First time with road rash.. what to do?

Briando

Came down pretty heavy today while descending and look like somebody paint my left side with jam. Shoulder/Back, Thigh and calf all burnt and scratched.

Had a shower washed the stones and dirt out of it and letting it air dry now. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Guess i need to leave it a few days before swimming?

smacl

Rules around here is no medical advice, but avoiding public pools with open skin wounds is a no brainer. If you've any concerns, get checked by a doc, and look after yourself.

Plastik

smacl wrote: »

Rules around here is no medical advice, but avoiding public pools with open skin wounds is a no brainer. If you've any concerns, get checked by a doc, and look after yourself.

I came down recently and took me whole right elbow, shoulder and arse apart. Clean the burn, go to Chem and buy Rowa? To put on, helps scabbing. Bar that, you should get yourself seen to by a doc.. If you're sore get seen to. I couldn't, literally, put my leg over the bike for over a week

Mycroft H

Clean and dry and common sense.

Beasty

Depends how bad it is - I had some a couple of years back when I broke a wrist so had to attend hospital anyway. I ended up having to get it dressed daily for a week or so, but had some prescription ointment that made all the difference - the nurse said that in her experience the type of burn I had would normally take up to 6 weeks to improve to the state mine had within about 10 days.

If it is bad, it really is best to get it checked out by your GP

Crow92

I've read vitamin E oil is good for helping the skin to recover.

Cookie_Monster

Take a pic so you can freak people out even after it heals.
I've never bothered doing anything specific about it other than cleaning it initially.

Hungrycol

Get thee to a Dr or nurse to look at it. Last thing you want is an infection!

GT_TDI_150

Wud bepanthen cream be any good here, it's what most tattoo shop recommend for aftercare of tattoos these days...

It does a brill job on them (",)

Lumen

Road rash is a wonderful thing. I seem to get it at long enough intervals that I've completely forgotten everything I learned from treating it the last time.

The first couple of days I spend moaning and dithering about whether to keep it wet or dry. I think wet heals better but dry heals faster. Regardless of medical best practice, I just want the damn thing to scab over.

Some people think Aloe Vera gel helps dry it out. Vaseline or Sudocream will keep it wet. Tubular bandage is very useful on arms and legs to keep the dressing in place. It is really important to change dressings every day. Getting large enough dressings can be a problem, but most pharmacies have a stock of them out of sight.

Week 2 is usually spent poking at the yellowish ooze and Googling for images of infected wounds.

The best bit is about week 3 when the scabs start to ripen. The itchy ones are safe to pick. Sweeeeet.

Jupiter36

I saw you after you fell yesterday. You did a pretty good job on yourself!! I had the same experience last week. The advice I got from the medics, a nurse who works in the wound clinic in my local hospital (and a whole bunch of cyclists who seem to fall week in week out) is to keep the wounds clean, moist and dressed. You should get it checked by a medic. What I was told was, effectively, the wound is the same as a burn. All the research indicates that they will heal better if you keep them covered and moist. This also places you at less risk from infection and from scarring. Off to the Chemist and ask for Jelonet patches (you will need plenty for your arm and your leg), some gauze and big plasters (easier than a bandage) or hydrofix tape to keep them in place. You can make your own saline solution to clean the wounds. Dettol will sting like hell. DO NOT PUT ALOE VERA gel on a wound. You can put it on the skin once the wound has HEALED but definitely not now. Put Arnica on the bruises and bumps but NOT on the open wound.

You can get waterproof dressings if you want to go swimming (which is what I used yesterday). You will find today that your arm is probably stiff and sore due to the impact when you hit the road. So its probably advisable to wait for a few days and let it settle down before swimming. If you can swim in the sea, that would probably be a better option than a pool.
Best of luck!

fixie fox

Briando wrote: »

Came down pretty heavy today while descending and look like somebody paint my left side with jam. Shoulder/Back, Thigh and calf all burnt and scratched.

Had a shower washed the stones and dirt out of it and letting it air dry now. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Guess i need to leave it a few days before swimming?

I'm against letting it dry on the logic that if there are any tiny bits of foreign matter in there they get trapped and cause infection. If you keep itoist they 'float' out. You can get a kind of gauze from chemist that is impregnated with iodine or some hunk - great stuff for it.

Pablo Rubio

Peroxygen ( Hydrogan Peroxide0 if you are hard enough. Its an antiseptic used in hospital A&E for initial cleaning of dirty wounds. Stings like hell and bubbles up on contact with wound. Didn't notice it so bad last time it was used on me....cause the broken collarbone was more painful. Tetnis shots are also something you should consider , you neveer know whats on the road you came in contact with.Trained Medical advice should be sought as well.

Hungrycol

Lumen wrote: »

It is really important to change dressings every day.

The nurse who bandaged me up told me to keep the bandages on for two weeks, unchanged. They were jelly yokes that contained silver.

I was also on antibiotics for 7 days cos my elbow started getting infected within 36 hours of being amorous with a Westmeath road... and I thought I was being sensible with cleaning it and bandaging it but it seemed not so.

Greenmachine

Oops thought you were talking about the video game.

Lumen

Hungrycol wrote: »

The nurse who bandaged me up told me to keep the bandages on for two weeks, unchanged. They were jelly yokes that contained silver.

I was also on antibiotics for 7 days cos my elbow started getting infected within 36 hours of being amorous with a Westmeath road... and I thought I was being sensible with cleaning it and bandaging it but it seemed not so.

Dunno whether it relates to the seriousness or type of injury, but the only time I've had road rash treated by a nurse (when I went for a tetanus jab after a particularly filthy crash) she told me to change dressings daily.

Lusk Doyle

I crashed a week ago yesterday. I cleaned my hand, arm and shoulder myself with some baby wipes. I then went to the ambulance at the race and they disinfected the wounds and bandaged me up. Each of the next two days I recleaned the wounds and sprayed savlon on them. Ridiculous how much that hurts! After a few days the wounds stopped oozing and I then put masc ochronna z witamina a, which to the lay person translates as protection cream with vitamin a. That has had an amazing healing effect on all the wounds and they are healing perfectly with no itch and minimum scabbing. I have to admit, I do love picking at scabs but not much to work on with this stuff!

lescol

I keep Duoderm Xtra thin in the 1st aid box for applying to road rash. I've used it on both hips so far. It has meant the difference between stinging pain with every movement, to being able to work and cycle fairly normally. I completed a Blasket Blast with the dressing in place.

Beasty

Crow92 wrote: »

I've read vitamin E oil is good for helping the skin to recover.

GT_TDI_150 wrote: »

Wud bepanthen cream be any good here, it's what most tattoo shop recommend for aftercare of tattoos these days...

It does a brill job on them (",)

fixie fox wrote: »

I'm against letting it dry on the logic that if there are any tiny bits of foreign matter in there they get trapped and cause infection. If you keep itoist they 'float' out. You can get a kind of gauze from chemist that is impregnated with iodine or some hunk - great stuff for it.

Pablo Rubio wrote: »

Peroxygen ( Hydrogan Peroxide0 if you are hard enough. Its an antiseptic used in hospital A&E for initial cleaning of dirty wounds. Stings like hell and bubbles up on contact with wound. Didn't notice it so bad last time it was used on me....cause the broken collarbone was more painful. Tetnis shots are also something you should consider , you neveer know whats on the road you came in contact with.Trained Medical advice should be sought as well.

lescol wrote: »

I keep Duoderm Xtra thin in the 1st aid box for applying to road rash. I've used it on both hips so far. It has meant the difference between stinging pain with every movement, to being able to work and cycle fairly normally. I completed a Blasket Blast with the dressing in place.

Some fine examples here of exactly why Boards does not permit medical "advice". Any problems OP - go and see your GP