Archive for the ‘Everyday life aids’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XLVIII

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

Frontpage

I am currently testing a technical aid, it is a

Knife Holder

of the company www.Mehal.de

This holder has been developed mainly for quadriplegics like me with limited or no finger function.
You notice immediately that this part has been built by insiders, it has been really well-thought on.

The knife is fixed at the hand adaption. The holder is dishwasher safe.

There is no finger function necessary to use it.

I was convinced by the knife holder already after the first test.
With the weight of your own arm only you have already a strong pressure with the knife on the evenly to be sliced test objects, in this case out of pork.
The cutting could be done without effort.

My first test was not representative yet because thanks to the cooking skills of my wife the test samples to be cut were tender pieces of pork fillet.

Now I was in a dilemma: To complete the test series I had to try to cut tough meat as well!!!

To order a steak “well done” is against my nature, I am not a Botswanian who empirically puts a steak 20 minutes on the barbecue until it is dead for the 2nd time.

I decided that it wasn’t necessary to test if it would be possible to cut a tough piece of meat with the special knife or not. I wouldn’t like to eat it then anyway.

An appointment in the test lab “Charisma” in Frankfurt was made to come to a final conclusion.

As you can see on the picture the test object in this case was a beef steak with fried onions, fried potatoes and for the better gliding of the knife, a little herb butter.

The cutting of the meat was done extraordinarily well, I didn’t expect that.

The knife is very sharp, and the knife holder convinces all along the line.

It has to be decided on an individual basis to what extent the purchase of this technical aid makes sense.

I am convinced by this technical aid.

Unfortunately it doesn’t have a medical device number, thus only suitable for self-payers, whereas the price is absolutely fair.

 

Have a look at the older blogpost with my self-developed electric

Tetra-Spaghetti-Fork

(Click here for blogpost with video) ;-)

Translator BL

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Links | 5 Comments »

Technical Aids construction corner :-)

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Frontpage

I already mentioned several times that I should rest my broken leg despite orthosis in an elevated position as much as possible.

To rest the leg elevated sitting in my own wheelchair under my desk on a small flower stool turns out to be a little inconvenient, especially when you permanently need something, or the arm is not long enough again…
I refuse the tank wheelchair in my flat (see blogpost below).

The latest “technical aids construct” appears a little clumsy at first sight, but is well thought on and almost ready for series production.

With a Swedish drawer box, the book “Our Wonderful Planet” and a blue pillow of a German coffee roaster a rolling board for flower pots from my stairwell which I coaxed as permanent loan from my neighbour was pimped to the exact positioning height of my leg.

Rolling board

I now put my leg coolly on my rolling board-drawer box and drive comfortably with my wheelchair under the desk.

With a special adaption on the wheelchair my rolling board should also be outdoor suitable. A medical device number has been applied for, and a motorization is currently in the planning phase!

Translator BL

Tags:, , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Various, Pimp My Ride, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel | 3 Comments »

Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XLIII

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Technical Aids, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Addendum Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XIV

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Frontpage

Addendum to

Swedish laptop knee table Bräda (new name BYLLAN)

(see older blogpost).

I have introduced this laptop table as rather cheap, useful wheelchair tray.

The writer and musician Robert Schneider volunteered courageously as Bräda tester.

He is known for his extravagant-hessian writing style (www.laufenverlernt.de.vu).

I mentioned one of his books in an older blogpost.
He took the knee tray Bräda through extra tough quality tests.

Despite of the little bit too soft surface board I was positively surprised.
Here during a transport test with additional tray, at speed of exactly 11 km/h with

3 liters hop blossom ice tea and 6 x 0,5 liter pints

Due to safety reasons, this test is mainly executed with dummies. ;-)

A typo has slipped in, it was at 0,11 km/h.

Translator BL

Tags:, , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Technical Aids | 1 Comment »

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XLII

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Frontpage

I have extensively described my enthusiasm about a cooling vest (see older blogpost).

Yesterday evening I have tested a

cooling baseball cap from the company Cooline

www.e-cooline.de

Actually unbelievable, but you are sitting with a black cap in the sun at 28°C in the shade with your head being cooled.

“Only” water is put on this cap, like on the vest, about 0,3 liter. The fleece on the inside of the cap absorbs the water, and the cap virtually sweats and cools.

Ingenious!!!

Unfortunately my match was cancelled, I forgot my tennis shoes.

Translator BL

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Simply great, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Tips and Tricks | 3 Comments »

Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XLI

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Frontpage

After a few months in the hospital you get on rather friendly terms with nurses and physicians.

Of course a little piece of humour belongs to it as well.

If one as quadriplegic (spinal injury in the cervical area) like me can’t use arms and hands in an efficient way any more, spaghetti are not the favourite type of pasta.

One day the nurse came with the lunch, it was spaghetti, put it on my bedside table and was waiting for my comment if he could cut the pasta for me.

He was waiting for the comment in vain. I tried to eat these long objects by myself, have to see it sportingly, luckily I was not hungry…

It was a perfect show!!!

At some time a physician came into the room and watched this scenario with the pasta and me slightly grinning, but didn’t propose to cut the pasta neither, and I wasn’t keen on asking her.

I said to her that next time when the food is spaghetti again I would be motorised. I would only need two tie wraps to fix a fork. But had the suspicion that my milk frother would be a little bit too fast. We both had some fun. She didn’t seriously believe the thing about motorisation.

I only thought: You don’t know me!!!

Have a look yourself, one week later the

9,5 Volt Spaghetti Tetra Fork

About risks and generated injuries please contact your physician, nurse or nearest do-it-yourself-store staff.

Addendum: Construction manual for spaghetti tetra bit by popular request.

Saw a standard fork off and forge it flat. Really flat.

Saw approx. 5 cm off an M6 Allen key and weld it lengthwise to the fork stump. Not to the tine, I know it can happen!!!

Polish the welding seam with a one hand angle grinder. If possible keep a little bit of the welding.

Balance the bit at low speed on a drill press with a rubber mallet like a car tyre. Placing additional weight is not absolutely necessary.

Buy a cordless electric screwdriver with very low rotation speed, otherwise the special fork can be used to whip cream.

Boil spaghetti, and it’s done.

Safety instruction: Don’t start screwdriver with fork brought into the mouth, otherwise only the dentist will be happy.

Have fun with dotting your flat red!

Translator BL

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Comedy, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »

Technical Aids Testing Crete Part I

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

Frontpage

Ingenious: 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

Tags:, , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Simply great, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Links, Tips and Tricks, Holiday | 2 Comments »

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXVIII

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Frontpage

My 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

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Car and Hand Throttle, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Technical Aids for Quadriplegics VIII

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Frontpage

There are really good technical aids available.

These technical aids are often developed by concerned people, produced in small batches and are in many cases not known by physicians and therapists.

We “Teddies“ (Quadri- or Tetraplegics) often have limited or not any finger function any more.

A companion had a great idea, worked it out until production readiness and distributes this individually adapted gripping aid under the name

Gripability

www.gripability.de

You have a let’s call it gripper adapted to the hand.
This is opened and closed pneumatically by pushing a button with the other arm.

Depending on the handicap there are various different grippers, hand adaptions, etc. etc. etc…

You are able to grip again.
This gripping aid facilitates again independent eating, drinking, writing… ingenious!!

When I was asked I immediately volunteered as test person for new developments. Maybe I can help a little bit.

Look at the homepage and make it known.
Not to be able to walk any more is one thing, but not to be able to grip properly any more is not really great.

Take away the tools from a technician, and he will get them back!!!
The key chain is from the German technical relief organization ;-)

Let’s wait and see if I recognize myself in the mirror after the next test series :-)

Translator BL

 

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Everyday life aids, Simply great, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Links | No Comments »

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXVI

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

Frontpage

Everybody who knew me before my accident still remembers that I couldn’t sit quietly for 5 minutes. I am catching up this time now intensively.
The bad thing with a para-/quadriplegia is that often all muscles at the butt are lost.

If some day only the hip bones poke out of the bottom, the butt starts to “ouch” as if you were just driving with the car nonstop from Frankfurt to Rimini.

Cushions for wheelchairs are a science in itself. Starting with a simple piece of rubber foam for cheap 120 €, via shockingly expensive comb cushions which look like a beehive for 600 €, up to inflatable special cushions which looked upon from above remind of a box of chocolate marshmallows.

I am using a comb cushion myself which actually is rather good. I consider the price of 125 € for an adequate seat cover which in my case starts ripping at the corners after 6 months as such a cheek that I have my covers privately mended to avoid charging my health insurance with such exorbitant prices. Everything has its limit, currently my cover has leather on the corners!

As just explained there are endless types of wheelchair cushions…

Why shower commode chairs are only slightly cushioned if at all, is inexplicable for me. After long research I have found an approximately 1,5 cm thick

Gel rest for shower commode chairs

The investment of 143 € is worth each cent.
I am using it daily for meanwhile 6 months now and I am absolutely content.

This shower commode chair is a standard model: Apart from the fact that the brake springs were broken after 2 years and the rear tyres were seized up, the shower water accumulates on two slots on the front tyres. This can only be topped by the fact that water is accumulating in the inside of the frame and can’t drain off, because there is no exit for it.

They should have provided the information that the shower chair is not water resistant!

Translator BL

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Eigude- Shame, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Pimp My Ride | No Comments »

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXV

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Frontpage

My daily consumption of various pills against all and everything which partially remind of suppositories in their form is altogether a complete meal.

I enjoy them in the meantime like gummi bears.

The colours are great, but the industry still needs to work a little on the taste.

Michelin-Stars for the most delicious dope, that would be something.

According to the motto: A problem shared is a problem halved, some pills might be halved and quartered.
Luckily my wife takes over the weekly pill destruction.

If I would try this by myself I would have probably gone into the light out of despair (suicidal tendencies).

I have found a

Pill splitter type Apex Ultra

which is really working and has additional protection at the blade.

It is hardly believable but it has a price incl. shipment of less than 10 €!

Source of supply enquiries as usual under rollinator@eigude.de .

Click also on tag “pills”.

Translator BL

Tags:, , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXIV

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Frontpage

I am attributing the development of this technical aid exclusively to the excessive consumption of the finest high quality medication.
Otherwise this special construction is hardly explicable retrospectively.
With this

Thermo Transport box

which can be fixed around the wheelchair I might get a minijob as pizza boy.

In this box not only the pizza stays hot, but alternatively the beer stays cold as well.

Translator BL

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Various, Technical Aids, Pimp My Ride, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel | 1 Comment »

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXII

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Frontpage

If you are typing with only one finger like me some tips fall by the wayside for lack of typing. But therefore one talks to another!

If ideas are helping other handicapped, and they are publishing these in other medias, i.e. typing for me, then I take the freedom, do it like Guttenberg and copy it:

Many tips are received on Tenerife in the health resort Mar y Sol from other concerned people. Steffen (alias for Rollinator), wheelchair user as well, brought me to a great medical device:

Both my wheelchair and my stairlift have sharp edges on which I hurt my heels occasionally.

Additionally my legs angle spastically in the night and thus the foot is rubbing tightly across the bed sheet with the heel.

Result is a bedsore at the heel.

Although there are special cushions which are fixed with Velcro strips, they are not useful for me. Due to strong leg movement unfortunately the cushion is not where it should be any more the next morning. Steffen recommended a

Tubular Bandage from towelling

(Nobafrott PZN 7094346), which usually doesn’t slip off and led to the healing of the bedsore.

I bought the bandage rather low priced at the HAD pharmacy (vitaware.de) for 85,09 Euro. The length of the bandage should be generously measured – can be cut from the 5 m.

Source: Olaf

When I sleep a night with the “socks” I don’t have swollen feet in the morning anymore.

The use of the tubular bandage has to be discussed with the physician for possible thrombosis risk or blood pressure problems!
We don’t want to harm anybody and assume no liability.

The photo with the crossed socks reminds a bit of a pirate flag, “Mouse Ahoy”!

Translator BL

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tips and Tricks | No Comments »

Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XXXI

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

Frontpage

In general I don’t give way to panic and usually am not even afraid when I am carried up or down a stairway, provided that the volunteers don’t have 1,5 per mill blood alcohol level and are able to stand on their own.
The only thing which makes me uneasy is to get in and out of the car in the dark – we wheelchair users are not always home after dark although this is the general opinion.
In this process the car door has to be completely opened for the whole time, and I don’t want to end up as figurehead of another car driver.
To be seen better in the dark by other car drivers and provide a nice view to passers-by I have decorated my

driver’s door type Christmas tree

a little bit:

  • Red plastic reflectors from car accessories attached to the driver’s door from the outside which are also visible from the front.
  • Red adhesive reflectors, stuck to the inside of the door.
  • A small battery-operated white LED lamp is stuck to the door with double-faced adhesive Velcro tape!
  • The absolute highlight is a blinking neon yellow-green battery-operated fluorescent bar.
    I have introduced this part already in my blogpost from 09.03.2011(see older blogpost).

Safety instruction: The fluorescent bar causes nausea and insanity in the long run.
As you can gather from my words I am already beyond saving for years!

Translator BL

Tags:, , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Car and Hand Throttle, Technical Aids, Selbstgebaute Hilfsmittel, Tips and Tricks, Winter | 3 Comments »

Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXX

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Frontpage

If you are like me major customer of the pharmaceutical industry you should expect that the pills will be delivered already sorted according to intake date and daytime.

Because unfortunately this is not the case you have to prepare your daily dope yourself.

To elicit the pills out of the blister there are except from the well-tried “I squeeze hard with my thumb” technique the most different technical aids.

To what extent these pieces are useful is of course depending on the particular handicap of the user.

Here is a small selection:

With this a little futuristic appearing

double cone,

you are able to squeeze the pills out with one hand. But only very few fit into the collecting bowl.

This small

Taiwanese Pill Puncher

you should always use very gently. Sometimes you have to cut the blisters so that you can also squeeze out middle sized pills. But it is more robust than it looks like.

New on the market is this

German metal model.

Developed and built by a locksmithery. Not suitable for capsules, the spring steel sheet has to be bent back again and again. But the white bowl can be removed which might be quite useful.

On the American market I have found this

Pill Puncher.

My current winner. Simple and well-thought. The collecting bowl is the entire square lower part with which the pills can be emptied after squeezing them out like with a shovel.

I haven’t found a pill puncher yet which I can use reasonably with my buckled fingers. If you know or use other types please write a comment, or e-mail as usual to rollinator@eigude.de .

I need urgently new dope!

Translator BL

Tags:, , ,
Posted in General, Everyday life aids, Technical Aids, Technical Aids for Quadriplegic, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »