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.
No comments:
Post a Comment