When the Bleeding Begins

You are riding your road bike on a crisp sunny Sunday morning, 10 miles from home. The roads are empty and you are flying along, pistoning your legs, content with the flow.

And then, the squirrel.

You lock eyes.  He is directly in your path.  You know that he doesn't know yet which way he will run.  You shift slightly to the left.  He jitters slightly to the right.

Then, like all squirrels, he does the unthinkable and jumps left.

You are just feet away.  You steer to the right—but your momentum has all gone left.  The squirrel looks up in horror as you fall exactly over him.  At the last moment, before your full weight can reach him, he leaps through the frame of your bike and avoids disaster.

But you don't.

Clad only in your biker shorts and wafer thin jersey, you greet the sandpaper of the highway with all of your prominences.  Your kinetic energy thankfully dissipates as you gift it to the friction of the highway.  Finally, looking back for vehicles and finding none coming, you slowly sit up and assess yourself.

You are bleeding heavily from deep abrasions on your elbow and your hip.  Your bike is still rideable but your cell phone has been smashed.  You have nothing to use to stop the bleeding or dress your wounds so you lie down on a leaf pile and apply pressure to your elbow and hip with the leaves until the bleeding stops. 

You pick away the vegetation from your wounds and you tear what is left of your jersey to wrap them.  You begin the slow and painful ride home, happy that your bones are intact.

When you arrive home, you step into the bathroom to remove the wraps of jersey material and wash your wounds.   You are surprised to find that the cloth not only adheres to your wounds but is exceedingly painful when you try to remove it.  More painful, even, than the original injury. 

After half an hour in the tub, the clot gradually releases the cloth, though some of the clot is torn away and rebleeding requires additional periods of pressure with a washcloth to control.  You look for a non-stick dressing but nothing is large enough to cover your injuries and you eventually resort to cellophane wrap and a towel to cover them.  You wish there were a better way.

Fortunately, there is.

A new product has emerged that can be carried in the cyclist's jersey for just this sort of event.  It is called Stasilon(R).  Having the appearance and soft feel of gauze, Stasilon(R) is a textile made of glass and bamboo fibers.  The glass is highly reactive to blood and stops the bleeding after injury.  

The bamboo is a wicking agent that helps concentrate components of the blood to allow the glass to do its job.  Best of all can be applied to the site with tape and serve as the dressing for the wound.

But the best is yet to come: It adheres only minimally to the clot.

This time, when you get home, you can peel it away to wash your wound, removing road dirt so you don't wind up with a nasty tattoo.  Then, you can apply a new piece of Stasilon(R) and know that when you change it the next day, it will adhere to the wound less than gauze—or pieces of jersey material!

Stasilon(R) has been clinically tested in burn patients and shown to reduce bleeding and adhere minimally to wounds, compared to gauze.  Stasilon(R) has been used by physicians and dentists for all types of procedures.  In the home it is welcomed by children and parents for its ability to stop bleeding without significant adherence in the face of abrasions and nosebleeds.

The restaurant kitchen has welcomed it, as well.  Stasilon(R) can be used in all athletic injuries when bleeding occurs.  It gets you back in the game.

Stasilon(R) is an FDA cleared product that is available at www.entegrion.com.