After noting my crash and subsequent road rash from Sunday, a guy on Twitter that told me to try out 3M’s Tegaderm. While it can be bought all over the web, local drug stores didn’t carry the product. Amanda found it at a local place called Triangle after care and the crap is expensive!
A single sheet ran 8 bucks! Pretty damn pricey stuff, but it works, and I’ve only used a half to three quarters of a sheet for my arm/elbow road rash. As you can see on the before and after pics to the right, it’s work its wonders.
Now you may be saying, doesn’t seem like anything extraordinary. That’s just normal healing.
Well, the rest of my road rash down the right side was not bandaged the whole time, and the crap on my knee is no where near as close to being completely healed as my Tegaderm-covered area.
The Tegaderm stuff is ultra-sticky and stayed on for multiple days/showers without issue. It kept the area protected from bacteria, dirt, etc. but the whole area stayed moist – perfect for quick healing.
My only real complaint, save the exorbitant price tag is that because it can stay on for multiple days, it ends up stinking. Granted, I didn’t help things in that I had two big training sessions with the stuff on. I ended up with bubbles of sweat trapped below and had to end up removing the stuff this morning cause it stunk. So just a bit of warning – the Tegaderm application will work for days without a change, but if you’re continuing to workout, you’ll still probably want to change it for sanitary reasons.
I should have fresh pink skin over all the affected arm area just in time for Sunday’s time trial, where that specific area will be resting less-gingerly in the aerobar’s armrests. Regardless, I just wanted to give it a thumbs up for fellow cyclists out there that have had the inevitable road rash. If you need to heal quickly, and probably scar less, I’d definitely recommend scouring the local medical shops for some of the stuff, or plan ahead and order it online from various sources.
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April 25th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Tegaderm is the stuff! The guy who runs our team buys it in bulk at the beginning of the season. It is amazing how quickly road rash wound heal when it is covered like this.
I think the stink problems you had may be related to where the wound is. I have used it on my hip and I did not change the dressing for 10 days, and it kept a perfect seal. The elbows’ a little trickier…and close to the nose!