Hansje and her MyTobii P10

MyTobii P10 User Story

A little light in the darkness
Hansje and her MyTobii P10
A little light Since 2003, Hansje Janssen has been living
in the darkness with a rare degenerative muscular disease.
Since then, life has taken many unexpected
turns. This is her story, told in her own words.
First, I would like to give a short
introduction about who I am. My name
is Hansje Janssen, I am forty years old
and since March of 2003 I have been
suffering from a bizarre progressive muscle
illness. The symptoms started just ten
days after I gave birth to my beautiful son.
Since the beginning, my illness has been
hard to diagnose. It has also developed
in ways that were not expected. This
makes the future very uncertain, which
is very unpleasant. The doctor gave me,
maximum, one year to live in April 2004.
As of now, I am living through things which,
by far, I didn’t expect to live through.
Until the birth of my son I worked as a
physical therapist \ chiropractor with three
employees and my own practice. Beside
that I had played field hockey for 15 years at
the highest level. To that “rich” life, together
with its most beautiful moment (the birth of
my son), came a brutal ending!
Since recently, though, there has been a
little light in the darkness. The MyTobii came
into my life.
I was surfing on the internet and I
accidentally “bumped into” the MyTobii.
Until that time I had used a head mouse for
communication. But after starting to use the
MyTobii, I started feeling as if I was liberated;
a feeling I still have.
If you can’t talk, you are captured within
your own body. I once described it as
feeling this way: It feels continually as if
your head is a high pressure pot, filled with
thoughts, opinions, emotions and feelings,
at the point of exploding. Now with the
MyTobii everything can come out!

With the head mouse I had only used the

most necessary words. I forced myself to
say the most I could with as few words as
possible. Now I am able to type the whole
day, in a comfortable position, without
getting tired. In my own family the biggest
change is (actually, for the first time) that I
can talk with my son!!! I cannot describe
with words what that means to me.

When all my typing-time is not only spent

on the most necessary communication,
I can participate almost normally in my
family life. I can help with raising our son.
It is not only my partner who has to be the
boogey-man, because now we raise him
together, sharing the good and the bad
things.
We can have family conversations again,
and I can have normal conversations with
my partner. We now realize that eighty
percent of our arguments were because
of communication difficulties. It is very
pleasant to be able talk extensively to one
and other about our days. We can now
easily discuss about how we are going to
deal with the things that come our way, as
well as all the things that “normal” couples
talk about.
Beside all of that, and because I can
communicate faster than I have ever been
“Tobii is Mum’s
able to with a head mouse, I have the time best friend!!”
to take a large part in the organizational
work involving my family. The organization
of the nurses who come every day to help,
the financial administration of the nurses
and the others who help me and a large
part of the private administration; lists for
groceries, email contact with all kinds
of institutions, the schooling of my son,
internet banking and so on. In all of this I
can now support my partner, who is very
busy, as you can imagine.
Despite all of my activities that I described
above, I am still able to intensify contact
with family and friends through email and
chat. The text message function could
contribute to this, but unfortunately it
does not work just yet. I can work with the
MyTobii in any relaxed position I choose,
and I can actually look people in the eyes
again while talking to them.
Hansje and her MyTobii P10

Even with reading glasses, which I really The company that made the MyTobii has

Tobii_Hansje_Case_2009-10-29_US
need nowadays, the MyTobii functions now developed a portable communications
very well. It is advisable, however, to buy device. This would make it even better;
glasses with lenses that curve as little as to be able to go anywhere, to be able to use
possible to minimize reflection. the MyTobii, or the new device, anywhere,
because it has a battery.
The latest improvement is a mounting
system for the MyTobii for my wheelchair. I hope that what I have written above
That is another big step, because the inspires you to inform and advise others
contrast between being with, and being about how the MyTobii can help anyone in
without, the MyTobii had become very big. my type of situation to have an enormous
Now, for the first time in four and a half improvement in their quality of life.
years, I think, I am able to talk while we are
visiting friends or family. I can participate in As my son says, “Tobii is Mum’s best
conversations and discussions. I can make friend!!”
jokes again! That, by itself, is amazing;
people laugh with me again!! It is no longer
only me laughing within my head about my
own jokes. So, being free to get out and go
somewhere else, like I used to, gives me
much more joy then I had before.

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