Warning signs of infection are increased pain, swelling,foul odor or pus drainage. Once a wound becomes infected it takes much longer to heal and the scarringwill be worse. I really recommend Duoderm as a wound dressing, since it accelerateswound healing and makes the process as close to painless as possible. After the firstcouple of days I prefer the wound to be aired out part of the day and coveredpart of the day, to keep the wound from getting too slimy but not completelydried out. The thinnest possibletop layer is probably best, but scraping it off completely may disturbthe healing layer (granulation tissue) right underneath. IвЂ™m notsure that I agree completely with scraping the wound four times a day toeliminate the scab completely, but I do agree that the top layer can gettoo thick and goopy and be more prone to infection. Thewound should be gently cleaned again in the shower once a day. I prefer that the wound remain coveredfor the first couple of days-it hurts less and heals a little faster. The woundmust be cleaned at least enough to get all the gravel and dirt out, whileattempting to minimize tissue damage from scrubbing too hard. Togo over the basics, the initial treatment is most important. Obviously,the better you care for a wound, the lower the chance of infection. Sometimes even with ideal care wounds can become infected anyway. Okay, that makes sense, except that in the same way peroxidedamages new tissue, doesnвЂ™t this method damage them as well? It seemedto take forever to heal. He said something about scrapingbecause itвЂ™s the thin layer on top that can contain the infection and actslike a coating, preventing the non-infected stuff from getting through. But it got infected anyway (where is that Duoderm-making god?).A trip to urgent care and an antibiotic (which I found out I was allergicto) later, my doctor told me to scrape the wounds each time I changed thedressing (at least four times a day). When I got home, I ran water over it, clenched my jaw, held (and probablybroke in several places) my fellow riderвЂ™s hand and prepared to wash itwith a washcloth and antibacterial soap, which I finally did. I rinsed it off using my water bottle rightaway and cut my ride short. I recently went down and had road rash on my wristand from my knee to my ankle. I just finished reading your latest article about road rash and I hadone remaining question. Get access to everything we publish when you

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