The Accidental Band-Aid Tester


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I had a bicycling accident last weekend.

As far as bicycling accidents go, it wasn’t that bad, and certainly not the worst I’ve had.  No cars were involved.  No loss of consciousness.  But quite a bit of “loss of skin” to pavement.  I was riding alone, and, without my knowledge, my front tire had been slowly losing air.  I took what seemed like a completely normal, gradual turn – the tire rolled on the rim, and WHAM.  My bike slid out from under me and I ate asphalt at 20mph.

Thankfully, the road wasn’t busy.  I picked myself up and hobbled to the side of the road with ripped shorts, and a bruised ego.  A quick check of self and bike showed all systems more-or-less functioning.  But my shorts were a loss, and I didn’t want to ride the 20 miles home flashing half of the city, so I called Stef for help.

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Some very painful showering later, I was pretty much cleaned up, but with two rather large patches of road rash on my forearm and hip.  My most important race of the season (the one day a year where I actually do well) is in less than two weeks.  I really don’t have time to waste on road rash.  So I decided I needed to get “what the pros use”, so I scoured the internet to figure out how to heal up in the shortest amount of time.

The answer, apparently, is high-tech-band-aids.  Contrary to what I’ve thought all my life, the key to healing quickly is to NOT let things scab up.  This means keeping wounds covered and moist.  The high tech band aids help with this.  I’ve been trying two kinds – Tegaderm and Duoderm, if you’re interested.  As a bonus, they’re waterproof and supposed to stay on for days at a time, so I don’t have to change dressings frequently.  Not having to change them frequently is a huge bonus for these bandages – some of which cost TEN FREAKING DOLLARS a piece if you have to have them right away.

So far, the Tegaderm is winning.  Apparently, there’s something in the adhesive in the Duoderm that I have a bit of a reaction to.  Plus (without getting too gross), I’ll just say that I’ve had to change the Duderm daily.  And Duoderm is by far the more expensive of the two.  So my vote – and what I’ll be stocking up on for any future incidents – is Tegaderm.

Even so, I’m into my fifth day now, and I’m still not healed up.  I’m getting a little impatient.



James is a former rocket scientist, a USA Cycling coach, and lifelong fitness buff. When he's not driving the RV, or modifying the RV (or - that one time - doing both at once), you can find him racing bicycles, or building furniture, or making music. In his spare time, he works for a large IT company.


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