3 Weeks Down...5 More to Go

Yesterday Peg completed her 15th HBOT session! The process continues to be difficult for her, but we do believe that the treatments are working. Each time she goes into the HBOT, she experiences a feeling of dread that she has to fight to overcome. Then, during the treatment, it is difficult once the hood is in place over her head, and she usually feels like she just can’t go on any longer at about the half-way point. For the last few dives, she has taken a short break midway through the dive, where she turns off the oxygen, removes the hood, and just breathes the air in the chamber for a few minutes. She is still at 2.4 atmospheres pressure, but she can wipe her face and adjust her hair, etc., then she replaces the hood and turns on the oxygen again to resume her dive. She doesn’t go off oxygen long enough to reduce the saturation level in her body, and the break really helps her cope with the dive.

After each dive, Peg’s reaction is somewhat unpredictable. Sometimes she is immediately drained and has a hard time even walking to the car. Other times she has more energy and appears to have little negative reaction. She will usually feel nauseated and weak for a while, and then she will feel better later in the afternoon, and then be extremely tired in the evening. When weekends come, it is a good respite for her, as she can recover from the daily ups and downs somewhat. It is too soon to tell if the Herx reactions are peaking or if they are still increasing. We do expect them to peak at some point, and then begin to diminish somewhere midway through the HBOT sessions.

So far, Peg's blood pressure has been under control. They take her blood pressure before each HBOT session, and she still experiences "white coat" syndrome a bit, but she has been able to get her BP down enough to begin each session. Once she goes into the chamber, she does not appear to have any BP issues.

Please continue to pray for daily strength and endurance to complete her HBOT sessions to the end. This includes financial endurance, as we have paid only for the first 21 sessions, so we need to come up with more funds to finish the full treatment.