Fistula protector?

When I found this forum I was actually searching for a company that sells accessories for dialysis patients.

What I am looking for is a protector for my lower arm fistula. It’s 21 years old, still runs at 450 BFR but the aneurisms are very large. I usually wear 5 inch sleeves made from cut-off cotton athletic socks. See the links to pictures below.

www.kathyspark.com/images/fistulaprotector.jpg
www.kathyspark.com/images/fistulaugly.jpg
www.kathyspark.com/images/fistulaarm.jpg

(Notice my return is in my upper arm. That may be why I get such great clearance, 78% URR at 3:10.)

I would like to find something that offered a little more protection from sharp edged objects, such as a sleeve made from plastic coated nylon mesh or kevlar mesh. It would have to be ventilated so that it could breath freely, and a zipper would be helpful so that it could fit snugly.

Does anyone know if such a thing exists? I was hoping to find a catalog, but nothing so far. Thanks,
Rusty

Rusty, I removed the links because when I clicked on them, they took me to Tripod or to another website that didn’t have pictures of your access.

I think most people don’t wear anything to protect their access unless they’re doing something that could harm it, like playing sports or working in an environment where it could get bumped. When you wear anything over your fistula, you have to be very careful that it’s not tight.

There are arm guards that are used by athletes like the one in the link below (I found it on Google looking for “forearm guard”).

There’s also this which is probably quite a bit more expensive, but may offer more protection (searched Google for "cut resistant arm guard).
http://www.hexarmor.com/pfi/industrylist.asp?catID=4

Be sure to ask your doctor before you use any arm guard.

Have you asked a vascular surgeon if anything can be done to repair the aneurysms or pseudoaneurysms in your fistula?

Sorry about the links, I don’t know what the problem was with that. I wish you could have seen the picture of what I use. I posted them over on www.ihatedialysis.com and they work okay there, but that site seems to be offline tonight.

Yes I have talked with the surgeon and he can’t do anything at this stage. He said my veins are developed well enough that he could give me a new upper-arm fistula that would be immediately ready for action. I’m not fixing what ain’t broke as they say, so I’ll just continue using the homemade sleeve. I am very active and work with my hands a lot.

Thanks for your reply.

I think the sites didn’t work because there was a space in the link. If you just copy and paste the URL into the message, it should hyperlink without adding any other coding.

Thanks Beth. I edited them back into the first post in this thread. From now on I will not post links to external images.
Rusty

Rusty, you could just include the image itself.

Oh well, I guess that woulda’ been too easy. I’ll get it figured out yet. I’m a fairly new forum surfer.

[QUOTE=Rusty;9665]When I found this forum I was actually searching for a company that sells accessories for dialysis patients.

What I am looking for is a protector for my lower arm fistula. It’s 21 years old, still runs at 450 BFR but the aneurisms are very large. I usually wear 5 inch sleeves made from cut-off cotton athletic socks. See the links to pictures below.

www.kathyspark.com/images/fistulaprotector.jpg
www.kathyspark.com/images/fistulaugly.jpg
www.kathyspark.com/images/fistulaarm.jpg

(Notice my return is in my upper arm. That may be why I get such great clearance, 78% URR at 3:10.)

I would like to find something that offered a little more protection from sharp edged objects, such as a sleeve made from plastic coated nylon mesh or kevlar mesh. It would have to be ventilated so that it could breath freely, and a zipper would be helpful so that it could fit snugly.

Does anyone know if such a thing exists? I was hoping to find a catalog, but nothing so far. Thanks,
Rusty[/QUOTE]

Hello Rusty,
I understand your issue. I believe I have a solution for you. It is a fistula protector, just for dialysis patients. my name is Dolores and if anyone out here would like to email me for details and orders my email is sparrowdj@aol.com. In subject, please write Graft or Fistula Protector, so I do not delete the email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank You

Dolores

I know this thread is an old one but I will give you my advice anyway. My husband’s fistula is in his lower arm and as an avid woodcarver he needs protection from woodchips as well as possible slips from carving tools. He found that the shin guard found in the sporting goods section of any large chain store ie walmart works great. He uses one sized for youth since his fistula is not huge. it has velcro attachments on the back so it can be fastened as to not be too tight. Hope this helps. Just an aside, it is too large and bulky to help with getting into tight areas such as working on automobiles so if anyone out there has a better suggestion I would love to hear about it.