I’m gonna need a bigger bag

So I’m off to Ukraine on Monday (well Moldova on Monday and - security allowing - on to Odessa on Tuesday morning).

Our security guy is already in Moldova and sent me a list of first aid and medical stuff to bring. Cue big debates between security team and our health team as to whether medical trauma kits are useful for use by non medics. I do like to travel with sterile needles, cannulas etc but in Ukraine I don’t think the risk of dirty needles will be the problem.

We get hostile environment training which is intense (I shared some blips of my course in May 2016) and includes dealing with gun shot wounds, stemming bleeding, dealing with amputations etc - but I’m not sure I can go much further than CPR and preventing blood loss while we get to proper medical care. Not that I expect to need to do either I should emphasise.

Anyway, off to look for a bigger bag to stuff full of all the bandages and wound dressings about to be delivered. Let’s hope we don’t need them! Oh and my emergency muesli bars of course, wouldn’t go anywhere without them!

On a side note I was pleased to discover today that Catalan people are just as sarcastic as the British.