Our Medical Kit

[jeroen servaes]

Any recommendation of software for Ipad ? I will be attending the Cape Town 2 Rio regata and will need extra help for diagnosis and extreme help

[tbodine88]

I bought one over the counter at the pharmacy, 10 years ago. All I've used was aspirin. I'm going to chuck it and get a new one this week, thanks for the reminder.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by tbodine88

I bought one over the counter at the pharmacy, 10 years ago. All I've used was aspirin. I'm going to chuck it and get a new one this week, thanks for the reminder.

You didn't even need a bandage? Almost daily procedure for us

[sestina]

Originally Posted by Teknav

I am not sure that a US doctor will prescribe you all of these medications without any cause of illness, and a pharmacist would honor the script provided. Have you calculated, how much all these drugs would cost? <Pharmacy - Board Certified> Mauritz

Because you have the tickets, you don't need a doctor's prescription, as they are for use onboard. It is expected that you would call for RMA before munching pills willy-nilly.

If the drugs are being supplied in the EU, then a doctor's approval is required. This counts for vessels on the British Registry. Indeed, if you are a British Registered Ship or Fishing Boat, the medical kit is mandatory. Full details can be found on the MCA web site.

The cost in 2010 including VAT and delivery was £365.52

[S/V Alchemy]

In a comment on marine medical stuff on my blog, I was given a useful link to the free World Health Organization's great big PDF of International Medical Guide for Ships.

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/1...682313_eng.pdf

Might be handy to keep on the Kindle for the deck crew on calm passages...

[SeaBuffalo]

Originally Posted by Teknav

I am not sure that a US doctor will prescribe you all of these medications without any cause of illness

It all depends on the doctor, but when it comes to most antibiotics they can be bought over the counter from veterinarian supply stores often for much lower prices but are still same brand and bottle as human RX.

Before trips I've always stocked up this way and never had a problem.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by SeaBuffalo

It all depends on the doctor, but when it comes to most antibiotics they can be bought over the counter from veterinarian supply stores often for much lower prices but are still same brand and bottle as human RX.

Before trips I've always stocked up this way and never had a problem.

In Holland we have a hospital specialized for ships crews, travelers, and us sailors. They give these medical training for expeditions, sailboats etc. The doctors that guide all that write prescriptions for medications on these lists.

I'm sure these centers are in all seagoing and travel-loving countries

Another way is to find a doctor who is a sailor him/herself.

[Jane.Joy]

Originally Posted by Dhillen

For those contemplating a shipboard medical kit, you can read about what we have determined should go in ours on my blog, which I have just updated (see signature).

Sail safe.

Dhillen

Dhillen, thanks so much for starting this thread, and for all who contributed! Now that we have finally put together a medical kit, I thought I would share our experiences.

We have been cruising for 18 months, but no big oceans so far, so we just had a very basic first aid kit - which was wholly inadequate, of course. I broke my arm on the way to Santa Marta, Colombia, and we "discovered" that we didn't even have an ACE bandage, ferpetesake. (We DID have vicodin, though, so )

Anyway, now we're in Panama and peering out towards the Marquesas, just over the horizon.... so we decided we needed to get a little more serious. I started with your list, Dhillen, and we consulted with a doctor here in Panama City - our Spanish is crappy, but we've learned that whatever the name of the drug, if you just change the "ph" to an "f" and tack an "a" on the end - that's how to say it in español. No, seriously, we found a doctor that speaks better English than I do, he explained all the stuff on the list, offered some substitutions because of availability in Panama... gave us a lot of good advice, wrote any scripts necessary, and charged us $80.

A few thoughts that might be helpful - your milage will vary.

Drugs - both prescription and OTC - are generally cheaper here than in the States - but the doctor strongly recommended that we should NOT buy generic here due to a weak regulatory system - so we ended up buying brand-name Lipitor for my hubby's high cholesterol, even though in the Bahamas we bought generic from Canada for much cheaper.

No epi-pens here, but we were sold a vial of epinefrina for a buck fifty. Seriously - one dollar and fifty cents. So for anyone on a serious budget, you can forego the fancy first-world contraption and go old school - I'll bet this is easy to get in a lot of Latin American countries.

Although we did have scripts for some of the stuff, almost all pharmacies here will sell you at least some prescription-only meds if you show your boat documentation and the passport of the documented captain. Especially antibiotics, but they were very careful about the valium, for example, and Vicodin is apparently super hard to get here. (no big deal for us, since as I already admitted, we have a small Vicodin stash. )

Did you know that Valium is a really good option for back spasms? We talked with the doctor about muscle relaxants - I think they don't have good options available here - but he said Valium would get us all fixed.

We have this doctor's cell phone number. I mean, this doctor actually answers the phone. And hey we have a sat phone! Wouldn't it be nice if you had a medical emergency on board and could immediately call - direct - an actual medical professional? Something to think about, for those who are preparing.

Those are the highlights. Thanks again for getting us started in the right direction.

[Dhillen]

I'm glad you found the list of what we have put into our medical kit as a useful starting point.

I like your idea of having a doctor who answers his phone. I need to find one of those.

Hopefully you will never need any of the above.

Cheers.

Dhillen