Making a plan - Medication

There are two things that I want to talk about here. They could really both go into making a kit or making an evacuation plan, but I think it is beneficial to talk about medication separately.

The first thing is making sure that you have your medication. There are different ways of doing this.

I knew one couple who used two sets of weekly pill minders. One set would be in the emergency kits, and they other they would use. At the end of the week they would fill up the empty one, put it in the kit, and use the one that had just been pulled from the kit. That is one way of doing it.

Honestly, my plan is just to scoop mine up on the way out. Based on their location it is easy to do, and it is simpler. It doesn't provide for an emergency happening while I am away from home, but neither does the other couple's plan, assuming they are keeping their kits at home.

Fortunately, in a case where you end up going to a shelter, there may be processes in place for providing prescription medication. Having your correct dosage information will be helpful.

In the Prepare Out Loud presentation, they recommended taking the labels off of some old bottles and putting them in your kit, because that has all of the information. I saw the point, but knew that getting the labels off could be a frustrating process. However, most of the pharmacies I know also have a paper printout with the prescription that has everything on the label. This includes the name of the medication, the dosage, the prescribing doctor, and instructions for taking the medication.

That can be easily added to your kit, and with a couple of refills you could have home and work copies, or home and car copies. That is something to think about.

I'll give you one more thing to think about from that night. They talked about having supplies for pets, and I felt guilty because we were getting low on dog food. We had plans to go to the store and buy more, and we did and everything was fine, but in the event of an emergency that prevented us from getting to the store, we would have run out. We could share our food with her, but that wouldn't be ideal for her digestion, especially in a time that would probably already be stressful. (She would love it in theory.) Also, that relies on us being prepared for ourselves, and we should be, but as long as we are preparing that should be for everyone who lives here, whether two-legged or four-legged.

I bring this us not to talk about pet preparedness (although that is important to me), but to encourage you to not leave filling your prescription to the last minute. There are legal limitations to how much you can have on hand, so there will be a date before which you cannot refill. However, after that date, refill instead of leaving it to the day before. Playing it close like that can result in missed doses even when there isn't an emergency, because many days there is just life and that gets complicated enough.

That's when we move beyond emergency preparedness to provident living. Life is smoother when we do.