Squeezeball Songs for Fistula Development

By Laura K.

Here are some fun ideas for anyone who needs to use a squeezeball several times a day to help a fistula develop. How about singing a song (aloud or in your head) while squeezing the ball? Singing will help you keep a rhythm and keep going beyond where you’d want to stop. (If you choose a good song, you can’t help but keep going until the end of the verse, and then there’s another verse.)

This is what makes any kind of exercise to music so helpful. Plus it’s good for the spirits! Pick a new song each day and, for fun, change the words to include “squeezeball” or “ball.” Examples:

• You ain’t nothin’ but a squeezeball, lyin’ all the time… (Hound Dog)
• I’m gonna squeeze that man right outa my hair… (I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair)
• I don’t know how to squeeze him… (I Don’t Know How to Love Him, from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar)
• You made me squeeze you, I didn’t wanna do it, I didn’t wanna do it… (You Made Me Love You)
• How much is that squeezeball in the window? (How Much is that Doggie in the Window?)
• It’s a long way to Tipperary, it’s a long way to squeeze… (It’s a Long Way to Tipperary)
• Oh Suzannah, don’t you squeeze for me, for I’ve come from Alabama with a squeezeball on my knee… (Oh Suzannah)
• I’ve been squeezin’ on the railroad, all the livelong day… (I’ve Been Working on the Railroad)
• Oh, say can you squeeze, by the dawn’s early light… (Star-Spangled Banner)
• This ball is your ball, this ball is my ball, from the redwood forests… (This Land is Your Land)
• I’m a Yankee Doodle squeezeball…(I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy)

If you can’t identify with the songs above, choose ones that fit your style and will motivate you!

Permission received to post the following information:

Name: Laura K.
Address: Massachusetts
Cause of renal failure: Relative has renal failure and is on hemodialysis
Date: April 1999