Injury on Kauai

Vacation is good time to back off on exercise, but it's a challenge to watch the food intake (quantity and quality) and to resist the urge to exercise.  On a trip to Kauai I struggled with eating too much salty food and keeping exercise in control.

The main issue was a run along the Heritage Trail at Poipu beach.  The trail is lined with sand, tree roots, cliffs, rounded rocks, sharp rocks, vegetation, and other hazards.  I jogged up to the horse stable to view the eastern beach and then returned along the shore.  Unfortuantely, 1/2 mile from the hotel and after 4 1/2 miles I stumbled over a root partially buried in the sand and fell face first into the sand, rock, earth, root system.  At first I thought only my pride was wounded, but once I got up I found a blood mess on my right knee.  There were three distinct bright red marks on my knee where the skin was removed.  I decided to test out the injury by running and found that I could run without much pain.

Haven't had skinned knees like this since I was a kid!  The largest area of removed skin was about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.  There was another cut on the knee cap, and three other scrapes around the largest trauma.  The knee was not damaged although a slight bruising showed up 3 days after the fall.

The injury occurred on Wednesday and by Sunday I was feeling like this was not going to end soon.  Went to Mayo Emergency Room in Phoenix on Sunday and waited 1 hour 40 minutes before giving up....NEVER go there for emergency!

The day of the injury a pharmacist on Kauai gave my wife some gauze, first aid tape, and a large band-aid bandage.  I rinsed the wounds at the Hyatt drink fountain, finished the run, and then showered off the sand and washed the wound (turns out that you shouldn't use soap).  The most important thing is to get all dirt, sand, sticks, rocks, etc. from the wound.  Any foreign object will create infection.  Next step is to avoid gauze which will stick to a large scraped area!  The first two days following the injury the gauze stuck to the wound!  Removing the gauze meant removing the new skin!  Also, learned to shave the hair off my leg to ease removal of tape, and to limit the amount of tape used.

Two or three times per day I put Neosporin on the wounds.  By day 8 the main wound has healed to the point where I don't worry about touching it.  At night I applied the cream, but left the wounds uncovered.  Covered during the day to protect.  The minor wounds don't need any care, but I put a layer of cream on 2/3 times per day.

Was able to spin on the 9th day after the "crash."  Having a few sharp pains on day 10.  Day 11 was a travel day, carrying luggage and walking in airports without notice.  Hoping to run on Saturday which is 12 days after the injury.

Update: 2/26/2010 all is well.  Back to normal intense workout routine.  The skin is a little sensitive, but all I do is put organic creme to moisturize skin.