Note: This is day 4 of National Preparedness Month. Follow this year’s campaign on Twitter by searching for the #NPM11 hash tag.
This month, as part of NPM11, I’ll be rerunning some edited and updated older preparedness essays, along with some new ones.
# 5811
With this year’s flu season just around the corner, and on the heels of this week’s exotic flu news (see FAO Warns On Bird Flu & CIDRAP On Today’s Reassorted Swine Flu Story), today seems like a good day to rerun this simple flu-related prepping advice.
Being prepared is a habit, one that takes time (and practice) to establish. Even though I consider myself reasonably ready for most emergencies, I have – on occasion – been caught less than prepared.
The single best flu-related prep is undoubtedly getting your flu vaccination each and every year.
Flu Vaccines have an excellent safety record, and are now recommended for nearly everyone over the age of 6 months. While it may not protect against every type of respiratory infection, most years it proves effective against the most dangerous flu strains in circulation.
But even when you get the shot, it is possible to be felled by a sudden illness.
One night about 4 years ago I felt a bit unwell (feverish and tired) and laid down. The next 24 hours were lost in a feverish delirium as I came down with some kind of a brief, but debilitating, illness.
Although the bathroom and kitchen were but a few steps away, I was too weak, and too delirious, to even fetch myself a glass of water. My cell phone was in its charger in the living room, so I couldn’t call for help.
I remember laying there knowing I should be taking some acetaminophen to quell the fever and forcing fluids . . . but I was simply unable to do so.
Luckily, I recovered enough that the next evening I was able to get up and rehydrate myself. A few days later, I was almost human again.
I, like millions of others, live alone.
And those of us without an in-house support system (and particularly single parents raising small children) need to take extra steps to prepare for this sort of event.
Since that long night’s journey into the next day, I’ve made two simple changes.
First, I’ve moved my cell phone charger to my beside table. My phone now goes with me when I retire at night, that way I can call for help if ever the need arises.
Second, I made a simple under-the-bed flu kit.
In it, I’ve got:
A couple of pouch Sports drinks (rehydration)
A bottle of acetaminophen
A bottle of expectorant pills
Imodium pills
A thermometer
Throat lozenges
Surgical masks for me to wear in case I have to call for help or have visitors.
All of which fits in a small plastic box. Any small container would do.
And of course, my cell phone is now kept close at hand.
It’s a simple prep. One that I put together with things I already had around the house and in my medicine cabinet. But having preps is pretty much useless if you can’t get to them when you need them.
Since then, I’ve had one occasion to use this `flu box’, although I wasn’t anywhere nearly as incapacitated as I was 3 years ago. It was more of a `flu comfort kit’ than an emergency prep.
It did, however, serve as a reminder to replace the soon-to-be-expired sports drinks.
Putting together a little flu kit like this may seem like too insignificant of a prep to bother with, but believe me, I wish I’d thought of it before I needed it.
