Two days ago I fell (the street jumped up at me, I swear) and scraped a considerable patch of skin off my knee.
Thus far I’ve been keeping it covered with some gauze, mostly because it’s been oozing whatever gross stuff scraped knees ooze, and I firmly believe that the less bodily fluids I see, the happier I am.
But I know that this keeps it from scabbing as quickly, and whenever I change the gauze it seems to make things worse, as the gauze has been sticking to what little skin remains; this morning it actually bled a bit as I peeled the old gauze off.
So: Will it heal faster if I suck it up and tolerate a bit of…ooze getting on my jeans for a day, or is it best to keep it covered? Also, please assure me that the gross ooziness is normal (last time I scraped myself up this badly I was at the age where a kiss from a parental unit and a popsicle made it all better).
If you’re wearing pants, a bandage will be somewhat better as it’s going to be relatively stationary - pants will be rubbing every which way as you walk. Are you at least using “ouchless” or some other sort of wrapped/covered pads that aren’t just straight gauze?
Ideally, of course, you’d wear shorts so the thing can dry up and scab over on its own, and yes, oozing is to be expected. Clear or pale straw yellow is OK, but if it turns milky, you’ve probably got some infection going on.
Have you ever had a tattoo? I treat road rash about how I would treat a fresh tatoo.
Get some non-stick gauze and cover the area loosely- use a strip of tape above and below the wound that wraps most of the way around your leg, and allow the gauze to “puff out” from the wound somewhat. A little neosporin or other ointment will help too. This will protect your clothing and the wound site but still allow a bit of air to circulate.
And when you’re not wearing pants and can be reasonably sure you won’t get a bunch of dirt in it, let it air out.
Even if you slather on neosporin to prevent infection, which keeps the wound soft and wet, the flesh underneath will be healing. So you could slather that on and tape on a sterile pad. That’s what I do when a sore left to dry out gets stiff and too tight to move without feeling like it’s going to tear.