Most of you have probably heard of and used lidocaine, but perhaps without knowing it. It's an anesthetic used for topical numbing of the skin prior to suturing and for minor surgeries. It's in topical creams for relieving itching and available in pain patches. According to Wikipedia, it's on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health care system.
In addition to use as a local anesthetic, lidocaine finds application as a nerve block. It works synergistically with epinephrine so that the numbing effect lasts longer with less lidocaine and decreases bleeding.
The topical creams often used in tattooing contain up to 5% lidocaine, the strongest available without a prescription. My daughter used this to numb her ankle prior to digging out a deep sliver. She didn't feel a thing.
Injectable lidocaine can be a little troublesome to obtain. It's not a controlled substance, and it's not by any means illegal to possess it. If you have a good relationship with your physician, and he recognizes the state of our nation and the need to prepare, he may be willing to get some for you. For the rest of us, fortunately, lidocaine powder to make your own injectable solution can still be
purchased without a prescription. One supplier is
MedicalNumbingAgents.com. (I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in this company.) They have recently started selling vials of injectable lidocaine, and it can also be purchased through some overseas pharmacies.
How are you going to use this lidocaine? Well, actually, unless you have some advanced training (which I highly recommend), you aren't going to use it. Remember, when life gets interesting, a physician will probably be a lot easier to find than any of the medical supplies we need or want for our families. So the physician will be administering the lidocaine.
I wasn't sure how much to purchase for our family. Medical Numbing Agents only sells three drugs--caffeine, benzocaine, and lidocaine. Their primary clients are hospitals and medical offices. So I went with the smallest amount, 25 grams, for $22.00 at the time. But I wasn't sure this was sufficient, so at our class a few months later I asked Dr. Steve what he would recommend for my family of seven.
"500 grams." I was sure he hadn't understood me. I about choked. So I asked again, emphasizing it was just for my family of seven. Yep, the answer was still the same.
Fortunately, it is much less expensive to purchase in bulk. If you have a few families you can get together with on this purchase, so much the better.
One tip if you do choose to purchase through MedicalNumbingAgents.com: The company offers all new customers $11 off their first order. So of course, most take advantage of that. However, if you put an item in your cart and then leave for a day or so, they will email you and offer you 10 percent off your purchase. At least, that happened for me. And I've found that with quite a few companies, so it's worth a try.
Copyright 2018, PrepSchoolDaily.blogspot.com
28 august 2024
Guess what I learned at a disaster medical training class, 2010, at Ohio State University, Caldwell: Lidocaine, also known as Xylocaine®, is an anesthetic used in pets for the treatment of abnormal heart rhythms. It is also used as a local anesthetic e.g. to numb an area on the skin prior to sutures. An anesthetic is a drug that prevents sensations such as pain; in other words, your local vet can write a prescription for your 150-pound "dog"!
ReplyDeleteGood comment! I just saw this today. Don't know how I missed it. Thank you.
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