I’ve had a “first aid kit” on the back burner for quite a while. I haven’t actually done anything about it. Mostly I’m checking out the available options. I’ve been comparing the FAK that’s in my car (which was given to me) and the FAK in Kathleen’s car. I’ve been looking at kits from the Red Cross and tactical organizations.

It’s worth noting that, in my opinion, most people (myself included) don’t know anything about first aid and therefore have no idea what should actually be in a FAK. (On my list of things to do this spring is take a first aid course. I haven’t done the research for that, either.)

A client of ours is a hospital. They thought it would be cool to have little FAKs put together with their logo on it. I finally got to see what’s inside it. Ugh.

It’s a little red zippered pack. I have a think about little red zippered packs, because every single little red zippered pack I’ve ever had has failed. The zippers break. The stitches come undone. The whole thing proves to be significantly less than waterproof and everything inside gets ruined. But I digress. It’s about 2x4x6. A lot of that is actually padding. I don’t know why you need padding in a FAK. Most of the interior is taken up by an “instant cold pack.” Because, you know, you absolutely need a heavy brick in a cardboard box. I hope there are instructions inside the box. There are also a pair of small scissors with orange handles, which remind me of kiddie scissors. You could not possibly cut off your own arm with anything like that. There is a pair of blue plastic tweezers. The kit is rounded out by a few supposedly antiseptic wipes and band-aids.

Now, like I said, I haven’t worked out my perfect FAK yet. But this is not it.