Flesh wound updates...

Yes, it is that time again when I share my torn and now healing flesh with the rest of you out there. I know you've been waiting for an update.

I am happy to report that for the most part, things are knitting together well, and healing up pretty darn good. There is a good healing going on with the elbow, and the leg has been covered in Tegaderm for most of this week, and that is speeding things along nicely I might say. Tegaderm. Is that great stuff or what? No wonder those jerks charge so much for that stuff. For someone who has had skin torn from their body by some sort of pavement or something else, it's like gold or crack, depending on how you look at it. My hands are my biggest concern, as I can't grip the bars of the bike if that stuff is not healed up fast, so I've been paying special attention to my mitts. It's paying off. It probably looks the best out of all of the wounds, and they are the smallest patches really, so it makes sense. I did get some swelling of the arm yesterday, and I told myself as soon as something looks and or feels weird with this stuff, I'm off to the doc. I went yesterday afternoon, got some meds, and the swelling is down already. I'll of course take my full course of antibiotics just to make sure. Can't count on one little change to stop taking the junk. The doc, she looked over the rest of my road rash, and pronounced it to be well taken care of, and appeared to be healing well. Who am I to argue with a doctor? OK, I am one to argue with a doctor if I think they are wrong, but this one, appeared to be right. Every night, I come home from work, bust off the Tegaderm on the leg, clean it with peroxide, let it dry and breathe for a short while, and then re-wrap back up with the plastic stuff before heading off to bed. In the morning, check it again, see if anything has moved or needs replacing, and do that. This approach appears to be working pretty good for me. I think tomorrow morning the arm is going to get the Tegaderm treatment, as there is a pretty good scab on there now, and it could use some softening, and with new skin growth underneath it, it should make it heal even faster with the Tegaderm on it. I wanted to wait on it before getting that stuff on it to get a good scab, and prevent the frequent replacing of Tegaderm, as mentioned before, that shit is expensive. I had to put it on the leg though because, let's face it. The prospect of your stiff ass pants rubbing on your road rash with nothing over it. Not appealing, not at all. And hence the Tegaderm went on and covered it. It's hard keeping it in place since the road rash is on the "bendy" parts of my leg and all, it moves, and falls off, and leaks. That, and the leg is still weeping pretty good, so it gets really wet down there. Yeah, it's gross. What can I tell you? It's bodily fluids. It ain't pretty stuff. I think I should be pretty well off by this time next week though, which pleases me. Unfortunately, I'm going to miss the good weather riding of this weekend, again. Oh well, that's what I get for hitting that damn stick in the road (stupid Cannondale guy). I've had guys that I've ridden with and been friends with for years tell me that the damage I incurred is probably some of the worst that they've seen. I thought about this, and in thinking about it, the times that I've gone down before in races and on other rides, I've always been going a hell of a lot slower than I was when I hit the deck last week. Maybe around 20 at the maximum. When I hit the asphalt last week, it was at a full tilt 30 MPH. The pavement does things to you when you hit it going that fast. As evidenced by my original pictures. Yes, it sucked. I hope to not do that again in the future.

People have been quite shocked when they see me at work though, which is funny. They're like, "You mean you fell off your motorcycle right?" Not believing that falling off of a bicycle could do the damage seen on my arms. I show them my leg, and they freak out. It's kind of fun. I relish in that I guess maybe a little too much. It's the grossing people out factor I guess. I'm cruel. It is quite another thing when people come up to me and bump me in the elbow or slap me in the leg though. That's just not a good thing at this point in time and it has happened a couple of times as of late, and I've almost slapped someone back, except with a closed fist. They don't know though, or just don't think about it. It's OK, I'm going to give them a hall pass this time. But if the same person does it more than once, it's going to be the fists of fury in their dome piece.

Now the healing pictures...

The first little gem is of my leg of course, bottom left of the leg to be precise. I have just returned home from work, and done the chore of cleaning this thing off. It gets icky being stuck in a pair of pants all day long. Nothing how everything still looks nice and red and healing, this is from the Tegaderm baby. It keeps it wet all day long to promote the healing, it still looks pretty gnarly, but it is feeling better.

Picture #2. Top of the knee on the leg, and the left side of the leg a little closer. This is the stuff that is covered by the sliding Tegaderm on a daily basis. So sometimes it stays covered, and sometimes, it doesn't. There is some good skin growth going on there though, which makes me happy. Compare these 2 pictures with the original, and you'll see some definite improvement in the situation of these wounds. Trust me, I see it. And the pain is not really there so much anymore, well, not as bad as it was the other day, that's for damn sure.

Next grouping, the hands. You can see the Tegaderm still on there after a long day of work. The hands are definitely looking the best as mentioned before, but with smaller patches to heal, I guess I can expect that, or should expect that. It just sucks because there are a lot of things that I can't do at work, and at home that you can normally do with a functioning pair of hands. Lesson learned from this? Wear your gloves dumb ass. As much as I hate to say it. Dahron was right about that one. Damn it I hate it when Dahron is right. At least when I'm riding in a large group of people. I'll still not wear them when I'm out by myself. I can guarantee that. I just started wearing gloves in races this year, which is something I can't believe I didn't do before. Silly me. It only takes messing up the mitts bad one time for you to be a glove convert I think. I'm in. Although I will say that if I had not been wearing my helmet, nothing would have happened. Not a mark on the skid lid. But I digress, I'll still wear that thing for the most part, that's just good sense really.

Moving on to another body part, the arm and elbow, and then I promise to stop posting pictures of gruesome things like this. You can see the immense scab that I have going on with this one, which is why I've got to get the Tegaderm on it, stat! Or, well, at least tomorrow. And of course, the elbow. Check out the elbow...

That's all I got for now. I hope that I might have grossed a few more people out here and there, as I think that it might be my mission in life, or one of them at least. Maybe later on down the line I'll get some good snaps of the scars when those bad boys eventually develop and criss-cross my arm and leg. Do chicks really dig scars? I hope the SO does, because there is going to be a big patch of them on me. I'll have to ask her about this when she comes over this evening. The downside to this injury is that I really can't go over to her place at all, and hang out there because of The Bea, or Beatrice the dog. She's a bit of a jumper, so my current state of health and her jumping would not mix well I'm afraid. Normally, not so much of an issue, but now, yeah, she could really hurt me, not to mention she's got some good sized claws on them paws of hers. I'll just have to spend about a month or so over there once I'm healed up to make up for all of the traveling she's been doing in coming over to my abode. Got to keep it even and fair. Anyway, time to round up some food and make my gut larger than it already is.