linky to Amazon, larger sizes of tegaderm (the sizes that Walgreen's carry are not large enough for hips / thighs)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A2NXAJZFEY620O

This. A great blog, and one of its best posts far and away.

rub some dirt on it! jk jk yeah keep it moist

Thanks for the great advice! I am amazed at what a big difference Tegaderm made. I didn't have a piece big enough, so I just covered what I thought was the worst part. So, I had a side by side comparison of with and without. The without portion took an extra 4 days for the scab to fall off and the skin is much drier and uncomfortable. Would either overlapping sheets of tegaderm or applying them side by side work?

I'd overlap slightly, as little as possible.

Also, I tell riders not to forget the little scrapes. Riders naturally fix up just the big patches of road rash, but the little scrapes need attention too. They end up a real pain if you leave them alone. I'm talking even the real light road rash.

If you buy in bulk, through some vendor on Amazon, Tegaderm is quite inexpensive, usually $1 or so per patch.

im VERY dissapointed in the lack of images in this thread! bring on the ooze!

"dammit jim, i am not a doctor..."

If you'd posted this a few days earlier, I would have had some fresh ooziness for you ;)

Some before/during with Tegaderm.
http://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...-recovery.html

Those aren't the best pictures as my body was pretty beat up (I had a broken pelvis too). A better Tegaderm example - I had a crash on a Tuesday evening in May 2010, hitting the deck at around 30 mph. By the following Sunday I had no road rash left and I raced on Monday with fresh skin (and kept it all in a crash filled Somerville).

the one on my shoulder requires two of the large 4x4 sheets of tegaderm

pics would be too gross at this point, but I currently sport:

two 4x4 sheets

three 4x2 sheets

six 2.5x2.5 sheets

85 square inches of coverage (although minus edges the total rash area is smaller by quite a bit)

cost so far is over $100. I have thrown out four empty tegaderm boxes and have six left in various stages of full/empty. They will all be used, and more.

the crash happened on saturday. The light road rash has improved quite a bit, but the deep stuff still has quite a ways to go and still leaks fluid. not as much as yesterday or sunday.

the shoulder is a huge patch that lost a complete layer of skin which rubbed off during the cleaning process

wearing a base layer at the time or not? or does the layer not overlap the portion of your shoulder that's missing?

No base layer. But that part of the skinsuit was not shredded

Thanks for sharing the post, SDC, it was really helpful! I think I am well on my way to being on the mend...

One question remains...how do I shower with the tegaderm? I'm currently sporting a 4x4 on my arm, covered by gauze and fishnet. I removed the dressings before showering this morning, since the wound was still bleeding/weeping quite a bit, but it's looking a lot better already and I want to try to keep the tegaderm on for a few days. But...it seems like it will fly right off in the shower with no gauze to hold it on, and I don't want to get the gauze all wet in the shower.

I lost a few of them in the shower, but they mostly stay stuck on. Sometimes I need to press the accumulated water out of them afterward.

take the gauze off for showering.

dude, we spent like $100 on tegaderm last time my dude crashed. it's so expensive!

Also, you might want to let them breathe every now and then if your skin is sensitive. The adhesive backing can be irritating to sensitive skin.

This is great advice. I am using Tough Pads for the first time after reading the above. I'm not going back to regular bandages. These things are awesome!

post reported.

I hit the ground recently. I got cut up in all the same spots that CDR did in that post. Let me ask you this, BikeForums, If some company made some reusable patches as a preventative measure that you could place on your body with some skin adhesive would you wear it? Or, better yet, what if bibs came with reinforced sections around the hips (some kind of material like a tire liner - flexy but strong) would you wear it? Most atheltes in other sports have some kind of protection somewhere, but we'd prefer to slide across pavement once in a while rather than add a few grams or slightly limit our range of motion? Whyyyy?

That's that "baselayer or not" question. I normally don't wear a base layer in crits except for warmth. Oddly enough I always wear long finger gloves. I guess I'd rather be able to type than avoid road rash. Part of it is the quick recovery with most road rash - with Tegaderm most light rash will be gone in 6 days. Only deep cuts or wounds will hang around longer.

Someone locally came out with Road Rash Guard, but after thinking about it for a while I realized that it only protects where it is, not around the area.

A long time ago someone made a dual layer short, i.e. a built in base layer for certain panels (in this case the side panels). The concept was great, the shorts were bad. In other words if they started with good shorts it'd have worked. Instead they started with bad shorts so you had poor fitting, uncomfortable, but safe shorts. I fell on them at least once, and teammates fell too. We mainly avoided road rash. One teammate was working with the designer and they mapped scars on legs/hips to figure out the panel size/area. Unfortunately the chamois and seams were horrible.

I'd consider dual layer clothing, i.e. inner and outer layer in specific spots. So shoulders, elbows (if long sleeve), hips/legs (shorts/tights). The inner layer would be light, 4 or 6 oz lycra, the outer layer would be tough, almost like cordura (8 oz?). This buys you a lot of slide room before you get road rash. If I could get my current kit (Hincapie or Verge) with such features I would.

btw on Tegaderm, buying the 50 pack is the cheap way to do it. You can split costs with anyone who you help out with the extras.

I think it's mostly to eliminate insulation, actually. That would be what discourages me from thinking about armor. Maybe some strong structural mesh that you can almost see through would be ok, but then you start getting into aerodynamics :P

Back on topic:

I'll add some more advice to this thread, since I have some recent experience with road rash.

Don't bother using the Tegaderm patches if the road rash area you're trying to cover is larger than the patch itself. The Tegaderm needs probably one inch of undamaged skin on all sides in order to stick for more than 24 hours. If you apply a Tegaderm patch to a spot of road rash that's larger than the patch itself, you're just wasting your money. The ooze will make it slide off by the next day.

Also, if you're using a Tegaderm patch, there's no need to apply anti-biotic ointment under the patch. the oils in the ointment will cause the patch to slide off. Instead, you should wash the wound with antibiotic wash, let it air dry, and then apply the patch. Your body will take care of keeping it moist, and all you have to do is make sure the ooze doesn't start changing colors. If it does, it may be infected, and you should start over with a new wash and patch.

If your rash is bigger than any Tegaderm patches you can find, go with Telfa (or "similar to Telfa") pads instead. Those are the pads you see under the fishnets on racers' arms. After washing the wound, get some off-brand anti-biotic ointment and apply to the wound, then apply the pad. Secure the pad in place with PAPER TAPE (you'll find this tape near the pads in the pharmacy) or that fishnet stuff. if the rash is near a joint (hip, knee) make sure you bend the joint slightly before applying the tape so the tape has a better chance of staying stuck to your skin as you go about your daily motions. Edit: when using Telfa pads, you should check or change the pad once per day. If it looks good under there, just add more ointment tape it back down. If it looks infected, re-wash and re-apply.

Good luck.

I guess I've been doing it wrong for years. I've always left the rash uncovered so it would scab over.

I crashed last Thursday and got rash on my hip, elbow and knee. I left the elbow and knee uncovered and they scabbed over in less than 12 hours.

By location, I had to cover the hip location as it would be underneath my underwear. I used the Tegaderm on that.

This is how it looked after I got home from the ride:

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/7222/rr1bs.jpg

This is how it looks today after a shower:

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3913/rr2sr.jpg

I had to use three Tegaderm patches to cover the wound.

I'll get to see the time difference between the Tegaderm and the scabs.

excellent thread.

i have spent a ton on tagaderm, but dont care because its working. it took me awhile to get the technique down. well, for my wife to get it down as she helps apply the patches. the spots on the side of my knee and elbow dont stay on long. being joints there is a lot of movement. also, i haven't stopped riding and with this heat, i sweat, and they come/fall off. i have done the fishnet stuff that holds them in place while riding, but post ride they fall off.

the two areas on my hip and side have stayed on longer, but post ride they seem to have persperation bubbles in them. i pull them off, clean the area, then reapply.

so, a couple questions;

1. is the above typical and/or unavoidable with the heat wave?
2. i have been covering the wounds since the crash and wonder how long to continue?
3. what about racing? cover the tagaderm with gauze and tape for extra protection/padding?

much thanks. later.

Cover until you have new skin, i.e. stuff that doesn't stick or ooze. It's usually very pink skin. It'll be very vulnerable to sun so be careful - if not under clothing I'd consider covering to keep it out of sun.

When racing cover Tegaderm with gauze and netting. It's more to keep the Tegaderm in place more than anything else. Hopefully you can swap gauze each time you ride but not Tegaderm. Someone (probably earlier in thread) suggests leaving a little wrinkle in the Tegaderm so it can drain. I haven't tried that but it sounds reasonable.