Thread: Whats in your First Aid Kit?

For pain relief, everyone should carry paracetamol. There are very few people that can't take it and if that's you, then you are probably not going to be hunting in the hills.

Next is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Should be avoided if you have kidney problems, severe dehydration or gastritis (and one or two other things of course), but a few doses would very rarely cause a problem in an otherwise healthy individual. On paper, diclofenac is a "better" drug than ibuprofen, but you just take more ibuprofen to have the same effect. Ibuprofen is cheap and you can buy it in a supermarket. Buy the generic preparations, there is no benefit in paying extra for branded products like Nurofen.

Next up are the weak opioids, that is codeine and tramadol. Codeine is metabolised to morphine in the body. Main side effects are drowsiness and constipation. Up until recently, you could buy low dose codeine tablets (mixed with paracetamol) over the counter, but that is no longer the case. Now it's prescription only. Tramadol is a funny one, works great for some people, just makes others feel like crap. Has a few drugs interactions, but since you will need a prescription for it, your GP should take that in to account. I think most sensible doctors would write a one off small prescription for these drugs if you explained that they were for emergencies only.

Finally, there are the strong opioids, in oral form these included sevredol (morphine) and oxycodone. Good luck in getting a prescription for those!




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