In many practices, the AnyHand is already an integral part of hand therapy and provides additional therapy time. In the meantime, however, there is also a growing number of patients who have the AnyHand at home and want to benefit from therapy up to 3 times a day. Romina Lotzmann is one of these patients who has trained with the AnyHand at home. In the interview, she talks about her personal experiences with the AnyHand in home use and how her hand mobility has developed with the training.
Training with the AnyHand at Romina Lotzmann's home Dear Romina, thank you for taking the time to talk about your experience with AnyHand! First of all, your history: how did your hand injury develop ?
My injury was actually caused by an everyday situation, namely when I was walking the dog. The dog suddenly took off running and I reflexively grabbed the dog leash. But I only caught the loop with two fingers and I had already injured my hand.
What exactly did your hand injury look like and how was it treated?
On the one hand, my little finger was broken and in addition I had a bony ligament tear on my left ring finger. My injuries were first treated surgically with two screws. Then my hand was immobilised with a plaster cast. Unfortunately, my little finger stiffened at a 90° angle, which meant that I could no longer move it properly after the healing phase - neither bend nor stretch it.
What happened next?
In order to restore the mobility of my stiffened joints, an arthrolysis was performed about 6 weeks after the first operation. [1] was performed on the little finger and a closed arthrolysis on the ring finger. This allowed my fingers to be fully passively extended again, but still not actively, so I can't get the little finger to extend itself. Due to the lack of movement, it tends to lock up again.
As is well known, aftercare after hand surgery always plays a very decisive role for the long-term result. What did that look like for you?
I was prescribed physiotherapy after the operations. For the first 2-3 weeks, I went to an occupational therapy practice that specialised in hand therapy every day. After that and until today, I still receive physiotherapy three times a week. Optimal aftercare was and still is very important. I noticed straight away that as soon as my affected fingers were not moved every day, I immediately felt the stiffness increase again and my mobility decreased.
How did you hear about the AnyHand?
Since I realised that regularity of training is enormously important, I looked for a way to train my fingers on a daily basis. I first heard about the AnyHand in my practice. My therapist has known about AnyHand for a long time and raved about it. Especially after my occupational therapy was cut to three times a week, I wanted to try this option to continue exercising my fingers every day.
How did it work out at home with AnyHand?
I had a training session with Pascal and Désirée on how to use AnyHand, which was very helpful and taught me everything that was relevant. Afterwards, it was easy for me to operate the device. After I had adjusted everything to my hand at the beginning, the AnyHand was always ready for daily training without any further effort.
Take us into your everyday life with the AnyHand. How do you incorporate the training into your day?
The AnyHand was very easy to integrate into my everyday life. By using it at home, I saved myself travel time, which otherwise cost me about 1 hour a day. I was free to choose when I wanted to do the training, as I didn't have to stick to any appointments. Probably the most important thing was that I could actually train every day and this regularity significantly improved my finger mobility.
What did a therapy unit look like for you?
In the 8 weeks that I used the AnyHand, I trained for between 15 and 20 minutes every day. I often took part in conference calls on the side, which was admittedly very convenient and meant I didn't have to schedule any extra time for it. I continuously adapted the training itself to my progress, so that over the course of the weeks the angle of the movement increased and my hand mobility improved more and more.
How does your hand feel now - after eight weeks of therapy with the AnyHand and how has the mobility of the impaired fingers developed?
I noticed noticeable changes in my hand relatively quickly, after about a week. So far, the AnyHand has been ideal especially for training the bending movement. Accordingly, the bending of my hand in particular has improved greatly. For the extension training of my hand, I continued to have occupational therapy three times a week. I have noticed that my end joints have become more flexible as the training has progressed and that this has also improved the overall feeling of my hand and that I can move my hand more evenly. My highlight is that I can now close my hand into a fist again, which makes it much easier to grasp things in everyday life.
Would you recommend the AnyHand?
Definitely. After 8 weeks of training with the AnyHand, I would recommend it to anyone suffering from a related injury. I would also like to see the cost of the AnyHand reimbursed by health insurance companies so that you can train with the AnyHand for longer periods of time .
In fact, the project for health insurance companies to reimburse the cost of AnyHand is currently in the planning stage, so that even more people will soon be able to benefit from it.
Thank you Romina for the exciting insight into your experiences with the AnyHand.
[1] Common surgical method in which adhesions are removed to restore movement in stiffened joints.
