Unbelievably I sustained a deep cut to the side of my heel getting out of the shower yesterday when I whacked it against the faucet. Crazy. I guess thankfully it is not on the bottom where my heel fully touches the ground but right above and parallel to where my heel lands. It bleed a lot immediately, I cleaned it out and bandaged it up with some antibacterial ointment and was able to go to work and walk on it with out much issue but I slept with it uncovered and it is still bleeding a little this morning. Gash is about 2 inches long, feels fairly deep but is not particularly painful to the touch. My questions are:
-anything I can do to speed the healing?
-am I gonna do lasting damage running a marathon on this in 5 days?
-if not, any advice on what I can do now or during the race to best protect it?
Think about it. Let’s say you have an average stride length of say … 42". That means you are going to take roughly 1500 strides per mile. At a minimum you would take over 39,000 strides. But we all know you will run a little more than the 26.2 miles … so round that up to 40,000 strides.
That means the foot with that nasty cut is going to strike the ground about 20,000 times over 3 or 4 hours. It is going to have sweat coming into it for that long too.
We stress our bodies when we run marathons. Starting with an injury, especially to our legs or feet … well that just makes for a miserable experience. It is not that you can’t, but you need to think whether your foot with a ‘deep, 2’ gash’ is healed enough to endure the forces you are going to place on it and the lift you are going to ask it to produce … 20,000 times.
You clearly cut the skin and nerves, and you likely cut the fascia and muscle. Ointments, salves, tape, padding, etc. all lack the one ingredient you need … which is ‘time’. If you can’t run without pain or without favoring it the day before … then you should take a DNS.
If you can’t keep your wound from bleeding during the race you run the risk of some serious infection getting in there (all that heat will be a breeding ground for bacteria). Worst case scenario you could end up in the hospital and with something really serious or permanent. You could lose a limb or worse depending on what you get for an infection (if you do).
Might not be worth it for one race to risk something that could be permanent.
My advice to anyone would be to see a Dr., who specializes in sports medicine and get the go ahead. Beyond that +1 on Second Skin. It’s gotten me through many blister laden runs.
Do NOT glue it. Great way to ask for infection. And it would break open running anyway
It’s probably too late to stitch it. Make sure you keep it super clean between now and race day.
Use a good bit of gauze padding, neosporin, and duct tape to hold it on for the race. You’ll want to try a few configurations of bandages before race day.
If the wound has been cleaned Super Glue will not “ask for an infection” assuming that the tip of the glue dispenser is clean.
Medical versions of super glue are commonly used in hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices. Perhaps you still have “lingering concerns”…see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15837150 to allay them now.
The glue does not cause infection. It’s the fact that it’s more likely to trap potential contaminants in the wound. There’s a higher risk of infection if the wound was cut on something with a high potential for infection - ie a faucet in a bathtub.
If the wound was properly cleaned immediately, or performed in a sterile environment like surgery then glue is great. But the longer the wound is open, or the more contaminated the item that did the cutting, the higher the risk of infection. Same is even true for stitching once it’s open beyond a certain point.
I’m speaking from experience. I had part of my hand removed after a small pocket-knife cut was glued shut by a poorly informed np. Fortunately when the infection spread, I was in Boston, and had one of the best hand surgeons in the US prevent amputation. She was pretty adamant that the infection probably wouldn’t have been such an issue if not for the glue.
So sorry. What a bummer. I would have all bandages supplies ready to go and would take a wait and see attitude. The body has incredible capacity to heal and in 5 days it may be much better (considering you are I assume young and not immunocompromised).
I would carry on as planned like you are doing your race and reaccess the situation a few days before. If it is still open, tender, and or painful to run on (you w ill know) I would nix the race. But if a lot of healing has taken place and you are moving pain free I would say go for it. Frankly if you are in pain during the race you could always drop out then. This is what I would do.
Thanks to everyone for their replies. It stopped bleeding yesterday and our neighbor who is an ER doctor (and has done a half ironman) looked at it for me tonight and said its healing well and that I will do no lasting damage running on it Monday, particularly if I can tape it up so there is no chafing. Guess I will try some duct tape over the bandage and see how that goes. Should be an interesting day.
You might do a quick search for something called a bunga pad. Bunga makes silicone foot wraps that ice skaters use to protect their feet from the friction of their skates. They might have one configured to protect just the heel area. The company also makes silicone toe caps (that’s the product I use to keep toe damage to a minimum when I’m doing a lot of marathons close together).
See a doctor? If it is still bleeding the next day it probably should be stitched.
You can’t stitch anything once 6 hours has passed.
It’s just a cut people. Make sure you keep it open a night so it dries out, keep it clean, and bandage heavily for the marathon. You aren’t going to die.
I was a medic in the military so I am not just spouting BS.
Unbelievably I sustained a deep cut to the side of my heel getting out of the shower yesterday when I whacked it against the faucet. Crazy. I guess thankfully it is not on the bottom where my heel fully touches the ground but right above and parallel to where my heel lands. It bleed a lot immediately, I cleaned it out and bandaged it up with some antibacterial ointment and was able to go to work and walk on it with out much issue but I slept with it uncovered and it is still bleeding a little this morning. Gash is about 2 inches long, feels fairly deep but is not particularly painful to the touch. My questions are: