Concerns about Your Body Image

These resources will help you learn more about coping with concerns about your body image:

Kidney School Module 8 - Vascular Access: A Lifeline for Dialysis
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Illustrated, 27-page module tells you what to look for when doing a daily fistula check and offers a list of symptoms to report to the care team. From Life Options' Kidney School (MEI).

Frequently Asked Questions about Arterial Venous Fistulas (AVF)
2-page fact sheet suggests ways you can cope with how your fistula looks. From the Heartland Kidney Network (formerly ESRD Network 12).

Conquering Your Fistula Fear
3-page fact sheet presents tips on coping with concerns about how your fistula looks and dealing with strangers' questions, with sample answers. From the Heartland Kidney Network, with input from the 18 ESRD Networks across the nation.

Phase 1: AAKP Patient Plan
56-page book (pages 7-8), Diagnosis to Treatment Choice, talks about the feelings and emotions you might have due to physical changes that are part of having kidney failure. From the AAKP.

Phase 3: AAKP Patient Plan
45-page book (pages 12-14), Stabilization, explains narrowing (stenosis), describes the most common sites where it occurs, and lists the problems it can lead to - like clotting. Also tells you what to expect if your fistula develops a clot. From the AAKP.