Today's PSA
(I'm feeling chatty tonight. Sorry about that.)
New readers to my journal may not know that periodically, I post PSAs about how to not get dead. I encourage you to read them, pass them around, and have a lively discussion in the comments. Past PSAs can be found under the PSA tag. My shining moment of Internet Glory remains the PSA on how to diagnose a stroke that Warren Ellis picked up and passed on. He's right - you should all read and memorize it, as I expect you to keep me alive to a ripe old age.
Today's PSA is more general.
Everyone should be as educated as possible on basic first aid, and further if they can possibly manage it. The Red Cross always has lots of classes, but if you can't afford that, check with your local fire department or even the Red Cross - just tell them you want to know how to help, but you're low on funds. Especially if you are willing to volunteer time, they'll find a way to get you schooled.
Those of you who live alone especially need this knowledge, if only so that you know enough to know when you need to call for help. I have at least two friends who wound up in the hospital over a bout of flu, because they waited so long to ask for help that their kidneys shut down from dehydration. They simply didn't think that being bedridden for a week was a good reason to call for help until it was almost too late.
I'm thinking about this because I realized tonight that Disambiguation House is far enough off the beaten track that I want to get a household defibrillator. They're pretty much idiot-proof at this point - if you can understand English enough to follow directions and see well enough to spot on the body where to place the connections, you're golden. And frankly, there's enough heart disease in my family history that I think it's worth the time and expense. It will take a bit of research and probably a fundraiser to get it, but it will be worth it.
Do you have a home first aid kit? How good is it, and how recently have you rotated the expiring items in it? Does your home first aid kit contain latex products? If you don't know the answers to these questions, go look now, before you cut yourself in the kitchen.
How about a flu kit? A flu kit should be kept by your bed, and contain fluids of various sorts that are easily opened, basic cold medications, a thermometer, phone numbers to doctors and friends to call for help, Kleenex, a notepad and pen for keeping track of last dosages and symptoms, and some form of easily-consumed solid food. (I like crackers and protein bars, but anything you think you can nibble on while sick is good.) A phone by the bed goes without saying, of course - you can't call for help unless you can, well, call for help. Don't have a phone? Get a disposable cell phone and keep it by the bed; they're cheap, and you are worth it.
New readers to my journal may not know that periodically, I post PSAs about how to not get dead. I encourage you to read them, pass them around, and have a lively discussion in the comments. Past PSAs can be found under the PSA tag. My shining moment of Internet Glory remains the PSA on how to diagnose a stroke that Warren Ellis picked up and passed on. He's right - you should all read and memorize it, as I expect you to keep me alive to a ripe old age.
Today's PSA is more general.
Everyone should be as educated as possible on basic first aid, and further if they can possibly manage it. The Red Cross always has lots of classes, but if you can't afford that, check with your local fire department or even the Red Cross - just tell them you want to know how to help, but you're low on funds. Especially if you are willing to volunteer time, they'll find a way to get you schooled.
Those of you who live alone especially need this knowledge, if only so that you know enough to know when you need to call for help. I have at least two friends who wound up in the hospital over a bout of flu, because they waited so long to ask for help that their kidneys shut down from dehydration. They simply didn't think that being bedridden for a week was a good reason to call for help until it was almost too late.
I'm thinking about this because I realized tonight that Disambiguation House is far enough off the beaten track that I want to get a household defibrillator. They're pretty much idiot-proof at this point - if you can understand English enough to follow directions and see well enough to spot on the body where to place the connections, you're golden. And frankly, there's enough heart disease in my family history that I think it's worth the time and expense. It will take a bit of research and probably a fundraiser to get it, but it will be worth it.
Do you have a home first aid kit? How good is it, and how recently have you rotated the expiring items in it? Does your home first aid kit contain latex products? If you don't know the answers to these questions, go look now, before you cut yourself in the kitchen.
How about a flu kit? A flu kit should be kept by your bed, and contain fluids of various sorts that are easily opened, basic cold medications, a thermometer, phone numbers to doctors and friends to call for help, Kleenex, a notepad and pen for keeping track of last dosages and symptoms, and some form of easily-consumed solid food. (I like crackers and protein bars, but anything you think you can nibble on while sick is good.) A phone by the bed goes without saying, of course - you can't call for help unless you can, well, call for help. Don't have a phone? Get a disposable cell phone and keep it by the bed; they're cheap, and you are worth it.