Where are You Doing HBOT? Why Canada?

We are doing our care at HOC Hyperbaric Care Center in beautiful Victoria, B.C.

http://www.hyperbaric-care.com/hyperbaric_victoria.htm

Why Canada?

Well, we live in Western Washington and out of all of the array of options available, this option seems the most efficient and cost effective for our family. Also, we did not find out about Option 1, until we already had set the wheels in motion to do Canada. We may have chosen that first, but we also wanted to be under the care of someone who had experience, should Naomi experience side-effects.

What were your options?

1) Doing HBOT at home renting a machine.

Costs: $1495 to rent for a month

Plusses: What is more comfortable than at home? Makes an interesting conversation piece when stationed in the living room. Obviously the most economical choice.

Negatives: Soft-sided. Not sure if soft-sided is as efficacious.

http://www.hyperbaric4autism.com/

2) Doing HBOT at the ONE Naturopathic Clinic in the Seattle area that does HBOT.

Costs: $125/session, costs of 40 sessions ($125*40 =$5000), plus the cost of gas and the cost of time. A 1-1/2 hour session plus 2 hours of driving would seriously eat into our homeschooling time.

Plusses: Don't have to leave home for a month. The doctor seems VERY knowledgeable and nice. The atmosphere is nice too.

Negatives: From our house its a minimum of an hour each way through the worst traffic Seattle has to offer. There would be no way to do 2 treatments a day, and it would disrupt our life longer. Mom would be a basket case from driving through that traffic (mind you I am not afraid of traffic and drive to Seattle often--I once did therapy once/week for myself slightly closer to my house and quit because the traffic jambled my nerves so badly). Again, I am not a nervous person who is afraid to drive--this is a bad stretch.

Also, we have tried a type of hyperbaric chamber similar to this picture once before. I call it the "coffin" type. Naomi tried this last year. She refused to go in, unless I went in with her. As you can see from this picture, its not made for two people. Naomi and I were both very claustrophobic, and she flat out refused to go in again. Naomi is a fairly easy going child, so when she goes adamant, it usually means I should listen. (The coffin chamber we used wasn't clear all around, but looked more like a submarine with windows.

For people who live in S. Seattle, and wouldn't have far to travel, and may be adults without claustrophobic issues, I would recommend this avenue. Just Google "HBOT Seattle" and you will get to the actual website.

3) Go to Victoria, B.C. and use a hard-sided tank.

Costs: $85/treatment, exchange rate ~ .77CAD:$1US, 40 Treatment Cost: 40*85+.80 = $2720. Additional costs include traveling to and from Victoria with 4 people and a car via ferry: Round Trip = ~$170, plus gas. DH is coming up for only a short trip and then coming up to help us back, and Benj is going back for a weekend to attend a class. We need to add walk-on Clipper tickets $154 and gas from Seattle to Tswassen and Schwartz Bay to Victoria and back about 1-1/2 tanks of gas in the minivan so at today gas prices ($2.08/gallon) that is about $55. Total for Canada not including living expenses: $3100

Plusses: We get to stay with our friend, Kathleen, in a wonderful guest room in a wonderful part of Victoria. We can walk to almost every need we will have. Kathleen's house is a 10 minute drive from the clinic. Because we will be away from our house, we will have less encumbrances and be able to get more therapy, homeschooling and blogging accomplished while we are gone. It shouldn't be much more expensive than living at home, as we will have a kitchen to cook in. Victoria is a very nice place to be. It's a progressive city, and it will be fun to be in a different country for a while. Victoria is also in a rain shadow, so it should be less rainy there.

The tank is hard-sided and can accommodate up to 3 people sitting up, so it should be less claustrophobic for Naomi.

Negatives: We will miss DH, our animals and our friends!!

And that is my complete analysis! We are choosing the medium price option for this go around. If this round of HBOT is effective, we may try to do Option 1, the next time.

Do you have an HBOT story to share? Please comment away!

M&M