Medical Advice from Nurse Practitionr Julie Penton

[Tom Penton]

A bit of a Public Service Announcement, if I may, from me (Tom) and Nurse Practitioner Wife Jule:

I had this happen twice now: A bad case of cellulitus  (infection) from a good sized abrasion (road rash, or more appropriately "dirt rash"), that ended up with me at the emergency room (expensive!).
 
First time was 2 years ago when I was on my Suzuki DR200 and my son Spencer was on his Kawasaki KLX250. There was this pretty gnarly hill (dry) and Spencer "wondered" if that might be something like we used to go up in the Enduros and ISDTs. Thought I'd give it a try as it looked plenty wide enough nearing the steeper top to turn around. But, well you know this story, it got too steep to do a controlled 180, and I just plopped over and slid back down 10 feet with the bike on top of me. I got back up and took a couple minutes to shake the pain (and embarrasement) off and managed to wrestle it back down. It was going to be a half hour pavement ride back home, but we stopped for pizza, so it was probably a couple hours before I showered and somewhat half assed cleaned the wounds, subsequently inadequately.

The second time was this past Saturday: I fell off a badly placed step ladder (only 3rd rung) and got scraped up on an old wooden stake, landing in the dirt that got rubbed in. I got in the shower somewhat timely, but didn't "scrub out" the wound sufficiently and also didn't adequately apply anti-bacterial ointment & bandage.

The doctors' in both cases said the same: older bodies (I'll be 65 in May) don't fight the germs as well. Or maybe we have special germs in our Oregon Dirt! But, in any case, my plea to Julie that " I'd get scraped up like this every time after a motorcycle race, or working on the farm, or playing football, and it would heal just fine" didn't wash with her (so to speak:)).

So, let's take care of ourselves!

Thanks,

Tom

P.S. Simple antibiotic RX (Augmenten) seems to be working.

[wfopete]

As Tom alluded to; as we age the internal body parts start getting a little feeble. Here is another spin on this that I have been hearing stories of more frequently:

Rider (usually older, like 40+ years) takes a spill and takes a shot to the gut from handlebars or whatever.  Rider shakes it off but 15 minutes later is still hurting and calls it a day.  What the rider doesn't realize is that the gut stuff (liver, colon, tummy, pancreas etc) may have suffered severe bruising or lacerations, the result being internal bleeding. Depending on the severity of the damage you may have 20 minutes to several hours before you leave this world.  Bottom line is if it keeps hurting there is probably a problem...and maybe a big one.  Get it checked out by a doc fast.


   


Pete Petrick
175 Jackpiner
Slow but Good