I've been able to order Tegaderm on EBAY at a much better price than pharmacy charges. Since he's allergic and will end up with blisters from most other dressings we keep some on hand. VA will prescribe and supply if you need them due to reaction to other dressings and we then carry them with us. Neither of the centers we've been to (DaVita's) questioned us bringing our own. We simply said - Here is a Tegaderm the tape causes blisters.
I buy Tegaderm on Amazon. It's about $75CAN for a box of 200, which is a heck of a lot better than what I'd pay at the drugstore. There I can get a box of 5 for $10. I think I'd rather pay 37.5 cents each than $2 each. I use them for when I put emla on my arm, to cover the cream.
I use SureSeals which are bandaids with gel foam attached instead of gauge. I get them on Amazon last price I got was 17.50 for a hundred. That's 17.5 cents a piece. But they get me out quicker so I by my own.
Some of the centers I listed traveling used those and I liked them. I don't bleed a lot and could almost use a bandaid but since i'm so used to a ton of gauze at home its scary to use less, but every time the used those bandaids with gel foam it felt like enough and I didn't need to switch to a bandaid prior to going sightseeing.
I use sure seals with extra gelfoam because my fistula is really strong, and sometimes the gelfoam on the bandaids just isn't enough to get the dang thing to clot. I will say that it's a rare thing for me to spring a leak when I've got the extra gelfoam.
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