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My poor skin

I cannot wait to be finished with my IV antibiotics. Granted, the IVs themselves haven't been that bad. The nausea has been manageable, and my port has behaved fairly well (at least, it's been well-behaved for my port). The worst part about this course of IVs has been dealing with the tape. The most common form of medical tape is called Tegaderm. I used to use this kind of tape on my PICC lines until my skin reacted violently against it a few years ago. So, I switched to IV3000. That tape has been life-saving for my skin. I managed to have many PICC lines and port accesses where my skin has stayed healthy. I hoped IV3000 would not have the same problems as Tegaderm. I mean, surely my skin can't react as badly as it had previously, right?

Wrong.

This past week and a half, my skin has gotten worse and worse. It is red and is covered in all these itchy bumps under the tape, but I can't do anything about it. My port has to be Protected somehow, and currently, I'm "allergic" to the only two options. It's time for plan C--find yet another tape that won't make me react so violently. For now, I'm hoping I am well enough on Thursday to stop my IVs so my skin can be free!! 

I was reaccessed today, so I saw how horrible my skin looked. Below is a picture. I can't wait to get rid of the tape!

Fellow CFers: If you have any ideas on how you keep your skin from getting irritated, please let me know! I could use the help. Thanks!


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