Hi y’all,
Back to weight lifting restrictions on fistulas, I heard back from Dr. Lawrence M. Spergel, who is the Clinical Chair of the Fistula First initiative. Here’s what he said:
“Once the fistula has healed and the patient no longer has any pain or swelling from surgery, there are no contra-indications to any activities, including weightlifting. In fact, such activities are a lot more effective than squeezing a ball to mature and enlarge the fistula and increase access blood flow. A safe post-op healing period to wait for resuming such strenuous activities would be 4-6 wks, but this is variable.”
Of course, you don’t want to squeeze the access with a tight, elastic wristwatch or jewelry, and you don’t want to compress it. But weight lifting is not only okay, it seems to be a good thing for a fistula.