Riding a motorcycle in warm weather can be fun. Unfortunately, it also exposes the rider to a high chance of getting into an accident. While many motorcycle accidents result in severe injuries, with the proper gear, you can escape with minor injuries like road rash.
Road rash is often a minor injury, but it can get complicated, leaving you with scars that can last a lifetime.
While nobody wishes to get scarred, road rash scars can remind you of survival after a motorcycle crash which is a good story considering the chances of dying in a motorcycle crash is 28 times higher than in car crashes.
What Is a Road Rash?
Road rash is an injury that occurs when the skin is scraped against a rough surface resulting in a friction burn or skin abrasion. Sometimes these injuries are referred to as strawberries or raspberries because of their appearance.
While the injuries may not be severe and can resolve by treating them at home, they can be extremely painful. The best option is to seek medical attention for your injuries, especially if they don’t seem to improve or you intend to file a lawsuit.
However, if you decide to file a lawsuit, you should consider hiring skilled lawyers such as Dolman Law Group’s motorcycle accident attorneys to help you with your case.
Hastening Your Healing
If you do not wish to go to the hospital, for example, if the road rash is not as severe and you are responsible for the accident, you can opt for home-based care, which usually works. If you opt to self-treat, here are some tips to hasten your healing:
Clean Your Injuries
The first step should be cleaning your wound. The cleaning process will depend on the nature of the injury.
If you have proper gear, your injuries might not be more than skin deep. However, if an accident occurs without any protective clothes on, there is a high chance you could have road grit stuck in your wound, so you want to ensure you get rid of it.
This step is the most painful but essential to prevent infection. The sooner you clean your wound, the lesser the chances of an infection. After the wound is clean, you should apply an antibiotic ointment.
Dressing the Wound
Dressing the wound should be advised by the extent of the injury. If it’s a minor rash, applying an antibiotic ointment is enough. But if the injury is more than skin deep, dressing it can help keep it moist, allowing epidermal cells to migrate easier.
Some doctors recommend not dressing, but research shows that dressing hastens the healing process and is better at reducing scarring that comes with letting the wound form scabs.
Dressing your wound is not a one-time thing. It would be best to do it daily while dabbing the wound with antiseptic wound cleaners to keep infection at bay. If the wound reddens, becomes painful, or inflamed with time, it is best to see a doctor.
Stop Dressing after It Heals
If your wound looks healed to some extent, it is okay to stop dressing and let it air out. However, it is important not to let it dry out. So you will need to keep moisturizing it to prevent scarring.
Keeping a wound moisturized in an area with direct contact with the sun can be a problem. So, applying sunblock to the area would be an excellent idea until you are sure the wound is healed completely.
Self-care is an excellent option for treating road rash. However, it’s important to look for infections or complications and see a doctor if necessary.
When to See A Doctor
If you take good care of your road rash, it should heal in two weeks. But some situations necessitate seeing a doctor. These situations include:
When You Experience Severe Pain That Does Not Recede
Road rash, like other burns, can be excruciating, especially when the wound is fresh. However, after a few hours, the pain should recede. A quick fix to the pain problem should be taking some off-the-counter pain medication.
However, if the pain doesn’t recede with time, more so by the next day, it could indicate an underlying problem, and it is best to see a doctor. Seeing a doctor helps prevent your injuries from worsening by identifying and controlling any underlying issues.
Infection
Open wounds are very susceptible to infection, and the longer you take to get first aid, the higher your chances of an infection. The first sign of an infected road rash injury is pain that doesn’t recede by the first day.
Other symptoms include pain that increases after the first day, oozing fluids that give a foul smell, the area feeling warmer than other parts of the body, swollen lymph nodes, and inflammation of the area around the wound.
You could also experience signs you could mistake for other illnesses, such as body aches, fever, chills, and other flu-like symptoms.
Someone Else Is Responsible For Your Injuries
If you are not the cause of the accident in which you suffer a road rash, you have a right to sue the other party for damages. If you don’t get medical treatment, the at-fault party and their layers can claim that the accident was not severe enough, a reason they could use to deny you rightful compensation.
Having treatment records can help clear the extent of your damages and thus affect the value of your settlement. Also, seeing the doctor should always be a priority after an accident. While you could think you have only suffered a road rash, you may be surprised to discover other injuries that may not show at first at the scene.
Your Injuries Severe In Nature
A minor road rash will not bleed but ooze a clear liquid. If your injuries are all bloody, are two or three times the length of your palm, or injuries that are more than skin deep, they may need specialized attention.
In severe cases, a road rash can necessitate corrective surgery. Such injuries could also require you to take days off work, so you may want to have your doctor put it in writing because the doctors are critical in enumerating lost wages.
