Hydrocolloid Dressing Sheets - Seeking Advice and Experiences

Howdy Fellow Front-Butters,

  I'm experimenting with hydrocolloid dressing sheets to protect the skin around my stoma. Right now I'm trying the Coloplast Duoderm Extra Thin sheets.  The 4x4's are too small for me, so I was looking online to see what a box of the bigger 6x6 size cost.  "Holy Crapshoot Batman"......those bitches are EXPENSIVE.  Then I noticed there are a myriad of what I'll call "off-brand" hydrocolloid dressings made by companies other than Hollister, Coloplast and Convatec.  And they are MUCH MUCH cheaper.  So the question is........are they as good?  

  So I'm looking for any fellow ostomate cheapskates like myself.......who might have experience with the off-brand sheets.  If you've tried any of them let me know your thoughts.......good or bad.  I'm sure others would be interested as well.  And for those who will offer up that insurance will pay for these......yup, they will....once I figure out which one(s) to tell my Doc to write me a script for.  I already have enought useless ostomy crap around here, so I don't need another box of junk I'll just end up sticking on the dog for fun.  I'm merely trying to narrow down the field of what's available and would like some hands-on knowledge to help me out.  In case anyone is wondering what a 6x6 sheet of Duoderm Extra Thin costs.......lowest I found was $10 a sheet on ePay.  There's something about slapping a $10 thin sheet of plastic under my $30 barrier and $10 ring (that I'm going to take off in 2 days) that just makes me want to save a few bucks when I can.  Go figure.

thanks guys,

bob

Hey bob, you might try asking for a few samples from the different makers. Just a thought 👍

Hi MMSH,

  Roger that!  I now have samples from them all and am wearing the Duoderm now.  After going down the list of things my skin irritation could be......all that's left is mechanical irritation.....meaning me changing my stuff so often has taken its toll on my skin.  So I'm hoping when I peel off this first sheet it doesn't take a lot of my skin with it!  Might try to eek out another day just to make it easier to remove.  If anyone has experience with removing these sheets.......I'm all ears.  The instructions that came with it just said to peel it off!  Ok.....we'll see!

thanks,

bob

I don't have your issues with my skin, but I have noticed that when I have a breakthrough that makes me change my appliance in 2-3 days instead of my usual 6-7 days, the adhesive is SO much stickier and harder to remove from my skin, holding on tightly and requiring a lot of force to get the adhesive to let go. It seems the adhesive just lets go as it approaches its lifetime, which is about 7 days. Only rarely have I managed 8, because the adhesive doesn't adhere any more and the appliance next best thing to falls off in my hands! Is there a reason you can't stretch it to 5 or 6 days? That might give your skin a chance to heal. Of course, there might be other issues; if I sweat too much in the summer, my time drops down to about 4-5 days.

I wish I had something better to offer. Sorry. I also use an Aqua-Seal from Costa Medical over the appliance extending beyond the edges of the faceplate. Without that, the edges of the appliance faceplate tend to roll up and don't stay down properly. With them, I usually get the full time from my appliance, unless I have break-through from the inside, next to the stoma. I have a large hernia, so the faceplate area tends to pop up slightly and let waste through.