I told my husband if I’m unconscious to smother me on the spot. I want to die with my boots on like my daddy. He is a big Boy Scout, he probably won’t do it.
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I carry a tourniquet on me when motorcycle riding. I added instructions- This goes around my neck.
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In that case of being prescribed nitro for you in that event, then yes you would take it for yourself since you may very well know the signs and symptoms of the MI you had.
Great list… I would add heavy duty zip ties, 4-in-1 screwdriver (if needed) and 6’ if elastic bungee (with no hooks). Have used for temporary rudder and seat repair.
That is considered murder in some places.
Check with your doctor before carrying nitroglycerin if you are taking other medications. Certain combinations can cause a rapid and disastrous drop in blood pressure.
As others have said, before taking aspirin for a stroke, you need to know if it is a hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke. Symptoms can be the same. Aspirin can make a hemorrhagic stroke worse.
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If you are in a remote area, a lot of that goes out the window.
Anyway, I’m not here to change anyone’s mind only to say what I will be prepared to do.
Lots of good suggestions already listed by others.
I’ll only add- plumbers epoxy stick for temporary hole repair in most boats.
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A good friend of mine was an OTR for 40 years, mostly working on functional rehab with stroke patients at a wide range of hospitals and clinics in the region (as in many fields, recognition of good work and reasonable rewards for it are lacking and it is only through job changes that one can increase income and expand opportunities.) She was so horrified by the thought of becoming terribly disabled by a stroke that she identified 3 hospitals ERs that she would want to be sent to if she had one because she knew from experience that their staff was so inept that few people who came in with a bleed would survive. Of course, she was used to dealing with the worst outcome survivors.
Ironically she did wake up one morning during her mid 40’s, after having been in an accident the day earlier where she was t-boned in her pickup by a drunk driver but released from the ER with “just bruising”, and realized that she had just had a mild stroke (she’d thrown a clot from the extensive internal bruising). She crammed some aspirin down and got a neighbor to drive her to the local ER. It turned out to be mild enough that she recovered her full speech and facial muscle control within a few weeks but she’s been on blood thinners ever since. But still does multi-day road bike touring at 72 and after having a hip replacement and knee and foot surgeries. So I presume she’s glad she got decent treatment at the ER half a lifetime ago.
My ex, the burn-out ER doc, awoke one night and I heard him bolt into the kitchen, then a loud crash. I rushed out and found him lying buck naked on the floor between the stove and kitchen table, semi-conscious with a bottle’s worth of aspirin, broken glass and water spilled all around him. Once I roused him I learned he had awakened in a panic with his heart racing and “feeling really weird” and had feared he was having a stroke or MCI. I think bolting vertical gave him vertigo and while he was trying to gulp a handful of aspirin he fainted. Had quite a goose-egg on his forehead from hitting the edge of the table on the way down. I feared he had a concussion.
BUT, of course he refused to see another doctor, despite my concerned urging, about the event and several other similar ones that had been occurring for months. He was so averse to being a “patient” himself he refused to get checkups and even to take the simple physical that he needed to renew his pilot’s license, despite the fact that he was paying monthly for his share of a group-owned 2 seater that was at an airfield 10 minutes away and which he loved to fly.
Since I had been present at that and all the prior attacks, I was able to deduce that they always occurred at exactly 5:15 AM, which was the time that for years he had had to get up to drive 90 minutes for his chaotically stressful 12 hour gigs as the only ER doc per shift at the rural hospital where he was a “rent-a-doc” (the common protocol for small hospitals these days). That timing, and other aspects of his behaviors lead me to suspect PTSD burn-out. Few ER docs are able to endure the physical and mental strain for as long as he stuck at it (34 years overall).
I finally got him to quit that miserable job (lord knows he didn’t need the money – he’d been frugal and stingy and was set for life but even $150 an hour is not worth being miserable). Those wee hour attacks continued for a few months and finally tapered off and ended. But he continued to slurp aspirin when each one occurred.
I often wondered what the effect of that plus him pounding Tylenol continually on a daily basis for minor aches and pains was doing to his gut and liver. Despite my pointing to white papers on studies that demonstrated the potential downsides (he had given me his password to search the restricted medical databases) he insisted chronic consumption of Tylenol was “completely safe.” Whatever, Doc…
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I don’t like Tylenol at all! I’m way too woo for that.
I had somebody who blacked out for no reason and I could not wake him up but I did not call 911
(Pilots license) and finally he came to.
Lo and behold the other day I read this article about all these men who have gone missing in Amsterdam.
Any guesses?
*Micturition syncope * —boom they fall in the canal.
So now we know 
Mohave, I’m beginning to need a translator for your posts. “Too woo” for Tylenol?
Having micturition syncope would really piss a guy off.
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Woo means holistic and Tylenol is very bad for your health, IMO.
I know Willow is a collector of information so I thought she might like the story.
And you men around the water should wear your PFD around the campfire 
Maybe men in the Netherlands should wear them to the bars, just an 
idea. 19 a year in Amsterdam is a lot!
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Candidates for the Darwin Awards.
Am I missing something here I am confused, why would a heart attack probability be high while kayaking?
Because heart attacks are a leading cause of death and often you are in a remote area?
In a wilderness area about all you can do is chew aspirin and since that is what the advice is, you might as well include it in your pack.
It’s small, cheap, portable.
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