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Monday, January 27

Share the Wisdom Wednesday (normally on Thursdays, but this time Monday)

I know it's been awhile, but go ahead and file this one under...

I'm sharing this information with the class just in case some of yinz have had their heads in the sand next to me for almost thirty years. I know if I bring up my abraded knee, there are those among you that are going to jump up on their Endurbro™ soapboxes and yell, "WEAR KNEE PADS, SHIT FOR BRAINS."

I don't wear them. I won't wear them. Case closed.

Anyhoo, I drug my knee part across the earth two Sundays ago, as captured in such amazing detail by Mario Quivera.

It happened so fast that my hand was still on the grips when I went down ... and this is also the reason I won't be using any of those multi-tools that shove into my bar-hole.

Go home, take that fun shower where I just soap up the loofah and go to town on my booboo. Apply some antibacterial ointment, go to bed, stick to the sheets, wake up with a crusty knee, get it bending again, toss on a knee warmer, get to work, feel the scab start sticking to the knee warmer, feel the crust start to form any time I sit for more than a half hour...

Not this time. I'm gonna do something about it.

I've gone through these familiar motions a lot ever since... well, ever since I can remember, being that I've been riding bikes (and wrecking them) non-stop since I learned to keep them upright 99% of the time. My knees are a hot, scarred up mess. My elbows are only slightly better.

I had one of my most memorable "road rashes" at the 2010 Trans Sylvania Epic.

Mostly an abrasion with a chunk missing here and a deep gash across my knee cap. It was only on day two of a seven week race, and I wasn't looking forward to racing with an open wound on the front of my leg for five more days in the dirt and Pennsylvania mucky muck. The best we could come up with was some gauze and tape... the gauze just weaving it's way into the scab, the tape slowly falling off as I pedaled. Since that failed me on day three, I just left it open and scrubbed the ever-loving piss out of it daily after each stage henceforth.

I did not die, so there's that.

A month later, I opened it all back up again at the Tour de Burg...

except I did a much better job that time. Yeth, that's a hunk of skin hanging off, a decent portion of the frail skin that was trying so hard to regrow.

This most recent time, I got to work and then headed to the drug store. I bought this stuff I'd heard of but never tried, Tegaderm... well, the generic equivalent.

It's expensive. My first application was far from perfect. Try sticking a 4" X 4.75"adhesive on the most bendy part of your body and nailing it the first time. My knee warmer kept the botched installation in place until I got home and found a roll of self-adherent cohesive wrap (that came from where?).

I've now perfected my method.

 Looking very good four days later.

Ho lee shit. Where has this been all my life? My knee stays moist and bendy all day. Sheets and knee warmers don't stick to the wound. There's a lot less screaming in the shower. As long as you can keep it in place, it's okay to leave on for four to seven days.

So yeah.

I know some of you already know about this stuff. Good for you. I'm assuming some of you don't, but now you do, so... welcome?

In case there's any confusion here, I fully give this my Seal of Semi-Approval.
I wish it were cheaper. I wish it was easier to put on (the Tegaderm brand looks more user friendly). I wish I never needed it... but I will say that I'm never gonna bike travel without a couple of them in my toiletry bag and a roll of that crazy self-sticky tape stuff.   I've been pedaling and living life and forgetting it's even there most of the time.

Buenos.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hydrocolloidal bandages are far superior for healing road rash.

Jot said...

You need to go buy some Flexifix. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015TI2ZA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$20 for 10 meters (10.9 yards) of the stuff. Much better for roadrash, especially since you can do it in longer pieces than you can buy of Tegaderm for way less cost.

If it's going to be a particularly oozy wound I'll cut a gauze pad and put it under when I put this on, to try to help with that.

Anonymous said...

guess your nurse wife takes the same hands off approach to injuries as my nurse wife.

FourMat said...

Yup, roadie teams buy it by the case on Amazon.

dicky said...

Anon,

You can lead a dipshit to a medicine cabinet, but you can't make him drink.

Anonymous said...

Tegaderm got me through a couple of nasty trail rash incidents this year. Gotta thank my coach for that one!

Anonymous said...

Split my knee open 5 weeks ago. Directly over the patella. (Not long after passing guy with knee pads). Hate wearing them. Bagged the bursa, saved the tendon mostly and didn’t fracture anything. Multiple sutures, after a thorough wash out and antibiotics for a week. It still sucks, is tender/hurts/boggy.....time will tell. Tincture of time. You have my empathy.