I am extremely lucky....for the most part a good washing with my special exfoliating face cleanser will remove enough facial oils that I don't even need alcohol wipes and the Bleep ports will stick superbly all night. Regular soap and water doesn't quite do the trick though and when I use regular soap and water I use an alcohol wipe as the last step when I use regular soap and water.
A simple cheap wipe with alcohol is enough for me. I have a cheap (cost me 88 cents) bottle of alcohol that I pour a bit on a cloth and wipe my nose off with it and let it dry. I have used the wipes when/if I travel...just more convenient.
Now some people just have some really oily skin to deal with. It's a fact of life we all know about. If my poor husband were to have to try to use the Bleep....no way would they stick his skin without extra prep.
There are skin barrier products out there that do an extra good job of helping adhesives stick.
They are out there mainly for people who need to use adhesives in products for other reasons....Colostomy bags comes to my mind because my own brother had this issue to deal with. People wear colostomy bags a lot longer than we wear the Bleep ports and those bags don't come off with proper prep and obviously proper prep is especially important when wearing a colostomy bag....we sure don't want one of those bags coming loose.....big mess.
So if someone wants to use the Bleep and they are unlucky in the sense that their skin is so oily that the adhesive just needs extra help sticking than what soap and water and alcohol can give them....the products are out there that will likely give them the success they want. I had a chance to try one such product....Cavilon from 3M. It sticks...I felt like it took of 5 layers of good skin
it didn't but man was it a task to pull it off.
These sort of products are marketed as barrier films... they aren't cheap like alcohol...but they are doable in cost because you won't need to use much..... just to apply it to the areas of the nose that the Bleep adhesive needs to stick to.
Wipes are the priciest...let's face it we pay for convenience but people can get bottles and tubes of these special barrier films and since you will use such a small amount the cost spread out over a prolonged period of time will make it much more affordable if someone can't afford the convenience of wipes.
This is just one more area of cpap therapy and cpap equipment that comes with that big old huge YMMV sticker. I have yet to find anything regarding cpap that doesn't come with this sticker.
Oh...for those of you who don't care for a loofah....check out Salux wash cloth.
Someone recommended these to me a few weeks ago...I have been having issues with my shoulders and it makes for extra difficulty washing my back in the shower...even with something that has a handle. My shoulder is making it hard to get in position to even use a handle product for back washing.
I love the Salux...I use it like I do the towel to dry off my back. Soaps up great and rinses easily and dries quickly.
I haven't tried it on my face though...the roughness feels really good on my back but might not feel so great on my face and I don't really need it on my face....but I do use it on my back and arms and legs and feet to help get the dead skin off.
