Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.
Archive for the ‘Tips and Tricks’ Category
Christmas Tree 2010 Part I
Saturday, December 18th, 2010Bath Reconstruction Neverending Story Part 2
Saturday, December 4th, 2010
Frontpage 
The new bathroom was planned so that an accessible, on grade shower basin should be embedded on the window side.
A size of 120 cm x 120 cm is standard (top left).
Due to the wall breakthrough a new bathtub could be set on the right side, virtually in the home office. Then a little bit washing basin, connection for the washing machine, disabled toilet, and the bathroom was actually almost done.
OK, a new wall had to be built on the right, plaster, some tiles, colour and a sliding door were necessary due to the broadening of the door case.
Sounds rather simple, so let’s take a start!
In TV shows accessible bathrooms are built in 45 minutes broadcasting time…
It’s not “going” that fast!
Usually bathrooms suitable for disabled are on the ground floor, which basically makes sense because stairs are natural obstacles for us wheelchair users.
Additionally the siphon of the accessible shower can be banished with a breakthrough to the basement ceiling, where nobody would bother except for a couple of rats.
In the first floor the shower drain thing is a bit more difficult.
I don’t have any more problems, but there it was, the challenge!
Because I have neighbours living underneath, a colourful siphon on their bathroom ceiling was out of question.
Even with the most even drain you need at least
12 cm casing depth for the on grade shower basin.
The concrete underlay was removed until the bottom plate. My bathroom floor didn’t give more than 8 cm depth for the installation of the shower basin.
The floor had to be lifted, but then it wouldn’t be on the same level as the corridor any more.
What now:
A stair at the door to enter the “accessible bathroom” was a serious suggestion, but not for me.
To pump the waste water upwards because of the missing 4 cm I thought would be too complex.
In the end my new bathroom floor is sloping!
The floor slightly ascends by 4 cm from door to shower which has the funny effect that I am rolling away with my wheelchair in my own bathroom.
A pedestrian doesn’t note the difference.
As long as I don’t splatter too much with the water while showering it won’t run into the corridor!
I should have explicitly mention that to my friend who stayed overnight before he went into the bathroom. 
To be continued!
Click on tag “Bath Reconstruction” to read the other blogposts of the series.
Translator BL
(Deutsch) Werbung Part I
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.
Quadriplegic Tips XVII
Monday, November 22nd, 2010Frontpage
I am totally convinced that I own the coolest
Floss dispenser
of all times.
Manfred the fisherman motivates me every morning anew to do something meaningful with the day, provided that you define the “nonsense” that I permanently produce as meaningful.
Everything is to my opinion more meaningful than to sit on the couch and wait with the PS2 plastic fishing rod that the fish virtually bites the bait on TV. (No joke, see older blogpost).
Well, if the fish is delicious!
Back to the floss. The usage of floss in traditional technique leads with my light-fingeredness, with the emphasis on “light”, inevitably to undesired self-bondages and strangulations.
There are these little flossers with which you have to watch out that you don’t swallow them. According to latest rumours the new floss holder with integrated span mechanism and rubberized grip handle of the brand GUM:
Floss holder type Flosbrush
looks exactly like the strange thing which is lying on my table since the last midsummer. The engineer was probably quadriplegic. This great part is not available at German retailers.
But ask your dentist or druid on the corner (pharmacy) if they can order such a thing. The old model doesn’t have a span mechanism yet, but is also good to handle. The new one will be launched in the next weeks.
I don’t know yet how much it will cost.
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXII
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010Frontpage
When I was still “footer” I got up depending on my shift at 04:30 h. It is clear that it is quite dark at this time if you are going around the bed and the bedside lamp has been switched off before. My shinbone every now and then bumped into the edge of the bed frame and lost.
For this reason I acquired at that time a battery-operated
LED night light with motion detector
which I used quasi as under-bed illumination. These things are meanwhile quite low-priced purchasable in the do-it-yourself store or sometimes at the discounter for less than 10 €.
Now I have the LED light standing on my bedside table. So I just have to wave with my hand to turn on the light.
This is great because due to the paralysis of the legs/hips I am lying literally like a beetle on the back and can’t reach the switch of the normal bedside lamp without greater difficulties. The lamps also make sense on the floor of the flat, so you don’t have to switch on and off all lights when rolling from room to room.
Equipped with rechargeable batteries I see daylight at night for around 3 months.
LED = light-emitting diode
Translator BL
Wheelchair Tuning Part XVIII
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Frontpage
I have got the impression that there is the general opinion that all wheelchair drivers are going to bed before dark.
Otherwise it is inexplicable for me that non of the wheelchairs I have seen has but one reflector on the front side.
This is a striking lack of safety!!!
Safety regulations of that kind are not known to me. One could almost think that we are allowed to be knocked over in traffic.
With luck one has at least a bicycle reflector put in the spokes.
The big discounters every now and then offer silver-coloured
spokes reflectors.
These were not allowed for bicycles for a long time, but are perfect for wheelchairs.
For bicycles it is: front white, side orange, rear red.
My tip:
Paste your wheelchair especially on the front with adhesive reflectors, buy orange bike reflectors, spokes reflectors, or even better reflective
tyres.
Reflectors for arms and legs
for cyclists can e.g. be sewed on the backpack.
With a head light you can see holes in the ground at night
Blinking rear light of a bike, figure something out, be creative, paste reflectors at the inside of the car door so that it is seen from far when it is open.
I don’t have the desire to be run over by a car because of serious safety lacks on a wheelchair which apparently nobody is interested in.
The “Stiftung Warentest” (German product test foundation) is not interested in testing wheelchairs either
(see older blogpost). (My latest status).
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XXI
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010Frontpage
Almost all wheelchair users are using bicycle gloves which they buy every now and then at the discounter.
My needs for these quality products were plentiful, the more expensive ones weren’t any better for wheelchair driving either.
I got the tip to switch to sailing gloves because they are more robust and additionally reinforced at the forefinger to let the ropes run through for sailing without burning the fingers.
Furthermore the glove fixes very well around the wrist which is very important for me as quadriplegic for braking to not loose the gloves. The velcro tapes are fixing well, and the leather is out of one piece. The gloves are available in Antara leather or Neoprene.
Sailing Gloves
The price starts at 10,00 €.
Source of supply can be enquired.
Contact: rollinator@eigude.de
Now I am just missing a sailing boat.
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XIX
Sunday, October 10th, 2010Frontpage
I think that this special pen might be quite helpful for many fellows who can’t grip very well any more. It is also available rubberized. This pen was probably developed by a concerned person.
I think the
special pen
is great.
If you don’t have much power to write I recommend DVD labelling pens.
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XVIII
Saturday, October 9th, 2010Frontpage
The market for technical aids is huge.
There is almost everything you can imagine in the broadest sense. The problem is not only that this stuff is unreasonably expensive, but also apparently nobody has ever tested it.
The Taiwanese fabricate a basically ingenious key holder, like a Suisse Army Knife.
This can be found in almost every catalogue for technical aids.
Because of its size the key holder can be grasped even with limited finger functions. If the key is stuck in the lock the holder is bent by 90° so that you can open the lock due to the big lever with your “little finger”!!!
Attention: If someone else wants to open a door with your key holder please point out to him that a key can be broken off quickly with this technical aid.
The bad thing is that our European keys are a little thicker than the Asian ones and therefore don’t fit in. Such technical aids disappear in the cupboard, like the food processer from the home shopping channel. I have adjusted my
Key holder
accordingly (filed the slots and provided with a longer screw), and I am using it daily.
Last year on the rehab fair I have pointed out this deficit to the Taiwanese. Yesterday I was at the Rehacare in Düsseldorf, but I didn’t see the key holder any more.
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XVII
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010Frontpage
With my
“Buckled Fingers”,
I know politically correct it is of course just an impairment of motor skills of hands and fingers, it is
not possible for me any more
to start a fire with a customary
lighter or matches.
A couple of years ago this was still essential for survival.
Nowadays it is fortunately not that important any more, provided that you are in possession of a functional microwave and central heating.
I had quit smoking a couple of months before the accident so that I didn’t bother specifically about making fire in the last 2,5 years.
Rather by coincidence I noticed that these
long gas lighters
can be operated without any finger function.
Now even I can light a tea candle again.
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XVI
Sunday, August 29th, 2010Frontpage
As wheelchair using quadriplegic rainy weather simply sucks!
With wet rubber hand rims it is hardly possible for me to turn the driving wheels so that I can’t move any more.
It would be just a bit inconvenient to take a shower undesirably for the second time in a day, but if I am standing on a hillside the braking gets a bit critical respectively almost impossible.
Such a big
rain cape for cyclists
is in my opinion a good and low price solution.
It doesn’t always have to have a medical device number.
My hand rims stay dry to a large extent.
The cape should be shortened appropriately.
Be careful that it doesn’t get in the wheels.
Spoke protector discs are beneficial.
Ducks like water, but I haven’t seen something like this before.
It is raining day and night there.
This duck probably has
neoprene feathers
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XV
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010Frontpage
If you as quadriplegic like me or for which reason ever don’t have any power in hands and fingers, such a
turning knob on the inside of a toilet door
is getting a real challenge.
Closing the locks is “going“ rather well, but then!!!
If you are not particularly interested to meet consistently your friend from the fire brigade it is beneficial to always have a
Silicon cap
with you which you usually use to open bottles (see older blogpost).
This
excellent turning knob
I have discovered on a disabled toilet in Bregenz (Austria).
Did actually somebody put good thoughts on it, or was it all about the design?!
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XI
Thursday, July 8th, 2010Frontpage
Many wheelchair drivers with a spinal cord injury are only able to sweat a little bit, or not at all anymore. This sounds rather nice for one moment.
No wet clothes any more, garlic as much as you like, and the deodorant stick dries from non-using in the bathroom cabinet. I also belong to the tribe of the
Antiperspirantians (Non-sweaters).
There is just one hitch:
If it is more than 25° C and I am physically active, or just standing around meaningless in the sun, my body temperature rises constantly.
From 40° C my body decides to leave the wheelchair with a floor transfer.
To counteract this we arm ourselves with a customary
water sprayer for flowers.
I was absolutely convinced that each wheelchair driver concerned would know this, thus I had never mentioned it before, but unfortunately this is not the case!
At the last World Cup pedestrians have constantly borrowed my
thermo sprayer.
It was possibly due to the fact that we covered the roof and the sides of the roofing with black plastic sheets in order to better see the beamer picture.
There were perceived 80° C, but maximum 58°C!
If you have a belt out of Velcro tape you can fix the sprayer to it.
Such a water sprayer is great, but I am warning it’s highly addictive!
Addendum, an ingenious aid: Click on tag “cooling vest and cooling cap“
Translator BL
Wheelchair Tuning Part XI
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Frontpage
In light of the current situation, outside we have currently at 10:08 h already 25,4° C, something topical.
Because I can hardly grasp with my fingers it is only possible for me to move my wheelchair when I press my hands against the hand rims of the driving wheels and push them forward.
This is only possible for me with rubberized hand rims, unless I push with the spokes which is a little inconvenient and not possible if you have spoke protectors.
The hand rims are available readily coated with rubber, or as
“sliced hosepipe“ (hand rim cover),
which you pull over on a standard hand rim.
Everybody has to decide for himself what is better or worse.
It is said that the hand rim covers would slip from the hand rims in the summer when it is warm and the rubber gets soft.
I have made the same negative experience.
You can counteract very simple if you clean the hand rim covers approximately all two weeks from in- and outside respectively the hand rims with an alcoholic cleaner like window cleaner, rubbing alcohol,…
The covers stick afterwards to the hand rim like glued.
Now a little bit of hairspray outside on the hand rim cover, and there is nothing in the way of a trip to the swimming lake.
If they have a lift to water at the swimming lake?
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks X
Thursday, June 10th, 2010Frontpage
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
Hier geht’s,…ääh..fährt man zur 
