Best bandages / dressings?

[kailooa]

Hello!  What do you use as a bandage or dressing for draining abscesses?  I have several draining areas on my breast that are several inches apart.  So far I have tried extra large band-aid type adhesive bandages, gauze with surgical tape, and telfa pads.  The adhesive bandages are not absorbent enough on their own but too small to contain a gauze pad, and their awkward size doesn't cover more than one of the drainage areas anyway.  The gauze with surgical tape allows seepage between the tape strips, and leaves a lot of tape residue and irritation on my skin.  The telfa pads are 4x6 and are not very absorbent at all but can hold a piece of gauze in place.  Unfortunately they only have adhesive on two sides so the other two sides allow seepage.  I am going crazy trying to keep my clothes clean and dry, and all of this stuff is so expensive!  What works for you?

[ruostentatious]

I've used a panty liner (varient sizes, depending on the drainage amount)... They perfectly tuck into a bra (sticky side to the bra, obviously) and have found those to work great when I work (physical job) and when I sleep (in a sports bra)... I have the same issue, I eventually developed a tape allergy...

[kuulei04]

I like the NUK brand breast feeding pads.  I guess you should try different ones to see which you like.  Too much tape will irritate your skin.  I only put tape if I needed to.  And I changed my nursing pad twice or three times a day.  I found that the I liked the gauze from the doctor office best when I was using gauze, so maybe you can see if they're willing to give you some extra.  Sometimes I would use 2 nursing pads  if 1 didn't cover all the area.  And sometimes I would use a little bit of tape on the edge of the nursing pad if necessary.   But at some point I was able to use only nursing pads, and right now I'm not draining anything so I'm not using anything.

[Apuk]

I use different sizes of nonstick pads(Johnson&johnson ,local store brand)
and also I use nursing pads on top of them