Archive for the ‘Allgemein’ Category
Football Women’s World Cup Part I
星期二, 七月 12th, 2011Addendum to the fairy tale from June 29th
星期一, 七月 11th, 2011Technical Aids tips and tricks XL
星期日, 七月 10th, 2011Look at this, a
Jacuzzi Hoist!
Producer is Sunrise Medical (Sopur).
Could be difficult to integrate this thing in my bathroom.
Technical Aids Test Crete Part II
星期六, 七月 2nd, 2011Freeway T 40
(I don’t mean the bus.)
The White Mountains of Crete
The place on my right is free…
Freeway T 40, the off roader among the shower commode chairs 
The English shower commode chair “Freeway T 40″, not to confuse it with a Ferrari F 40, is a quite useful medical device. The idea to take a commode chair on the island tour with 4 wheelers from the wheelchair Hotel Eria Resort on Crete is great because wheelchair accessible toilets on Crete are scarce.
If you would like to learn more about this great little hotel, have a look in Facebook or press on the link!
Translator BL
Where are the 70.000 workers at Frankfurt Airport???
星期四, 六月 30th, 2011Long “fairytale”, but worth reading!!!
On Saturday I landed exceedingly on time on 22:30 from Chania (Crete) in Frankfurt.
I will never understand why some people are applauding after the landing. Nobody was ever applauding for me when I did my job well. Anyway…
The aircraft was parking on a remote stand, I had as usual a nice window seat and watched very relaxed the totally stressed pedestrians leaving the plane.
As wheelchair user you have the privilege of the last passenger after the landing.
The flight captain stated that he had requested the special lifting bus and adequate members of the ground staff already several times, so that I could leave the plane as well.
But nobody came!!!
Parts of the crew and the pilot provided some company to me with which they apparently had some fun. The unwritten law that the captain is the last to leave the ship is still of great importance at Condor.
Eventually someone from ground staff came and seriously asked me if I could walk. He accurately observed that he could not help me on his own. Insight of the day…
While waiting for the lifting bus the luggage was unloaded, so I asked a crew member to check if my wheelchair and wheelchair tractive Minitrac are waiting on the airfield and hopefully are not loaded on the luggage carts.
He said that this would be the case, the things would be standing there. Uff…
The lifting bus finally arrived around 23:10, I left the aircraft with the help of two strong guys and my beloved plane transit wheelchair.
Afterwards they helped me into my own wheelchair which unlike my Minitrac was fortunately still there.
Anyway, so we had to get my Minitrac at the bulky luggage claim.
With the bus we were not brought as usual to the FraCare Service (Service for handicapped at Frankfurt airport), because this area was already closed at this time, but to a different entrance.
There a friendly employee from FraCare was waiting for me.
She said that our luggage would be in the reconstructed building C, and we would have to see how we get there at this time because some of the elevators were switched off.
She used her phone virtually as GPS and lead us confidently like a bushman in the desert through the corridors of the building.
When we finally arrived at the luggage belt we didn’t have to search our luggage for a long time, our 3 bags were rotating around and around.
The whole baggage claim area was almost deserted, there was not even a luggage thief.
My Minitrac
stood with its 65 kg a little disjointed in a plastic box on the bulky luggage belt!
My wife reassembled the Minitrac to begin with.
It is unbelievable, but at 23:44 nobody responsible was there nor could be reached by telephone, who could lift my little box from the luggage belt.
In the meantime even the last passengers were gone who we could have asked for help.
At last my wife has magically lifted my Minitrac from the luggage belt together with two men whom I just call Mister X and Y here. At this point I would like to thank them and the employee of FraCare again!
I left the terminal at 23:55!!!
My pre-ordered wheelchair taxi was kindly waiting in front of the terminal.
I have sent this “fairy tale” in a slightly modified version to Fraport (operating company of Frankfurt Airport) requesting their comments. I will keep you informed.
To my shame I have to admit that I used to work 9 years at the Frankfurt airport before my accident.
Translator BL
Technical Aids Testing Crete Part I
星期三, 六月 29th, 2011Ingenious: A cooling vest which only needs water!
My spinal cord has decided in 2007 that sweating is stupid.
Since then my skin is quite dry 
This phenomenon is nothing unusual with para- or quadriplegia.
As a consequence my body temperature rises and rises when it is above 25° C and sun.
This can lead until fainting at approximately 40° C.
A water sprayer for flowers can work miracles (see older blog post), but is not the best solution either.
There are special cooling vests, with thermal packs or fans, well… I think it is too complicated, and you are depending on thermal packs and refrigerators. So I prefer hiding at home and waiting for the winter.
In May I met Sepp Jakober on a technical aids trade fair, the chief engineer of the wheelchair tractive Swisstrac who gave me tuning tips for my Minitrac.
He gave me a vest from the company E-Cooline and said that I would absolutely have to try it. He borrowed it from another booth.
The vest would cool you, you just have to put water on it, the water would not flow out, hard to believe!!!
The vest would absorb the water, virtually sweat and thus cool you.
It was invented for fire fighters.
The cooling vest was working!!!
A quantum leap for quality of live.
I underwent a two-week stress test with the cooling vest in Crete.
The E-Cooline vest is really cooling, ingenious!!!
It doesn’t get wet, the body feeling can be described as cooling-clammy, but it is not unpleasant.
Be careful with filling water in it as 4 liters fit inside, and then you would have to wait approximately 3 days until you are able to wear this “lead vest” again. There is no water dripping off. 0,5 liters are more than enough for approximately 4 hours at 30°C in the shade.
The Cooline vests are available in a simple design with velcro tape, see picture above, or two rows of snap fasteners and additional removable lower part.
From the same material there are scarfs and caps available which I would like to test as well.
I was able to stroll around at the beach promenade with my wife in the afternoons at 30° C in the shade without water sprayer or wet towel.
The cooling vest made a great holiday possible, and I have just ordered a black vest and cap.
The price of approximately 300 € is not low, but if you bear in mind what you have to pay for good winter clothing or trivial cotton jeans I consider the price justifiable for a vest out of such a high tech material.
This vest opens so many possibilities for me, I don’t have to hide any more in summer!!!
The only disadvantage is that the vest weighs around 4 kg after washing and you have to wait 3-4 days until it has dried again.
You can purchase these vests from E-Cooline
Unfortunately these vests don’t have a medical device number. With an adequate prescription and statement from the doctor some health insurances would bear the expenses.
For question as usual: rollinator@eigude.de
With all this verbiage Karl Lagerfeld would probably be proud of me!
PG-13 prohibits to show my “six-pack” stomach!
Translator BL
Back from Technical Aids Testing!
星期一, 六月 27th, 2011
Test reports will follow shortly.
Wheelchair Tuning Part XXV (Competitor)
星期四, 六月 9th, 2011I don’t want to keep the beach wheelchairs back from you 
I think the Sopur wheelchair for children is awesome. A good pusher is a must.
(Deutsch) Rollifahrer-Seepferdchen
星期三, 六月 8th, 2011
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXVIII
星期二, 五月 31st, 2011My friend always tells me that I have a static like
Bernd das Brot
(German kids television character, an ill-humoured bread)
Long torso, short arms and short legs.
Therefore the transfer from wheelchair to car belongs – because I can’t stand and the door sills are becoming wider and wider – into the realms of fantasy.
This gap is insurmountable for me. Many wheelers have the same challenge (I have abolished all “problems” years ago, see front page) and use a slide board, with which they glide as elegantly as possible from wheelchair to car seat. To learn this there was once a
brand new car lifted with a tower crane in the 9th floor
of a hospital in Frankfurt which is standing since then in the corridor of the occupational therapy.
The car won’t be stolen for sure!!!
Almost all car customizing companies offer a permanently mounted foldaway slide board, with which one can transfer relatively save to the driver seat.
Why one is dragged at the trouser waistband into a car at rehabilitation fairs and the International Automobile Exhibition (IAA) in Frankfurt, because these “specialist companies” don’t even have a slide board with them, is incomprehensible for me. Usually a mounted slide board should be part of the basic equipment.
Only on demand I got an offer for a foldaway slide board.
Get yourself a
permanently mounted slide board
fitted if you also have difficulties with the transfers.
You can drive with the wheelchair directly to the transfer board.
As you can see perceived 2 kg key chains are normal for me!
Translator BL
Alternative Therapy
星期一, 五月 30th, 2011There are various therapies for muscle relaxation.
Mud packs, acupuncture, massages of all kind, stimulation current therapy, etc. etc. etc…
There is a shockingly expensive machine called Galileo which is basically just a vibrating plate on which you can regulate different frequencies.
On Saturday night we went to the group vibration therapy, similar to Galileo, to the “Festhalle” in Frankfurt (big event hall).
The English therapists are known since 1975 under the name
Iron Maiden
and achieve with their years of experience and permanent frequency changes best possible therapy successes by full body vibration.
Muscle build-up by clapping and CPAP lung exercise by singing along!
By slight shock-values generated by the stage design additionally the circulation is stimulated.
Several thousand patients were treated at the same time.
An additional positive effect is that you can still hear slightly the sound of the ocean days later which causes a holiday feeling.
Incomprehensibly the health insurance does not cover the costs of this since 36 years proven and tested alternative therapy.
Read my older blogpost Football ticket on prescription.
Translator Teo
Wheelchair Tuning Part XXIV (Competitor)
星期五, 五月 27th, 2011Chapeau to the constructor!
12 x 2 Offroad Wheelchair, just cool this vehicle, it is currently for sale, 6,5 HP, 4 km/h, with starter cable.
Of course without inspection of the technical control association.
With this vehicle up to the next street fair… 
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXVII
星期一, 五月 23rd, 2011Am Samstag war ich auf “Weiterbildung” auf der Rehamesse in Karlsruhe.
Da freut es mich besonders, wenn ich Hilfsmittel auch testen kann.
Bei Prototypen macht das doppelt Spaß. Dieser
Einrad-Frontmotor Typ Slave
wird lediglich auf das Fußbrett vom Rolli gesteckt. Zuvor wird ein Stehbolzen am Fußbrett angeklemmt und los “geht’s”. (Nur für Starrahmenrollis geeignet).
Die Endgeschwindigkeit habe ich aufgrund meines Lebenserhaltungstriebes nicht erreicht. Ohne Kippschutz am Rolli, etwas tricky…
Den Namen Slave, sprich Sklave erachte ich als unpassend.
Das Teil ist sehr handlich, man kann es quasi unter den Arm nehmen und ist mit seinen ca. 9 Kilo recht leicht.
Um kurz zum Bäcker zu fahren, ohne in den E-Rolli umsteigen zu müssen, könnte das Teil durchaus nützlich sein. Wenn Ihr andere Ideen für Einsatzmöglichkeiten habt, schreibt einmal einen Kommentar.
Man sollte aber tunlichst darauf aufpassen, dass der Neffe nicht heimlich die kleine Zugmaschine mit Draht an seinen Tretroller bastelt.
Ich hätte es wahrscheinlich getan
Unbelievable…
星期三, 五月 18th, 2011The most important safety equipment of a wheeler is his mobile phone.
You need it in the most paradox situations, maybe I will tell more about it later.
Yesterday I wanted to change my ancient mobile phone tariff and visited a store with the magenta coloured rectangles (translator’s note: German telecom), because online you can only upgrade and not downgrade your contracts.
A very kind competent service guy changed my tariff by means of a TAN code and a generated text message on my mobile phone immediately and without unnecessary sales talk.
Fascinating technology…
I interpreted the permanent clattering on the keyboard as work.
Then perceived 20 pages of paper with some standard templates were printed, filled, signed, and I was almost content.
Furthermore I wanted to terminate a partner SIM card, for which they already told me at the telephone hotline that this could only be done in writing, and I would best visit a shop.
I asked the service guy for the termination and he said that he would immediately set up a document.
The service counter was rather high for me so that I didn’t see exactly what he was writing.
Have a look yourself, you can close “digitally” the weirdest contracts with the company bling, bling, bling, bling.
SMS, WARP, GPS, UMTS… everything is possible, but for a simple termination letter the analogue pen has to come out!!!
Afterwards I was surprised that the service guy of this younger generation could actually handle such an ancient helping aid (pen).
Translator BL
The eigth Plague of Mankind
星期一, 五月 16th, 2011
Yesterday it was raining cotton wool
Translator BL
