Hello Survivors. I have made this site to talk about how real people have dealt with real situations. Some extreme and some not so extreme. I also have Practical Preparedness which talks about what equipment and knowledge those people should have had, and how to build that equipment into a kit.

Did you bring enough water on that hike?

It was the early 1980's, I was about 13 years old. Spending a couple weeks at a local summer camp called Buck Creek. After breakfast in the cafateria they sent us all outside where they had tables setup for us to make sack-lunches. We were going on a hike that day. They said we would be eating our sack-lunches at the top of the mountain, and we should all meet outside at 10:30 to start the hike.

I looked at what they had us pack for our lunch. A sandwich, a cookie, a bag of chips, and a 16oz bottle of water. I thought to my self, "If we are eating lunch at the top of the mountain. And we are leaving at 10:30am. That means the hike is 60 to 90 minutes one way. So we will be away from the lodge for over 2 and 1/2 hours guarantied. If anyone starts this hike a little bit dehydrated 16 oz of whater is not going to be enough for 2 and 1/2 hours of hiking. I was thinking of complaining to the camp councelers but Instead I decided to just solve the problem my self. I went to my room and grabbed my daypack. I found 2 empty 2 leter bottles of pop, rinsed them out and filled them with water. After putting the extra water in my daypack I headed to the meeting spot to start the hike.

After a couple minutes of hiking I didn't notice the extra weight of the water at all. What I did notice was it was hot, which was very odd for 10:30am in Western Washington. After 90 minutes of walking I found out I was right we got to the top of the mountain just before noon. It was in the low 80's by this time, and it was just getting hotter. They gave us 30 minutes to relax and eat. Everyone ate their sack-lunches and drank their 16oz water bottles. Instead of sharing the extra water I was carrying at this point I decided I would just make sure I was the last one down the mountain.

Since we had just eaten and drank some water we all headed down the mountain as the happy chipper teenagers we were. Then after about a half an hour of walking slowly so I would stay in the back of the pack I came upon a girl sitting on the ground and a camp counceler with a very distressed look on their face. The girl was in the first stages of heat stroke and we were still an hour away from the lodge. Too add to things the temperature was in the mid 80's at this point, we were looking at on of the hotest days of the year for Western Washington in the 1980's. The counceler obviously did not have any supplies or equipment to deal with the situation. Being the smug 13 year old I was I sat down on the ground, took off my pack nonchalantly, set it infront of me. And said "It looks like some extra water would be a good idea on a 3 hour hike." I paused just long enough for the camp counceler to respond by looking at me anoyingly. "Would this help?" I pulled out one of the waters and handed it to them. "It's not cold, but it's definitly wet." I said. The relief on the councelers face and the girls face made carrying it all worth it.

I saved the other bottle incase we found someone else in distress farther down the path. Looking back on the situation adding some sugar and salt to one of the bottles would have been a good idea, but come on I was 13, I was just beguing my journey of always being the most prepared person in the group. Another item that would have been useful would have been a thermometer to check for heatstroke. This is on reason I now keep one in my Pocket Kit. Wich you can see here.

Did you Just eat a Bug?
Do you have 4hr Benadryl?

It was a nice sunny day in the late summer of 2001. My mom was home alone enjoying the view of her back yard eating some vegetables she just got from her fridge. She started getting a weird feeling in her mouth. Her tongue was starting to swell. Being the quick thinker she was, she contemplated what she should do while dialing 911. She was still able to talk but was becoming very worried about what was happening, and the 911 operator shared her worry.

“Ma'am I want you to go get some Benadryl and take it right now. Do you have any in the house?" "yes" my mom said "let me go get it. It says Benadryl 12hr." "Thats to bad, I need you to take a 4hr Benadryl, you are probably having an allergic reaction to something and the 12hr wont take affect fast enough.”
My mom did not have any 4hr Benadryl in the house so the 911 operator stayed on the line with her while she drove to the pharmacy and purchased some 4hr Benadryl. The operator told her to take it while still in the pharmacy and wait there for a half an hour so if things did not improve she would be around people that could help.

What my mom figured out later was that there was probably a bug in the vegetables she ate and she had an allergic reaction to it. Everything worked out fine. She learned how helpful the 911 operators can be and learned to never be without 4hr Benadryl somewhere nearby.

One of the morals of this story is how important it is to have easy access to 911, having a charged cellphone is a good way of making sure 911 is available. It is also a good idea to have some basic supplies available that the 911 operator my want you to use right there. Some of the things they might ask for are aspirin, allergy tablets, hydrocortisone cream, a thermometer, things like that. I have layed out a kit that has all of these things in it. I now keep these things in my pocket every day. Pocket Kit

Some of the reasons a 911 operator might ask you to use these things are giving an aspirin for someone who is having a heart attack. Allergy tablets for someone who got a bug bite or bee sting. Hydrocortisone cream poison ivy or itchy skin. A thermometer to check if someone needs to be treated for hypothermia or heat stroke.

Treatments have changed over the years. They are now sugesting using 2 tablets of Zyrtec (20mg total) in this situation instead of Benadryl. Zyrtec actually takes affect even faster than the 4hr Benadryl. They have also clarified this is the treatment for an allergic reaction. Which includes things like swelling of the tong or face, hives, extream itchyness. If someone has anaphylaxis, which is anything that causes trouble breathing, you need to use an epornephrin pen. If you do not have one 911 will dispatch an Ambulance to get one to you.