Archive for the ‘Everyday life aids’ Category
星期四, 六月 10th, 2010
Wheelchair users and their bathroom equipment is an endless subject!
The mounting height of the bath mirror can lead to the move-out of the partner if no agreement is found.
To avoid these discussions, usually cost-efficient (ho, ho, ho)
movable mirrors
are recommended. How are you supposed to see anything without binoculars in such a thing when it is skillfully mounted under the ceiling, and who moves it if needed?
My tip is a, mounted to hobbit size, a telescopic round
Make-up Mirror
made by the
Swedish meatballers.
Model: FRÄCK 5,99€
The mirror of my wall cupboard is with its height just suitable for eyebrow shaping.
Now I can finally see if my nurse is botching with the shaving. 
Translator BL
Tags:Bad, Hilfsmittel, Ikea, Rasieren, Spiegel, Tipps und Tricks, Wohnung
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tipps und Tricks | 2 Comments »
星期四, 六月 3rd, 2010
A visit to the swimming pool in my case turns out to be a little bit like the launch of a
Containership.
There are the most different methods to be
„watered“
Possibilities are e.g. a hydraulically swinging bench, a chair in which one is wound down to the water, or a shower chair in which one is pushed down a ramp into the wet as at a ship’s christening.
Into the sea one is pushed e.g. with a beach wheelchair.
(see older blog post).
The strangest variant reminds immediately of the good old
Chairoplane
on a fun fair. The fun begins with this
floating chair
being 10 cm higher than my cushion, and I would have had to unpack little wings to get on it on my own. Presumably for hygienic reasons the footrest was installed towards the inner side of the chair so that not everybody puts his unwashed feet on it.
If the jump on this thing was successful you swing the safety bar around. The copilot (assistant) drives you to the starting position in front of the pool, hooks you up with two belts into the hoist mounted on the ceiling, and the flight above the water may start.
Before watering put on your life vest!
Translator BL
Tags:Badewannenlifter, Hilfsmittel, Lifter, Oberstdorf, Schwimmen, Sport, Urlaub
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Sport, Urlaub | 3 Comments »
星期二, 六月 1st, 2010
My car manufactured in Rüsselsheim and customized to hand throttle in Fulda also has a wheelchair loading system.
Have a look yourself:
I transfer from wheelchair to car with a permanently mounted slide board to the driver’s seat,
fold up my wheelchair*,
the rear door opens and the loading system comes out like magic.
The wheelchair is clamped with the handles into the loading system and pulled inside the car.
Now quickly close the door and put on estimated 5 kg safety belt, then the journey into the green can start.
Maybe I will manage it some time on my own..
* The folding of the wheelchair requires the genetics of a contorsionist
Translator BL
Tags:Car and Hand Throttle, Handicap Parking, Hilfsmittel, Wheelchair Loading System
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Car and Hand Throttle, Hilfsmittel | No Comments »
星期四, 五月 13th, 2010
With my finger function the opening of envelopes is really trying my patience. I simply can’t open the
envelopes
uninjured, undamaged or prompt. My shredder is usually not far away!!!
If you put a nail file in the
cutlery holder (see older blogpost)
it turns into an
excellent letter opener.
Let’s take it for granted that you can use the
nail file
in the cutlery holder coincidentally for
manicure
as well.
Translator BL
Tags:Briefe, Büro, Greifen, Hilfsmittel, Nagelfeile, Papier, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tipps und Tricks | 1 Comment »
星期四, 四月 1st, 2010
As self-confessed hobbit with 1,38 m total height forehead top sitting in the wheelchair you have to confess every now and then that the upward reach is a little limited.
My well-tried
key hooks
suddenly have a perceived height of 2,10 m after my accident.
If you aren’t a friend of the fishing sport then taking down the keys turns out to be a bit tedious and can be dangerous.
The usage of safety glasses and helmet is mandatory.
The
Yellow North European Furniture Elks
are offering a
magnet holder for kitchen knives,
which I have declared as
vertical magnet key holder.
Watch out, there are two types.
One of the holders just succeeds to prevent a paper clip from falling down. 
Translator BL
Tags:Angeln, Greifen, Hilfsmittel, Magnet, Schlüssel, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks, Wohnung
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tipps und Tricks | No Comments »
星期日, 三月 21st, 2010
In winter or rainy weather, almost all pedestrians take off their shoes in front of their door and sneak in socks over the laminate.
I absolutely appreciate that this makes sense when you have estimated 2 kg snow on the soles of your shoes
and you don’t like to go sledging in your flat.
You won’t believe how much snow or rain water can stick to a wheelchair.
Even the wiping of the wheelchair tyres with discarded towels is rather difficult if you are not a Paralympian or contortionist.
To counteract the spring tide in your flat
I have purchased a carpet as it is usually lying e.g. at the entrance of department stores and positioned it outside of my door in the staircase.
These carpets absorb up to 6 liters of water per m².
With its size of 230 cm x 120 cm my
wheelchair tyre cleaning carpet
(wheelchair doormat)
could actually absorb more than 16 liters rain water.
Before I roll into the flat I am doing two laps on the carpet in the staircase, and the wheelchair tyres are clean and dry.
Up to now the maximum “filling capacity” was not reached yet.
Translator BL
Tags:Hilfsmittel, Regen, Rolli, Schnee, Teppich, Tipps und Tricks, Wohnung
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tipps und Tricks, Winter | 1 Comment »
星期二, 二月 23rd, 2010
After the usual administrative chaos caused by all those who can cut a piece of paper gets currently out of hand, I feel a bit like the “Hauptmann von Köpenick” (synonym from German literature for a catch-22; without residence no work, without work no residence), and I have decided to take 3-4 valium more and turn again towards my
passion,
the technical aids for quadriplegics. What a sentence, the blue things are helping already, I am suddenly missing the fullstopslll
Knife, fork, scissors, flames, have no place in quadriplegic’s gamesl
That’s about true 
To cut paper with a scissor is not funny,
especially when you like me can’t even press a clothespin.
If
scissor-type silhouettes
aren’t going to be the new hobby I can highly recommend a
Paper Guillotine,
one-arm-usage guaranteed “fullstop”.
The blue pills are ttzzzzzzzzz
Translator BL
Tags:Greifen, Hilfsmittel, Papier, schneiden, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Tipps und Tricks | No Comments »
星期五, 二月 12th, 2010
Due to my spinal cord injury my blood pressure hardly rises above 100.
My mate always says:
Don’t get upset, otherwise you will get a blood pressure of 120.
To increase my blood pressure there is apart from pills a much faster method,
zip fastener
Just try to cook a 4-course-menu with winter mittens, then you know what I mean.
The ultimate discipline are ski jackets with double zipper.
Commitment to a psychiatric institution guaranteed.
Each quadriplegic has a key ring on the zipper.
With a
clip for braces + key ring or tie wrap
I now have 2 rings at the zipper start.
You “go“ with two fingers in the ring.
Now you have to practice, practice, practice,…
Then the zipper can be closed quite well…
If the zipper is not gliding well, there is the old skiing trick with a little spray of
silicon oil
and then it slides considerably easier.
See what is written on the can:
“Everything“ will glide faster, easier, and more quietly!!!
Listen, you don’t hear anything
Translator BL
Tags:Greifen, Hilfsmittel, Kabelbinder, Reißverschluss, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel | No Comments »
星期三, 二月 10th, 2010
Here comes a for insiders quite well-known technical aid!!!
I will call it
Angle knife.
It’s a mystery to me how you can cut something with this knife without hurting yourself.
A first aid plaster dispenser on the handle would probably make some sense.
I would have to try to grip this sharp construct with two hands, and before the sausage should be nailed down to the table.
OK, enough nagging.
Look at it, maybe it can help some of you!
One might possibly change tyres with it.
I better shouldn’t have mixed Novalgin with Vodka.
Addendum:
Read the blogpost
Link:
about a really good quadriplegic special knife
from the company www.mehal.de.
Translator BL
Tags:Essen, Greifen, Hilfsmittel, Küche, schneiden, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras | No Comments »
星期二, 二月 9th, 2010
You have probably noticed already that I am a self-confessed pedant in the technical area.
I am very lucky that my family and friends again and again take their time to realize my sometimes a bit weird ideas in the area of technical aids.
It is hardly possible to do this myself with my handicap.
At this stage many, many thanks.
If I wouldn’t have this kind of help my technical aids would be a lot more basic.
Here is a great idea how you can help yourself as quadriplegic with the most simple means.
The tie wrap on the phone has amongst others the reason to hang the phone over the brake of the wheelchair.
Thank you for the tip, I need more of these!!!
Even I can write serious blogposts.
Where have my pills gone?
Translator BL
Tags:Büro, Greifen, Hilfsmittel, Kabelbinder, Telefon, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tetrathek | No Comments »
星期二, 二月 9th, 2010
The personal enemy of the quadri-(aka tetra-)plegic is, hardly to believe, the:
Tetra Pak beverage carton
These things are so smooth that it is hardly possible to decently pour something into a glass.
I was owning this
metal holder for Tetra Paks
already a couple of years before my accident.
It was revitalised from my
kitchenware graveyard
and does a good job for me now.
If somebody knows the source of supply of this extremely useful equipment, please send a short e-mail to me.
Have a look on to your kitchenware graveyard, maybe 10-15 pieces are lying around there which you have in excess?
rollinator@eigude.de
Translator BL
Tags:Greifen, Küche, Tetra Pak, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks, Trinken
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Tipps und Tricks | 1 Comment »
星期一, 二月 1st, 2010
As wheeler out in the wild you are not really noticed by the pedestrians.
This is getting extreme in bigger crowds like sports events or festivals.
It is quite funny if at a street fair the girls take a seat on your lap because you have been again overlooked. But the whole thing gradually gets a little irritating when the number of “hitchhikers” increases towards evening in the dark.
My tip is a
head light
Ideally a blinking one.
These things are simply great.
The pedestrians see the light between their legs, are totally confused, and a gap is formed as if Moses had parted the sea.
Because H4 spotlights on a wheelchair are quite rare such a head light is very recommendable for nightly excursions.
With it each pothole is seen and can now be driven around, depending on the condition of the wheeler.
Not only alcohol but also the taking of pills can reduce the fitness to drive. Opium for the people. Drive slooooowly!!
Translator BL
Tags:Hilfsmittel, Kopflampe, Licht, Reflektoren, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Tipps und Tricks, Winter | 2 Comments »
星期四, 一月 21st, 2010
It was used already in the mid of the 1980’s:
The 512 kB USB Stick Version Tetra 1.0 with tie wrap
Each quadriplegic manages to pull out this USB stick.
Translator BL
Tags:Hilfsmittel, Kabelbinder, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks, USB-Stick
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tetrathek, Tipps und Tricks | No Comments »
星期三, 一月 20th, 2010
I received this photo a couple of days ago.
Look closely,
the plumber didn’t have 2,5 per mill blood alcohol level and mounted the clamp incorrectly.
With this hose clamp you can easily regulate the thermostat.
Great idea!!!
Security advice:
If possible you should upgrade it with a child safety feature in form of a cork.
A wrong grasp could end painfully.
Translator BL
Tags:Heizung, Hilfsmittel, Tetra Tipps, Tipps und Tricks, Wohnung
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tetrathek, Tipps und Tricks | No Comments »
星期三, 一月 13th, 2010
Many quadriplegics don’t work anymore.
To improve one’s budget Poker or Skat are gambled quite often.
In order to better hold the cards,
a tool is used which was thousand fold field-tested
by the German disaster relief organisation (THW).
Translator BL
Tags:Greifen, Hilfsmittel, Spielkarten, Tetra Tipps, THW, Tipps und Tricks
Posted in Allgemein, Everyday life aids, Hilfsmittel, Hilfsmittel für Tetras | 2 Comments »
