Episode Transcript:

Christina: Hello everyone, this is Christina Chartrand and David Chandler, and we're so glad for you to join us on another episode of Life Conversations.

David: Happy New Year, Christina. This is our first episode of 2024.

Christina: I know and happy new year to you. I love the beginning of the year cause I feel like it's like a restart button and you can take all those things that you've been meaning to do, you know, in the past year and you can put them on a brand new list and it feels fresh and I'm always like ready to go. It's very exciting.

David: Yeah. It's funny going to the gym this week is like, Oh my gosh, it's so crap. So best of luck to everyone with your 2024 resolution. Stick with it. You can do it.

Christina: Yes, stick with it. Stick with it. Yeah, so, oh, I told you, so I don't think I told you this, David. So I, this year, instead of making a New Year's resolution, I just picked a word that would describe my year. And my year, my word for the year is balance.

David: That's a good one. And we talked about that. How are you, what are some of the ways that you're looking to accomplish balance this year?

Christina: Balance. So it's more of just saying no to some things that you know, because I have a tendency to over schedule. I am also making sure that I'm fitting not being hard on myself with exercise, but it's not just about it's eating well, it's going for a walk, it's decompressing, it's finding time for me. So between my hectic busy schedule, that is my goal. And so far, what we're only what two weeks in?

David: Doing well so far. Very good. And interestingly, along with balance that could take us into our topic for today's podcast, and we're going to be talking about, uh, walkers and some tips for our loved ones, our seniors that use walkers, some different styles of walkers, Walker safety tip and keeping ourselves, keeping our seniors upright and balanced as we go into 2024.

Christina: Oh my gosh. Yeah. This is a really great topic. Cause I just feel like it's one of the first devices that I think families think about when their loved one is having any balance or some mobility issues. Oh, they just need, need a walker. And I think for the most part, nobody knows what to do or even if I didn't even know after, you know, now I know now, but I didn't know there was an actual proper fit. I mean, I get the height thing, but I didn't even realize that there's actual proper fit for a walker.

David: Yeah, there's actually a lot that goes into walkers that not just proper fit, but where you stand in relation to the walker, many different types of walkers. So I know even as a, as a registered nurse, this is one of the, they don't teach you this in nursing school. They don't teach you about all the different types of walkers and different types of, of canes and what you're supposed to be doing and how exactly how you use it. Now that's a physical therapist or a therapist more related role, but I have learned so much in the last couple of years about walker safety and very excited to share these things with our listeners today.

Christina: Well, good. Well, let's first talk about walker styles because I definitely have seen out there like the fancy Rollator with the different colors the blue the silver the white the red Um, and they've you know, they're super fancy and then they're like the older looking ones You know the ones that are just for you know, you know the old style just the regular ones You know, I always feel like people want the fancier ones.

David: Yeah. And so at senior helpers, our general recommendation when it comes to a style of walker is to go for more of that traditional standard style walker. Now, when we talk about standard walkers, we're talking about that foldable, usually it's aluminum, and we really like the two-wheeled style. So if you hear somebody talking about a standard walker, A lot of times what they're referring to is that walker that doesn't have any wheels. It's four rubber bottom at the four prongs at the bottom, four legs, if you will. And we really like the ones that have the wheels on the front. So to a standard two wheeled walker is what we recommend generally.

Christina: And the wheels can go on either side, right? So what would you recommend then?

David: So a lot of times when you get a walker from the manufacturer, from the DME supply company, wherever you're ordering the walker from, the wheels when you get them are gonna be turned to the outside. And one of the things that we like to recommend is turning those wheels to the inside. It can actually give the user some additional clearance, usually about three to four inches of additional clearance.

When they're navigating through halls or doorways. And so instead of needing to do the little walker dance, trying to get through into the bathroom, yeah, putting the walker in first, then stepping in, turning around, getting your body in through the doorway and then pulling your walker back with you. We really want to try to avoid that. So when you get your walker, turning those front wheels to the inside can give you some more of that additional clearance so you don't have to do the walker dance.

Christina: Yeah, or just leaving the walker outside of a room, which, you know, then you're holding on to things, you know, which we've seen before as well. So David, tell me about, well, let's first talk about the tennis ball. And then I really wanna understand the role later and why you're saying no. So I'm bringing up the tennis balls. Why am I bringing up tennis balls?

David: Oh, I have so many stories about tennis balls. And when I, when I was first getting to know and learn about life profile and where and getting introduced with senior helpers, I actually went through and senior helpers taught me about this. We went through and we flipped over about 50 walkers that had tennis balls on the backs of them. And I would say about 80% of those walkers, just the tennis balls were on there as decoration.

And you could take that tennis ball and just slide it up and down the back of those legs. And what's, what's dangerous about that is that those tennis balls can wear out at different rates. If you have somebody that favors want their right or their left side or the tennis ball, just for whatever reason, it's, it's wearing out at a different rate. Uh, it can become dangerous for that senior.

Christina: And they can catch.

David: It can catch, right! Especially as you're going over thresholds, as you're going from, if you're transitioning from a carpet to a wood floor or linoleum, that can catch there. And if you have one leg that has a tennis ball, it glides right over and the other one has that rubber on the bottom, then it can catch and you can have a fall. It's a very avoidable fall, but it can catch and you can have that fall.

And one of the things I think about is I was at a community one time and we were talking with them about how to improve a senior living community and we were talking with them about how they could help improve their resident safety and we were talking about tennis balls and why it's a good idea to instead of using tennis balls put walker skis on the back of their walker.

And so I see the, the executive director that I'm meeting with, I see her looking over my shoulder and I turn around and I'm like, what, what are you looking at? She said, well, it's, it's tennis ball day. And I hate tennis ball day because it's the day that all the residents come and we replace the tennis balls on the backs of their walkers, but my staff always cut their hands trying to cut the holes in the tennis balls.

Christina: Oh my gosh.

David: And so not only did you have a hazard with the resident to their tennis balls were wearing out, but also the staff were cutting their hands. So anybody listening at home, you may have done that, been through that before. It's not easy to cut a tennis ball. It is not easy. No.

Christina: Yeah, it's not easy to cut a tennis ball. Oh, and you know what, David, I have seen them being sold on Amazon. You can actually go on Amazon and buy a tennis ball that's been sliced for a walker. Somebody's making a profit off of this.

David: Yeah, yeah, bad idea, bad idea. Avoid that altogether and just go buy some walker skis. Walker skis, they're hard plastic, they glide over whatever thresholds you're going over. You don't need to worry about them wearing out and consistently replacing them. So that's a much better idea, just of whether or not expensive, you can also buy those on Amazon and they're much safer for using with walkers.

Christina: Yeah, for sure. So let's talk about that rollator, the fancy one. So tell me, you know, and I've seen them, people like put all their stuff on them, right? So they're, you know, especially when you go into a lot of senior communities and they're, you know, going down to the dining room for lunch or dinner, and they're all have their rollators and they have all their things on it. So what's the problem with that?

David: Yeah, so while we do recommend generally that standard two-wheeled walker, there is a time and a place for rollators. And the time and the place for that is for seniors that aren't relying on them for balance. If you're leaning forward, putting your weight on that rollator, it has a much higher chance with four wheels of rolling out from under you. And you can land right on your face.

I've seen it way too many times where people are using this as a balanced stability device. It's really more of a guide and it's also there to help with if you're going on a walk, you're going on exercise, then you do it. It is very nice. It's a nice feature to be able to sit down as long as you're able to properly use the brakes. We don't want to be giving a four wheel device to someone that is not able to safely lock it before trying to sit down on it.

Christina: Yeah, you know, one time I was having doing physical therapy actually for myself and I was sitting next to an older woman who was with right next to her physical therapist and had a rollator right there and she was transferring so she was going from a sitting position to a standing position and even with somebody right there she didn't have the brakes on and she stood up and she started going now there was somebody there to help her out.

It just shows how quickly it can happen and how quick that happened just, and thank goodness that her physical therapist was right there, somebody was right there to catch her. You know, it's just so easy not to remember to make sure those breaks are locked.

David: Yeah. So, and Christina, I want to ask you about, there's a couple of stories that I can think about as well, but what are some other, are there any other safety features on like a standard walker that you can think of when it comes to hands-free or helping people to keep their ability to hold on to their walker?

Christina: Yeah, so I think there's a couple things that I like to think about, and this is something that I've learned along the way, is that first we wanna make sure it's fitted properly. And so not just having one from somebody's garage to give you to someone, but to make sure that a physical therapist has really taken a look at and make sure it's the proper height and the proper width, and also has gone through with the person to make sure that they know how to use it properly.

I've seen so many times where people are walking and they're holding their walker up like this, you know, and bouncing it around like this versus really using properly. But I always want to, always people, because everyone wants to have their things with them, and I totally get that, is to make sure that you have a walker basket. And having a walker basket that's big enough to put all of your things, your purse, your phone, your notes, your book, whatever those things are, are really important to make sure that you have those things with you. I think one of the things where I've seen accidents happen is that you're putting too much or you're trying to hold it and hold a drink at the same time and how unsafe that is.

So it's really helping not only the person who knows how to use the walker and understand what it's the use for, but the people, there's the spouse, the family members, the caregiver, whoever else is in that home, is to understand what that walker is for and to really help support that person. So if they want a drink, which they should go be able to get a drink, is made then to bring the drink to them. It's just the small little things that I think people forget.

David: Absolutely!

Christina: So tell me, are they expensive?

David: The Walker baskets?

Christina: Or just in general, walker, is it expensive?

David: No, they're not expensive. And in fact, you can, sometimes your insurance will also pay for walkers. So if you're on Medicare, you have private health insurance, you can actually use FSA flexible spending account or health, HSA health savings accounts for towards the purchase of walkers. So those are covered under those funds.

And you can use insurance to buy walkers. Now, what I would recommend in those scenarios is that you check and confirm with your insurance provider prior to going out and purchasing the walker to see what are some of the requirements, do you need a physician order in order to qualify for that walker?

Because there's a lot of, even some long-term care insurance plans will cover a walker, but you want to make sure that you have that order from your physician or whatever your insurance provider says you need prior to purchasing that walker.

Christina: Yeah. So what about people who are traveling? Like if they're traveling, they're flying, or going on any type of trip. I mean, some people, these aren't walkers at home because they figure out they can't bring them with them. What's important to think about?

David: Yeah. So there are some features of walkers that make them much easier while you're traveling. And just to, one of the walkers that I think of is one that we recommend often. It's about $50 and it's lightweight aluminum. It's foldable. It comes with a carrying bag. So if you need to put it in a luggage or anything like that, you can fold it up. 

Now another great feature is, so one, looking at something that's lightweight. Two, looking at something that doesn't require any tools. So you can disassemble, you can reassemble whatever you need to do that doesn't require any tools. There are even some walkers out there that, I saw one the other day that folded up to like the size of an umbrella. It was kind of crazy that you had this full walker that kind of folded into the shape.

Christina: Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

David: Yeah, just like carrying an umbrella when you're coming out of the rain, just fold it up real tiny. And that Walker would hold up to like 700 pounds. I couldn't believe it. So yeah.

Christina: You know, one of the last things I was just thinking about, David, is that so many times we see people that are reluctant to use a walker, that they feel like, you know, that they look old and, you know, that they don't want to feel that way in front of other people. But I think we'd have to, I think that's one of the reasons the Rolators came up with all the different colors, right? And it's kind of the same thing.

I think we should come up with some different colors on the standard walker because they're so important, they're so valuable in helping people reducing falls because we know about falls in our business. You know, one of the biggest things we know about falls is that most the time it ends up in a hospitalization and that's what we really try to avoid is obviously our seniors going to the hospital.

David: Yeah. And there are some that are coming out now that specific Walker that I was looking at the other day, it's a Walker called the easy fold and go by standard. And actually it does. That one is one of the few that I've seen that comes in like seven different colors. So and it folds up. I know it folds up to the almost like the size of an umbrella. I just I couldn't believe how well it folded. It's very lightweight. But then you can also you can customize them.

Christina: I love it.

David: So I've seen a lot of people that will on their walker baskets, they'll put little decorations or designs or they'll put tape and wrap them around the legs of the walker.

Christina: I think it's important and I get that. It's like when you see compression stockings now, don't have to be white compression stockings, but now they're like decorated with all kinds of, little bears and little things all over and really cool designs, which I think is important. And so I'm really glad that we're beginning to see this industry begin to really step up a little bit. And for me, like my fashion, I would wanna make sure my walker was stylish.

David: I'd have mine decorated in Raven's colors since...

Christina: Of course, me too. All of our viewers now realize we are Ravens fans. We're getting excited about the playoffs. Yeah, very exciting. Well, this was awesome. This was a great topic. Um, I hope this was helpful to our listeners.

David: Hehehe. Yes, go Raven. We are very excited for the playoffs. And absolutely! We'll look forward to everyone joining us for our next episode where we're going to be talking a little bit about the burden of care that our families may feel as they're caring for their loved ones and offering some strategies for how to how you can approach that. So looking forward to our next episode as well.

Christina: All right, until then, thank you so much.