I did a road race this weekend in pouring rain, a guy in front of me went down on a turn causing me to go down as well (of course like all crash stories it’s someone elses fault). Luckily nothing was hurt, my bike survived and I went on to win the race, unforunately I have a 4x4 inch bright red painful spot of road rash on my hip that is oozing ickiness. I’m just curious how long before it’s safe to get back in a chlorinated pool, I’m sure some of you out there have had road rash :). Thanks for the help!
It’s probably safe now, if there aren’t a bunch of my patients pooping in the pool. But you should clean the thing up well afterward (i.e. scrub it) and put one of those gel burn dressings on it. It heals faster with those and lowers the risk of infection.
In a few days when it stops weeping you can dress it with Tegraderm (waterproof, breathable, medical-grade saran wrap). You can easily swim/shower with Tegradem w/o changing the dressing or exposing the wound.
The ghetto way is cover with non stick gauze then glad wrap/sarin whatever around the limb a few times then some waterproof tape around the ends. It works well but you look like a bit of a dick.
Seek out some tegaderm to cover it with. Even if it takes a stop to your local Dr. or ER.
Once you cover it with the Tegaderm it will be unexposed to the water.
There are really three reasons to initially stay out of the pool with a serious scrape or road rash:
Water moving over the wound for a long period of time may rinse out delicate tissues important to the healing process. Cells called fibroblasts act as a sort of scaffolding for tissue and secrete matter that forms tissue. You must maintain your fibroblasts to insure quickest wound healing. If you swim too soon you may rinse away some of the fibrolasts, slowing the healing process. Bacteria or harsh chemicals may enter the wound, complicating the healing process and potentially raising the chances of infection.
And perhaps, most importantly:
We usually share a pool with other users who may not want to be exposed to an open wound, especially with current concerns around public health. While the chances of an infection or disease spreading are realistically quite low, it is a matter of impressions- some people may be worried about a person entering the pool with a godd sized, gruesome looking wound. They may not know it is an abrasion from a bicycle crash- they could think it is some form of skin disease.
In any case, best of luck for good healing. Here’s a feature I wrote on road rash treatment. I learned a lot from researching it: http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/features/roadrash.shtml
All good points, Tom. Our club pool bans swimming with abrasions or skin lesions. You are exposing the open wound to MRSA, Serratia and a host of other bacterias. Chlorine does not eliminate all bacteria. Warm pools and hot tubs are even better harborers of a host of infectious agents. A wound that size won’t take long to heal. I doubt you’ll lose much being out of the water for a short time.
Sounds like I’ll take a little bit of time off from swimming :), thank you all for the help and thank you Tom for the link to your article, it was full of excellent information and extremely helpful!