IV Kits (Normal Saline) (How To) (Story)
Hello all,
New member, First time posting here.
I'll just jump right into it.
I am curious what my fellow preppers have done to work around the fact that Normal Saline bags are a prescription item... ridiculous imo, but that's another topic.
And I mean besides "knowing someone"... yes that's an easy solution, but I'm exploring the possibility of creating your own purified & sterile life saving fluid... everything else to get it into your system is obtainable online.
So far this is what I've found:
You need as pure of water as possible as a base, sterile, a pH around 5.5, and a 0.9% saline mixture.
Purification can be attained with a good quality, multi stage, reverse osmosis filtration system.
pH can be attained through the use of an water ionizer machine.
Proper mixture to obtain the 0.9% saline solution:
(Mix 16 ounces of sterile water and 1 level teaspoon of non-iodized salt)
Sterility can be attained through UV treatment (boiling as well, but higher risk of contaminants).
Then once contained in a sterile container, it may be stored for a period of time by keeping at temperatures just above freezing (36-40 degrees F).
I'd love to hear what other folks have come up with, I can't be the only one in the community here that has given this thought.
Just a little background if you have the patience to bear with me.
For one, I do have medical training as a paramedic, two years... around 1500 hours in the ER, OR, on the truck and working with FD.
I've been immersed in the medical field on the other side as a patient for the past decade, after being seriously & permanently injured during my time in the Marine Corps (leading to a med retirement), with conditions that require regular medical treatment at our wonderful VA facilities.
I also married a lovely young woman after being discharged, who ended up having a rare and aggressive autoimmune disease that has needed multiple surgeries to contain, and have been by her side through all of that.
During all this time, I've experienced countless instances of unavailability, malpractice, carelessness, ignorance and just plain stupidity from our "medical professionals", (on a couple of instances almost taking myself and my wife out permanently).. and since 2020, it seems like both the VA & mainstream medical services have gotten significantly worse.
This has pushed me to try and find as many solutions for issues that are fully treatable at home, without having to go in and give them another chance to screw things up.
Most recently, (Story Time, if you want to skip this part) last week actually, my wife had to have a major surgery to cut malignant cells from multiple organs.
They sent her home immediately after, without properly ensuring she was okay to leave, as the surgeon was in a rush to catch her flight to the Bahamas. (*outstanding professionalism*)
Two days later, my young wife began experiencing serious complications, mainly that her digestive system was still asleep from anesthesia, and she could not eat or drink until it woke up... something that *almost always* just takes time (2-5 days). That meant no medication, no water, no food.
However, shocking to us both, we found that no doctor would admit her, as she was a high risk patient that belonged to another surgeon (out of country), and that would be a legal liability (always the priority).
Mainly she just needed hydration to survive the next few days, but beyond the first 1000ml IV bag they hooked up while evaluating her at the ER(s) (we went to multiple), they refused further treatment and discharged us, "to go home and rest until our surgeon could return".
It seemed unreal that this could happen, but that's where we were.
We resorted to using tap water enemas at home to get some fluid in her system, with some noticeable success, but the whole time I was incredibly frustrated by the fact that all I needed was an IV and some bags of NS to stabilize her most pressing need for hydration.
2 days later, the surgeon managed to get another doctor friend to admit us to a hospital 2 hours away (allegedly our surgeon was having issues getting a flight back to the States), and we found appropriate treatment there,
but WOW, it really motivated me that much more to try and prep for a time when medical services will not be just a phone call or short drive away... and survival may be something as simple as IV hydration.
There's probably a potential lawsuit somewhere in here, because this cannot be the acceptable norm, but I've never been in this situation before, and I wouldn't know where to begin with pursuing litigation.
This was a bit of an overshare, but I would appreciate any feedback on the original "obtaining of NS", or even on my story about what has motivated me to be here.
Thanks so much, and I look forward to becoming part of this community!
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