Level 1 First Aid Kit

Today I’m going to go over the contents of my Level 1 First Aid kit and why I carry what i do. the philosophy behind this kit is one based on being small and light weight and covering most day-to-day needs. This kit is not meant to be a blow out kit nor to be able to handle traumatic injuries.  What is does cover are some of the things that I have had happen most often with a little extras for emergencies.

This kit stays inside my GHB in my car always unless I’m taking it out on a hike. In my car I have a larger first aid kit for major accidents. So my priorities for general everyday use are to use from this kit first and save items from the bigger one for real emergencies.  the most used item in here is the excederin. It’s nice to always have headache medicine handy. I cannot count the number of times I’ve had friends need headache relief and I’ll just tell them to grab the kit in the back seat. Also the content are always changing when I find things that work better of when things don’t work they come out. So now this is whats in there.

In any FAK my main concern is always stopping blood loss. everything else is built upon that. In the limited space for this kit I chose flat package pads. One package of Kerlix sponges and a few 3×3 pads. Since this is not meant for traumatic injury kit for most small cuts theses will do fine. If you have slightly more room in your kit I advise going with a small tourniquets instead of adding too many more pads. If you need more than this it’s time to move on to the tourniquet.

I have two Moist Wipes and a few alcohol prep pads. These are for cleaning minor cuts before bandage and to clean hands if need be. This items also have several uses outside the medical are that are used often. I’ve used to alcahol pads to remove sticky reside before. the moist wipes I’ve used to clean my hands before when eating and didn’t have water to spare on them. I believe that you should only steal from a first aid kit when its built for everyday use like this on is AND when you have a fully stocked kit in the same location.

Not much to say here. It’s always a good idea to carry an antiseptic cream. I always put it on my cuts from now on cause trust me infections suck!

So lesson learned. Clean and treat cuts and bug bites and never scratch at them. Also it does really good on new tattoos. So for a few bucks grab some use it.

I carry one pair of nitrile gloves. They are good for throwing on if you have dirty fingers and can’t clean up. Also I always wear them if I’m coming in contact with another persons body fluids. I don’t want my germs getting into them nor theirs in me. I know these are not sterile but for minor cuts and for use on others I find these to be fine.

Just assorted band aids here. They are small and light so just cram them in every nook. Second to excederin this are the most used item. I like to always cover any open would as soon as possible. No point in risking serious infection.

I carry a bit of medical cloth type tape here. If I need to adhere a pad this is what I use. To save space on it and get the flat profile i need I wrapped it around a Kroger Plus card.

Here the backbone of the kit. Whinny meds. Pictured I have Anti diarrhea, Antacid, Lortabs, Excederin, and More Antacid. The antacid is mostly given to friends but it nice to have. The anti diarrhea is great to have when driving or hiking and can’t go often. The lortabs are more for emergencies than everyday use. I would rather have them in case though.

This is another multi use item. It’s 2% tincture of iodine. I have it for putting on wounds if the antiseptic cream runs out. But its main purpose is as a water disinfectant. With it I can make water safe to drink and to irrigate wounds if need be.

That’s all that I carry in my Level 1 FAK at the moment. Not much else will fit in there to be honest and those items have been the most used or most versatile. I’m always looking for items to do the job smaller/ lighter or have multiple uses. What do you carry in your everyday  use FAK?