Alcohol wipes on an NHS prescription

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Yes sorry, for skin prep before attaching a new dexcom sensor. They always say they're in the box with the sensor but they're not! I know they do stick but if you use body creme and such like it can affect the adhesive. I could buy them, just wondered.
 
london5 said:
Yes sorry, for skin prep before attaching a new dexcom sensor. They always say they're in the box with the sensor but they're not! I know they do stick but if you use body creme and such like it can affect the adhesive. I could buy them, just wondered.
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They used to be supplied with Libre sensors, but they discontinued them, telling you to buy your own. They’re very cheap, for a large box, in our local independent pharmacy.
 
I don't bother with alcohol wipes, I just wash and exfoliate as normal and dry thoroughly then apply. The alcohol wipe is probably only necessary if you are not putting it onto freshly washed and dried skin.
 
london5 said:
Yes sorry, for skin prep before attaching a new dexcom sensor. They always say they're in the box with the sensor but they're not! I know they do stick but if you use body creme and such like it can affect the adhesive. I could buy them, just wondered.
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You don't get them with Dexcom sensors, well not since I've been using them.

Get my alcohol swabs off Amazon, around £3 for box of 100, you can get them on ebay as well for similar price.

I always use them before applying new sensor & also before pump change.
 
london5 said:
Does anyone know if you can get an NHS prescription for alcohol wipes?
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They’re a couple of pounds for a box of 100 which is a 2 year supply for libre
 
If you are home when applying your sensor and feel you really need to wipe your skin with alcohol, why not use surgical spirit?
It is cheaper and better for the environment to reuse a cloth than have individually wrapped one use wipes.

I usually apply my pump and sensor after a shower so have no need for the alcohol wipe. But, if I need to change either in the middle of the day, I use surgical spirit. My bottle is at least 5 years old and I have used less than a fifth of it.
 
I can still recall the smell of surgical spirit. In ye olden days of glass syringes I kept mine in surgical spirit after a good boil with the used all week blunt needles.
 
One of my old DSNs wasn’t keen on their routine use (I asked when starting on an insulin pump, as it was mentioned in a US-based book. She advised that as long as you were fairly freshly showered / ‘socially clean’ was the description I think she used, there should be no need.

I think there was a possibility that repeated use could toughen or harden the skin?
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
One of my old DSNs wasn’t keen on their routine use (I asked when starting on an insulin pump, as it was mentioned in a US-based book. She advised that as long as you were fairly freshly showered / ‘socially clean’ was the description I think she used, there should be no need.

I think there was a possibility that repeated use could toughen or harden the skin?
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Surgical spirit does harden the skin. When I used to do ballet, when I was a teenager, we used surgical spirit on our toes, because the pointe shoes used by ballerinas for pointe work tend to rub blisters, so we were told to use it to toughen up our feet. (if you’ve ever seen a professional ballerina's feet, they are disgusting, full of hard skin, corns, and misshapen toes, they sure suffer for their art.)
 
We did the same when we went for riding lessons when we were little because the inside of our knees rubbed on the stirrup leathers and took the skin off. Surgical spirit used to sting like crazy. Not sure which was worse, the sore/skinned knees from riding or the pain from the treatment!
 
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