Frontpage

We Quadriplegics (Teddys) Love Tootpaste Tubes!

Every morning starts with the spirited bite into the screw cap.

As long as the tube is still full you can manage to get something out most of the time, even without finger function. However, at some point you don’t need coffee anymore for breakfast because proportional to the decreasing amount of toothpaste left in the tube the blood pressure rises.

You all know those plastic clips for sealing bags (see older post).a>

Now with this clip I can get a pretty good grip of the tube.

After removing the screw cap from the tube place it on the sink and squeeze it with one hand.

No need to empty the tube at once .

Translator BW

Wie HOW DO I (WITHOUT FINGER FUNCTION) PREVENT MY SMART PHONE FROM FALLING DOWN?

I never go anywhere without my smart phone, not even in my own apartment.

What could really happen there?

t happened a few years ago in my office that I rolled over a 220 Volt extension cord and got caught in it. The cable got wrapped around the wheels and I could not move forth or back. I was only a few centimeters away from both my phones, mobile and landline. I felt like a ship that ran aground! It took me about 2 hours to free myself. Waiting for the “flood” might have helped I.
Since I am not able to pick up a phone from the floor I should certainly avoid letting it fall.

When sitting in my wheelchair I always have a smart phone on a key chain around my neck. A few times I did have to dial 911.

We punched two holes in the cell phone case, one to attach the key chain and the other one to insert my index finger for support because I cannot entirely hold the phone on my own.

You all know those smart phone pockets, the ones that joggers wrap around their upper arms.

Take such a pouch and shorten the sling so it fits around your forearm.

Now you can operate your smart phone with the other hand without the risk of it falling to the floor.

Translator BW

Empty detergent bottle to be used as “One-Hand Salt Shaker”

The topic of how to get through winter in a Rolli has been on my mind for quite a while (see earlier articles).

In one of these former articles, I advised putting salt in front of your car before the snow arrives, so that the wheelchair would not slip away while getting in and out.

I always salt my wheelchairramp (ski slope) at the front door at the same time.

One can easily imagine how “professional” it looks when a wheelchairdriver balances a bucket full of salt on his knees and tries to spread it on the driveway. This really does not work well!

One thing’s for sure, the seat cushion on the chair as well as other “sensitive parts” will no longer freeze.;-)

After years of research the Rollinator team finally found a solution.

One-Hand Salt Shaker

(special wheelchairdriver)

The One-Hand Salt Shaker stands out with its ergonomic form, which allows the user to aim more accurately when spreading the salt using only one arm.

You can pretty much modify any empty liquid detergent bottle. However, I advise against those XXL-supersize bottles because of the excessive weight. During laboratory trials wheels burst and users got thrown out of their vehicles (just kidding).

To fill the salt shaker, a proven method is simply rolling a newspaper, advertisement, brochure etc. to make a quick funnel.

To prevent the salt shaker from dropping you could attach a key chain to the handle and hang the bottle around your neck as some sort of a trophy – but don’t get strangled… !!!

The special One-Handed Salt Shaker is also 98.74 % pedestrian and walking frame user friendly.

Translator BW

It is due to the small fouls that wheelers are exposed every day to new challenges. You are blocked in from the side so that you can’t get into your car anymore, during cleaning the toaster is moved back to the wall, or the installation CD is put out of reach on the cupboard. My last week’s highlight was a beeping smoke alarm because the battery was empty when I was lying in my bed. All this is causing an uncontrollable neuron tornado in my head.

Among my favourites are open windows.

In the summer it’s getting warm and in winter quite cold, if the heater below is not running on full power which I can’t reach either.

There are definitely more important reasons to ring at the neighbour’s door than asking them to close an open window. Grrrrrrrrr…

The do-it-yourself store with 20% on everything except for the parts you really need offers a

Hobbit &wheelchair window closer/

„almost“ usable in their assortment. However, small construction work needs still to be done.

Just take:

• min. 1 meter aluminium pipe, thickness 12mm
• 1 meter aluminium flat bar 15m x 1mm
• 30 cm hose inner diameter 10mm- 12mm
• 2x screw M4 x 25mm
• 2x screw-nut, self-locking M4
• 1x drill 4 mm with drive mechanism
• Construction tools for screwing, or a set of healthy teeth

Cost of material ca. 10,00€

Saw the aluminium bar in ca. 2x 36 cm long pieces and pull the hose on one of the pieces.

Drill a 4 mm hole into all sides of the aluminium bars and the pipe centered with a space of 15 mm from the edge.

Bend the aluminium bar with hose oval e.g. using a bottle and bolt it two-sided with screw and screw-nut on one end of the pipe. This is going to be the window side.

The other aluminium bar is going to be the handle. This can be formed according to hand function or artistic freedom oval, square, round or even heart-shaped, main thing is that the bolting on the pipe is not forgotten.

(My white Vespa scooter from 1992 in the picture below with kick starter is looking for a new master!)

The operating mode of the window closer should be comprehensible, but could on special request be explained personally under phone number 00907/40059449665 for only (1.000.000.000 €/min) by “Bernd das Brot”. (Translator’s note: Reference is made to a satirical sketch to spoof call-in shows on TV, (see also other blogpost).)

All open windows can be closed again now.

And how to open them we will learn tomorrow!!!

The certified re-constructor is obligated to send to the Rollinator a Chilli Pizza online.

Contact: rollinator@eigude.de

Translator BL

Rollinator (Wheelinator)-Smartphone-Charging-Plug-Clip

Ever since I joined the folks on wheels, I carry my mobile phone/smartphone on a lanyard close to my heart ; -)

In the rare event that some cable gets wrapped around the rear wheel of the Wheelchair and therefore vehemently denies me to continue my ride, at least then should there be a phone in range.
I don’t think I need to elaborate about the extremely modest battery life of smart phones. Of course, the battery should always be full when out in the wild.

With my crooked fingers it takes me an estimated three minutes daily to stick the Micro USB charger in to the phone to be charged. I just realized that in the last three years I have rendered two full days of my life to my cell phone plug… just great!

The easiest solution to counter this waste of my time appeared to be in the purchase of a cradle charger. Unfortunately, it was not compatible with the leather cover of my phone.
A few years ago I built a holding device for the TV Magazine with just a small metal paper clip. This gave me the idea (see older post).

The perfect size to hold the Micro USB Plug is 20mm x 10mm x 8mm (0.8“ x 0.4” x 0.3”)

Attach a small cable tie and you practically get to plug it in without any finger function and daily blood pressure increase.

The paper clips (binder clips) can be found on the internet, in the stationery shop or after several days of searching maybe in one of your clutter trays.

For other tips on the subject of “tools for restricted finger and hand movement” like me, click here.

Translator BW

I like my smartphone…!!!

With my old mobile phone I didn’t write as much as 5 text messages within 5 years since my accident because I couldn’t push the small buttons with my buckled thumb.

When I tried to hit the keys with my index finger it looked a bit like our fellow citizens who were born before 1965

I would like to point out here that you can not learn to be patient!!!

You might be able to say: You can learn to endure patience, but nothing more.

For someone like me with my tired fingers a smartphone is really brilliant. A little sweep over it, and the text message is almost done.

The search for my first smartphone was a little difficult.

Many things which I buy I pick because of handling and key chain suitability so that they don’t fall down immediately.

I am “Lord of the key chains”, see older blogpost.

(Picture is not faked!!!)

Newton, you know who I mean, the guy with the apple, has fallen in disgrace already for years.

When I searched for a “Rollinator-Tetra-suitable Smartphone” I noticed that these phones compared to a regular cell phone don’t have a loop any more to hang them on one of my beloved key chains.

The sales clerk suggested fastening a key chain to the slots of the speaker on the cover…

This won’t last for 2 minutes with me!!!

The chance of survival for a smartphone without Rollinator-fall protection is highly estimated below 5 days.

Before I had a Samsung offroad cellphone, with a giant loop and extremely robust, but with no special functionalities.

Thus I bought the Samsung S3 offroad smartphone, but brought it back after a weekend of installation work because it constantly crashed…!!! For once, I don’t mean the device, but the software. Additionally the internal memory of 100 MB was just enough for 25 apps, ridiculous…

So better the regular S3 (by now I knew the handling), but with a solid leather or silicone cover and key chain. There should be some suitable accessories available for me..

Even after days of extensive search in stores and internet I couldn’t find a cover on which I could hang a key chain!!!

Would the producers want the phones to regularly fall down???

So I had to help myself…!!!

The solution was so simple… I bought a standard leather cover and punched my key chain hole into it myself with my office hole puncher.

Smartphone with self-made fall protection

Please note the display: Model 386 SX 12MHz

There is actually a smartphone cover with key chain loop available, see below…!!!
There is actually a smartphone cover from Samsung available, thanks to Mark for the tipp:
The cover is an original Samsung accessory, the loop is quite good, and because of the rubber cover it doesn’t slip away easily…
Without cover it was regularly lying on the floor, and I thought it was a pity that the loop for the key chain was missing… I bought it here:

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0083TWHFG/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is available in different colours… Important it is original Samsung… The “no names” don’t really fit tight to the phone.

Translator BL

It doesn’t always have to be the big reconstructions in your home like e.g. bathroom or stairlift… (see older blogposts).

Often you “just” need to drill a single hole at the right place to make life easier for a wheelchair user.

Because I never had a video-surveillance-security system at my apartment door I used a virtually maintenance-free, analogue peephole when I was pedestrian.

With its fitting height of 145 cm this is now only usable for me in connection with my standing chair, some ignorant mates call it standing wheelchair.

Because I order a few or many parts in the internet and like to look into the eyes of the courier drivers before I open the door I have drilled a 14 mm hole in my door in individually adjusted hobbit height with the active support of a friend.

A highest price Conrad Elektronik peephole order no. 75 01 63 for the full price of 6,39 € was then screwed in from both sides.

The analogue NSA hobbit peephole

serves its purpose 100%.

The angular field is surprisingly good, you can see the face of the “ringer” even above a size of 1,40 m when he is there… !!!
You don’t have to identify the courier drivers by the size of the parts they bring

Read the blogpost about a handle on my kitchen door. I have mounted such a handle on my entrance door as well to close the door easier from the outside (see older blogpost).

Now I only need a band-aid to hide the peephole in granny style

Translator BL

The transport of items of all kind is horror for us wheelers, especially if they are round!
Thighs are completely unsuitable for carrying pomaceous fruit.
The high art of German engineering has brought it to light after years of research:

the plum transport box for wheelers

The resemblance with an egg carton is misleading!

Translator BL

Around 30 years ago I tried to learn to play guitar.

The success was so limited that I put the career aspiration to be a professional musician on hold for an indefinite period.

As mentioned already several times, my finger function is very limited since my accident so that playing the guitar was not necessarily on my priority list.

Many quadriplegics like me with our cervical spine injuries have difficulties with gripping.

Therefore it was so much surprising when Mary from Scotland (quadriplegic as well) showed me her self-constructed

guitar plectrum holder.

When she told me that in spite of her handicap she is able again to strum around on her guitar her eyes were sparkling.

A really great idea, we need more of these.

Tips as usual to contact: rollinator@eigude.de

Click here on “Quadriplegic Tips”, to read other tips!!!

Translator BL

Technical Aid of the year!

FreeWheel

Uneven paths, curbs, cobble stone, sand, gravel, grass and of course snow are not really friends of a wheeler.

With a little oomph you reach an artistic score of 5.8 for your flight out of the wheelchair. This can end up annoying, see older blogpost Broken Leg.

The solution is rather simple, you “just” need a longer wheelchair. But if I had a longer wheelchair I wouldn’t get it into the wheelchair loading system of my car.

My Minitrac and handcycle are great, but I always need a volunteer to get one of it out of the cellar.

A super alternative is a single wheel in the size of half a children’s bicycle which you clamp to the front of your wheelchair, and when the front wheels are lifted it gets perfect. The wheelchair then looks a bit like a jogging stroller. There are various producers of such a system.

On the Rehacare fair in Düsseldorf I have met Patrick Dougherty, the American inventor of the

www.goFreeWheel.com

I knew this attached wheel from many videos from the internet, but it is not easily available in Germany. It is so small that you can store it at the back of a rigid frame wheelchair. I take it on my knees when I descend with my platform lifter because I have a foldable wheelchair. Just input “FreeWheel” in Youtube and see for yourself what is suddenly accessible, e.g.:

I could buy a new “fair wheel” from him which was still lying in the hotel. On the last day of the fair he deposited it at the booth of Runa Reisen, a travel agency for handicapped. I know their staff very well because I always book my holidays there. They have sent the FreeWheel to my home then. Thanks again from this side.

With the FreeWheel it is even possible, ideally with additional Mountainbike tyres, to ride safely in the snow. Now the next winter can start, or maybe even a little bit of desert…

The FreeWheel is clamped tetra-easily to the footrest of a rigid-framed wheelchair. (But I have a foldable wheelchair…???)

If you ride forwards afterwards the front tyres of the wheelchair are lifted, and the fun can begin.

Because of the big tyres even “shocks” due to rough grounds are almost not noticed any more.

A rack with maximum load of 12 kg is available as well.

It has been upgraded with missing spoke reflectors incl. blinking valve caps (see picture above).

Of course Patrick wanted to know in detail how I get the FreeWheel clamped to my actually non-suitable foldable wheelchair by magic with Michael’s help.

New 2014 FreeWheel for folder-wheelchairs

For enquiries contact as usual: rollinator@eigude.de

Translator BL

Since I am rolling through the world for 5 years now, I have another enemy besides disabled parking place occupiers, namely doors.

These mostly white pieces are slowly turning into a phobia.

Not so easy to pull the door shut when you are standing… eh, sitting in your own way.

Hold the handle tight, roll backwards and mind not to fall forward if possible, or to do a backflip with the wheelchair.

In hospital I already had a long ribbon with which I was always fishing for the door handles. This ribbon is still hanging on the door of my flat and is serving its purpose.

I hate my own kitchen door, it is one meter wide. I only say:

No arms, no cookies…!!!

Only the door knows why I haven’t hung such a ribbon on my beloved kitchen door during the last 4 years.

The blue-yellow nordic timber worms offer drawer handles in all designs, sizes and colours. There were no more hurdles for the

kitchen door tuning.

A mate has screwed such a handle on my favourite door from the inside.
Now I can eventually close the door even when I am already standing in the corridor.

Because the screws have to be very long I recommend to immediately take threaded bars (on IKEA handles mostly thread M4), and saw it off to size only at the end.

If you leave the bars a bit longer you can even mount two towel hooks at the inside on the door.

Tip, always drill the holes from outside to inside and use an air level.

Looks a bit like a towel rail, I like it. Next, the door of my flat will be refurbished.

Before spot-drilling the entrance door it can’t do any harm to integrate the landlord in selecting the handles.

Translator BL

Today it’s all about the money!!!

If you are like me not bigger than 1,38 m sitting in the wheelchair and additionally are not able to grip acceptably any more the supposed most easy things become challenges.

Before my accident I was a real friend of plastic money. Insert card, add number, and yet the bucks were gone, if you are not just standing in front of an ATM.

As wheeler you feel a little uncomfortable with the debit card when each pedestrian looks over your shoulder when you are typing the PIN on the do-it-yourself store counter.
Additionally my wallet fell down regularly.

I decided rather quickly in favour of the a bit antiquated, but in Germany still widely used cash, whereas the little hitch was that I can only grip coins very poorly with my fingers and the coins fall down to the floor often. Additionally, who likes it when the casher is digging in your wallet, or who would give to the kind filling station attendant the PIN of the debit card to settle your bill.

Every quadriplegic has his mishap with zippers when the motor function of the fingers is limited. Alternatively to the well-known key rings which are usually fixed to the zippers I as former electronic technician am largely fixated on tie wraps.
On rucksack, jacket (see older blogpost), camera bag and even on the pants,… tie wraps, tie wraps, tie wraps… Thumbs in… open close, open close…!

The idea to fix the wallet with a spiral rope on the key ring at the front bag of my cushion was obvious. A wheeler friend of mine got his wallet stolen from his rucksack on the back of his wheelchair 4 weeks ago. If someone would try this with me the person would have to bend down so low that an uppercut would be recommendable.

From the technical side I don’t have difficulties with paying any more; now only the regular refilling of the wallet at the bank has to be ensured.

Quiz question: There are two tie wraps on the wallet, a white one and a black one, which one opens the pocket with the cash??? *

* Answer, of course the black tie wrap: BLACK MONEY

Translator BL

Today it’s all about the money!!!

If you are like me not bigger than 1,38 m sitting in the wheelchair and additionally are not able to grip acceptably any more the supposed most easy things become challenges.

Before my accident I was a real friend of plastic money. Insert card, add number, and yet the bucks were gone, if you are not just standing in front of an ATM.

As wheeler you feel a little uncomfortable with the debit card when each pedestrian looks over your shoulder when you are typing the PIN on the do-it-yourself store counter.
Additionally my wallet fell down regularly.

I decided rather quickly in favour of the a bit antiquated, but in Germany still widely used cash, whereas the little hitch was that I can only grip coins very poorly with my fingers and the coins fall down to the floor often. Additionally, who likes it when the casher is digging in your wallet, or who would give to the kind filling station attendant the PIN of the debit card to settle your bill.

Every quadriplegic has his mishap with zippers when the motor function of the fingers is limited. Alternatively to the well-known key rings which are usually fixed to the zippers I as former electronic technician am largely fixated on tie wraps.
On rucksack, jacket (see older blogpost), camera bag and even on the pants,… tie wraps, tie wraps, tie wraps… Thumbs in… open close, open close…!

The idea to fix the wallet with a spiral rope on the key ring at the front bag of my cushion was obvious. A wheeler friend of mine got his wallet stolen from his rucksack on the back of his wheelchair 4 weeks ago. If someone would try this with me the person would have to bend down so low that an uppercut would be recommendable.

From the technical side I don’t have difficulties with paying any more; now only the regular refilling of the wallet at the bank has to be ensured.

Quiz question: There are two tie wraps on the wallet, a white one and a black one, which one opens the pocket with the cash??? *

* Answer, of course the black tie wrap: BLACK MONEY

Translator BL