CUTS, BRUISES & CO.

The basics shouldn’t just be the usual medication for diarrhoea, constipation, headache and travel sickness or any medicines taken regularly. It should also include the following: disinfectant, sticking plasters in various sizes, blister plasters, cortisone cream, and painkillers. It is also a good idea to have a tweezers, a scissors and a topical anti-inflammatory gel such as diclofenac or heparin.

Female Pharmacy customer: Hello, do you speak English?
PTA: Yes, a little.

I was just getting my things organized for our summer holidays when I realised that we are low on a few things. I thought the best place would be the pharmacy as you know exactly what one needs when going on holiday!
Certainly! Let’s get started with disinfectant as it is the first thing used on a cut or an abrasion. This one here is a broad spectrum disinfectant spray and comes in various sizes but I think the 50 ml bottle is ideal for the holiday first aid kit.

You said “broad spectrum”. What did you mean by that?
Broad spectrum basically means that it may be used as an anti-bacterial spray and also as well as an antimycotic agent.

Good! What else do you think we might need?
Are you holidaying here or abroad?

The Black Forest. Why?
Well, as of April this year, the Black Forest is considered to be a “red zone” for tick-borne diseases such a Lyme disease or tick-borne encephalitis. Maybe you should consider insect repellent as well. We have one here that is effective for up to eight hours against midges and up to four hours against ticks.

I’ll take that as well. Do you have any types of tick forceps? It looks a bit like an over-sized tweezers. And I also need tweezers now that I think of it.
Certainly, we have this tick forceps here, which I take with me when we go on hiking holidays in the mountains. And we have various sizes of normal tweezers here.

I also need some plasters in various sizes.
Here you are. Do you need any plasters for blisters? I always find that, even with the best socks and the most comfortable hiking boots, I sometimes get blisters on my heels or the balls of the foot.

Goodness! I hadn’t thought of that, you are absolutely right on that one!
You might also need lint-free gauze pad, it’s ideal for cleaning wounds as it doesn’t get fluff in the wound.

Good idea! Thank you!
Do you have any children?

Yes, a son and a daughter. They are both school age and very active!
You might consider taking an antiinflammatory cream with you as it is good for bumps and bruises.

Now, that is a really good idea! You can’t imagine how often those two get into trouble! Honestly!

Vocabulary
bruises Prellungen
paramedic Rettungssanitäter
constipation Obstipation
blister plasters Blasenpflaster
tweezers Pinzette
topical topisch, örtlich
anti-inflammatory gel entzündungshemmendes Gel, auch antirheumatisch und antiphlogistisch
abrasion Schürfwunde
considered betrachtet
tick-borne diseases durch Zecken übertragene Krankheiten
Lyme disease Borreliose
tick-borne encephalitis Frühsommer-Meningo-Enzephalitis (FSME)
tick-forceps Zeckenpinzette
hiking boots Wanderstiefel
lint-free Fusselfrei
gauze pad Mullkompresse
fluf Fussel
bumps Beulen

 Den Artikel finden Sie auch in Die PTA IN DER APOTHEKE 08/14 auf Seite 50.

Catherine Croghan, Lecturer in English and native speaker