Bye, Bye Chamber and Other Stuff

Hello, everyone. It feels like forever since I've posted. I hope I didn't lose my following. Hehe. :o)
Well, I haven't posted mostly because I've been pretty sick. I got a bad throat and ear infection last week and it took a lot out of me. I ended up cancelling my patients on Tuesday and rested as much as possible last week to allow the antibiotics to do their thing (as per the doc's orders!) My doctor wants me to see an ENT to determine what is wrong with my ear and why it never quite heals. So, that is in the near future. I feel much better now, but there is still infection in my ear and throat (Dr. Linsk checked it out for me.) But, I still have a week of antibiotics left, so I pray they knock this thing out of my body!

So, after much discussion with Dr. Linsk, we had him come pick up the chamber. It was hard to do as we were just starting to see some positive changes in Ben. However, Dr. Linsk was worried about my ear and what I may be doing to it. So, he convinced me that we can do another round in a few months. He told me that the kids are not suppose to lose what they gain from HBOT, so theoretically, we will not have to start from scratch the next time around. And, as he pointed out, if Ben does lose what he has gained, would we really want to spend the time and money on it again??? Probably not! I appreciated Dr. Linsk's honesty and concern for our situation. He had the chamber available and could have easily "sold us" on it.

Anyway, some of the changes we had just started to see in Ben include: better attentiveness to people, more spontaneous verbalization and signing, sleeping better, less illness, etc. Other than being sick less, Dr. Linsk said these are the same kinds of things other parents have reported and around the same point in treatment (we did 55 sessions...max benefit is usually around 80-100.) But, as Dr. Linsk pointed out, there is no way to be 100% sure that HBOT is responsible for the changes. So, we will wait and see how we feel about it in a few months. If we do decide to do another round, we may buy a used chamber instead of renting again. They have a great resale value, so it may end up being much cheaper to do that. Then we can take our time getting the treatments in and won't feel as though we have to do as many as possible each week. Dr. L. is pretty knowledgeable about the different brands available and said he would help us find a good one if that is what we chose to do. Again, he has been great through all this!

Well, enough HBOT talk. I need to go get little man up for school. I hope all is well with each of you!! I'll write more soon...

Love,
Julie