The Last Post

I have been waiting to get all of the exact measurement data to write this last post, but alas, have misplaced some of the data.

Here is what we gained over one month of HBOT Therapy:

Naomi: Her affected foot grew 1/2" in that month (wowsers!). Her left foot not at all.
She gained several degrees for passive and active dorsal flexion in her right foot.
Naomi's ability to write a coherent/sequential sentence improved.

A month after HBOT, Naomi continues more bilateral use of her right hand, AND, sometimes reaches for objects with her right hand. I believe that she would have been a righty had she not had the stroke.

Other gains that we have listed before, increased active suppination, improved skin on her right arm and hand, and her scar on her right ankle almost diappeared.

I believe that while we didn't get all of the gains we had hoped for (independent finger movement and more use of the wrist), overall the therapy was worth the time and money.

Mom Gains: After having tendonitis in my foot for over a year, I have been painfree for almost 3 months now. I am still amazed.

We would definitely recommend HBOT to other people with stroke and brain injuries.

Good-night and Good Bye!

Dive 38: A Major Breakthrough to report!!!

Here is Naomi putting sugar into her hot chocolate with her RIGHT (affected hand) and using suppination to do it!!

That's almost 90 degrees of suppination. To be fair, she was engaging other muscles to help as well (bad posture at shoulder), BUT she has never done this action before, nor on her own, nor with so little other muscle involvement!! WOWEE, ZOWEE!!! Independent finger movement---here we come!!!

This morning Naomi had an extra long HBOT session (2 hours) at depth. I think all of our successive HBOT treatments are having a positive affect. I wish we had been able to do more therapy. Naomi does small amounts of therapy every dive, and we do small amounts of therapy inbetween dives. For instance, we played Trouble (hard to do) with Righty twice, and she did a round of Sun Salutation exercises. However, at age 10, there are limits that she imposes as to how much she will do.

I am totally stoked. Because Andrew was nice enough to let us do an extra dive on SUnday, we will actually (weather permitting) be able to leave slightly early tomorrow, Hurray!!!

We are all eager to complete our last two dives!!!

Update on Skinny

Skinny-the-wolf-dog ran away from the HOC this morning. He broke out through and open window. My guess is that he went for the hospital to find Bob. The hospital is several miles away. I want to go look for him, but we already got majorly stuck in snow this morning, and I am afraid to get stuck again.

We miss you Skinny, please come back!

A BIG Thank you To Humphrey and Andrew at the HOC:

Humphrey, Naomi and Andrew at the HOC

Christmas Chocolate and Dive 37 is completed!

Naomi pictured with her non-dairy chocolate roses!

Many thanks to our friend Kathleen for showing us how to make chocolates!

Here are Benj and Naomi pouring chocolates into molds. As you can see from this picture, chocolate is melted on low temperature in glass jars using an electric fry pan. Then the chocolates are spooned into molds. From there the molds are dropped a bit to shake the air bubbles out, then put into the freezer until they are hard enough to pop out of the molds. We painted white chocolates on to some of the molds to give a little more color.

Here are some finished chocolates!

Dive 37 Completed!!!

Today we completed our 37th dive. With all the weather we have been having (I had to dig the car out of the snow twice today), it was touch-and-go as to whether (weather) we would make it there !

Naomi hasn't had any amazing changes, but there seem to be little changes happening. It seems like she has more rotation in suppination and slightly better use of her pincer grasp. Her limp seems less pronounced, which is good considering how cold and how little actual exercise we are getting these days because of the weather.

Several of the HBOT studies I have read indicate the need for intensive therapy for the two months following the 40 dive regimine. We will most likely do constraint therapy at home as well as electro-stimulation. I know we will get push-back from Naomi, but I want to make sure that this treatment round is effective and we will get permanent carry over.


The Skinny on Skinny

Please send healing wishes to Bob (owner of Skinny the Wolf Dog). He is currently in the hospital in a coma, and we would like to see him reunited with his dog. Skinny seems very sad.

From Naomi:

And Bob is a very nice guy and he raised a lot of monny for the HOC to
open it! I am really happy that I will be home soon.

Merry Christmas!!

Gingerbread, Snow and Mom's HBOT Breakthrough

Sunday was Gingerbread House making in the common room where we are staying! Naomi had a blast decorating a homemade gingerbread house with a room full of other people. How fun!

Saturday night it started snowing and it snowed just under a foot in Victoria, then the temperature dropped down to -7 C (or about 20 F for you in the US).

Here I have managed to capture probably the worst view of the snow, but we were all too cold to go out and take another. Really there is about a foot of snow! And it's VERY, VERY icy.

Saturday night we were at Kathleen's singing concert, and left 1/2 way through because we thought it would be better driving right away in the snow rather than later. We nearly got in three wrecks as underneath the snow, the road was very icy. But we made it home. We almost hit a DEER on a very urban street (munching on shrubs in peoples front yards) as it walked across the street. We think that it might live in the Garry Oak Forest at Government House.

Garry Oaks are protected here, and once had a vast range on Vancouver Island. Several species of animals, birds and insects are dependant on the Garry Oak for habitat.

Mom's Big HBOT Breakthrough:

For the last year, I have had chronic tendontis in might right foot. No day goes by without a little pain. Some days are better than others, but I can always tell its there. Well, for the last 3 days, I have been PAIN-FREE. Thank you HBOT

Although we are here primarily for Naomi, I am happy to get a benefit from spending hours of my life watching movies in a pressurized box!

Naomi's ankle scar continues to get lighter and lighter. It may disappear all together by the time we leave. Her face eczema is still gone, although we haven't gotten any structural break-throughs just yet. Maybe some healing takes more time.

Benjamin successfully made it across the boarder via the Clipper by himself today. We missed him--it has been far too quiet without the constant bickering of siblings who love each other.


Have a great day!

Day 7, A Small Success and an MS HBOT Story

From Naomi

when I came out this time my scar on my ancel was a lot Better!

From Mom:

After Naomi was born she went acidocis (meaning her blood went acidic). To save her life, the people in her ambulance, gave her a shot of sodium bicarbonate in her foot. Unfortunately, the blood vessel ruptured, and the sodium bicarbonate gave her a NASTY caustic burn from the inside out. It took months for it to heal, and supposedly burned her down to the bone. Ever since, she has been left with a large, dark, nasty raised scar on her right ankle. I was surprised at what Naomi wrote today, so I looked at her ankle. Sure enough, the scar was less predominant. It used to have darker skin around it, and it was raised. Now the scar isn't raised, and the skin is now much lighter in color. I wish that we had taken a picture of it earlier, but I didn't think to expect an improvement in that area.

I can attest to the fact that HBOT is good for burns and wounds. Naomi's thumb healed incredibly quickly after going in. On Thursday night, I burned myself cooking, and after I did HBOT the next morning, it was completely healed, where as it hurt going in.

I wish there was a way to measure changes to her brain currently.

We are at our 12th visit.

Today, our operator, Andrew, told us of one patient from this year. A lady with Multiple Sclerosis came into the clinic unable to walk on her own, and not strong enough to hold her own mask on in the tank. Andrew had to carry her into the tank and strap on her mask for her. Within 3 days, she could get in and out of the tank by herself, and after a week of 2x/day sessions, she could walk around the clinic.

That's pretty darn cool.

Here is a picture of Naomi in front of the HOC.