Wafers and water

[steiconi]

I've used convatec durahesive wafers for several years.
I've spent hours at a time in pool or ocean and the wafer has been fine. I've been cautious about hot tubs, but never had a problem.

We just put in an adulty pool (kiddy pool without children), and it's a nice place to laze around and look at the night sky.

The pool gets quite hot in the sun, up to 105°, and stays warm for a while.
Soaking in that turned my wafer into a sticky gelatine, but it mostly recovered when it dried. Three evenings of that completely destroyed the wafer, leaving gobs of gunk all over and irritating my skin.

We put a shade over the pool, so the water is only 85°. Wafer turned gooey, but mostly recovered.

How warm can these wafers take? Or have they changed something, and this will be a continuing problem, no matter the temperature?

[nickolas]

I assumed for a many years it was heat causing my wafer to fall apart. I live in Arizona, during the winter months, I can a 7 day wear out of one wafer, during the summer months, 3-5 days. I learned a few years back, it was water/moisture. Okay sweat from hernia belt is causing moisture to settle around wafer.

If that water is hot enough in you pool, just assume you will be changing that wafer more often. Am I correct to assume you wear a barrier ring? During the summer months here, I see my barrier ring expand to almost nothing, thus more frequent changes of the wafer. Is it due to heat or water/moisture? Personally I think heat has a lot to do with it.

Just my humble opinion.

Nickolas

[To Dream a Dream]

I've used ConvaTec products from back in the late 1970's when they were a division of Squibb. Stomahesive had just been released & that was fortunate for me as I am very allergic to karaya barriers. Please consider giving ConvaTec a call & report these problems. Their staff has always been very supportive of me over the years & are also receptive to feedback. With the current pandemic affecting many companies, they may have had to restructure their customer support accordingly, but it would be worth a try.

[steiconi]

I emailed convatec a week ago, haven't gotten a reply. I guess it's time for a phone call.

Nikolas, Since I've not had problems with lots of time spent in cooler water, I have to assume the heat is causing the deterioration--or perhaps there's been a change in the formulation. Three sessions in hot water turned the wafer into a sticky jelly mess. Nope, no barrier ring. Wafers kept out of the hot water would last over a week, but my skin wants a change every 5 days.
BTW, I live in Tucson year round, though we usually travel in the hottest months. Not even a decent monsoon this year!

[To Dream a Dream]

Lee: Please continue to reach out to ConvaTec. If they changed their formula, they should be made aware of the difficulties you are experiencing so they can work on correcting the problem.
Please know I'm praying for all of you folks living in the West during the pandemic & horrible weather conditions. God bless you all.

[Mara]

I agree with TDaD - I had no trouble calling Convatec at the end of March when I came home from out of the country and had a problem to report....they promptly sent me replacement items as they usually do....