So I have always used tegaderm brand adhesive stuff on my skin prior to setting an infusion set. Lately I have been hearing a lot of others that just put the site directly to skin. So my question, Do you use tegaderm or any other brand adhesive stuffs or just apply the site directly to your skin. (tegaderm is expensive and my insurance will now only give me a 30 day supply at a time)
I apply the site directly to my skin. I have not had any problems.
I don't use anything under my sets either, just right on the skin with never an issue.
I just stick them on there too. I only tape them if I'm doing something odd, like running 14+ miles or whatever. I use Opsite Flexifix.
I have allergies to my mm sets. Prob the adhesive. I use iv3000 under my sets and since I have an allergy my insurance covers it. I never used anything when I was using my animas sets. Some people have good luck with the wipes like skin tac. You can try some different things. If the site gets inflamed, then just change it out.
I use the Tegaderm patches only because I developed an allergy to the adhesive on the back of the quicksets. When I first started pumping, I just inserted the quicksets directly on to my skin and, until allergy started, had no problems doing it that way.
Ruth
Tega derm really isn't a tape per say. But I put it on before setting my site. The reason for it was that when I first started pumping 18 years ago, the adhesive and or cloth/plastic that was the site, wouldn't stay adhered for more than a day, you see my family is blessed with "Large Pours". I sweat more than the average person. My body temp is always radiating, my wife use to have electric blankets to keep warm at night, until we started sharing a bed. And now she is fine with a light blanket on the coldest nights of the winter. SO in order to keep the site attached, my mm rep and doctor advised I used tegaderm because it would help keep the sweat away from the adhesive. And since then, i have always used it. But with the new infusion sets that have come out, I wonder if I would be able to. But the cost to replace the set is a lot more than just using the tegaderm which I know will work.
Also everyone I knew at the time, (friends from Diabetes Camp, other patients of my doctor and the 5 kids at my school also used tegaderm.
You can try skin tac or hydrofilm. A box of 50 skin tac wipes is like $8 and the hydrofilm I am not sure about since I get it through my moms physical therapy business. I really don't use them much unless I am in a bind and need to extend the life of an infusion site or if i have an exceptionally hard week of workouts.