back to nursing days....hmmmmm try duoderm over top....expensive but may help and make sure skin dry and no cream or powder......dah dah dah you prob read all that!!! duoderm helped to keep on my fentanyl patch when I used them and they stayed for three days with shower but I did cover them in shower with plastic wrap and taped it up to keep it somewhat dry but always got wet......try this may help talk to pharmacist to get it....may cost $8.00 for about five of them.....but that is Canadian....lol

hope that helps a bit.....anything to keep pain free!!!!
Sincerely,
Victoaia

Dawn a lot of it is placement and shape.

For example, I take my patches, but the in half, place one over each trap. I use to round the edges a bit not to catch clothing.

I also take one patch and place it on the "Hump." The cervcal area that is tender. This one I wear at night after my bath.

The daytime, I wear one for the lumbar, across the small of my back. It seems that the patches are much smaller then when I first used them 5-6 years ago, even the thickness seems smaller.

IF you use it on the arm or leg you may want to try an ace bandage wrap to hold it on. Make sure there are no lotions on the skin.

Another tip; In our Eckard's, now they are being bought out by CVS so maybe there too you can find these off name brand Thermacare patches. THey use body heat. I don't have one handy, but they are next to the thermacare and have three in the box. They normally were about $2.99, they ahd them on special a few weeks ago for $1.00 for pack.

Salonas patches I used too, but I think I like the biofreeze roll on better.

Some have tried capacesine. Now with this you DO NOT use it like suntan lotion. It is a pea size and place it near the area flared. IF it si my hands and palm, I place near my wrist, if upper arm, then the shoulder joint indented spot, the knee, along side the hinge. Justa trace.

It confuses the enrves and they mix up the signals to the brain for the chronic pain, and forget it for awhile. Has helped me a lot for nerve pain flares.
Di

Hi Dawn...do you have the LARGE Lidoderm patches? Let me grab mine and measure....okay, it says 10 cm x 14 cm on the package...is that the same size you have?

I usually only wear mine at night. I put them on when I get home from work at about 5 pm and take it off when I get up at 5 a.m. so I only have to worry about it at night when I'm not as active. But...I wear my fentanyl patches for 2 full days, and perhaps this trick will work for you if you can find a size that will work for the lidoderm patches....

If you aren't using an extra large patch, but rather are either cutting those, or using smaller ones, the ONLY thing that holds my patches on are the nexcare "absolute waterproof bandages." They are a tad expensive...about $5 for 5 bandages, but they are FAR WORTH the price. So, if you can either CUT the patches to a smaller size, or find a waterproof bandage to put over the top of the large patch, that would be a great help. Or even a waterproof TAPE. I've found just using REGULAR medical tape doesn't work half as well as using waterproof.

Also, a huge help is washing the area you are goign to be putting hte patch on with alcohol first. BUT BE SURE that you either check with the pharmacist, your doctor, or read the package insert FIRST. Some of these medications that come in a patch say NOT to wash the area with alcohol first. If you can, that's a huge help cuz it gets off the "skin oils" that are there. If you bathe first, that actually HARMS the sticking, cuz most of our soaps contain lotion, that cause the patch NOT to stick...so using hte alcohol would remove that lotion and our skin oils.

Hope this helps

Hugs
LisaM