Manual Wheelchairs

To open wheelchair – place hands on the seat rails and push down with both hands.

To close wheelchair - grab the upholstery at center, front, and back of seat and pull up.

To adjust length of leg rests - loosen the nut by the foot plate, adjust, and retighten. Always make this adjustment with the patient’s leg in the elevated position.

To clean wheelchair – wipe with clean damp cloth.

To transport wheelchair – lock wheels, remove foot/leg rests, grab front of frame and rear wheels, and lift carefully.

Walkers

Put on the shoes you will be wearing when you use the walker. Stand up straight with your feet close together, relax your shoulders, and put the walker in front and partially around you. Place your hands at your sides. The tops of the hand grips should be at the crease of your wrists, if not, adjust the height of the walker by pushing in the buttons on each of the legs and sliding the tube up or down, as appropriate. Make certain the buttons lock back into place and all the legs are adjusted to the same height. Take a few practice steps with the walker to ensure that you can move the walker without bending over.

Setting up your equipment

• Check your equipment to make sure you have all accessories that were ordered for you. If you are missing anything, contact your equipment provider immediately.
• Adjust telescoping legs to fit your height. A 30° bend in the elbow is desirable, which will place the handgrips slightly above your wrists (if the arm was straight at your side).

Canes

Stand with the tip of the cane 4 inches to the outside of your foot. The cane should extend from the floor to your hip joint. When holding the cane, your elbow should be flexed at a 30-degree angle. If the cane is made of aluminum, adjust it by pushing in the metal button on the shaft and raising or lowering the shaft to the appropriate height. If the cane is made of wood, the length can be adjusted shorter by removing the rubber tip and sawing off any excess wood, then replacing the rubber tip. Setting up your equipment

When properly adjusted, your cane should allow the elbow to bend slightly. A 30° angle is preferable.

You may also have the following accessories:

1 Hand/Wrist strap
2 Cane Parker
3 Snow boot or ice pick cane tip

Crutches

When climbing stairs with railing

• Both crutches under one arm or one crutch under the arm and the other hand on armrest to help push off
• When ascending, push on crutches and step upwith the “strong leg”. Bring the “weaker leg” up
• Bring crutches up last

When climbing stairs with no railing, use directions above.

When descending stairs

• Bring both crutches and feet to the edge of step
• Lower crutches to middle of next step
• Lower weaker leg
• Step down with stronger leg

Enteral Nutrition

Setting up your equipment

In Home Use

• Fill bag and hang on IV Pole
• Attach tubing to pump
• Pump should be set to “Off” before plugging into electrical outlet
• Plug in Input 120V, 60Hz, 200mA

Ambulatory

• Check for battery charge
• Fill bag
• Attach to pump
• Place into ambulatory bag