1st aid advice needed please

General
1

I need some advice. I’m trying to get the wound on my knee healed (remember the 20MPH Coker accident that happened about 2 months ago?) I keep tearing open the wound, last night I smashed it dead on into the corner of my computer desk which ripped open the blood blister that I got from falling off the giraffe Darren lent me…

that one was kinda funny, my pads were in the trunk of the car at Mrs Sofa’s work, I went for a ride around the block on the giraffe…no pads, so I’ll go slow…I was accustommed to the ride, and was non-chalantly looking over to my right. I must’ve hit a bump, so I fell off to he front.

Subconsciensly (sp?!?) I was positioned to fall off a normal uni going that slow. But I kept falling, and land on my knee (no harm other than the blood blister ontop of my Coker scar, which had previously healed.

Anyways, the Roach pads keep peeling off the bandaids and reopening the wound (I keep forgetting to buy those great big bandaids, but I think I’ll remember now.

I won’t wear my pads today, I say, to allow the wound to heal. Long story short, that wound is now full of dirt and there is a great big flap of skin.

I’ve tried to clean it out with peroxide, but I don’t know if I should tear off that flap. (I don’t want to because it’s gonna hurt…it’s a thick flap) I ‘think’ I should, but that is going to leave quite a large open spot. Without peeling it off though, I can’t get in to clean it as good as I should.

Any advice? Do I peel it off leaving a BIG spot of raw flesh on my knee, or do I try to get underneath it (which so far I haven’t been able to do completely)

I know how you people are with wounds, so I’ve attached a photo. Thinking of Erin, I got some quad in the shot too.

The pic doesn’t look so bad, but I’ve gotten a lot of dings and not requested advice about them. :frowning:

wound.jpg

2

I also know how you guys always point out other things in photos than the main focus (I always enjoy those replies)
so…

Yes, that is a Kokanee bottle, a gateway laptop, a big calculator, and a box of Wal-Mart kitty litter used as a garbage can

3

First, clean it out. Use water to get all the dirt and grit out.

Then, sterilize with peroxide/alcohol. This will hurt. Lots.

You can remove the skin, or not. It’s up to you. As long as it’s clean and sterile, it should be fine.

Then cover the wound with a sterile dressing. A large bandaid, or sterile gauze and tape.

To keep things from moving around/falling off, use an Ace bandage. Wrap the whole joint. It’ll look goofy, but at least it’ll heal and not get infected.

Change the dressing once or twice a day.

-Jon

4

I got a similar cut on my knee on one of the early NAUCC rides, and the fact that it was right where my pads chaffed me a little anyway made it very painful. I rode with the knee pads of my roaches folded down for the rest of that ride, and somehow avoided the additional injury that leaving my knee uncovered seemed to be begging for.

Band-aids came unstuck within minutes, because of the sweat and the pads rubbing. The only way I could get anything to stick was to buy a roll of sports tape and wrapping my entire knee in it. You also get the bonus of getting a lot of sympathy, cause it makes it look like a much worse injury than it is. This plan worked flawlessly for a few days, until someone walked off with my roll of sports tape at the trials competition. Than I had to buy some more. Seriously though, it did prevent further irritation of the cut while I was wearing the pads.

Ben

(edit) looks like someone beat me to the wrapping suggestion. Oh well.

5

You might try Band-Aid Liquid … http://www.band-aid.com/liquid_bandage.shtml … :wink:

6

Probably not a good idea for an open wound like that. Another problem I ran into with these liquid band-aids is that you can’t easily remove them. The one I used suggested finger nail polish remover: acetone!

The solvent in these things is ACETONE! Yuck, I’ll stick to 70% IPA.

I’ll get you some info on a great bandage I used. Next note.

7

Re: 1st aid advice needed please

Sofa <Sofa.to7o4@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>I’ve tried to clean it out with peroxide, but I don’t know if I should
>tear off that flap. (I don’t want to because it’s gonna hurt…it’s a
>thick flap) I ‘think’ I should, but that is going to leave quite a
>large open spot. Without peeling it off though, I can’t get in to clean
>it as good as I should.

>Any advice? Do I peel it off leaving a BIG spot of raw flesh on my
>knee, or do I try to get underneath it (which so far I haven’t been able
>to do completely)

Never remove dead skin from a wound that is still (partially) attached.
Clean under it as best you can. It would be best to have someone else
do the cleaning, since they will not feel the pain and should do a
better cleaning job as a result.

I had bicycle accident while in college. About 1/3 of the skin of my
right palm was torn loose in a roughly triangular shape with one side
still attached. I cut it off with a scissors and later the nurse at the
clinic said it would have been better to leave it. When I asked why,
she quickly replied that it would have helped protect the wound and that
it would have been no problem cleaning under it.

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com>

8

Okay the best I found for a smaller, but similar wound was a combination:

Layer 1: Spenco 2nd Skin Moist Burn Pads. These pads are 80% water and are about 1/16-1/8" thick. They will provide some shock absorption to chafing by your pads, sleeping, etc.
<http://www.spenco.com/advanced.html>

Layer 2: 3M Brand Nexcare First Aid “Tegaderm” Transparent Dressing. This is a completely transparent dressing with adhesive around the edges. This stuff sticks to anything, even wet skin!
<http://www.dressings.org/Dressings/tegaderm.html>
<http://www.3m.com/us/home_leisure/nexcare/tegaderm.jhtml>

Togeather they seemed to work pretty well until I used some alcohol swabs I seemed to be alergic to.

The Tegaderm may work well without the other layer.

But clean the wound out, trim, don’t rip, off any skin flaps with steril tools.

After paying a fortune for these products, I have decided I need to wear my pads, which cost far less.

9

I used the liquid band-aids before. I think it did a great job of keeping of my wound clean and safe. Removing it was not too big a problem, as I just let it wear out after the wound healed. The suggested method for removal was to apply more to dissolve the first layer and wipe the whole thing off.

BTW: the package says, “may sting” when applying. I guarantee it will burn to high hell when you put it on. But it’s worth it.

Daniel

10

Re: 1st aid advice needed please

  1. Peel it off
  2. Coat entire surface with plaster of paris both sides
  3. Make sure Erin gets that quad shot for the database
11

Take a clean nailclipper and clip it off. Or just pull it off with your teeth. :slight_smile:

12

well, that was very painful.

luckily I had some razor blades and was able to surgigally remove the skin. Then I had about 5 beers before I went at the dirt embedded in the raw flesh.

Not a great feeling, but it’s all cleaned out now.

The ongoing wound continues

13

the basic way you have had loads of tricky and sometimes expensive ideas heres my way get a normal plaster and sick it the wound then apply some strong celotape on top of that
ben

14

Well, if you really want some other stuff pointed out, I can help out. First, why are you running XP? You should run Linux… or, if you must, Windows 2000… XP has some built in things that can make some things, such as wireless better, but I see that ethernet cable going in there, and I doubt you’re multihomed… XP just sucks up all your system resources to give you an environment that attempts to be all user friendly, but ends up doing whatever it wants to do anyway :slight_smile:

Now, for the big calculator… my Mom has that… she really likes that thing… was the best dollar she ever spent!

I don’t really have any good advice for the REAL topic though… I recently scraped up my leg though. All I did was stretch my knee in all directions when it was trying to heal to make a nice big scab that wouldn’t rip off that much… and when I had my knees protected, I would wrap a sock around my ripped up knee…

Happy healing,

M@

15

I have the system resources to spare, so why use a sup par OS like Linux? I personally am not one to use subpar programs because ‘Microsoft is rich, so I must hate them’

I have linux on as a dual boot, but other than installing it, haven’t used it yet. There is simply no sense.

But good eye!

(I will not carry on any further Linux/Windows arguments because you are wrong)

16

That’s cool… I’m just playing. Just making conversation about the picture, and agree about not carrying on further discussions about this, unicycling is better anyway… but, I must say, I am not one of those ones that say that I hate Microsoft because they are Microsoft. I don’t even hate Microsoft, I have a dual boot with Win2K & Linux… But, enough of that, I’ll agree to disagree…

So, about that scab… :smiley:

17

I don’t think this thing is ever going to be a scab :frowning:

18

Mabey reading the thread on the muniac manor titled “Bloody Sunday” will make you feel a little bit better. I don’t know how to provide the link, but I know it’s at muniac.com
Feel better!

19

Bandages and ANTIBIOTIC OINTMENT. The ointment, applied liberally, speeds healing considerably and is used by supermodels on acne. If it is good enough for Elle it should be good enough for Sofa.
Hey, the 29 inch Pashley is still doing fine, lollypop bearing holders and all. the biggest problem is the rider, carjug doesn’t know how to hop or ride uphill on a trail. I am having a lot of fun with it, and I’m learning to use a digital camera as well, so you might see a gory picture of my leg soon! carjug.