Oh, Hello

Oh, hi.  I didn't see you there.

Come on in.  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Too long.  How've you been?  How are the kids?  Good, good.

How've I been?  Oh, you know, same old, same old.  Takin' it a day at a time.  Blah blah blah.

You don't care about details, do you?  It's all boring.  Oh, you do?  Well, if you insist, here are the highlights from the last few months.


In September, I reacquainted myself with my old friend, candy corn.   Turns out I really like candy corn.  Like really a lot.  Too much, if I'm honest.  Fun fact: Jelly Belly candy corn isn't nearly as good as Brachs.

Dangerously affordable

I went to the State Fair with Gus's family and my sister and her kids.  We ate a bunch of food, and the kids got to ride some rides.  The weather was great, and I felt pretty good, so it was a really good time.

Georgia and Evelyn were incredibly cute together

 The Martinsville guys stopped by for a visit.  We had a lot of fun, and made a lot of noise, and probably irritated my neighbors.  I had been thinking that paralysis is like a full-time job except that you don't get to go home, and you never get a vacation.  This is as close to a vacation as I ever get.

I went over to Cullen and Caitlin's house for dinner and to carve pumpkins prior to Halloween. 

Mine is the sad, mentally challenged one on the end

I took a trip with Gus out to Greensboro to buy an interesting new piece of equipment.  I wanted it because it's supposed to be good for your overall health.  It can also provide you with some useful capabilities though there are some limitations.

The other big news is that I have been experimenting with driving the van with mixed results.  The actual driving isn't difficult since I installed a chest strap so I can't fall out of the seat.  I've taken a couple solo trips without a chaperone, and they went about as well as could reasonably be expected except that I've discovered that sitting in the driver seat messes up my back really badly.  On one 5 minute trip, it triggered my sciatica to the point that I was essentially stuck in bed for the next 2 weeks, and it took a month to get the pain back to the level it had been.

I'm continuing to play with it, but I'm reluctant to try anything longer than a 5 minute drive in case my back gives out.  I can feel the pain starting as soon as I get in the seat, but it usually takes a few minutes to become a serious problem.  I've done a couple trips with my neighbor to the grocery store.  It's a good arrangement because she can't drive due to epilepsy, and I can't reach the top shelf at the store or carry a lot of groceries back to my apartment.  I've been hoping for a long time that we could work together on this, and our two trips so far have worked out great.

So I guess I've been making very slow progress.  Pain is still the main thing holding me back, and it's still a huge problem, but at least I'm learning what to expect from it, and I've been able to do some fun things in spite of it.

Core

Here's something that happened recently.  I didn't notice it until late last week.  It's not terribly useful at the moment, but it's definitely interesting.

Voodoo

The last time I posted to this blog, I was in a LOT of pain.  My lower back hurt, and was spasming uncontrollably.  The pain in my posterior was the worst it had ever been, and it felt like someone was electrocuting my leg continually.  It was the most pain I have ever experienced, and I was not particularly happy.  I had just started seeing a new physical therapist, Jon Weinberg at Team Care, for my back pain, and I was cautiously pessimistic about whether he could do anything about the butt pain that has kept me in bed for the last year.

Skip ahead a few weeks, and I'm feeling a LOT better.

I think physical therapy is voodoo.  This is the second time that a PT has told me that a terrible pain was actually coming from a nerve problem in a completely different location.

At some point in the first year of my injury, after I began sleeping on my stomach, I began waking up with extreme pain in my elbows.  It was bad enough that I could barely use my arms to sit up in the morning.  I tried everything I could think of to take pressure off my elbows while I was sleeping, but nothing seemed to work.  When I finally told a PT about it, she said, "Oh yeah, there's a nerve in your armpit that is causing that.  Find a sleeping position that takes strain off your shoulder, and it should clear right up."  She was dead right.  My shoulder and armpit weren't bothering me at all, but that was the source of the problem, and once I took pressure off it, my elbow pain went away as if by magic.

For a year, my butt has been getting worse and worse, and nothing I did seemed to make it better.  Jon comes along and tells me I need to stretch my back to make my butt better.  I told him I didn't think that would help, but that I'd try anything.  He's got me doing these twists to try to straighten out the disks between my vertebrae.  The theory is that I've got multiple bulging disks bulging in different directions, and it will require a variety of weird stretches to improve the problem.  It has already helped tremendously.

The problem I have is that with my engineering background, I tend to think in terms of problems and solutions, and I like to solve my own problems.  I've been very successful when it comes to improvising mechanical solutions to problems, but when it comes to problems with my body, I'm missing key knowledge about how things work.  If a problem isn't caused by the thing that hurts, you can work on that thing forever without making any progress.  It's that detailed knowledge of how things work that makes PTs so effective.  I guess I can't solve ALL of my problems myself.

I'm certainly not pain free, and I have to take frequent breaks to get in bed and do my stretches or else the pain comes back, but the progress I've made in the last couple weeks is nothing short of amazing.  I'm feeling better than I have in over a year, and I'm  able to spend a lot more time up in my chair.  I'm already thinking in terms of doing more stuff, although I don't want to get ahead of myself.  I need to get the pain control a little more consistent than it is right now before I try to go too far from home.  It still fluctuates quite a bit from day to day.

It doesn't help that I need assistance to really do this stretch properly.  Gus helped me rig a strap around my bed to help me do it myself as best I can, but I don't think it's as effective as getting someone to help me do it.  Ideally, I'm supposed to do it every two hours, so if you want to stop by and give me a hand, here's the procedure.

I don't know where we go from here, but the fact that there has been any improvement is both unexpected, and very exciting.

Food Fairy

Two posts in two days?!?!?  I KNOW!!!

Brian and Kelly, dropped off more food this morning.  They have given me a ton of food the last couple weeks, and  I can't even express how much I have appreciated having it when the pain has been so bad.  It has been so great not to have to prepare anything when I get up, and to be able to get back in bed as quickly as possible.  It doesn't hurt that it's all amazing.

2 weeks ago: ravioli, chicken, roasted veggies, meatballs with glazed pineapples and onions

Today: Italian pasta salad, chicken and crispy onion sliders with chipotle honey, ginger sesame chicken salad, honey mustard pretzel chicken, broccoli pasta salad, jalapeno corn slaw

Between this and a couple Taco Bell runs, I have been well fed for the last couple weeks, and will have a hard time getting through this before my mom arrives in a week.

Dinner tonight including cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, gnocchi, pistachios, probably some other stuff.  Delicious!

I can't believe I have friends who do this for me.  I'm still the luckiest cripple I know.

Physical Therapy

It's not one of the things I promised to write about, but I thought I should throw a quick update.  I went to see a physical therapist on Thursday, and he was able to help with the back pain a little.  He also thinks he might be able to help with the butt pain.  That was an unexpected development.  I'm not convinced he's right, but it would be irresponsible not to pursue this line of inquiry until I'm 100% sure he's wrong.  I really hope he's right.  You could say I'm cautiously pessimistic.  He thinks it's related to sciatica and caused by the same lower back problem I went to see him about.  We'll see I guess.

Tobi has agreed to take me to 2 appointments this week, and my mom will be in town next week and should be able to take me to 2 more.  I probably need to go to at least 2 more appointments the following week which I know Tobi can't do, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Jimmy took me last week to get an MRI on my spine, and Tobi is also taking me next week back to talk to the doctor about the MRI.  Either this week or next, I'm going in to get my wheelchair adjusted to help with my posture.  I have a couple options for rides for that, and it just depends on when they can schedule me.

So after many months of nothing happening, there's lots of stuff going on.  Hopefully some of it helps.

If anybody wants to sign up to take me to a mid-day appointment the week of August 18th, let me know.  If they can actually make significant improvements in the next couple weeks, I might try to drive myself, but we'll just have to see how I feel.

Still Broken

July is rapidly coming to a close, and it's time for me to confirm, for the five remaining readers of this blog, that I'm still alive and kicking (so to speak).  I was sitting here thinking about all the things I have to write about from the last month and feeling a bit overwhelmed, so instead of doing one long comprehensive post about everything I've done (besides sleep), I'm going to try to ration it out in a series of shorter posts.  The way blogs are supposed to be.  The question is whether the pain will allow me to do that.  We'll see.

The last couple weeks, I've been spending a little more time up in my chair.  Not much, but a little.  I've been trying to tell myself that my butt has been feeling a little bit better.  That may or may not actually be true.  It's possible I'm just telling myself that to have an excuse to get out of bed.  I can only take so much lying down.

So while I was sitting up a couple weeks ago, I started to notice a stabbing pain in my lower back, well below my line of injury.  It felt like somebody was stabbing me directly in the spine with an ice pick, and it forced me back into bed.  The pain went away after a couple days, but it came back a week later.  Again, it lasted about 2 days, but this time it returned sooner.  Now it's almost every day.

My butt has been bothering me a lot less since it started, but I think that's just because whatever hurts the most is the only thing I can feel at any given time, and the back problem hurts a LOT.  It was suggested that it might be a herniated disk, and that sounds plausible to me.

Tobi took me to the doctor, and Gus took me for x-rays.  This week, I'm going for some PT, and to get an MRI.  Finding rides to doctor appointments is still one of my most difficult problems, but I'm very fortunate that Tobi is out of school the the next few weeks, and can drive me around to all of these.  Hopefully one of them helps.

I'm still trying to spend time out of bed every day, but it's hard.  I've been icing my back every day, and taking pain meds.  They do help, once again, lying in bed is the only real relief I get, so I need to find a more permanent solution to this problem.  A lot of times, like right now, the pain is relatively little as long as I don't move, but all the spine movement associated with pushing the wheelchair around is very problematic.  It's challenging just to move around my apartment; going outside to check the mail seems unrealistic.

So that's what's wrong with me THIS month, and is probably the most important update, but it's not the only thing going on in my life.  Now that we've gotten the negative stuff out of the way, hopefully I'll be able to write about the better stuff in the near future.  Stay tuned.

May and June

I guess its been a while since I wrote anything about myself in this blog. I suppose it's time. The last two months have been quite a contrast.

May

Driving the Van

I felt pretty good for most of May, and I got to do a lot of fun stuff. I finally got to experiment with driving my van. 

Gus removed the passenger seat, and we rigged it so I could transfer to the driver's seat, and I took an exploratory trip around the parking lot. 

And I did some practice transfers . 

Later, I went out on the road and drove to Gus's house for dinner. Gus accompanied me as a chaperone, but I did all the transferring and driving unassisted.

We uncovered some possible challenges during this excursion . Notably, if I make a sharp turn to the left, I tend to fall out of the seat to the right. Overall, however, the experiment was a great success , and it gave me a lot of confidence that I will end up menacing public roads eventually.

Willie Nelson

Back in March, I learned that Willie Nelson was coming to play a show in Cary with Alison Krauss, and I thought it would be a good excursion if I could find some friends to go with me. I invited Cullen and Caitlin, and we bought tickets for the May 5th show. The show ended up being postponed until May 19th, and Gus and Uyen were given tickets, so they came too. 

Fun times

Who invited him?

The weather was perfect, and I felt really good.  We all had a great time. It was nice to get out of my apartment for an evening, and the show was fun. I always enjoy Alison Krauss, but the reason I wanted to see the show was to see Willie Nelson before he dies. I always wanted to see Johnny Cash, but I never got to. 

Willie is the blur to the left

It turned out Willie Nelson doesn't really sing anymore so much as stand in front of a band and recite lyrics, but the man is a legend and I guess he can do what he wants.

Memorial Day Cookout
 In the month of May, I made friends with a couple here in my apartment building. On Memorial Day weekend, they invited me to grill some fish with them on the communal grill down by the playground. Philip is from Florida, and knows something about seafood. He picked up some red snapper at Whole Foods, and prepared it with some marinade. He grilled it whole with the head and skin on.  I had never had fish prepared like that, but it was some of the best fish I have ever had. 

The next day, we grilled hamburgers. They were made with special corn fed ground beef from whole foods, and they were the most flavorful hamburgers I have ever had . 
 

Phillip and me down by the grill

It was really nice to have some friends in the building here, but unfortunately Philip and Wendy purchased a house and moved away in early June. It might actually be for the best from a weight gain standpoint.

 Amy and Joe's Party
My friends Amy and Joe threw a big party Memorial Day weekend, and I decided to go. Gus and Uyen were nice enough to transport me, and the party was in the driveway so I didn't have to worry about getting inside their house. They did a pig pickin', and there was tons and tons of food. 

The weather was great, and a lot of my friends were there. It was another had a really great time.

 June

To Bed

In May, I had a lot of fun, and I spent a lot of time out doing stuff. Too much time I think.

The pain in my butt when I sit on it had been worsening all through May, and by early June it was unbearable. I could not sit up for any length of time, and I couldn't imagine sitting on a car seat when the fancy air cushion on my wheelchair was so painful. I decided I had to stay in bed until it got better. So that's been my June.

It's really frustrating because I felt like I made actual progress in May, and this feels like a big step backwards.  I feel like I'm just laying here watching my life pass by, powerless to do anything about it.  Fortunately I like sleeping, so its not all bad.

Not sitting up means it's almost impossible to type which makes it very difficult to post to the blog which is the main reason I haven't posted anything in so long. Right now I'm lying on my stomach, using Google's (awful) voice recognition software to painstakingly piece this post together.  I'm fixing all the mistakes with one finger. It's excruciating.  I've been working 4 hours and counting.

The good news is my butt is definitely improving, but very very slowly. I have no idea how much longer I'm going to have to stay off it, but I'm going to try to let it heal as much as possible. I don't want to have to do this again. 

I think the cause of the problem is twofold. I think I injured my butt sitting on it too much, but I also think I got a little more feeling back in my lower extremities. When I say that to people they always ask if that isn't a good thing, but I think it's a very bad thing. All paraplegics have pressure issues with their butts, but they can't feel it so it's easy to live with. If they could feel it, they would be miserable all the time.

I've been wondering if there are any surgeries to disconnect your spine since I think I would be a lot happier if mine had been broken properly, but I doubt anyone will do that.

So that's what's going on with me. I'll write again when I feel better and can sit at a keyboard. Now I'm going back to sleep.

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 8: Hand Vac

REVISED BELOW - I HAVE A NEW FAVORITE VACUUM

Everybody makes a mess from time to time, and I'm no exception.  The other day, I spilled dry coffee grounds in my lap.  If you did that, it wouldn't land in your lap because you wouldn't be sitting down while working with coffee.  But if, for some reason, you were sitting down to make coffee, and you ended up with coffee grounds in your lap, you would stand up, and brush the mess onto the floor where it would be easy to sweep up.

Sweeping is not easy for me, and standing is much harder, so how to get rid of the mess?  Enter the 18 Volt Shark Cordless Handheld Vacuum.

In its natural environment

I did a bit of homework before buying this particular vacuum.  This one has very good suction power, so it makes very quick work of the lap coffee, and the powered brush attachment helps if I get the coffee in the carpet.  It has a couple other attachments that I haven't used yet, but that will probably be useful one day.  Critically, it has a very convenient charging station that can mount to the wall, and holds all the attachments.  I put mine in the laundry room where it is within reach, but otherwise completely out of the way.

I haven't used my cordless hand vac too many times yet, but I like knowing it's there in case I need to collect some wayward M&Ms, clean up after a preschooler who eats like a defective wood-chipper, or perform a hands-free scary bug removal.



REVISED 8/24/2019

I haven't looked at this blog in 4 years, but I wanted to update this entry since I fell out of love with the Shark, and fell deeply in love with the Dyson cordless vacuum line.

I have 2 different models.  Of the two, I prefer the V7 which is the newer one.  I suspect any model would do the job although I think they get heavier as they get newer which might make them more difficult to handle.

This vacuum is smaller and lighter than the Shark, and the shape does a better job staying on my lap for transport.  I found the Shark tended to roll around as it wasn't really flat on the bottom.  I lay the Dyson on its side on my lap and it stays put, plus I think the V7 is just as powerful as the shark if not moreso.

Dyson V7 Motorhead Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner

It comes with attachments which allow you to use it as a dustbuster or crevice vacuum.  I find it's excellent at vacuuming up bugs if that's something you enjoy as much as I do, and it does a pretty decent job on hard floors.  I don't use it on carpet much, but it would certainly be better than nothing.

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 7: WeMo Light Switch

There are a lot of weird problems that come with paralysis.  One of the ones I noticed very quickly after I came home from the hospital was turning off the light at night.

Getting in bed at night is non-trivial for a paraplegic, especially when they are new to it.  Transferring from the wheelchair to bed, or from bed to the wheelchair can be a bit hairy, especially in the dark.  When I first moved into this apartment, I was brand new to these transfers, and I did not feel comfortable doing them in the dark.  My solution was to have a night light running in my room all the time.  This solution was a compromise.  There was a little bit of light when I was doing my transfer, but not as much as I really wanted.  Then there was more light in the room while I was sleeping than I would really prefer.

Smart phones are fantastic.  I held out getting one for several years while some of my friends pressured me to get one.  Ultimately, I did get one, only about a year before my injury.  I don't know how I'd ever survive a spinal cord injury without one.

I use my phone for everything.  I use the alarm feature many times a day to remember to take pills, or to empty my bladder.  I use a grocery list app to share my grocery list with Gus so he can pick things up for me if he goes to the store.  I use several chat and email apps to stay in contact with my friends.  I use the camera to take pictures for the blog.  I use the calendar to keep track of doctor appointments and dinner dates with friends.  I use the contact list to keep track of all the doctors and therapists I've seen.  I use the IMDB app to find out what actors were in certain movies.  And now I use WeMo to turn my lights off at night.

The WeMo light switch, by Belkin, is a smart light switch that uses your home WiFi network to talk to your smart phone.

WeMo on the right

There's not a lot to say about it except that I love it.  I can now get in (or out) of bed with the lights on, and then turn them off (or on) when I'm ready using an app on my phone.  It may seem like a little thing, but it makes my life a LOT better.

Update (5/20/2014) - My friend, Ben Parees, wants credit for introducing me to the dorky world of home automation.  It's true.  He did.  Thanks, Ben!  If you run into him, ask him about his project to automate the opening and closing of his mini-blinds in correspondence with the position of the sun!

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 6: Reacher Grabbers

The world we live in is designed around people with functioning legs.  Spend one day in a wheelchair, and this fact becomes painfully obvious.

I live alone, and if I need to reach something that is either too high, or too low, I have to use a reacher grabber.  I don't especially like having to rely on a fancy tool for something so simple, but I don't really have any other options.

I have an assortment of grabbers, and each is useful in its own way.

My collection

If I could have only one, it would be the Duro-Med 26-inch.  This is the one they recommended when I was in rehab.  It has decent grip strength, and it has excellent precision.  If you drop a pill under the table, this is the grabber you want.

Duro-Med 26"

I own four of these that I keep in different rooms.  In rehab, I remember them specifically saying this one was good if you want to grab a cloth to wipe something up on the floor.  I haven't tried it yet, but that's probably true.  I keep one in the bathroom to help flush the toilet since I can't get my chair close to the handle, or to pick things up if I drop them in the shower.  I keep one near my bed, and when the HO was keeping me from reaching my feet, I used it to help put pants on.

This grabber is also somewhat effective for pulling things down from high cabinet shelves in the kitchen.  My strategy for managing my kitchen space is that I keep just about everything that I use every day on the counter where I can reach it.  My kitchen is very small, and I can't afford to waste any space, so some things that I don't use daily have to go in the upper cabinets.  I have my friends put things up there when they come.  Extra food has to go up there sometimes, so when I need it, I just use a grabber to pull it down.  Most of the time that means pulling it off the front of the shelf, and either catching it, or letting it hit the counter.  I try to put durable foods up there.  Putting anything back up on a shelf is tricky at best.

The grabber I use more often for pulling things off shelves is the Unger 32-inch.  It has a longer reach than the Duro-Med so it can reach things on higher shelves, and the jaws open a lot wider so it can grab larger things.  The inside of the jaws also have a rubberized cover, so it has a chance of gripping a bottle.  The head can also turn 90 degrees which is convenient for grabbing vertical boxes.

Unger 32" and PikStik 20"

The problem with the Unger is that it does not have very good grip strength.  If it did, it would be much more useful.  Once I pull a box of cookies off the shelf, the odds that the Unger can hold it for a graceful landing are very low.  For that reason, that's about the only thing this grabber is good for, but sometimes it's the right tool for that job.

The jaws of the Unger aren't very precise, so it wouldn't be good for picking up a pill, but another issue is that it's just too long.  It's hard to appreciate until you try it, but using a grabber that is too long is very awkward.  One reason the 26" Duro-Med is so useful is that it's a very convenient length, but sometimes you want something even shorter.

The PikStick 20-inch is such a grabber.  I'd say this is my least useful grabber, and I haven't really used it much.  I bought it to use to help with putting on pants, and I think it would have been perfect for that job, but I stopped needing a grabber for that at about the same time it arrived.  Its head turns 90 degrees like the Unger, but I'm not sure if that's a useful feature for a grabber this small.  Its grip strength is also not very good.  It might be weaker than the Unger, so if I were to give up one of these grabbers, it would be this one.

A grabber that I would NOT want to give up is the Grappler 33-inch.  My aunt sent me this when I first came home from rehab, and it took me a while to appreciate its usefulness.  It's a little bit heavy which makes it a little bit clumsy to operate, but it has incredible grip strength.  It's also the longest grabber I have, so if there is something up high, and I want to have a reasonable chance of not dropping it, this is the grabber I want.

Grappler 33"

It was designed as a trash pick-up tool, and it's made almost entirely from steel so it's super strong.  The jaws also open much wider than any of the other grabbers so it will pick up things they won't.  The jaw tips have rubber booties on them so it has reasonable "gription" as Gus likes to say.  Most recently, I used it to take down my wall clock which is well out of reach so I could replace the battery.  I also was able use it to put the clock back up.  None of my other grabbers could come close to doing that.

At this point, I feel like my grabber collection is just about complete, but the Grappler is so impressive, I am considering buying the 24-inch version as well.  That would give me a smaller, lighter option for those times when heavy or large things aren't quite as high up or as far away.  After that, I think I will have a reacher grabber for every situation.

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 5: Door Pulls

Going in and out of doors is an important part of life that everyone does many times a day.  You probably don't give it any thought, but if you rely on a wheelchair for your transportation, you know every door can be a challenge.

When negotiating a door, you almost always have to operate the door with one hand while you maneuver the wheelchair with the other. Driving a manual wheelchair with one hand is challenging.  Doing it while leaning out of your chair to reach the door handle with the other hand will make you question how badly you really need to leave the room.  Add in any additional complications like a spring-loaded door closer, a bumpy threshold, or a fragile item on your lap that needs to go with you, and the profanity will start to flow.

For a lot of the doors out in the world, there is nothing I can do.  They suck and that's that.  But for the doors in my apartment that I use every single day, there are options.

I got this idea from something I saw in a video by this guy.  He has done lots of really helpful YouTube videos about how he manages his paralysis; if you're recently paralyzed, you should check him out.  I was watching one of his videos, and I noticed something in the background.  He had a handle mounted to a door near the hinge that he could use to pull the door closed behind him.

One of my biggest door-related annoyances in my apartment is that whenever I leave, I have to go out, turn completely around, roll back across the threshold, grab the door handle with one hand while backing myself across the bumpy threshold with the other, trying not to hit the wheelchair with the door as I do it.  It's awkward and difficult and annoying.  If I'm taking something out with me, I have to take it off my lap since it will probably fall off my lap while I'm closing the door.

When I saw it in the video, I immediately recognized how nice it would be to have a handle on the door that I could reach from outside without rolling back in.  The guy in the video (I don't know his name) used what looked like a drawer pull for his handle, but I know he owns his house so he probably just drilled mounting holes in the door to attach the handle.  I rent an apartment, so that's not really an option for me.  Fortunately, I'm a problem solver.

 I bought a drawer pull that mounts using #6 screws inserted from behind, like this one.  The screws that came with it wouldn't work for my purposes, so I had to buy some flat head machine screws that would fit, like these.  Then I got some 1/8" x 1" aluminum bar stock to mount the handle to.  Before my injury, I could have done this myself in my garage, but I had to get a friend to do it for me.  He cut the bar about 2 inches longer than the handle.  He drilled two mounting holes in the aluminum, and countersunk them so the screw heads would sit flush.  He cleaned up the rough edges, and assembled the whole thing together.

Looks like this

Now I had a handle mounted to a plate that was perfectly flat on the back.  I use a product called Command Hooks all over my apartment to attach things to walls with adhesive stickers that are strong, but removable.  I borrowed 4 of the small command strips to mount the handle to the door.

The finished product

I put one on the front door, and one on the door to my balcony.  Now when I go out, I just have to turn slightly, grab the handle and pull.  It works ridiculously well, and when I move out of this apartment, I'll just pull the tabs on the command strips, and it will come right off.  At least that's the theory.

The one on the balcony door

What it looks like on the back

It seems like a little thing, but it really makes my life a lot better.  I smile every time I use it.

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 4: Prefo Boots

If you are paralyzed, one of the things that will happen to you is foot drop.  Since you aren't walking or standing, over time, your calves will shorten, and your feet will start to point down.  To combat this, you may sleep in a prefo boot.

My first prefo boot was given to me after my very first surgery.  It has a rigid frame, and it holds your ankle at a 90 degree angle.  In the hospital, I would wear it on one foot at a time while I was in bed to try to keep my calf stretched.

The other purpose of the boot is to keep pressure off your heel.  This became especially important for me when I got that horrible pressure sore on my right heel.  In order to get that wound to heal, I had to wear a prefo boot all the time.

What I have discovered about prefo boots is that they are not all created equal.  When I was at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, they gave me one made by DeRoyal.  This was a pretty nice boot, and much nicer than the one they gave me at UNC.  I ended up buying a second one, and using them all the time when my heel had that wound.

Later, I discovered another brand of boot that is much nicer than the DeRoyal, and I now own two of them.  If you need to use prefo boots, I strongly recommend the one made by LEEDer Group.  It has higher build quality, it seems more comfortable, and is generally more secure than any of the others I've seen.

One of my LEEDer boots

They call it the KYDEX-PRO Ambulation Boot Orthosis.  This type of boot is also known as a "heel contracture boot".  The one by LEEDer is also adjustable if the frame needs to be a slightly different shape.

Another thing I like about this particular boot is that the kick-stand is more secure than the others I've used.  These boots have an arm built into the back of the boot that can fold out to keep your foot upright when you're sleeping on your back.  I never use the arm, but on some of the other boots, the arm will flop out to the side when you don't want it to.  That's not a problem on these.  The arm snaps to the center securely, and it is hidden by the boot cover so you don't see it.  Also a unique feature of these boots.

If you have to pay for them yourself, these boots are also cheaper than the DeRoyals, and I think they're American made, but I'm too lazy to look that up.

I spent several months wearing these things against my skin at a time when I wasn't able to wash my feet, so they got pretty nasty.  I bought some spare covers for them so I can swap them out and wash the liners.  Swapping liners isn't the easiest thing in the world, but at least you can wash and/or replace every piece of fabric on them. 

They are a little bit heavier than the other prefo boots I've used, but I think that is a result of the quality.  They make it a bit more difficult to throw your legs around, but I think the tradeoff is worth it.

If I ever have to buy another prefo boot, which is doubtful because these will probably last forever, it will be from LEEDer Group.

Accident

I got an email on April 21st from Cullen, reminding me that it was the two year anniversary of my injury.  I suspect focusing on it would be unhealthy, but it never really occurred to me to do so.  It just doesn't matter that much to me, but Cullen did remind me just how far I've come in that time.  I was going to do a post about that, but I don't really feel like it.  Instead, I thought I should tell this story.

I need exercise.  I can't afford to lose what little strength and endurance I have these days, but I hate lifting weights indoors.  The weather here has been fantastic the last couple weeks, so I've been going outside to push the wheelchair around the neighborhood.

A few days ago, I had a bit of an incident.  I didn't think to take any pictures at the time, so I enlisted the help of some friends to reenact the event.

There's a nice gentle hill in the front of the neighborhood that I think offers the best workout, and the return trip goes through the parking lot behind some of the apartments.  Coming downhill toward the playground you have to go up the ramp to get back on the sidewalk.

Buddha Bear demonstrates the approach

The concrete on this particular ramp has experienced some settling since it was poured which creates a substantial lip that I have to wheelie over. I've done it many times. Usually I just slow down, lean back, and pop my front wheels up.

Like this

On this particular occasion, I was tired, and I had been getting bolder about hitting the bump with a little speed.  I popped up the front wheels a little too early, and they came back down before the bump.

Incorrect

The chair stopped dead, and I was thrown forward.  By the time I realized what was going on, my butt was still in the chair, but my hands were on the ground in front of me.

Not pictured: profanity

Then the wheelchair rolled backwards out from under me, and I crumpled to the ground.

Awkwardly

I haven't tried a floor transfer since rehab 2 years ago, and my arms were extremely tired from the exercise.  I knew I could be in trouble.

Fortunately, it was 4:30 on a Friday, and there were a bunch of people around.  Within a few seconds, several of them rushed over to help me.

Not pictured: several more people

Most of the people who came to my aid initially were smaller women.  They offered to pick me up, but I wasn't sure they'd be able to lift me.  Fortunately, after a second, a taller guy showed up.  He offered to pick me up.

Not pictured: rescuer nearly pooping his pants trying to lift me - I assume

I was back in the chair less than 2 minutes after I fell out

My pants had fallen down in the process, but as I always say, "If you're into personal dignity, spinal cord injury is probably not for you."

Once I was back in the chair, I wanted to finish my exercise, but since my pants were down, I figured it would be best to head home and check for injury.  Also fix my pants.

My apartment building is about 200 yards downhill from here, and one of my neighbors insisted on walking me home.  It wasn't necessary, but was nice just the same.

I could not find any evidence of injury except for an extremely minor scrape on one knee.

Overall, I think this was probably a good experience.  It's the first time I've legitimately fallen out of the chair, and it happened at a time when there were a bunch of people around that could help.  I learned a valuable lesson about negotiating pavement bumps, and I learned that it's probably best to exercise at times when people are around.  I also learned that I really need to learn to do floor transfers.

Special thanks to Gus, Evelyn, and Buddha Bear for their assistance in this reenactment.

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 3: Floor Mirror

The third in my series of favorite apartment mods was actually an accident.  When my friends put my dresser in my bedroom closet, the attached mirror wouldn't fit.  Not knowing what to do with it, they leaned it against the wall in my bedroom, just outside the closet.  I use it every day.

My floor mirror

When my flexibility was seriously impacted by the HO, I was unable to lean forward, and I couldn't see my feet at all.  Even in bed, I couldn't get close to them.  If I needed to see them for any reason, I had to use the floor mirror.

I really only use that mirror to check on my feet, or sometimes to look at things on the bottom of my wheelchair, but it's the only place in my apartment where I can do that.

I've used it to check on foot injuries, and I've used repeatedly with bare feet to make sure my feet are situated on the footrest such that they aren't dragging on the carpet.  That's a bigger issue than you may realize - if my toes are dragging on the carpet wrong, they could get dragged under and injured badly.

The view from in front

I used it once to figure out that something was stuck in my front caster.  It's just a nice thing to have around.

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 2: Furniture Risers

This will be a short post about a short problem.  Namely, some of my furniture was shorter than I wanted it to be.

When I first moved to this apartment, I already owned a table and a couch.  I had a lot of expenses at the time, and I didn't want to buy new furniture.

I spend a lot of time at the dining room table, and that table was just a little bit lower than I needed.  The edge of the table would scrape my thighs when I rolled under.  The simple solution was to put risers under the legs.

There are products on the market that do the same job, but Gus fabricated mine.  For the table, he used pieces of 2x4 cut square.  He then cut a piece of 1/2" plywood that fit on top.  He used a hole saw to cut a circle out of the plywood that fits around the table leg.  This keeps the leg from falling off the block.  He attached the plywood to the 2x4 with some wood screws, and spray painted the whole thing black to look nice.

One table riser

This raises the table up about and inch and a half.  Exactly what I need.

The end result

The other piece of furniture that required lifting was my couch.  The problem I had with the couch was that it was very difficult to transfer off the couch back into the wheelchair.  It was just a huge step up to do that transfer, and especially when the HO was still a problem, that just wasn't easy.

We did the same thing for the couch legs, but we used 2x6 for the base, and 2 layers of 3/4" plywood on top.  The first layer is to add extra height to the couch, and the top layer has the hole cut to make sure the leg doesn't fall off.  We used a pretty large hole saw for this one.  I think it was about 2-1/2", but any size larger than the couch leg would have been fine.  We made this one wider because it was taller, and we didn't want it to be unstable.

The couch riser

This is another modification that I take for granted, but I can't imagine living here without it.

A Few Of My Favorite Things - Part 1: Towel Holder

It's hard to believe, but I've lived in this apartment by myself for almost two years.  In that time, I have made a lot of changes that have made my life easier.  If you have visited me, you've probably seen a lot of them, but I've wanted to write about them for a long time.  This information might help somebody else one day, so I want to share it.

I'm going to do a series of posts about things that help me out on a daily basis, and I'm going to start with one that I first mentioned shortly after I moved in.

If you live in a wheelchair, and you want to wash your hands, the first thing you need to do is get close enough to the sink to reach the water.  That's not always easy.  If you're in a normal kitchen, the cabinets will probably keep you from getting very close.  When I visit Gus's house, I generally have to either pull up to the sink sideways and try to wash one hand at a time, or have somebody hold the sprayer close to the front of the sink where I can barely reach.

Fortunately, in my apartment, the cabinets under the sink have been removed so I can roll my legs up under the sink and actually reach the faucet.  That's great, but after my hands are clean, they remain wet.  How can I dry them off?  I could wipe them on my pants I suppose, but if I don't want to do that, I have to find a towel.  In a normal kitchen, there is probably a towel hanging on the stove door.  If my legs worked, I would just walk over there and grab it.

Unfortunately, my legs don't work, so I have to push my dirty wheels with my wet hands.  Now my wheels are wet, and my hands are dirty before I even get them dry.  Once dry my hands, the wheels are still wet, and my hands are going to get wet as soon as I push them again.

My solution to this problem is one that Gus came up with shortly after I moved here.

The towel holder in my kitchen

He mounted a bar just under the front edge of the sink where we can hang a towel.  When I roll under the sink, my legs hit the towel, and that would normally knock it off, so we have a mechanism that clips the towel to the bar so it won't fall off.

The mounting hardware

We used a small piece of 1" oak board to create a spacer and a place to mount the pipe bracket.  The pipe is 1/2" copper although I suspect steel would work just as well.  Copper looks nicer.

To secure the towel, we used a part from a SharkBite universal pipe fitting.  It's just the half inch disconnect clip.

Available at Home Depot

I'm sure there are other ways to solve this problem.  You could mount a hook just to the side of the sink, but this is how we solved it, and I'm extremely happy with the result.

We made the same mod in the bathroom.

Also helpful here