DIY Antiseptics for Washing Wounds

When society collapses and ushers in Doomsday, Doomsday is going to mean DIY or do without for many of the items we use every day.  If we haven’t prepared antiseptics for washing wounds or if the traditional supplies have been exhausted, we’ll have to DIY.  Doing without may spell doomsday for those with even the most minor of wounds. 

Fortunately, there are several DIY options for antiseptic wound washes.

Before going any further, it bears repeating what has been previously addressed here on the blog:  Wounds should never be washed out with rubbing alcohol, Betadine, hydrogen peroxide, or similar antiseptics.  These fluids kill bacteria and viruses, but they also kill living tissue.  Dead tissue in a wound can lead to infection.  In addition, most of the time gentle irrigation with clean water will be sufficient for cleaning a wound.  However, with particularly dirty wounds or in individuals with compromised immune systems, we may want a little more.

Quarter-strength Dakin’s solution, which is made with water, baking soda, and bleach, is a good wound cleaning option that’s been in use since WWI.  It’s a simple DIY.  A link to the directions is included below.

Making a colloidal silver solution is apparently a simple DIY for those who are even slightly technologically inclined.  Michael provided the basics of assembling a colloidal silver generator in the comments to last week’s “Is It Infected” article.  And there are loads of sites on the internet that provide information as well.  It’s also something I should write about here, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t do a good job.  My family still doesn’t allow me to play with sharp, pointy objects.  Electricity and batteries are totally out of the question. 

Using essential oils, diluted in water, as an antiseptic wound wash is covered in Dr. Alton’s Survival Medicine Handbook.  I’ve read that book several times, but when information comes at you like a firehose, sometimes you miss a few drops of water.  This is one of those drops.  According to Dr. Alton, the following oils are excellent antiseptics:

• Eucalyptus
• Lavender
• Peppermint
• Rosemary
• Tea tree

Make your antiseptic wash by adding a few drops of any of the above oils to a liter of water.  Use gentle pressure, and perhaps a curved tip of a syringe, to irrigate the wound well—and using the whole liter of wound wash on even a small wound isn’t excessive.  Infections are always bad, but they’re even worse when antibiotics and supplies are limited.  Water is cheap.  Use it liberally to clean out the wound. 

In a collapsed society, dirty wounds will become much more commonplace than they are now.  We’ll be working outside more in the garden, cutting wood, walking, etc.  Children will play outside much more than they do now.  Opportunities for injury will explode, and so will the potential for infection.  Hopefully, we will have prepared the necessary supplies.  But not everyone will have done so, and many will exhaust their supplies quickly.  We need to have options, if not for us, for those around us.

 

Links to related posts:

Skin Preps and Washes

Rubbing Alcohol

Betadine

The Right Way to Clean Abrasions

Lacerations

Dakin’s Solution

Essential Oils

References:

Joseph Alton, Survival Medicine Handbook, 2013, 269.

 06.05.23

DIY Baking Powder

Baking powder is one of those baking essentials that, unfortunately, has a pretty short shelf-life once it's been opened.  If you don't use it often, your baking powder may deteriorate before it's used up.  So if it's been awhile since you've done some baking with it, it's a good idea to check it prior to adding it to your recipe.  It's a total drag when you're making some quick bread, or biscuits, or muffins and they don't rise because your baking powder has lost its punch.

The simple test is to put a teaspoon of baking powder in a cup of hot water.  If it bubbles vigorously, the baking powder is still active. 

If your baking powder fails the test, and you don't really want to run to the store (because there is no store), there are a couple of DIY options.

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon plain yogurt; OR
• 1 teaspoon baking soda plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Neither of these is a great option from a prepper standpoint.  The lemon juice and yogurt both require refrigeration.  Fortunately, there is a third option.  The individual ingredients are very shelf-stable; it's only when they are combined that deterioration becomes a problem. 

Baking soda and cornstarch are inexpensive at the grocery store; cream of tartar gets to be a bit high in price for those tiny bottles.  You can get it on Amazon for a little over $8.00 per pound, or at San Francisco Herb for $6.00 per pound. 

If you are using the baking powder immediately, substitute the following for every teaspoon of baking powder that you need:

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

If you are mixing a larger batch to have ready to use:

2 tablespoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Store in a sealed container.  Cornstarch absorbs water and prevents the baking soda and cream of tartar from clumping and reacting too soon.

Simple, right?

Bear in mind that this is single-acting baking powder.  It is activated as soon as it is combined with the liquid ingredients in your recipe.  If you forgot to preheat your oven or your batch is large and you need to bake in shifts, you're susceptible to a recipe failure here.  Double-acting baking powder is what is most commonly sold in stores.  It is activated a little bit when first mixed, but most of the action occurs due to the heat of the oven.  So double-acting baking powder is much less susceptible to recipe failure.

Now you know.

Links to related posts:
Alternative Medicine--Cream of Tartar

4 april 2019 

Is It Infected? How Do I Treat It?

Last week, in a comment on the article on removing sutures, Michael asked about how to determine whether a wound is infected.  It’s definitely a topic that merits coverage.

Many years ago, during the period when the History Channel was evolving from a really great source of entertainment and information to the aliens, Vikings, and Hitler channel, they had a show on about what would happen in America following an EMP.  (I think it was an EMP.  Could have been an economic collapse or something else.  It’s been a while.)  Anyway, life’s rough, people are losing weight, and one of the main characters cuts himself while working outside, I believe.  It gets infected.  He has no antibiotics.  He dies. 

In the real world, when I was in college, I had beautiful hands and long, strong fingernails.  And every once in a while I’d get a hangnail.  I hate hangnails.  They catch on things and drive me crazy.  So I yank them out.  Which is exactly what you are not supposed to do.  I have taught my children not to do this, but I have yet to break myself of this habit.  I tell myself I will behave when things truly fall apart.

Anyway, I pulled out one of those hangnails in college.  Like most of the hangnails I yanked out, it hurt.  But unlike the others, this one continued hurting.  And then my finger started to swell and throb.  Not only that, but the red streak I’d read about in my pre-med classes had started up my finger.  There was no delaying the doctor visit now. 

What was an annoyance then and only involved an antibiotic prescription will instill great fear in the future for many and death for some. 

Risk factors

The risk factors for developing an infected wound include a compromised immune system which may be due to a medical condition or which may arise due to malnutrition and/or poor hygiene.  These latter can be avoided by preparing well.  (And while prices continue to escalate due to inflation, some prep items can still be found on sale.  At the grocery store just yesterday, I found over a dozen bottles of rubbing alcohol more than 60% off.  That was on the heels of deep discounted hydrogen peroxide, hand sanitizer, and surgical masks.  However, I’m not holding my breath about canning lids being discounted anytime soon.  They still aren’t even on the shelves here.)

Prevention

Beyond avoiding injury in the first place and mitigating the risk factors, there are measures to take to prevent wound infection.  The first is to take the time to disinfect and clean wounds properly.  There is a link below to an article on this topic.  The second is to use the right suture pattern when closing a wound, assuming that you are the one providing care.  Interrupted sutures (where each stitch is individually placed and not connected to the others) are preferable to a running (whip) stitch.  Choose a good suture as well.  If the wound was particularly dirty, a monofilament suture may be a safer choice.  Braided sutures are more likely to harbor bacteria. 

Proper stitch removal, as addressed last week, is also important.  However, even in the best of circumstances, wounds will get infected.  The current rate of infection of surgical wounds is 1%; the incidence of infection in wounds closed in the emergency room is 3-4%.[i]  In a collapsed society and austere conditions, the rate will likely be higher. 

Signs and symptoms

• Redness at the edges of the wound
• Sometimes pus or yellowish scabs on or exuding from the wound
• Increased tenderness at the site
• Skin is warm or hot
• Swelling[ii]
• Fever, chills
• Headache
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Red streak from the wound (if it’s on an arm or leg) towards the torso

Differentiation

At this point, it is important to differentiate between a simple wound infection and other conditions.  While insect stings and bites can result in an infection, this is not normally the case.  A reaction to a bite or sting will generally occur more quickly and doesn’t spread after the first 24 hours.  (This is why infections on the skin are outlined with a Sharpie.)  Unlike an insect bite or sting, an infection on the skin will continue to spread.

Treatment

If sutures are in place, they must be removed.  Antibiotics do not kill bacteria on sutures.  And wound edges will not grow together if infected.  Any bandages or other dressings must also be removed.  Clean the wound again and be sure to remove any dead tissue.[iii]

The above procedures are usually sufficient for clearing up a wound infection, assuming the infection is not cellulitis, which may be difficult to differentiate in an austere situation.  Cellulitis will be covered in a future post.

The decision whether to use herbs or antibiotics or anything will be a judgment call.  As noted, simple but thorough cleaning of the wound may be all that is required.  However, the body of an immunocompromised or malnourished individual may not be able to fight off the infection without assistance from antibiotics or herbs.  Then again, do you want to risk wasting precious antibiotic tablets when they aren’t needed? 

You may wish to begin simply with an antibiotic ointment applied a few times each day.

Herbal options:

• Calendula 
• Echinacea 
• Japanese barberry 
• Japanese honeysuckle 
• Juniper 
• Lavender 
• Mullein 
• Oak 
• Oregano 
• Plantain 
• Raspberry 
• Rosemary 
• Usnea 
• Yarrow

Conventional pharmaceuticals often prescribed:

• Augmentin, 250-500 mg, 3x per day 
• Cephalexin, 250-500 mg, 3-4x per day

If neither of those work, switch to or add:

• TMP-SMZ, 1 DS tablet, 2x per day 
• Doxycycline, 50-100 mg, 2x per day

If those are still ineffective, a doctor will try ciprofloxacin or Levaquin. [iv]

So how do you determine whether your chosen approach to treatment is working?

• Day 1.  Redness may not decrease, but it shouldn’t increase much either, no more than ¼” beyond outlined border.  
• Days 2-3.  Reddened area should be much smaller.  If not, add 2^nd herb or antibiotic. 

Links to related posts:

The Right Way to Clean Abrasions

Wound Closure Options

Calendula

Juniper

Usnea

Yarrow

---

[i] Surgical and Austere Medicine, 3^rd Edition, 2017, 274.

[ii] Cynthia Koelker, Armageddon Medicine, 2012, 206.

[iii] Cynthia Koelker, Armageddon Medicine, 2012, 206.

[iv] Cynthia Koelker, Armageddon Medicine, 2012, 206.

 06.28.23

Chocolate in the Prepper's Pantry

Chocolate.  You know it's truly going to be TEOTWAWKI if you don't have it.

You already know why you want it in your preps.  You probably don't need a whole lot of help with recipes, either, though I'll provide a few later in this post.  What you are looking for, most likely, is how to store it best.

Chocolate chips (semi-sweet).  For maximum long term storage, up to five years, they should be put into canning jars and vacuum sealed.  Unfortunately, I have no personal experience with this, that is, with the part about five years.  The max I've been able to store chocolate chips here is three years.  We are so good at rotating our chocolate chips.  And while I firmly believe that storing chocolate chips in canning jars is truly the best way to go, I have to admit, it is not what I practice here.  It's partly because I'm a little lazy, but also partly because I know we will be rotating through these chocolate chips.  There is no doubt.  So I'm not concerned about longer term storage.  And because I'm not concerned about storing for the long haul, I have taken to putting the bags of chocolate chips into four-gallon buckets.  The buckets go into the crawl space with much of our other long-term food storage, where the temperature is cooler and more consistent.  If I were storing for longer term, I'd definitely do it as I did in the beginning--vacuum-sealed in canning jars.

Milk chocolate.  The higher milk content contributes to a shorter shelf life than for semi-sweet, definitely in the range of months and not years.  Were I to store it, it would be vacuum-sealed in canning jars.

White chocolate.  I rarely use it; certainly not enough to store it.  But my husband brought some Baker's semi-sweet and white chocolate baking bars home a couple of years ago because they were on clearance.  Those half-dozen or so bars went up on a high shelf in the laundry room/pantry and were kind of forgotten.  (OK, so they were totally forgotten.)  I came across them as I was tidying.  I couldn't find a date on them anywhere, but I know they came home post-Christmas one year, so they're somewhere between two and four years old.  First, I carefully opened the white chocolate.  It was no longer white, but rather caramel-colored.  I think I probably sniffed it first, but I'm not sure.  And besides, the true test would be to taste it.  Nasty!  It probably erased whatever memory of the smell I may have had.  So, so nasty.  Into the trash.  The semi-sweet  bars were just fine.

Cocoa powder.  Stored in a cool, dry place, it keeps pretty much indefinitely.

Hot cocoa mix.   The Home Storage Center states that their hot cocoa mix has a shelf life of two years.  In my supply here it looks like the last time I bought hot cocoa mix there was five years ago, because the best-by date on the pouch says February 2016.  So I'm testing cocoa that's almost three years past it's best-by date.  Three children with discriminating palates and I all say it tastes just fine.  What I would not trust, however, is the "cut here" dotted line, so that the bag can be resealed.  That was a total fail this time. 

DIY hot cocoa mix.  Cocoa powder stores almost indefinitely.  Sugar stores indefinitely.  Powdered milk has a 20-year shelf life.  So all three of these, the main ingredients in cocoa mix, ought to be able to be combined to make your own mix, right?  I searched the 'net for quite some time last night and came up with the recipe to try.

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups dry milk
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
pinch cayenne

Now the recipes were all pretty much the same.  Some called for sifting the powdered sugar and cocoa to make sure there weren't any lumps.  One used brown sugar instead of powdered.  Most omitted the cayenne; in 5 1/2 cups of mix, it's only going to make a difference to the most sensitive of taste buds.  I didn't notice it.  What I did notice was that it was truly, truly awful.  I followed the recipe exactly and then mixed it up to make some hot cocoa without paying attention to the mixing directions.  Yes, it was so, so bad.  So I very irritatedly (yes, I know that's not a word, but it's how I felt) threw it all out.   Then I glanced at the mixing directions.  OK, so I was only supposed to use two tablespoons.  So I got back into the trash and carefully removed two tablespoons of mix that were not contaminated in any way.  I added two ounces of water and stirred well.  I then added milk and heated it in the microwave.

Nope, it was no better.  Still very, very awful.

(Note:  In the above recipe I used non-instant nonfat dry milk from the Home Storage Center.  Results may be better using a higher-end instant dry milk.)

So why exactly did I include that recipe if it doesn't work?  Because you need to know that just because someone somewhere on the 'net says something works, doesn't make it true!!  And then there can also be honest differences in taste buds.  I like fresh mushrooms; most of my children don't.  Trader Joe's peanut butter cups are the only way to go for me, but it seems most people are happy to eat Reese's.  Store brands are just fine for most things, but my crackers better be Honey Maid and Krispy or Premium.  You have to try recipes out yourself now so you don't waste precious food later.

Nesquik.  Nesquik (remember when it used to be just "Quik"?) can make a bad day a whole lot better.  It can also make powdered milk taste a whole lot better, especially if you didn't have time to get it thoroughly chilled.  Per the customer service representative at Nestle, "after it is produced our regular Nesquik Powder has a recommended shelf life of 24 months while the No Sugar Added has a recommended shelf life of 18 months. After opening either of those, the recommended shelf life is 3 to 6 months."  

In our experience, Nesquik will last a bit beyond the 24 months, but not much.  Somehow it starts to taste like pencil shavings.  I'm not quite sure how that is, since I've never been one to eat much in the way of pencil shavings, but that's what it tastes like.

DIY Nesquik.  There were no where near as many options as there were for hot cocoa.  It's basically a 1:2 ratio of cocoa powder to sugar, with a pinch or two of salt.  

And it also tastes like barf.  Well, maybe just really bad.  But notice there is only one really.   Not two very's or two truly's, like the hot cocoa mix above.  If your kids have anywhere near the average number of brain cells or taste buds, they will not be fooled by this poor attempt at a copycat recipe.

A final note.  Chocolate can be stored in the freezer.  I supposed if I had unlimited space I would do this as well, but I really need the room for meat and some veggies.  Chocolate that is stored in the freezer will develop "bloom," a whitish, tannish, grayish cast to it.  It is the cocoa butter separating from the cocoa and does not affect the taste in the least, only the appearance.  

Links to related posts:
Dry milk   
Canning Candy  
Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake  
Food Storage for Christmas  
Food Fatigue  
DIY Tootsie Rolls   

30 march 2024 

12 january 2019