The Best Reference Book Ever!

I am back in Las Vegas and I have just finished my 94th ounce of water for the day. It's a sunny 105 (but it's a dry heat!), or it WAS. It seems to be trying to rain now, but it's still like an oven outside. I'm inside under the ceiling fan with all the curtains shut tight, practicing. James Wesley Rawles says that in the event of an epic disaster, it's best not to let people know that you are alive, lest they try to take whatever you're using to keep yourself alive for their own selves.

Once again, he's right.

I managed to make it to page 95 of David Werner's Where There is No Doctor on the airplane yesterday, before conking out just like 6-year-old Jeremiah, who was sitting next to me and also conked out.

Werner's book is very entertaining thanks to advice like the following:

"Do not waste your money at 'magic centers' that claim to cure witchcraft. And do not seek revenge against a witch, because it will not solve anything. If you are seriously ill, go for medical help. (5)"

But I also recommend it because of what I have seen so far, which includes: fever charts. An attractive two-page spread describes the different fever patterns of various sicknesses.

Page 31 has an illustrated tutorial on how to read a thermometer. This reminded me that I do not even own a thermometer for my apocalypse kit. It's a good thing that I'm going to venture out into the anemic rain for provisions here in a bit.

There is a very useful page on the signs of dangerous illnesses, and page 43 has some good advice about sending for medical help: Never send a small child or a fool.

The book was originally written for villagers in the mountains of Mexico, and it is intended for use by community health educators in places like those. Sad, really, a lot of the information that is emphasized. To those of us in the developed world, it seems like common sense, or addresses problems that we just don't seem to have.

We do have our problems here in the developed world, though, and in just the beginning of the book, I have already read several times about how health problems are caused by greed and uneven resource distribution, and some health problems that people seek medicine for are actually better treated at home. That's information we can all use.

I'll have to finish it before I can say for certain, but for the moment I say that if you have $15 laying around, this one might just be worth having.