Hi gang,
Mike......hold that thought! I was expecting wonderful things too from this combo....but it turned out to be an epic fail. Or at least the Eakin ring did. I really like the barrier technology, so I'm holding out hope for that, but the Eakin tore me up! It started feeling itchy under the barrier about an hour after I put it on, but I told myself it was my imagination. As the day wore on, I couldn't tell if it was under the Eakin ring or under the periphery of the barrier's bandage part...........so I gave it a second day to go away, but my skin was crawling and this morning I couldn't take it anymore, so off it came. Unlike many who have said it was hard getting the Eakin off.....mine came off pretty easily, and in one piece. Adhesion was good, no issues, but my skin was just having no part of it. After removing the whole ball of wax, it was obvious the skin only under the Eakin was what was driving me nuts. It's bright red and weepy, after only 2 days. I'm curious if anyone else is allergic to the Eakin, so I'll ask in another post.
I've gone back to my Hollister stuff for now to get my skin back to good condition, and then I'm going to try the ConvaTec again without the Eakin. I like the bag closure on the ConvaTec better than that on my Holly, and the attachment of the bag to the barrier is a bit more stout than the Holly's. So it's got some positive things going for it, just can't use it with the Eakin ring. That leaves me two things left to try, the barrier without any ring and the barrier with my Holly ADAPT ring. I probably don't need a ring, but I use one with my Holly setup because the ADAPT ring is the one thing I'm absolutely positive my skin has no issue with. So I flatten it out to cover as much area as possible to reduce the amount of adhesive my skin sees from the Holly barrier bandage part. So the testing will continue!
But I'm curious now as to what's in the Eakin, because if I can isolate it then I'll know what drives my skin nuts. May have to bring one to the lab at work for a chemical analysis. But overall this was a good learning experience. Even if I don't find something that works.........knowing for sure that something doesn't is also good info. Onward we go............
Everyone enjoy their Memorial Day here in the States...............and take a second to remember what it's for!
;O)