Day Three

Last night Rebecca woke up in the middle of the night with ear pain - like someone was stabbing her ear drum.  We gave her some decongestant and she chomped on some gum for a little bit and after a while she was able to get to sleep again.  Her ears didn't hurt while in the chamber yesterday, at the time she even wondered if they remembered that she could go higher on the pressure, since she wasn't with Matthew anymore, as she didn't even notice they had gotten it all the way up to pressure. We did not give her a decongestant at night since her ears were not bothering her, so they suggested to just stay on the decongestant around the clock for the first little bit to help with her pain.  When they go in the chamber it is like making the ear drums work overtime and it will take a few days for them to get used to this.  We will also pick up a heat pad today as that always helps ear aches feel better and we didn't have one last night.

The reason it is called a "dive" when you go in the chamber is because HBOT was initially used in the scuba diving industry for decompressing after a deep dive or when a diver has decompression sickness.  Since then it has expanded to other treatments and continues to be an area that they are exploring and learning more about.  This morning they made sure to bring Rebecca up to full pressure at a slow rate to make sure she didn't experience more pain.  She doesn't experience pain while in the chamber so she was still able to go at the full amount (14.7 psi) but the pain comes afterwards and after the afternoon session it was bothering her quite a bit again.  She tried to go to bed but was having trouble getting to sleep with the pain, which happened to be in the other ear this time and the ear that hurt last night had a ringing noise in it.  We once again dosed her with decongestant and Advil and applied heat and eventually she fell asleep.

Matthew made it up to 7.5 psi in the morning but was having more trouble in the afternoon so they kept him at 5.5 psi.  He says his ears are not hurting outside of the chamber, just when they try to go up on the pressure.  But I do see him frequently tugging on his ears and he will comment they feel stuffed up.

Lunch comes after HBOT ... relax or eat?  They feel tired after HBOT ... good thing for PEMF!

After lunch the kids went separate ways.  Matthew to PEMF and Rebecca to Ozone Therapy.  Matthew wanted me to stay with him so I did not get to check out how Ozone Therapy works, I will have to check that out next time.  All I understood was that Rebecca had to lay in a bag (not her head).

A castor oil pack is placed on the liver and a TPD infrared lamp over it to help draw out toxins

Matthew quickly fell off to sleep during his PEMF treatment and we had a hard time bringing him back to earth when his time was up and it was Rebecca's turn.  Matthew did not have Ozone Therapy (hence the reason I did not get to see what it involves), so from PEMF he headed off to the infrared sauna while Rebecca has some rest time with her PEMF treatment before her sauna time.

Before going into the sauna they have to walk on the trampoline for a few minutes

They like for them to stay in for about 40 minutes or longer, but ultimately it comes down to how much a person can tolerate.  Rebecca has been able to do 40 minutes, Matthew about 30 minutes.  For Matthew it is a bit of boredom I think as well.  He's not very good at just sitting and staring off into space for longer periods of time.  

Before going in the sauna, niacin and minerals are added to their water (much to Matthew's disgust ... he's really going to learn to stop being so picky by time this is all done).  This is often referred to as a Niacin Detox.  The combination of exercise (the tramplone walk), niacin and sauna help flush toxins through your skin.  It mobilizes and stimulates the break down of fats and as the fats breaks down the toxins stored inside the fat are released to your blood stream and then you can remove it.  Since niacin dilates your blood vessels it will make your skin become flushed and this dilation allows for better circulation and assists with detox by bringing vessels closer to the skin’s surface.  When you sweat you lose a lot of minerals and vitamins so this is why they also add minerals to the water at this time.   Side note:  this is the same detox program they used on the firefighters after the 9/11 attack.  

The day ended off with HBOT and we were free to go a bit earlier today, making it home by 6:15 pm.  Since all the testing is done and they are waiting for results we only have to do the two HBOT treatments tomorrow, and not all the oyther treatments. So we have a bit of free time from 1 pm to 4:30 pm ... not sure yet what we'll do with that time.  Matthew has been begging to go see more of West Edmonton Mall (we stopped by for a little bit last week because we needed to get a few things), so that may be on the list if time and energy allows.