The progression of FUGLY......

OWWWEEEEE!!! I would keep it covered during the day and open to air at night. You look pretty bruised!!!

dry that sucker out!

Clean and covered. Moist is actually better; once it dries, the crust inhibits healing and for deep incisions, those crusts have to often be debrided to give a moist healing bed again. 

Of course, if its' moist, you have to be really careful about not getting it dirty and infected, since bacteria love moisture. 

the faster you can get it to scab over the better.. then you can start picking the scabs off  thats half the fun isnt it ? LOL

bummer...that looks pretty raw.  I beleive there is a type of neosporin that has a local anesthetic in it...might numb it up a bit...good luck!

I would keep it covered for now until it starts to look like new skin.  Then you can take the bandaging off.  For my arm (which was similar) I had non-stick bandages with lots of neosporin and a sock (with the toe cut off) to keep it covered and clean. 

And I thought you were a nurse.... 

I would keep it covered during the day, and leave it to air at night.  Also, NO neosporin or other triple antibiotic.  A double abx is fine though.  Neomycin is a nasty, nasty drug, and a decent percentage of the population can develop an allergy to it with continuted exposure.  It would suck to need it one day and not be able to use it because you went all buck wild with neosporin.

The above info about triple abx is from my previous Dr.  This has also recently been confirmed here on BT in another thread by another very pharmacologically knowledgable person.

go with the person who knows how to spell and use "pharmacologically knowledgable." 

Clean it EXTREMELY well and then cover with Moleskin. When the Moleskin falls off, it's healed.

You need to get a large Tegaderm patch on it. These are available over the counter in most pharmacy's (at least in the US), but for large ones you need to go to a medical supply store.

It will heal much faster, and with less scarring.

scott

Is Tegaderm simillar to Moleskin? Maybe I'm just using the "old school" name for it from my racing days back in the 80s.

Edited by tjtryon 2009-07-05 9:48 PM

No. It's a medicated film that's breathable.



scott

I would say to keep it covered for the time being.. cleanliness is the most important thing here. And I would definitely keep posting pictures

edit: I work with animals, not people.. just incase anyone assumed my SN was a job title instead of a nickname

Edited by doctorbob18 2009-07-05 10:05 PM

I do the opposite for that very reason. I keep mine covered and use Neosporin for a couple days but then I'm pretty anxious for them to scab up. So I let them air during the day as much as possible, and then clean/Neosporin and cover them at night.

I use Tegaderm as well with antibiotic ointment on wound.

Something I used for a burn to keep it moist was called adaptec. I believe it's made by Bandaid brand and it's in a black thin box. I used it under a bandage and what do you know...no scars!

I would definitely use Tegaderm.  Works really well and there was no scarring with it.

Try this link.  It is consistent with what the minor injury clinic had me do when I, for some unknown reason, decided to slide down the road on my hip and elbow during a big descent rather than stay on my bike.  I have a few scars still but much better than I expected.  Tegaderm is recommended.


http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/injuries/a/abrasions.htm 


Edited by JJohn 2009-07-06 12:07 AM

Ok, upon further review, I would cover it while you're sleeping, but when you're home and just hanging out, I'd give it some air.  And just go to an adult part of your hospital and snag some tegaderms.  They actually aren't medicated to my knowledge though.

Covered at all times!  Airing the wound promotes scabbing, which was fine when we lived in caves and scabs were the only thing keeping bacteria at bay.  But you'll end up with an awesome discolored scar on your hip as well, and if that scab peels off you're back to square one.  Airing it at night also gets your sheet fuzz stuck on the wound, again just asking for infection.  I've got 2 links for ya:
http://www.juniornationalcyclingassociation.org/blacksheep/roadrashabc.pdf and http://www.obra.org/wound_care.html. 

Tegaderm can stay on for 4 or 5 days as long as it hasn't peeled up, or you look at the wound and decide it needs to be cleaned again and changed.  As someone said earler, neomycin can develop an allergy - it's also in triple antibiotic ointment.  Bacitracin zinc is a little better (still an ingredient in 3x antibiotic) in terms of developing an allergy.  

It's tempting to let that road rash scab up bc then you don't have to think about it.  It's a lot more time consuming to go through all the trouble of actual wound care, but it's also safer, more effective, and is (believe it or not) quicker.  Here's the biggest problem with Tegaderm that I've seen with athletes - it tends to peel off with large movement.  Walking is fine, but running, sliding, sweating, etc seems to be a little tough.  You'll find you have to go through a tegaderm patch a day, or more, and it's not the cheapest stuff.  But you can bathe with it and go through all your day-to-day type stuff with no problem.