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

A Week With Emily

My friend, Emily, likes to spend her vacations down here, and she was here most of last week.  I don't know why.  Something about the weather in Syracuse.  Anyway, we had a good time, and got a lot of stuff done.  Here's a recap.

Emily landed Monday afternoon, and Tuesday, she drove me to Chapel Hill for some doctor appointments.  I had one at 10 and another at 3:30, so we had most of the middle of the day to kill.  We used the time to go to the mall and shop for shoes and pants for me.  I wanted to take advantage of my new flexibility by trying to locate some shoes that will fit on my giant swollen feet.  Emily suggested we try Vans skate shoes.  We went and worked with Tyler, who was super friendly and knowledgeable, and it turns out they have a model that fits me wonderfully.

Using my new flexitude

 s

Working with Tyler was fun

Then we went to Macy's to shop for pants.  We found a couple things that I think will work and brought them home for the fashion show.

Khaki cargo pants with gray Vans

Green cargo pants

Levis jeans with socks and protruding tongue

Of the pants we bought, the khakis are the best.  They are easiest to get on, fit the best, and have a draw string I can tie that keeps them up.  They green ones fit pretty well, but I haven't figured out the jeans yet.  I can't seem to get them all the way on by myself, and once on, they fall down as soon as I move.  A belt might help, but will also further complicate getting them on.  More experimentation is needed.  It doesn't help that I have to buy enormous waist sizes to fit over my huge belly.

I wore the khakis and shoes out in public a few times this week, and it was really nice.  Just psychologically, it feels good to dress like a normal person.  I feel like Pinocchio when he turned into a real boy.  I do still worry somewhat about pressure issues, possibly related to the fit of the shoes, so I'm keeping a close eye on my feet for now, but in general, I'm delighted with my purchases.

We got some other stuff done too.  I have wanted to get a decent table for my balcony for some time, and we were able to go shop for one of those.

 

We used it to enjoy the spectacular weather last week

Thinking about how much I like my new table

Emily also cleaned the heck out of my apartment. My microwave and toilet have never been this clean, but we also had a lot of fun. We ate a lot of really good food at the restaurants around here. I think I put on quite a bit of weight.

Trali Irish Pub right in front of my building

 The other thing we did was go to a comedy show at Goodnight's in Raleigh.  We went Thursday night to see Nick Thune.  Because it was Thursday, there was hardly anyone there, but it was still fun, and I think it was the first time I've been to any sort of event like that since my injury.  I didn't get any pictures, but it was a good time.

It was a really good week, both productive and fun, and I'm sad it's over.