Hbot Day 3

Maybe I jinxed myself. Yesterday I mentioned how well Nathan was doing with his Hbot. Because today, it was a total disaster.

We put Nathan in the chamber – as usual. Everything was the same. Then about 15 min’s later Kathie, Nathan’s nurse, went to find me to tell me Nathan was really upset and screaming in the chamber, so they pulled him out. I asked them to try again, but it was the same thing – after a few minutes, he started screaming bloody murder. We didn’t know what to think of it, so I took him to the RV and he took a nice long nap. We thought maybe that was it – he was just tired.

So after lunch and his nap, he went for his suit therapy. He was happy as can be! I was shocked to hear that he hardly cried during the 2 hours of suit therapy! He’s supposed to do 4 hours every day, but because of the crying incident, we allowed him to sleep and he only had 2 hours of therapy. As you can see, he’s happy as can be:

After suit therapy he had a snack, some water, and it was time for another attempt at HBOT. He was happy at first:

But about 15 minutes into the dive, he started screaming again. It wasn’t an annoyed cry, it was an blood curling, agonizing scream. So we depressurized, pulled him out, gave him water and hugs, tried again – same outcome. At that point we gave up for the day.

This is one of those times I really wish he could talk, so he could tell me what hurts.

So I decided to drive home to take him to his doctor in the AM, so we can at least rule out ear or sinus infection. If those are negative, then we’ll head back down and simply try again.

I’m “melt into a puddle” kind of exhausted, and gonna have an early night. At least I get to sleep in my bed tonight! Sweet dreams!

Comments

  1. I was going to suggest ears or sinuses–our kids aren’t complainers so sometimes that stuff can fly under the radar.

  2. Sally Fraley says

    so praying– he looks like a BOY not a baby in these pix.

  3. If it’s not his ears or sinuses, is there a correlation between the pressure and the crying? Like, at 15 min. he finally reached full pressure and then the screaming started? Maybe if there is a correlation you could do the pressure a little lower or ramp up over a longer period of time.

  4. maybe try mild hyperbarics

  5. i feel your pain. Miles screamed for 40 hrs of HBOT. .. maybe more like 20 hrs because the second dive of the day he would usually fall asleep. Our therapist/ operator (what are they called?) said that he was probably getting more oxygen by screaming.. Not that that makes it any easier. It was awful. For him it was the hood – he hated having that over his head. He was fine going down & coming up so I knew the crying was not because of pain. Is Nathan drinking or sucking on a pacifier or lollipop? That helps with the pressure.

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