Road rash care part II

Tuesday:  Last night I got to wash my own hair which I think gets it a lot cleaner than anyone else trying besides a salon.  My sister got the lucky job of washing it in the first few days.  I got to seran wrap my arm and tape it up so water wouldn’t run down my arm in the shower.  I also put Tegaderm on my shoulder wound so I wouldn't have to worry about it and could just leave that on until new skin grows.

I’m doing okay except my forearm wound is still in pain.  My shoulder wound isn’t really seeping and it’s just really itchy under the Tegaderm.  I managed going up and down stairs at work today, and the knees are just sore. 

Wednesday:  Well my forearm is still oozing, and sticking to my non stick bandage.  My shoulder is healing well and is quite itchy.  My knees still hurt and I can't sit cross legged because the weight of my one leg is too much for the other leg to support for a longer period of time.  Other than that things seem to be healing well and I haven't really exercised for almost a week.  It's a strange feeling, but I'm letting my body focus on healing itself. 

Thursday:  It’s been a week and my shoulder wound is almost all healed.  Woo hoo!  Most of the wound was superficial so the scab actually rubbed off on the gauze when I was applying Aquaphor to moisturize my wound.  My forearm wound is still oozy and because my Tegaderm patch wasn’t fully sealed it started to ooze out of the Tegaderm.  Not a great thing to deal with at work and I wore my elastic stretch net so no one else saw my wounds under the Tegaderm.  I have been walking around with my elastic stretch net (the doctor says it’ll start a new fashion trend – not!) and I’ve seen that people want to ask me what’s wrong but they don’t.  Well my co-workers have asked and wonder how I managed to crash out on my bike all by myself.  I know, it makes me scratch my head too. 

Today I also went out for my first physical activity which was to walk 2.5 miles at the beach.  It was so great to be out, but after wearing high heeled wedges all day at work my bum knees were in pain.  Yeah, high heeled wedges were not a good idea today and probably won’t be for awhile. 

I’m still going to put Tegaderm on both wounds and let my new skin come to the surface.  Hopefully my infected forearm will heal soon.  At the moment I’m taking antibiotics and putting on a topical antibiotic on the wounds.  Here’s to healing!  

Sidenotes:  I thought my bicycle wasn't injured in the fall, but I finally took a good look at it today and the handlebar tape is gouged along with some major scratches on the gear shifters.  Sadness, and I'll probably need to take it to the bike shop to get a full look over.  I also got a get well/lecture card from my little sister who included an article from The Economist that says "Dying while cycling is three to five times more likely in America than in Denmark, Germany or Netherlands."  Basically the article states why it's not safe in America and how we don't protect cyclists by having "traffic calming" which means that cars slow down to 19mph.  Perhaps this is something we need to incorporate here in America, especially here in California.  I can see that going well with us Californians who can't seem to get to the next destination fast enough.  It's a good thought, and I'd love to see changes that protect cyclists: traffic calming, concrete barriers between cars and bicycles, etc.  That would be awesome!  

Some pics of the healing process:  1.  Elastic stretch net keeps paper tape and non-stick gauze in place.  New fashion trend?  2.  How the healing has gone after a week.  3.  Hmm...my shoulder scabs came off!  Yes, cuz I have a wedding to go to this weekend.  

                                                  

Road rash care

Friday: With road rash I discovered I had oozing wounds that stung all day.  I cleaned them up after work and let them air dry.  Try holding your arm up and not have it touch anything, yeah not fun.  Then I actually was able to find some Tegaderm and put it on for the night.

Saturday:  Just like everyone said on the internet, the Tegaderm keeps everything in and I had pockets of oozing in the Tegaderm.  Gross, so I peeled the Tegaderm up and drained the fluids out of it.  A bit gross, but the good thing is I’m not grossed out easily.  I went to REI during their Labor Day Weekend sale, got some bike shorts for when I can ride again, and talked to a cycling associate about road rash.  He just lets it air out.  I am beginning to realize there are many different opinions of how to treat road rash, and I'm also beginning to realize that road rash to most guys is like a badge of courage and it just happens to the best of em’.  They don’t worry too much about scarring because on them it’s cool and it means they’re adventurous.  Now on us gals it’s like a blemish that you just don’t want.  You never see women standing around showing each other their scars with ooohing and ahhhing.  If you have then it’s rare.

I decided to take myself to the Urgent care center just in case, and they took a culture of the pus coming out of my forearm wound.  I think the doctor was checking to make sure I didn’t have flesh eating bacteria.  My shoulder wound seems to be healing well.  Well the doctor cleaned my forearm wound and two hours later it’s still stinging and hurts like crazy.  He also checked to make sure I didn’t fracture my knees or my elbow, and called me lucky.  He did lecture me a bit, and then stopped since he admitted he rides a motorcycle.  The doctor calls it two wheeled craziness.  At the end he wanted me to stop by the next day so he could check on my wounds.  

Sunday:  That stinging after the doctor’s office?  Yeah that lovely burning sensation lasted for 6 hours and then after that every once in awhile I’d get a shooting pain.  I woke up on Sunday morning with my gauze stuck to my shoulder because of oozing.  So I wetted it and had to peel it off.  The doctor had put on the kind of gauze that can stick and boy did it.  It was like ripping my skin off which in actuality was what I was doing.  I changed my forearm dressing and that looked pretty gross too.  So this morning I had to forego my church meeting and let my wounds dry.  I ended up holding my arm up while watching Picker Sisters inspired by what they do and their awesome outfits.  They’re able to combine feminine, a little rough and tumble, and some cowgirl thrown in. 

I debated on whether or not to go back to the urgent care simply because I can change the dressings myself.  $40 co-pay to have someone take a peek and put some bandages on.  Hmmm?  Well…I thought, I guess it doesn’t hurt and I drove myself for the very expensive peek at my wounds and got them “dressed”.  So far the doctor says everything is looking good and they’ll tell me how the culture reads.  After reading about road rash and flesh eating bacteria, I would really like to keep my arm so that was another reason why I went to the urgent care. 

The good news is that today was the first day I could bend my knee and put weight on it going up and down the stairs.  Try going up and down stairs without bending your knee.  Uh huh…not so easy. 

Monday:  Well my Labor Day weekend plans have been altered severely by this crash, but there’s not much I can do about it.  I was supposed to go indoor rock climbing and hiking, and that’ll have to wait until my body decides it’s better.  I also realized that if you read articles on the web regarding how to care for yourself and it conflicts with pharmacist’s advice or doctor’s advice, they get very irritated and defensive.  Thus far I’ve had a few of them say, “Well you do what the internet says or you can listen to me, a pharmacist.”  Or from a doctor, “It’s your wound, you take care of it however you want.”  Sheesh, and I’ve been very nice about it but I’m not going to listen to a pharmacist who doesn’t treat patients and hasn’t slid on the road herself.  I also don’t think most people realize that road rash is a nicer way of saying road gash.  Basically it’s like traveling 15-20mph, sliding along the pavement, and having the road take off a few layers of skin.  

The main bone of contention between the internet and medical practitioners is keeping it moist or drying it out.  Well the internet says to keep it moist to keep it from scabbing because it’s going to scar, crack when you move it, and bleed which can cause more infection.  Medical doctors don’t want it too moist because then it gets infected.  So what I’ve decided to do is keep it moist but also to air it out some without it scabbing.  It’s a hard balance to keep. 

Last night and this morning my sleep was interrupted by my arm hurting and trying to position it where it wouldn’t rub against anything else.  It was rather on and off sleep but I think the oozing is getting less.  Yes!  

Here's a picture of my road rash care products.  I use the gloves to keep everything as clean as possible.

Crash and Burn!

I’ve heard of stories of cycling accidents, heard about the dreaded road rash, and today was my day for it all to happen.  I just lubed my bicycle chain for the first time and felt proud about cleaning that sandy chain up.  Then I set off on my bike and if I don’t stretch out my arms or back well then I get migraines from cycling.  It’s all in leaning forward and my neck being in a stretched out low angle.  Anyway, my plan was to do my usual 23 mile ride along the coast that I’ve been doing for more than 2 years now. 

Having only biked for about 10 minutes I was stretching my back out, had one hand on the handlebars, and for some reason I just lost control.  Don’t even ask how it happened because it happened too fast and I was thrown forward onto the street.  I got up quickly, and a lady walking on the sidewalk was nice enough to pick up one of my water bottles that flew with me too.  She asked if I was okay and told me to be careful.  Uh huh…too late for that.  Can I say ouch?  I have little scrape marks on my knees and will bruise pretty bad, road rash on my right hip, a scrape along my shoulder, and a deeper scrape on my forearm by my elbow.  It looks nasty right now and I can’t help but think vainly…how is this going to look later on and am I going to scar?  So before I head to the store for wound care, I’m icing my knees otherwise I’ll look like someone took a crow bar to them.

I’m just thankful that I’m okay, that my head didn’t hit the pavement, that my bike is okay, and that I’ll heal.  It could have been so much worse.  I read an article on wound care and we’ll see if it all works.  So far the main thing is to clean the wound thoroughly, keep it moist so it heals better, use a non stick gauze patch, and some paper tape.  I found a lot of this out because after calling a few drugstores regarding Tegaderm and since none of them had it I called Two Wheels One Planet in Costa Mesa (which happens to be my bike store).  One of the associates was nice enough to come to the phone and tell me how he treats road rash.  Apparently Andy who is a competitive cyclist gets road rash all the time, so he walked me through all the wound care steps.  So far I’m doing everything right and I bought all the supplies I need:  sterile saline wound wash, non-stick gauze patches, paper tape, gauze patches for cleaning, and Bacitracin to prevent infection.  Oh and Andy said that I should rest and eat a well balanced diet so that my body can work on repairing itself better.   Thank you Andy for all your advice!

So it’s 4 hours after the crash and I’m surprised I could ride back home previously.  Funny what happens after the shock and adrenaline wear off.  I have discovered I have badly bruised knee caps so I can barely bend them, I have road rash down my leg, a goose egg bruise on my thigh, and I’m in a lot more pain than I was some hours ago.  I should also add that I was wearing my helmet and cycling gloves.  I hate to think what my hands would look like without those gloves. 

I have pics of my road rash and I’ll update in a week to see if it’s healing properly by then.  Wish me luck. 

I am only sharing one pic with you all because I don't want to gross you all out.   

Road rash on my forearm by my elbow, ouch!

Here are some helpful articles I read: 

Great wound care article if you have road rash
Another insightful site regarding road rash care