2007:

In 2006 I finally got the definitive answer about HBOT that I had been looking for to determine if it was worth the time and cost. In Chemistry there is something called “Bohr’s Effect”, which says that the amount of oxygen dissolved in a solution is directly related to the amount of voltage in a solution. Therefore, if a person has low voltage, according to Bohr’s Effect, they are necessarily low oxygen as well.

This convicted us enough to finally purchase a chamber for use at home.

It does not go to quite the pressure of the commercial chambers we had been using, but the ability to use it daily more than makes up for the difference.

Abbie goes in for one hour daily, when she is healthy. The major reason we skip a session is congestion/secretions. With consistent usage we note improvements in her muscle tone as well as vision.

I must confess that we bought this chamber on Ebay, which turned out to be a minor ordeal. But, if you are interested in one, just do your homework to determine what the quality chambers are, and then keep checking back periodically.

2005:

When Abbie was laying in the PICU, pretty early on, her neurologist brought me several copies of “Exception Parent” magazine. I still couldn’t absorb that Abbie had become exceptional in ways I’d never hoped for. As I thumbed through them I saw ads for hyperbaric oxygen therapy, many of which stated that they were seeing results in kids with CP. I recall asking several physicians, “Is there something to this, or is this voodoo medicine?” Most people are familiar with HBOT because it is used for divers with “the bends”. The patient spends time in a pressurized chamber receiving 100% oxygen.

Soon after we saw the ads we found out that one of Ray’s older physicians had been involved with HBOT for years, treating divers, burns and infections. His response when Ray brought up Abbie’s case was, “I knew this question would come eventually.”

A couple weeks later two kind gentlemen from the University of Hawaii visited us in Abbie’s room. They ran the UH HBOT chambers and came to explain the therapy to us, and explore whether this may be right for Abbie. There was some question about how much it would help since it had already been seven weeks since her accident. Because she was still an inpatient, HBOT therapy would’ve required an ambulance ride to the chamber and back, which wasn’t feasible, so we delayed.

Abbie was only home for a couple weeks and then she was admitted to the Rehab Hospital of the Pacific. The physiatrist in charge of her case did not want her leaving the facility for HBOT, so we delayed again.

Finally, in November 2004 we began a 40-dive course of therapy for Abbie. It cost almost $6000 for us to pursue this, and it was also a large commitment of time. I went in the chamber with Abbie each day, and held a mask over her face as best I could. Because she still had a tracheostomy device at that time it was impossible to get a good seal on the mask.

The improvements we noted were that the left side of her face normalized somewhat (it had looked like the face of a stroke victim because she had a late-onset brain swell), and her tone decreased a little bit. We did not see the drastic improvements we had hoped for and read about. So, after that first course was complete we did not go back.

Now that Abbie is in such a different place, I will admit part of me is curious about what some more dives may do for her. We may take her diving again, but because of the investment of time and money it requires, and the fact that we are seeing much bigger impacts from the Biomodulator, her supplements and diet, I’m not sure we’ll do this soon.

Below is a link I found that has lots of information about HBOT, if you are interested.

miraclemountain.homestead.com/HBOTManual.html