Discussion
I fell off yesterday and have a spot of road rash on my left knee & lower leg. The affected areas were dressed by a friendly nurse yesterday using iodine squares and wound pads under a bandage. She left me with supplies to change the dressing but didn’t tell me when this would need doing. Can I leave the existing dressing for a couple of days or is it something that needs to be changed every 24h or so? I can’t say I’m looking forward to the task as it stings a little…
PH must have some experienced road rash survivors. What do I need to do?
PH must have some experienced road rash survivors. What do I need to do?
Ive had my fair share of road rash.
step 1. shave your legs
step 2. This depends on your strategy.
1. keep it clean and dry it out, let it scab over etc.
2. Use tegaderm, often better as you dont stick to your sheets etc. Change the dressing every day. If its a big one i do this.
3. If its not weeping too much use a hydrocolloid and just leave it on for a week to heal under.
step 1. shave your legs
step 2. This depends on your strategy.
1. keep it clean and dry it out, let it scab over etc.
2. Use tegaderm, often better as you dont stick to your sheets etc. Change the dressing every day. If its a big one i do this.
3. If its not weeping too much use a hydrocolloid and just leave it on for a week to heal under.
Got quite a bit of experience of this, unfortunately...
It doesn't look too bad, but I would advise against leaving it to the air to scab over. It takes longer to heal, there's a greater chance of infection and, on the knee, you'll find the scab splitting and re-healing every time you bend it. It also means you won't stick to trousers or the bed, which is both unpleasant and slows the healing process.
First step is to shave your leg (use clippers rather than a razor!) That will make applying and removing any dressings much more pleasant and effective. Measure the size of the wounds and then go and buy some large adhesive dressings (eg, Mepore or similar) that will cover them. Most chemists carry a selection of sizes, so you should be able to find something to cover your immediate needs and then you can get additional supplies / greater variety of sizes via next-day delivery from the usual places.
Plan your overlap strategy. You want to apply the smaller dressings first as the adhesive section will be narrower and stick to skin rather than nearby wounds. The larger dressings can then be applied and the adhesive sections can overlap other dressings.
You want to keep a seal over the wound, so if the dressing starts coming off, replace it. Change dressings every 24 hours or so, check and clean as necessary. Effectively what you're doing is replacing the scabbing process and, depending on the severity of the wounds, after several days fresh new pink skin will have formed. Be patient; you want to get to the point where the dressings are clean when you take them off. Oh and it will get itchy
It doesn't look too bad, but I would advise against leaving it to the air to scab over. It takes longer to heal, there's a greater chance of infection and, on the knee, you'll find the scab splitting and re-healing every time you bend it. It also means you won't stick to trousers or the bed, which is both unpleasant and slows the healing process.
First step is to shave your leg (use clippers rather than a razor!) That will make applying and removing any dressings much more pleasant and effective. Measure the size of the wounds and then go and buy some large adhesive dressings (eg, Mepore or similar) that will cover them. Most chemists carry a selection of sizes, so you should be able to find something to cover your immediate needs and then you can get additional supplies / greater variety of sizes via next-day delivery from the usual places.
Plan your overlap strategy. You want to apply the smaller dressings first as the adhesive section will be narrower and stick to skin rather than nearby wounds. The larger dressings can then be applied and the adhesive sections can overlap other dressings.
You want to keep a seal over the wound, so if the dressing starts coming off, replace it. Change dressings every 24 hours or so, check and clean as necessary. Effectively what you're doing is replacing the scabbing process and, depending on the severity of the wounds, after several days fresh new pink skin will have formed. Be patient; you want to get to the point where the dressings are clean when you take them off. Oh and it will get itchy
I had a similar incident a few months ago. I made the mistake of not cleaning it properly and it started to get infected. My wife's friend is a nurse and provided me with some Inadine dressings, which I covered with Tegaderm foam dressings. These were replaced every couple of days. I showered with a bin bag around my leg secured with elastic bands top and bottom. Took a good couple of weeks to heal.
WindyCommon said:
Thank you all. I am considering your input and planning my strategy as suggested..!
I have taken the dressings off this morning. It wasn’t fun, and what’s underneath is not pretty.
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I kept my "road rash" open to the air to scab up and heal (on the advice of my wife, a nurse of 30+ years experience) and the A&E nurses...I have taken the dressings off this morning. It wasn’t fun, and what’s underneath is not pretty.
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...although I had to keep a dressing on my elbow for a while as I'd manage to lift a decent sized flap of skin that had to be "stuck down" with a Steri-Strip (butterfly stitch) and covered for a while. That was on my upper arm and elbow area after I hit a fox (late at night) and came of at 20+ mph.
Immediate treatment was a soak in the bath and basic dressing applied by my wife to allow me to get some sleep, then (on her advice) a walk over to A&E to get it properly cleaned and dressed in the morning. And there's still a bloodstain on the pale coloured piping on my car seat where I bled on the drive home. Cost me a new bike helmet too. Oops! There were other "contact points" from my slide down the road but that was mainly very minor road rash and some lovely "magic colour change bruising" on my hip and leg.
WindyCommon said:
SteveStrange said:
A&E, for those grazes? Aaaah bless 
Who said anything about A&E?What happened to some self-applied gauze, iodene, a tube of savlon/germolene, and half a roll of duct tape to keep it all in one place?
SteveStrange said:
You mentioned "a friendly nurse", and yj said he was attended to by A&E nurses... Not an unreasonable assumption to make.
What happened to some self-applied gauze, iodene, a tube of savlon/germolene, and half a roll of duct tape to keep it all in one place?
I’m surprised you didn’t go straight for the wire brush and dettol.What happened to some self-applied gauze, iodene, a tube of savlon/germolene, and half a roll of duct tape to keep it all in one place?
In my experience it always heals better if dressed with appropriate products, so if you can get a professional to do it for you, why not?
outnumbered said:
SteveStrange said:
You mentioned "a friendly nurse", and yj said he was attended to by A&E nurses... Not an unreasonable assumption to make.
What happened to some self-applied gauze, iodene, a tube of savlon/germolene, and half a roll of duct tape to keep it all in one place?
I’m surprised you didn’t go straight for the wire brush and dettol.What happened to some self-applied gauze, iodene, a tube of savlon/germolene, and half a roll of duct tape to keep it all in one place?
In my experience it always heals better if dressed with appropriate products, so if you can get a professional to do it for you, why not?
Yes, they are (presumably) taxpayers, and the NHS is there (if slighly overworked), but strikes me as a bit of a waste of everyone's time. Imagine sitting in casualty with a graze on your leg, while people are being stacked in ambulances outside with broken hips, or having had strokes etc. I just don't think I could do it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-626...
But yes, they are entitled to, so I guess I shouldn't criticise. I will join in next time I get a splinter, or have a nose bleed.
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