Reintroduction and the new herbal medkit

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I've been away from the group quite a while, living with limited

computer access, but now I'm back. Still practicing herbal nutrition

and helping others do the same at this point mostly through a

wilderness skills school in Maine.

Scored a large EMT bag that is filled with padded compartments and

elastic loops that is working real good to make a portable herbal

medkit. It gives small compartments that hold glass tincture bottles

much safer and more organized than the loose bag i used to use. The

wilderness school personel I work with refer to it as " Chris's medicine

bag " . What it's for is use as a herbal gobag emergency medical kit for

both the family and the wilderness school at which I sometimes work.

What is carried inside varies according to what pet remedies I'm

working with at the time, but here's the list of what's in it at the

moment. When I received the bag it had a bunch of emt equipment that

didn't meet the idea of what I had it for, but I did keep some of the

technomedgadgetry.

GEAR: Tweezers, emt shears, stethescope (not too useful for me but

perhaps the modern equivilent of a shaman's rattle for putting people

into a healing mindset), boiling pot (which I found out the hard way is

very important when you're away from the home and need to improvise an

herbal treatment on the spot with local herbs), space blanket, hot

water bottle/enema bag (use it a lot for sore backs, the enema

application threat gets people laughing " If you don't take it one way

you'll take it the other... " ), neti pot, fire sticks with matches

(emergency fire lighting), rubber gloves and a CPR mouthshield, dental

floss, safety pins, swiss army knife, whistle, compass. Need a

headlamp, thermometer.

MEDSUPPLIES: Adhesive tape, fabric bandaids, a selection of different

types of gauze bandages, the 4 " x4 " size I've found most useful so far,

gauze dressing, ace bandage, instant cold compress packs (never used

them but a bunch were in the bag), antiseptic towellets, just found

some sterile sutures in the bag (I know, not for the use of commoners

like us especially in a nonsterile woods enviroment but I've tried

sewing a wound back together on myself with a sewing needle and dental

floss and couldn't do it, I was quite happy to find it in the kit),

butterfly bandages (use instead of stitches, works better most of the

time), cravat triangular cotton bandages (Boy Scout specials, used for

everything). Bottle of sterile irrigation water, eye flushing solution.

TINCTURES: Here's my favorite section of the bag:

Jug of super tonic, looks like a 16 oz bottle size.

Boneset: Immune boost and diaphoretic fever/flu/cold remedy

Yarrow: Similiar to the above without the big immune boost that the

boneset has. Kind of silly carrying both.

Thyme: " thyme does for our lungs what mint does for our tummy "

Mint: tummy trouble

Poplar: One of my favorites, bitters, pooping assist, willowlike

salycin content for pain/fevers/inflammation, general tonic

Willow: aspirin replacement. Again kind of silly carrying both it and

the poplar.

Habanero: Used a lot, especially on sore backs and sometimes on boring

meals.

Lobelia: Almost out of this. Sedative nervine as well as a catalyst to

help other mixes work better.

Shepard's Purse: Reduce bleeding. So does direct pressure with a clean

bandage but since it was a rampant weed in the garden I thought it

might give something to play with.

Osha: Immune support instead of echinacea, which I don't have any of.

A friend from AZ mailed me the dried plant material she harvested in a

good way. Just tried it and it worked pretty good.

Sedative Mix: Valerian, black cohosh, hops, crampbark. Not the best

mix but it's what I had on hand at the time.

Usnea: herbal antibiotic especially for staph infections. Staph

infections are a big concern now especially with the antibiotic

resistant variety that another staff member (ha, a pun) caught.

ginger

Mugwort

Myrhh

Alder: new one I'm testing out. At the basic level it's got a lot of

tannins in it.

Plantain/Jewelweed mix: for poison ivy. A pretty good combo.

Comfrey

Digestive bitters mix: poplar, ginger, barberry, wormwood. Usually I

have some licorice in there too but I forgot it in this batch.

Okay, so that's a lot more variety than is really needed but as one can

see I like experimenting with new stuff a lot. I'ld be happy with just

the habanero, lobelia, and poplar.

OTHER HERBAL STUFF: Comfrey root powder, healing salve, a variety of

essential oils that fit nicely in some of the elastic loops, Bach

rescue remedy, homeopathic Arnica Montana, oreganol essential oil

(acute illness first aid in a bottle), antidiarhea capsules (purple

loosestrife and barberry), myrhh powder, cayenne powder. Activated

charcoal capsules. 4 oz of DMSO, a huge bottle of super nutrition

powder mix.

MEDICINES: vitamin I (that's what hikers call ibuprofen), epiephrine

(need a prescription which I have, for allergic reactions), benadryl

(again, for allergic reactions, I don't have a good herbal replacement

for the epi and benadryl), immodium (NEVER have I used this but I have

seen a person on a trip come down with severe diarhea which we were on

the verge of sending out to the hospital, the herbal treatment worked

but I was worried).

That's the gidst of it. Sounds like a lot but it all fits into a

medium sized bag. Got a lot of things I would like to change around

and add or delete but that's how it is at this time.