Road Rash

In the past year I have by far received the most emails from my post about Extensor tendonitis than just about any other post. So in order to further improve my hit rate I have arranged to obtain some “Road Rash” so that I can write about it :)
Ok so basically my grand training weekend up at Lake Placid was cut short by a small accident that caused me a concussion and some nice road rash. A concussion is basically any head trauma that causes you to black out or lose memory. In my case it was both. I cant actually remember the accident. Which is disturbing since there is no obvious sign of what exactly happened. Basically, I was riding behind holisticguru on a flat portion of the course. The roads were not unusually bad, they were not perfect but I have ridden over much worse. Next thing I know I am picking myself up off the ground with my bike underneath me.

According to the doc at the ER I did take a pretty significant shot to the head (blunted by another cracked helmet). That’s it. I suspect my tire got caught in some rut in the road. Once I got up HG insisted on waiting 5 minutes to clear my head. Then we rode back ( the bike was fine only some additional scratches). It was about 10 miles back to Lake Placid.

Though I felt fine, the others at the house(Rambonie, Jennwilltri) insisted I go to the hospital. So Rambonie was kind enough to take me to the ER. There I had Xrays done, and a CT scan to make sure there were no Hematomas or other crazy shit going on in my head. Well aside from the usual crazy shit.
All was clear. I was checked out 3 hrs later with instructions to do nothing for 48 hours. The concussion could cause me to faint. Also exercising could make it worse. Somehow, this prognosis did not change even after I begged that I needed to ride the course one more time! WTF!

Anyhow I was given instructions on what to do for the road rash, which at the moment is by far the most aggravating result from this accident. So here you go how to treat Road Rash:

-Remove old dressings daily and apply new ones
-If the bandage sticks to the wound apply some moisture to help it come of easier
-Keep injury clean and dry at all times
-Apply a thin layer of antibiotic ointment 2-3 times daily to help it heal faster and avoid excessive scarring.

No medication was prescribed only Motrin (WTF! What about some good pain meds??!)
That’s it! Nothing special really. But here is some tidbit that is yet ANOTHER BLOW against the Male leg shavers out there!!
One reason I was given as to why cyclists and triathletes shave their legs is that it makes the healing of road rash go easier.

NOT TRUE per the ER doc, in fact it works the other way around. When you shave you expose the bacteria that resides at the roots of the hair. Therefore during an accident you are more likely to get an infection. MORE LIKELY! Take that you male shavers!

Anyhow that’s it. Aside from stating that the road rash is truly uncomfortable, and painful there is nothing more to add, about this.