Patient Tip: Shaving Your Fistula for Easier Dialysis Access

Let’s shave my arm. What are you doing, Spider Man? Well, I have a thing called a fistula on my arm. And if you can see, got two holes there. This is where I put the needles in for my dialysis. And for some reason gets quite hairy. Those hairs when I’m trying to get my needles in, get in the bloody way. So we get the clippers out and we give it a good trim. Oh no, some of my clippers are dying. And get rid of the hair as much as possible around there. Makes it a lot easier getting the needles in. And also cause we have to tape the needles down. Pulling the tape off, not a hairy arm. Definitely helps. So that was this patient tip of the day. Shave your fistulas. Not the smoothest thing in the world, but there we go. It’ll do.