Hospital Tape Glue Removal

If you have ever been to the hospital and had surgery, or even your doctors office. Chances are you've had to deal with the awful residue left by the tape they use. 

I have an allergy to some of the tape with latex in it. It kinda looks silky. They usually try to use paper tape on me but even they can leave the residue. 

After surgery I had 4 incisions, one was a drain. They all had what looked like Glad press-n-seal on them lol. Once the surgeon took my drain out she covered it with some gauze and a bunch of tape. All this plus the residue where my catheter, IV line, and where they took blood samples, had it. Talk about a pain to remove. 

So I've decided to do another list on things I tried to get it off.   

PLEASE NOTE: Please use caution when trying to remove tape around incisions that are not fully closed and healed. You do not want to risk infection by removing them too early. I know they are hideous and itchy but leave them alone. 

First think I tried if course was warm water, soap and washcloth. 

This helped very little but hey at least it was clean. 

Second I tried rubbing alcohol & a cotton ball. 

Again not really good results. After a while my skin got irritated. For small areas it might work well. 

Next was nail polish remover & a cotton ball. 

 

This did the same as the alcohol but was much more irritating and smelly. This is one I will never recommend simply because your skin is already irritated. 

Then I tried GermX. 

 

It worked pretty good but still not great results. 

By this time I gave up and let my skin rest for a day. While talking to my doctor I asked her what she would recommend. They use mineral oil on their patients. She said it was safe and good for the skin. It is even safe on steri strips. 

So I thought what the hay. 

I used it with a wash cloth and what do you know it really worked. It was much easier than the others. It kinda rolled the glue up in little balls. The skin wasn't scratched as much because the oil was more if a barrier. You could also use baby oil and it will work them same. 

So that was it. I finally got it all off and actually had some skin left. There is one more idea I was willing to try but didn't have too. 

WD40 

I had several people tell me it works great. I'm assuming it works similarly to the oil. If you try it let me know your results too.