对不起，此内容只适用于Deutsch。
Posts Tagged ‘Tipps und Tricks’
(Deutsch) Nachtrag zum Artikel vom 29.06.2011 über eine Kühlweste!
星期二, 七月 19th, 2011Technical 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
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
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
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXVI
星期二, 五月 10th, 2011Everybody 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
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXV
星期三, 四月 27th, 2011My 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
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXXII
星期三, 四月 6th, 2011If 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
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXX
星期五, 三月 11th, 2011If 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
Technical Aids Tips und Tricks XXIX
星期三, 三月 9th, 2011On carnival Monday I was at a costume party with live music. Wisely the wheelchair table was at the end of the hall.
Great idea when almost all other people are standing in front of the stage.
You are easily overlooked in the crowd so that the beer or cider shower seems inevitable.
Some weeks ago I have bought a battery-operated
neon yellow-green fluorescent bar
in a do-it-yourself store which can also be set to „blinking“.
So you are glowing in the dark 
With this thing you are seen very well in the crowd, found again by friends, and nobody dares to stand directly in front of you.
I have been around 15 meters away from the stage and have actually seen the singer every now and then. The beer shower was cancelled.
After the party, my friend has guided the taxi driver with the fluorescent bar as if he was on an airfield.
Click on tag „reflectors“ to read other illuminating tips.
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXVIII
星期四, 二月 10th, 2011With a height of 2,38 m, width of 1.5 m and depth of 60 cm really a lot fits into a bedroom closet.
(Back in time I transported it as construction kit in my VW Golf 2).
I have quite a couple of shirts.
The bad thing with this closet is that I can’t reach up there anyway with my 1,38 m sitting in the wheelchair. With this depth I don’t see much either what is hidden in there. The attempt to get something out of the closet from behind probably results in an involuntary wheelchair-floor-transfer.
Down in the closet it’s not better either.
With the usual shelves a pile of 15 shirts remains for selection in the end. These fall out of the closet, or you have to rely on your assistant’s taste.
(I don’t like “pink T-shirts”).
The Swedish plywood constructors offer with their
Modular system “Pax”
drawers in the closet.
Now everything is within reach even from a wheelchair and you can also reach the shirts in the back of the closet which are usually inaccessible.
Beware of the polar bear!
(He is watching over me since my accident 2007).
Translator BL
Technical Aids Tips and Tricks XXVI
星期三, 二月 2nd, 2011As I mentioned on my front page I have a considerable big database with technical aids of all kind.
From exploded drawings of wheelchairs via seat cushions, car steering systems, up to a luxury bath robe for wheelchair users
(whoever needs it).
Each concerned person can get this information from me for free.
I also give advice for free when you need technical aids, the existing parts are falling apart again or don’t work otherwise.
There is a database in the internet, called Rehadat.
It is an official information system for vocational rehabilitation.
There you will find many useful information, including
22600 technical aids
www.rehadat.de
technical aids for fairly all needs, with medical device number!
(In the English version it is possible to search the databases on Technical Aids, Case Studies, Addresses, Research and Literature. A search in all eight databases is only possible in the German version.)
I will be pleased to help you on how you will get the selected parts, or if you have questions concerning the parts.
Caution, highly addictive! If you find something cool please send an e-mail.
Translator BL
Simply Great Part V – PR Blog
星期一, 一月 31st, 2011At this stage I would like to thank Mr. Bock, the owner of a travel agency specialized on wheelchair travels. I had already booked various trips there. In December during our first personal conversion (it was about the details of a reservation) he had the idea to introduce my blog on the travel agency’s newsletter. There are some thousand people on his distribution list, so it should be possible to help effected people. He also employs a wheelchair user and knows about our challenges and projects. Such a PR would be nice!
Of course I am quite taken with such conversations, but unfortunately usually there are rarely results.
On Saturday I received the January newsletter!
There it was, the first Rollinator PR Blog, and the whole thing without any more discussions, great thing!
** client offers advice for free
Internet – Steffen L., wheelchair user and **client, writes in his Blog “Eigude” about odd experiences from everyday life and innovative ideas for wheelchair users:
“News from the Rollinator” – this title shines above the comprehensive Web-Blog of Steffen L. The hobby internet editor is in a wheelchair only since 2007, but in this short time he has collected already a considerable amount of information.
“When you, sitting in a wheelchair, have left the hospital or the rehab the drama begins. You are left on your own, and everybody has to re-invent the wheel to manage everyday life.”
“Therefore this blog with a lot of tips and tricks.”
Interested persons can find the website onwww.eigude.de
As expert for individual technical aids solutions the author offers advice for free!
** Contact details of the travel agency can be requested as usual on rollinator@eigude.de
More than 150 clicks in 24 hours, uff…
Translator BL
Bath Reconstruction Neverending Story Part 4
星期二, 一月 25th, 2011You should take your time with the selection of the adapted washing basin.
In my opinion, a height adjustable luxury basin is not necessary if the wheelchair user is not a child.
Basically you should be able to agree with your partner on the mounting height, as long as the partner is not Dirk Nowitzki!
The wheelchair has to fit even with passenger underneath the washing basin.
Better remind your plumber!
Stupidly most of the washing basins are not large enough so that you are standing with the feet against the wall, and you still have to bend forward over the very expensive special washing basin.
Great!!
I consider it as advantage if the washing basin has little “wings” on the right and left side, so that the storage space is substantially larger and better to reach.
Lots of bits and pieces fit in here.
A downward foldable wall mirror is not needed by anybody.
(see older blogpost).
The mounting height of the disabled toilet is according to my information at approx. 40 cm. This really has a reasonable cause.
Above 40 cm it is not possible to drive with a shower commode chair without reconstruction over the toilet. I would like to meet the plumber who knows that.
Even in designated wheelchair hotels the toilet height can be different in each room. Everybody does what he wants.
What is interesting is that some health insurances cover either the costs for a shower commode chair, or for holding bars next to the toilet.
Thus relatively fit wheelers use the shower chair for the shower and are then obliged to use it for the daily “sitting” even though they could swing onto the toilet lid if they had the money for holding bars. The bars are shockingly expensive, I have some low priced producers in my data base.
If you need a rubber ring for the toilet seat, of course you have free choice for the mounting height.
By coincidence I got two holding bars out of stainless steel for 21 € in Ebay. The value of the material is already significantly higher. The bars don’t only look good, they are also doing well as towel rail.
An acquaintance of mine doesn’t care at all.
He is taking a shower with his “normal” wheelchair. His cushion never gets wet. He probably has one, but doesn’t sit on it even during the day.
To be continued.
Click on tag “Bath Reconstruction” to read the other blogposts of the series.
Translator BL
Christmas Tree 2010 Part I
星期六, 十二月 18th, 2010对不起，此内容只适用于Deutsch。
Bath Reconstruction Neverending Story Part 2
星期六, 十二月 4th, 2010The 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
