Typical day:
8 am -first dive...you "dive" to 1.6 ata. This takes 15 mins. You have to pop your ears as you do this. (like when you fly in an airplane) If you have tubes you don't have to pop your ears. Most people drink or chew gum. When the "chamber" is at 1.6 ata then I put the hood on Christian. The tube connects to the hood and he is breathing 100 percent oxygen. We do this for 1 hour. I take his hood off when the hour is over. When that is over the we go back up to normal atmospheric pressure. This takes about 10 mins. You don't need to pop ears because they kind of do the reverse on their own. The we get out of chamber.The chamber does not actually move or anything.
From 9:45-12:45 we go back to hotel and work on walking,standing, sitting. He does his stander for an hour. We eat lunch and take a walk around the parking lot..to get fresh air.
At 1 we go back for our second dive.
Come back for a short nap then swim, eat supper, work on more standing and walking. If time he goes in his stander again. Last night I decided to take c for a walk for fresh air. Well I thought hey lets go while you are in your stander:)..... what a site we were. it's not something people are used to seeing. On top of that the stander is kinda awkward to push....it wants to spin. So of course we would spin as we go. O well I'm used to people staring...may as well do what makes us happy. Although I did run over my pinky toe!
By 8:30 we take baths and bedtime. He is usually pretty tired.
So that's what we do for 3 weeks. On Saturdays we only have a morning dive..no dive on Sunday.
THE ROLE OF HBOT IN CEREBRAL PALSY
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a descriptive neurological and physical problem originating from defects in motor cortices. Collectively these are labeled as cerebral palsy.Cerebral Palsy is non-progressive, non-contagious, permanent neurological abnormality. The location and size of the lesion will determine what deficit the child will have. The abnormalities occur in utero, during or after birth up until age five. The affected individual is influenced by genetic and environmental factors as well. Cerebral Palsy is associated with a perinatal hypoxic event (tight nuchal or prolapsed cord), placental abnormalities , prolonged labor, or infection transmitted during delivery.
There is no known cure for cerebral palsy, and there is no standard therapy. Early treatment gives a child a better chance to overcome disabilities.
Two alternative therapies considered by some to be controversial include neuromuscular electrical stimulation and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). HBOT might be beneficial in treating Cerebral Palsy cases that are due to traumatic brain injury caused by decreased oxygen.
The theoretical basis for HBOT in CP is that there are areas in the brain next to the CP lesions that are hypoxic due to marginal tissue perfusion. HBOT can increase the available oxygen to these marginal tissues and reactivate the cells to become functional. The number of cells that can be “salvaged” by HBOT cannot be determined. HBOT might cause improvement in motor skills, attention span, visual and verbal commands.
For this treatment, HBOT is used at “low pressure” (1.5 to 1.7 atmospheres absolute), as this has been demonstrated to be optimal pressure that an injured brain can tolerate without toxicity.
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