Clive
Full Metal Jacket
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Spyroflex Bandages -- HATE!
« on: April 29, 2008, 09:43:05 PM » |
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[rant]
#(&*&_($@#*&^&)(%!!!!
So I was getting ready to "wax the chain" Saturday AM before my mighty motorcycle weekend jaunt. I'd just returned from the gas station, where I got gas (duh) and put air in the tires. The other benefit was that the chain would be warmed by the riding, so the lube would better penetrate.
The Speed3 has no centerstand. I have a pit stand; to use it, one attaches it to the rear axle while the bike is on the sidestand, brings the bike upright (balancing/holding it in such position), then levers the rear wheel off the ground and the rear of the bike onto the stand. There is, you may appreciate, a moment of terror when the ~450-pound motorcycle is brought off its sidestand while I stand behind it (rather than alongside, where I can hold it with my hands and hip). This terror is compounded by the fact that levering the stand requires letting go of the bike with one hand. Well, naturally, the bike was in neutral and started to roll backward slightly when I took my right hand off it to reach for the pit stand. Afraid the bike would fall over (a generally not inexpensive event and one most undesirable right before a trip), I grabbed it as one, kneeling behind a motorcycle, might grab it to prevent it falling over. And burned my upper arm on the hot exhaust. Quite spectacularly, if I may brag.
First aid is given, and my wife has these Spyroflex Blister Dressings. Very high-tech wound cover device. "Used in hospitals everywhere!" OK, I place one on; it will adhere securely for 3-7 days, says the box. Feels nice enough, and the Advil is kicking in, too. And off I go on my journey.
Fast-forward to this afternoon, when I am trying to remove the damned thing. It released from the intact peripheral skin just fine. It WILL NOT release the delicate skin over the huge blister. I call the manufacturer; the woman tells me she's never heard of the Blister Dressing sticking to a blister ("Really? You've never heard of a bandage sticking to a burn before?") and that she will check with Sales (Sales! If anyone knows anything about the adhesive polymer chemistry of these babies, it's gonna be Sales!) for a -- I kid you not -- "home remedy". She promises to get back to me, which we both understand means GFY. An hour of painful removal effort later, I call my own doctor and ask for help. The triage nurse tells me to soak it; if that fails, apply some dishwashing liquid and work on it. And squirt it with a turkey baster. At this point, I think she's just making *feces* up. It's on the inside of my upper arm, so I just filled the tub and had a bath. A 90-minute bath. With dishwashing liquid. And a turkey baster. Sorry, no pictures. But I now look like a California Raisin who's either trying to quit smoking or using the new birth control patch.
The *goshdarn* thing won't come off. The skin over the blister has been torn and lost the underlying fluid, well before it would have reached that point naturally. I have a giant bandage on my arm to keep the dressing from flapping, since it's mostly detached. I have to go to the doctor's first thing in the AM. And he's probably going to rip the thing off anyway. I could have done that and saved myself both the co-pay and the time missed from work.
[/rant]
Spyroflex is The Devil. Avoid at all costs. The burn wasn't as bad as this dressing.
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