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
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.
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| Road rash on my forearm by my elbow, ouch! |
Here are some helpful articles I read:
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