During this past month, when love was in the air, did you know why the same finger always get the ultimate prize of any love story?

Our forefathers chose this finger to get that precious ring and named it ‘The ring finger’ probably for a reason! This finger has the only vein in our body which is exclusive and one of a kind. ‘Vena Amoris’, the vein, travels straight from fingertip to the heart.

No wonder any contact with the ring finger, especially with a diamond ring is sure to reverberate in our hearts!

There’s much more to our hands than eyes can see and there’s much more treasure and responsibility riding under(!) our hands than we know.

One of the major differences between us –the human beings and the monkeys—is our hands. We have that mighty opposable thumb which apes, and other mammals do not have, except for Koala Bears and few chimpanzees.

Strange!

Our thumb is an anatomical wonder and can move and rotate in all directions independently. The joint at the base of our thumb is amazing. This Carpo-Meta-Carpal (CMC) joint is powered by 9 different muscles and controlled by 3 separate nerves. This kind of coordination and collaboration does not happen in any other part of our body.

Thumb can also summon our Ring and Pinky fingers to rotate and come close for that intricate dance needed to perform artistic and fine motor activities. This is also unique for human beings.

Our thumb’s importance is underestimated by many who either break or even worst, lose their thumbs in accidents. Julius Caesar used to order amputation of thumbs of all POW’s and slaves so that they will not be able handle any firearm. Isaac Newton once quoted “In the absence of any proof, the thumb alone can convince me the presence of god’s existence”, which gives our thumbs the ‘scientific’ seal of approval!

Do you know that there are 27 bones in our hand forming 29 joints, which are held tightly by 123 ligaments? giving us the ability and agility to move the hand in infinite directions required in our daily personal and occupational life. All these bones gliding through all these joints are pulled constantly by 34 muscles in all directions, to keep our hand functions and productivity level at the highest, in all stages of our life. These 34 muscles are fed by 30 arteries providing as much oxygen as needed to finish any job at hand, no matter how complicated, easy or hard!

There is no muscle in our fingers. Only tendons make the fingers move and dance to the tune of our brain! It’s probably the greatest puppet show you have ever seen! These tendons however, are so strong that you can hang on to a cliff, if your life is on the line!

One fourth of our cerebral cortex (brain) is devoted to hand. That tells us that our creator thought about our hands very seriously.

Our fingerprints are unique to each one of us individually, just like our DNA strands. The ridges on the fingertip is just a part of evolution and layers of skin, just like a soft serve swirl.

Mark Twain published few articles about the importance of fingerprints for ID purposes in 1890 and 1892. He was not believed however, because Bertillon identification system was in place at the time! That system had many flaws and wasn’t 100% accurate as it was getting the same score for two different individuals.

The forensic society eventually adopted fingerprints as a standard identification method in 1901. Since then, it has become a gold standard in identification purposes and for forensic science worldwide. Almost everyone has unique fingerprints except for those suffering from a condition called “Adermoglyphia”. These people are born with flat fingertips causing a nightmare for immigration officials!

The specialty ‘Hand Surgery’ was born out of world war II, when hand injuries presented a serious challenge to all the surgeons. Dr. Sterling Bunnell, in 1944 started creating special groups of surgeons receiving extra training in hand surgery to improve expertise and to get better results.

After this was accomplished, the next difficult challenge was to regain range of motion and hand functions after the complex hand surgeries. Physical and Occupational Therapists faced the same challenge of getting good results.

Specialization in hand therapy was initiated in early 90’s, combining the expertise, principle and practices of both physical and occupational therapy to get better results with hand injury patients. 5 years of experience and many hours of manual work on hand injury patients qualified any licensed OT or PT to take the board examination conducted by Hand Therapy Certification Commission.

CHT’s came in to existence upon meeting all these requirements in 1991. Certified Hand Therapists know how to use all available avenues including Physical Agent Modalities (PAM’s), a part of Physical Therapy and custom static and/or dynamic splinting which is a part of Occupational Therapy, along with manual therapy techniques and ADL’s or activities of daily living, which is all crucial for hand rehabilitation.

We are “Certified Hand therapists”, at Able Hands Rehabilitation PC., and have successfully and flawlessly treated hundreds of hand trauma patients for last 25 years. We have offices in Old Bridge, Freehold and Edison areas and proud to be one of the best facilities for hand rehabilitation in Monmouth and Middlesex counties which is trusted by all hand surgeons in our area. “infinite striving to be the best is every man’s duty, it’s in his own hands!

Everything else is in god’s hand” quoted by Mahatma Gandhi.

Hands are for loving and not killing, hands are for sharing and not for stealing, hands are for caring and not for assaulting, hands are for working and not for use in substance abuse. Hands are for protecting and defending yourself but not for attacking someone for no reason!

Hands can defend but can also reach out and make a friend!

Our interest in hand rehabilitation evolved with the Samra plastic, re-constructive and hand surgery group, based in Old Bridge and Holmdel.

Dr. Said Samra was the one of the pioneer and most active Hand Surgeon in early 1990’s in this area and cared very much for the results of all the complicated surgeries he performed. His continued and unwavering trust in us was a major factor driving us to gain the experience and knowledge to meet his standards and become one of the best hand therapy practices.

Take your hands health very seriously. Any pain or stiffness (inability to bend or straighten any digit fully), tingling, numbness must be evaluated by a specialist Hand Surgeon for correct diagnosis. Any delay will result in a domino effect of different problems cropping out of a simple problem.

Let us all have healthy hands and be more productive in everything that we do! We will always be here to help you achieve that goal.

For info. “www.ablehandsrehab.com” / for appointments (732) 727-7333.

Able Hands Rehabilitation PC. Shirish Godbole MS, OTR, CHT.
Minette C. Godbole OTR, CHT. Chaya Schachter OTR, CHT.
Mahalia Ong OTR,