Normal healing process?

Question

I dropped my bike 5 days ago. Ironically, on the way to the doctor for a regular check up. Nurse rinsed my scrapes with saline. One on my hand was about 1 cm across, 1mm depth of skin ripped off with a deeper laceration through it. When rinsed, it just looked glossy and red. I had to go right to work, and tried to keep it covered (I work in a clinic, wash my hands 50-100 times a day) but it got wet a whole lot. When I remove the cover it is goopy yellow stuff over the injury. Should I be concerned? It's the fifth day, and I just got out of the bath, and it's back to this disgusting yellow ****. If I leave it open for a few hours at home, it stops being goopy and is only slighly yellow. I thought I had a good immune system, I don't get sick often. I have been putting an *** load of antibiotics on it all day long. Is this normal? No other signs of infection; no swelling, no redness around the injury, no fever. And it's not dripping yellow stuff, it is just a sick jelly yellow cover of the spot. Is this part of the heeling process or should I be doing something differently.

Answer 1

Scabs, when exposed to moisture, absorb that moisture. The scab then softens, loosens, and may even begin to dissolve: in essence, becoming goopy.

If it stayed dry, the scab would constantly appear the way it does when you leave it open for a few hours.

The scab is absorbing the moisture from the antibiotics you're putting on it, and since it's covered, the moisture is trapped there. Hence the goop. It's nothing to be concerned with. Just try and leave it uncovered more, or get the band-aids that have the little holes in them. That will provide better ventilation and should help with the goopy-ness. Also, you probably don't need quite so much antibiotic cream on it.