Hi everyone,

I am back with another update about my hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I have now undergone 23 60-minute treatments in the last 5 weeks. My first 12 treatments were at 1.5 ATA, and the last 11 have been at 1.75 ATA.

The negative side effects I experienced after early HBOT treatments have disappeared. I continue to feel better (mainly, more alert and focused, and less headache-y) during and immediately after HBOT sessions. When I increased from 1.5 to 1.75 ATA, I noticed that this good feeling started earlier in my session, at around 15-20 minutes in rather than 30-40 minutes in.

My condition has continued to improve slowly and steadily. I can now do significantly more activity, and have significantly fewer symptoms.

Below are some numbers that help to communicate my improvement. I track both daily activity and daily symptoms in a spreadsheet on scales from 0 to 25.

For activity,
0 = lying in bed vegetating,
25 = a busy day with a light workout or a stressful situation. What most people would consider "normal".

For symptoms,
0 = no symptoms,
25 = in such agony I cannot move or open my eyes (fortunately, I've never had a day like this).

My current goal is to sustain an activity level of 20 with zero symptoms.

The week before I began HBOT, my average activity level was 11 and my average symptom level was 16. I spent my days lounging around my apartment, reading, napping, and resting. It was a big accomplishment when I walked around the corner to pick up some takeout. I had continual brain fog, was very tired, and occasionally felt nauseous.

The week I first reported on my treatment (March 29), my average activity level increased to 14 and my average symptom level decreased to 12. I still spent most of my days lounging around and napping, but I was able to work for a few hours each day, and I had a couple of days that were quite high-energy (traveling, a friend's wedding, etc.). I still had frequent brain fog and fatigue, but it was no longer constant. The nausea disappeared. Unfortunately, I did start experiencing achy and stiff limbs when I woke up in the morning, an old symptom I hadn't had in a while. My symptoms were erratic: I'd have one day when I felt great, followed by two days of feeling terrible.

This week, my average activity level increased again, to 17, and my average symptom level decreased to 9.5. My symptoms have been much less erratic, and I have really enjoyed my increased energy levels. My sleep has improved a bit and my achiness has been decreasing. On my best day this week, I got up early, walked a half mile to the grocery store, came home, walked a mile to the library, where I spent a couple of hours finishing up my taxes and chatted with a friend I ran into, walked home, cooked lunch, talked on the phone, walked a mile to the mall and back, and stopped at a restaurant for dinner. I did take a nap in the afternoon because of a headache, but for me, this activity level was nothing short of amazing. I'm trying not to have too many days like this, because my main focus is on symptom reduction, and for that I want to rest as much as possible.

So is this improvement due to HBOT? It's really tough to say. As I mentioned before, I usually make slow progress given time and rest, and I don't know if I'm improving more rapidly right now than I did after previous PCS flares.

Additionally, I see one doctor who is both an MD and an acupuncturist. When I saw him last week and described how helpful HBOT has been for me, he gave me some supplements to increase my blood oxygenation levels and cellular energy production at other times of day, too (the main things he gave me were CoQ10, pantothenic acid, and something called ChlorOxygen - chlorophyll in a capsule!). These supplements seem to have also helped my symptoms stabilize at a lower level. Unfortunately, they also make it more difficult to draw conclusions about HBOT.

My neurologist has been pleased with my progress and has told me to "keep doing whatever you're doing". I'm inclined to agree. My plan is to continue HBOT at least until I get to 40 sessions, and possibly for longer. I do not want to oversell the benefits of this treatment, as it's extremely unclear how much of my improvement I should attribute to it, but it seems to be working for me and I want to maximize my chances of continuing to progress.

Again, I hope this is helpful for anyone considering HBOT, and I'm happy to answer questions.

Pantothenic acid is just another name for Vitamin B-5. It is included in a B-50 or B-100 complex. CoQ10 is something I'd take if it was not so expensive.

Does anybody else take CoQ10?

Hi Mark,

I have seen CoQ10 before, but I haven't taken it.

I found it here: http://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-coq...g-120-capsules

I buy a lot of the supplements I take from Vitacost - I think their prices tend to be the best and if you buy $50 worth of items, they ship it for free.

I am thinking of taking just based on your desire to take it - you recommend it?

Thanks!

I have now had 31 hyperbaric oxygen treatments in the last eight weeks, and I'm back with another update.

My overall condition has continued to improve. Using my previously explained rating scale, my average symptom level this week was 7.5 and my average activity level was 17. Basically, I am doing the same amount of activity as I was a few weeks ago, but with fewer symptoms.

My biggest victory is that I had one day that was nearly symptom-free: I felt great until the early evening, when I got tired and had a mild headache.

However, my recovery has not been perfectly smooth. I spent nearly all of one weekend this month lying in bed after I did a little too much for too many days in a row. Today I am feeling pretty tired, likely for the same reason.

So now the big question: how much is HBOT helping? It's still impossible to say that it's behind my reduction in headaches and fatigue.

There is one thing I directly attribute to it, though: a marked improvement in my sense of well-being. I was never depressed, or even considered myself unhappy, but now I feel an expansive happiness that I never felt before. I notice and feel grateful for really little things, like a sunny day or the chance to talk to a friend. I can sit and do nothing for long stretches of time, just feeling good. I am more aware of my feelings and emotions, and I am less consumed by them. This is especially helpful when I am experiencing PCS pain.

I attribute this to HBOT because of its meditation-like effects. During a treatment, I sit for an hour and a half doing absolutely nothing, and for an hour of that time, I wear a mask that accentuates the sound of my breathing. This biofeedback focuses my mind on my breath in a way that is easy and natural. I might think about other things, but my mind always comes back to my breath. I spend much of the time just counting up and down as I breathe in and out.

I have never really studied meditation, but I see a lot of parallels between my experience and its practice and results. Last week, I listened to an hourlong tape of meditation instruction and practice. Before HBOT, such a tape would have left me thinking, "I don't really get it. What are they talking about? Am I doing this right?". Instead, I thought, "I know exactly what they're trying to say. I regularly experience the mental state they're getting at. The problem is that words don't do it justice."

I have read reports of HBOT clearing up PTSD in veterans diagnosed with both it and PCS. I can see why. Whether it's because of the oxygen or just because of the calming biofeedback, HBOT has definitely improved my mental state - something I wasn't even hoping for when I began treatment.

I'm continuing to have treatments 4-5 times a week. In a few weeks, I'll have reached the 40 treatments used in many research protocols. I hope to have more good news to report then!

I have completed somewhere in the ballpark of 80 sessions of HBOT, and it has done wonders for me. I also do neurofeedback and I'm on Hormone Replacement Therapy as well as nutritional therapy. I have had close to 30 concussions from playing sports and car accidents, and thanks to the therapy I have done, I am about 90% healed.

The HBOT will only work well for you though if you have eliminated inflammation and given your body the "fuel" it needs to heal itself. So, because it is very expensive, before you begin HBOT, make sure you have your thyroid, testosterone, cortisol, growth hormone, food allergies, etc. checked out and treated before beginning the treatments. Usually those who don't do well with HBOT have some type of road block in the way, such as the ones I mentioned above. Btw, those things are actually very common in people who have suffered a brain injury, especially those who had have had multiple brain injuries.

So, I highly recommend HBOT but make sure that you do your due diligence with your body before beginning treatment. And the cool thing is that in some cases, getting your body treated can actually heal your brain injury.

It's nearly impossible for someone dealing with severe environmental allergies, like me, to reduce inflammation, let alone eliminate it altogether. So, thanks for letting us know that this will not work in instances like that.