Road rash - treating and minimizing scars

[ehirsch83]

Here is my tried and trued method(which was taught to me by my UCI license holding SO who has had more crashes then one should have,lol!)

in shower:
1)Anti-bacterial soap, scrub.
2) hydrogen peroxide

out of shower:
1)iodine solution
2)antibiotic cream
3) tegamet where it will stick
4) for places that tegamet does not stick- use anti stick gauze pads with the fishnet sleeve stuff over it(for arms and legs) or anti stick gauze pads to cover whole area and then the white adhesive tape around it.

repeat daily

it isn't fun but it does work.

Your road rash looks painful! I hope it all heals up and you feel better!

[Bethany1]

Oh my goodness. I can't help you, but I hope you heal up soon. Now I feel bad for whining about my scraped up knees to my DH the other day.

Sending (((HUGS))) your way.

[zoom-zoom]

Oh my goodness. I can't help you, but I hope you heal up soon. Now I feel bad for whining about my scraped up knees to my DH the other day.

Sending (((HUGS))) your way.

Yeah, no kidding. My knee owie pales in comparison. Susie, that looks incredibly painful! I hope you're able to sleep OK. So badass!!!

[Owlie]

That looks awful. With DBF's crash, the advice was to keep them moist to minimize scarring. I forget what he said they did, but it was similar to what was suggested.

Heal up quickly! Hopefully you can get to sleep...ouch...

[OakLeaf]

Ow ow ow.

I've been having really great results dressing wounds with raw honey covered with Tegaderm. You can tape down the edges if necessary.

Back in the day we used to use Second Skin - if the LBS doesn't have it, it's in the drugstore with burn dressings.

Rest, don't skimp on the pain meds, and heal. Pain is exhausting even if you're not really experiencing it as pain, and that'll tear down your immune system, making you extra susceptible to getting sick.

And keep it out of the sun for a year. (says the one who is still going around with a big glob of white sunblock on my upper lip every time I go out the door, and with big brown patches on my knees, shoulders and elbows from 20-year-old road rash that got sun on them)

Hope you heal up quick.

[westtexas]

Personally, I'd substitute betadine wash for the hydrogen peroxide, since H2O2 also destroys healthy cells. Again, betadine wash is available in generic form, and costs much less.

+1 on this. I have been trying to break my mother of the H2O2 habit for years because of this.

[Susie Derkins]

Thanks for the responses. I will have to look into the sleeve thingys (I know what you're talking about, just not what they're called) to keep the dressings in place on my arm and leg. The cream vs. the ointment sounds good too. The ointment is pretty gross, and once it spreads around, it keeps the tape from adhering well.

Today is day #4 since it happened, and dressing changes are starting to hurt less. Yesterday was the first day I did dressing changes w/o any pain meds. I would love to try a shower soon. How long would you wait? I'm afraid the water will sting something awful, and with so much open, that would be incredibly painful.