Swimming with road rash

William Crawford

I crashed on my bike Sunday and have road rash and scrapes on my right side. I am lucky and did not break anything. I have Eagleman on Sunday and am concerned about the swim for two reasons. First, I am having weaknesss in my right shoulder which may make it difficult to swim. I will find out if I can do it Sunday morning and will listen to my body. My second concern is how to cover my road rash and cuts. I am using Tegaderm but am concerned it will not last the swim. My knee and shoulder are still "seeping" so I do not have a solid seal with the Tegaderm. Also, will the wetsuit help or hurt?

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

morpheus

The shoulder thing is a bigger deal, IMO. If you haven't had it looked at, that might be a good idea. I bet you can do the swim with an easier pull (assuming you didn't wreck everything inside it).

The road rash....forget the tegaderm and go with it. Tegaderm will come off in about a split second. If you were just submerged in water, it might stay. But, with all the motion + the water, bet it will come off quick. It's healing now. Keep it clean, don't scrub it hard enough to keep breaking it open. Skin is quick to take care of itself. Odds of you getting infected are very small if you're a healthy guy. Maybe, if you're worried about it, have some type of beta scrub or soapy water at T1 and take an extra second to wipe the road rash areas real good. (That's what I would do in your situation)

Satish Punna

Also at T1 after you clean off the areas I would liberally apply some vaseline over everything to keep it form drying out and cracking and also provide a barrier. 

Leslie Knight

Tweet Chrissy Wellington and see what she did. :-)
Bacitracin after the swim would be a good idea as well. Not Neosporin unless you've used it before. Has a higher risk of allergy.