Last and final wound updates...

OK, this is it people. This is really the final wounding update that I'm going to post, because a couple of weeks after it happened, things are much better. Much thanks to the SO for helping me out through the injuries, and much thanks to Tegaderm for helping with the healing. Without those 2 things, I'd probably still be shit out of luck as far as healing up. As previously mentioned in other updates. If something like this happens to you, which I'm hoping that it doesn't, do not fear the Tegaderm. It is your friend. Truly, your friend. It's a freakin' wonder of plastics engineering I tell you. Use it. Love it. Live it. I was so impressed with the stuff that I sent a happy consumer letter to 3M about it. I'm all about writing some letters when I feel like it. Congressmen. Harris Teeter. The President. Foster's Market. You know, I cover all the bases. Tegaderm though, can't praise that stuff enough. A little on the pricey side, but it's worth it. Much thanks to folks who sent in comments as well as to the care and treatment of road rash. I know there are lots of you out there that have surfed the pavement a lot more than me, so getting crucial advice and what to do's, very good stuff. See, I tend not to surf the pavement much due to my superior bike handling skills. This one was just out of my control. And in other disappointing news, winter has arrived in North Carolina as of a couple of days ago. It's damn 20 some odd degrees out there this morning, and that makes it tough to get motivated to go outside and ride this morning. So I'm going to wait until it warms at least to a good 40 degrees. That I can handle for the first ride back, but right now, under freezing, you can forget it. Later on this off season, yes, I'll ride in that temperature. First ride back? No way Jose. No way. If it is this cold down here; I wonder what it's like back home in good old Mexico Maine? OK, just checked, 18 degrees and breezy. Ouch!

Everything is pretty much healed up now for the most part. Everything is pink and looking nice I guess. I still have a few sore spots, and a few deeper scratches that are now healing up a little slower than the rest. Probably the first thing that healed up well was the lower leg down on the calf. That had a quick turnaround. The slowest healing spots are my arm, and my knee. Probably because those are the most "flexy" points that were damaged in the tumble from my steed. Since they are movable joints, and I have to move them to say, walk, or raise and or lower my arm, it appears that this exacerbates the condition a little and can cause some slower healing. Once again, movement, and scabs, not a good combination I don't think. The other thing that sucks about this is when your wounds do heal, and you do have a layer of Tegaderm on it, taking it back off when things underneath it aren't humid causes a substantial amount of pain. Normally, it will draw some blood when tearing that layer of plastic off, but considering how those spots of damage got there in the first place, I'll take some bandages ripping off anyday of the week.

Now we have the latest pictures, and I think that you will agree, things are looking a shit ton better than they were even last week. The hands are healed up, which makes things easier (like holding something). The hands, that was my worst fear. Once again, don't go off riding in a big group of people without gloves. I forgot them. I'm sorry. It happens. Check out the pictures of the hands. Healed over, pain free hands. So nice to have. So very nice to have indeed. Even just a couple of days ago my left hand was still a little painful and stiff, but it feels like everything underneath the new skin that grew there has healed pretty well, and it's relatively pain free, and have good movement in my left hand once again, which before, not so much really. It was really tight and painful pretty much right up until the other day. The right hand wound was a lot less painful to begin with and had healed up by last week actually, and it wasn't as deep and torn off as the left hand. The left hand was shredded. It kind of looked like some raw meat when it was healing. It was really a deep red and kind of oozy gooey. Yuck.

As mentioned before the lower leg came out well. The knee, still knitting together for the most part, but I suspect that it should be all good soon, by the middle of next week for certain. The upper leg healed up pretty well as well. I had to scratch off some scabs that grew there, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I did feel like a leper when doing this though, as my skin was just falling off as I messed around with it. Kind of flaky and falling off. It didn't look so good, but it didn't really hurt, those were just the minor superficial spots of road rash I ended up with when I went down. I didn't mess with those too much, as the large spots were my main concern, the small spots, I let them scab over, and messed with them later. It was kind of like triage. Treat the worst parts first, and then go onto the smaller less important spots.

Last but not least, the elbow and the arm. Probably the worst spot of injury I think in terms of deepness of the cuts and road rash, and amount of skin removed by the cheese grater also known as the pavement. It was shredded, and took a longer time to even start to heal up than the leg did. Everything on there now though is pink and healing well, as with the rest of the body. Couldn't be happier with the results really. I think I'll have some good scars, at least I hope that I do. You know the saying, "Chicks dig scars." Well, these are some I could have done without, but they are good additions to the collection I think. Even rivaling some the The Chad's scars that he's incurred in his many incidents of falling off of his bike. I can't rival his history, but I think I caught up pretty well with this one fall. It still pisses me off that it happened, because it didn't need to have happened, and it shouldn't have happened, but what can you do? It did happen, and now I'm better. It was a learning experience. Never trust someone riding a Cannondale. The other thing that is really bad about this whole incident, was that during the time I was down for injuries, the weather was super freakin' duper nice. And now, not so much. I dropped myself right into the mess of the off season right when it gets cold. Damn. At least next weekend I'll be in Florida. That won't be so bad. At least it is most likely to be nice down there, or at least warm. Disneyworld, here I come! Just kidding. Although I do wish that Busch Gardens still had a frosty free beer garden. Now that would be something right there.