My appointment with the foot and ankle clinic is this Friday and I cant wait as my ankle although looking better is hard to walk on without a cane and when I do walk on it the bones seem to pop and move a lot as if something is loose. Yesterday I was forced to go to the urgent care clinic (a walk in) to address what was simple abrasions on my right arm from the protective gear. It turns out they were not healing as you can see in the photo’s because I acquired a bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus which is a form of bacteria that is found in athletic gear and common among football players. It turns out that when you wear protective gear and your skin flakes off it feeds this bacteria that lives in the type of athletic gear that is normally not washed like shoulder pads or like in my case elbow pads. Anyway this bacteria lives in the padding and as soon as it get a chance enters a break in your skin like an abrasion or cut. Because it is cultured to live off human tissue it is very hard to kill and antiseptic like rubbing alcohol and peroxide do not faze it. After the doctor did the culture he said I was lucky I didn’t get the flesh eating type that attacks the muscle in minutes. Anyway all of it can be avoided by disinfecting your athletic gear including shoes with a disinfectant spray at least once a week so that this strain cant culture and develop.
Anyway I cant wait to get back on the road as I miss my daily bicycling and off roading.
PS, I never mentioned the condition of my Suzy 400 (dirt bike), not even so much as a scratch except for the right side hand guard that I purchased and put on a few months ago. It looks like the investment for the hand guards paid off and saved my right hand cause the guard has some deep gouges on it which means it did its job well. Suzuki made a very durable dirt bike when they mad the DRZ400. In the old days you would have parts scattered everywhere.
