Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment - Day Twelve

**This post was transferred from the now defunct "The Long Ease" blog.**

Treatment Day: 12

So, it's twelve days in, and I have grown bored with the "format" I have been using to describe these treatments.  What I've realized, at least at this point in the game, is that there is very little about the treatments that is exciting - except, of course, for the potential cumulative benefit of them.

This does not mean that I will stop my completely awesome critiques of things occurring on HGTV when necessary - don't worry.  It just means that I feel like I need to figure out a different way to keep talking about this.

So, what can I say?  I'm twelve days down, and I really do not know if I can say that I feel any different... or any BETTER... yet.  The occasional pains are interesting, but I can't really even say if they are any different than those prior to the treatments beginning.

I have come to the conclusion that the cold symptoms are caused by the daily jack to my sinuses (as well as pretty high allergy index issues happening currently) and not from an actual cold because of how I feel over the weekends when I am NOT getting my sinuses mega-pressurized.

The past two days, I have been very tired and have spent more time in the tube snoozing than awake.  Which has been nice, I guess.

I still don't really have any issues with feeling claustrophobic, but it is difficult to get comfortable enough to do the aforementioned snoozing.  I managed to remember to snap a quick, non-artistic picture of "my" chamber today:

In trying to describe, via pantomime, to people how big it is inside the tube, I've been saying that basically if I put my hands fingertip to fingertip on my chest with elbows out - they just touch the walls.  They tip the back of the gurney up a smidge for comfort, and my head does not hit the top, nor do my knees, if I decide to put them up.  So, it's not toooo bad.  The worst part is that everything has to be 100% cotton in there, so I'm in ill-fitting scrub pants and a gaping-back hospital gown with a grounding wire attached to my wrist... and the "pillow" they give me is not an actual pillow, but just another cotton sheet folded several times over and stuffed into a pillowcase (pictured inside the plastic bag on the gurney).  The blanket it nice, though (that's the white thing under the plastic bag in the picture).  I love a cotton blanket!  I'd take it home with me if I could.

The blanket is nice, because the temperature situation in there can be strange.  When they first start to "take me down" as they call it, it gets warm and humid inside the chamber.  About a half hour after I reach my level, I get cold, and need to snuggle down under the blanket.  By the time they are ready to "bring me back up" I am usually quite chilly and hand cocooned my feet in as best I can and am laying on my hands to warm them up.  Once we reach level, though, I'm usually feeling a normal temperature again.  It's all very odd.

I did watch HGTV today during the moments I was not snoozing.  "Flip It To Win It" marathon today.  I do not recommend this show.  Not interesting and the teams of investors who buy Northern California homes at auction to flip for profit are all pretty obnoxious.  Thumbs down.  Hopefully something better will be on tomorrow.

Aside from that, all I can say is that I promise to keep updating every day, though I don't know exactly what the format will be nor do I know if anything I have to say will be interesting in the slightest.

Number of times I had to pee Tuesday: 6

Goodnight!

Xxo, Phoebe Marie