How Will You Know HBOT is Successful?

Here is a picture of Naomi's therapist, Sherryl, measuring Naomi's active and passive range of motion in her affected ankle.

The question, "How will I know HBOT therapy has been worth it?", will be a hard one to measure. We will take pre-treatment and post-treatment measurements and video's, but we aren't going to just do straight HBOT.

My Theory

I have a theory. My theory is that if I can stimulate different parts of the brain during or inbetween our two sessions a day, that we might have greater results than if we just did HBOT alone. As this session may be the only chance we might have in Naomi's life to try this therapy, as long as she improves, I don't care how much is HBOT and how much is repetition. I know from experience, about how much repetition can help and what skills we have attained thus far.

From another mother, whose son also did HBOT in Canada here is her list of improvements she saw and what we hope to see:

Basically, the obvious changes I noticed in the children who received HBOT were:

• Reduction in spasticity


• Increased ROM


• Increased ability in eye tracking


• Increased ability in sitting up straighter


• Increased memory


• Improved speech

I am not sure how to measure memory, but it is a certain problem that Naomi suffers. Does anyone out there have any suggestions about how to measure memory? Speech should be apparent, and is not something that we are currently woking on.

Our Plan:

We plan to do the following:

• Yoga (Sun Salutations)


• Ankle Range of Motion exercises


• Cross-crawl patterns


• Spanish


• Mental Math


• Spelling


• Shoulder Range of Motion


• Suppination range


• Music

All of these, with the exception of Yoga, we plan to do in the tank. Usually what happens, is you go into the tank and watch movies to distract the patient from the process. While we plan on doing the passive movie thing our first trip down, our goal will be to gradually introduce some therapy while in the tank.

What is Suppination?

For those friends who are not steeped in the lingo of therapy, suppination is the degree to which you can take your out-stretched arm (right palm facing left) and turn it palm up. Before we started doing Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) (as championed by the nice people at U of Alabama), Naomi had 0% active and only slight passive range of motion in suppination. Through CIMT, she has gained 40% active range of motion. Most people can do greater than 90%. Passive range of motion is a therapist turning your arm for you. Active range of motion is what you can do yourself.

To Sum up "Successful"

I will know our mission is successful partially by external measurements (like those of suppination), by video, and by personal observation. I am sure scientifically personal observation isn't all that valid, but as her mom, teacher and sometimes erstwhile therapist, (as well as being the person absolutely most vested in seeing real improvements) I have a pretty darn good idea of her current capabilities and pitfalls.

Thank for sharing this exciting journey with us!