.)

Mix well. Can be flavored with lemon juice or sugar-free Kool-Aid.


These are the notes from Ursie: "If a family member is having trouble keeping down any fluids, this can be spoon fed. Some will prefer it cold...others just room temperature. KEEP SPOONING. This is the mix that is used in crisis situations world-wide, when IVs are not available. It can save lives. NOTE: Check with your pediatrician or other MD re: their opinion on the situation. In normal circumstances...an MD will want to SEE a child who is dehydrated.

This mix is for when things go bad in society or when there is an epidemic...and a doctor visit may not be possible."

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I hope "third world diseases" like cholera never become an issue in the USA, but you never know what could happen in TEOTWAWKI. Get ready now!