Don't worry, I do not intend to keep an ongoing diary of these oxygen treatments. They will quickly become routine, and boring. But I did say I would bring everyone up to date once they began.
I had treatment #2 today. There are 20 planned prior to the dental surgery, followed by 10, I was told, post surgery, to begin the very next day after surgery, assuming its a week day. Was told this was the normal and accepted protocol for what ails me.
It was quite the experience. I had to change into special all cotton flame retardant scrubs, and wear special all cotton flame resistant socks. Fire is the greatest possible danger to this type of procedure.
I was not allowed to wear any jewelry, no deodorant, no aftershave. You can not bring anything into the dive chamber with you, including reading materials, etc. All I was allowed to keep on were my all cotton boxers. They didn't want me to wear the fentanyl patch originally, but realized it wasn't practical to have remove it every day, due to the touchy nature of such a powerful drug and due to the cost of the patches. So they put some type of cotton gauze over it.
I was then shown and taught how to put on the helmet. It's looks like its made out of clear plastic thick plastic, flexible, like an all clear shower curtain if you have seen one before. First, they put on the base plate, which was hard to push over my head. The top of the helmet attaches to it, and there is one hose pumping in oxygen, and one hose that sucks out what I am exhaling.
You sit in what looks like the top half of a small recliner which is on a wheeled cart. They open the chamber door on one end (looks just like a submarine hatch, perhaps 36" in diameter). The chair part attaches to the built in leg portion of the seat inside the chamber. I was then handed my helmet, two blankets, and a small bottle of water.
The door is then sealed. It takes 10 minutes to pressurized the chamber. You do not wear the helmet until they are through. It's filled with swishing air noises come around the clear acrylic tube. You have to constantly keep popping your ears, either by holding your nose or sipping water the entire time it's being pressurized. I am lucky, I have no problems doing that, some people aren't as lucky and it can make them ineligible for this kind of treatment.
Once pressurized, your then put on the helmet, snap it to the base, and then my 2 hours of chamber time begin.
There is a large clock on the wall in front of me, and a tv set to the right of my head mounted outside of the chamber. On the first session, I felt a lot of pressure on my chest, and it was hurting me to breathe, but that was normal until you get use to it. I was at 3 1/2 times normal atmospheric pressure, they said it was like if I were underwater at 75 feet below sea level, a lot of pressure.
During the 2 hours, you get (2) 10 minute breaks from the helmet, so that you don't mess up your central nervous systems from breathing only pure oxygen for that long. Had I been asleep, they let you sleep through the breaks, and the diver officer mistook me for being asleep, so he didn't call in for the first break. about 1 1/2 hours later, I motioned him about not having a break. Just a simple communication problem on the first go.
I chose not to have anything on the tv or any music going, being my first time. Huge mistake. It was so boring, and I was physically uncomfortable the entire time, due to my hip and leg and back pains, and there's not enough room in the tube to really move much. It's been difficult for me to be on my back for that long a period ever since I had the Urostomy surgery, I never, ever sleep on my back. And it was way too noisy inside the tube for me to ever possibly fall asleep.
At the end of 2 hours, you take off the helmet, and they it takes 10 minutes to "come to the surface' so to speak, as they slowly depressurize the tube. Going "down" didn't hurt at all, but "coming up" caused a lot of distress to my ears.
Once depressurized, they open the hatch, attach the cart to the chair portion, and wheel me out. I had to sit there for a few minutes to re-adjust to normal "air" and breathing. I kept getting dizzy spells. Once deemed safe, I was allowed to go to the dressing room and put on my regular clothes. First of those 20 treatments done, 19 more to go (sigh).
Today was #2 of the week, there will only be 4 this week due to Labor Day Monday. They made sure my joints were comfortable this time, by rolling up some extra blankets to cushion my hips, etc. That made a huge improvement. I endured the first 1 1/2 hours without any major pain, but the last 1/2 hour was starting to get to me. Today, even on only the 2nd treatment, I did not feel labored with my breathing. Also, I had them put on the tv, and I mostly watched CNN news on and off. Did a lot of day dreaming, closed my eyes and covered up with the blankets, but couldn't relax enough to sleep even a wink. I did get the 2 helmet breaks which did help break up the time.
Two expected side effects when you finish a treatment. Extreme fatigue (on top of all my other chronic fatigue) and for the next 2-3 hours, my hearing feels diminished, but it comes back to normal after some rest at home. I am their last patient for the day, they only do a max. of 4 patients per day. Including pressurizing, de-pressurizing, and the 2 hours of actual chamber time, I am spending 2 hours and 20 minutes in the unit. By the time you add travel time, getting undressed and re-dressed, its taking 3 1/2 hours or more out of my day.
By being the last patient has its pluses. I do have to walk back to my car with my walker, quite the distance, and drive straight home, where I instantly lay down to nap for a couple of hours. I am fortunate to be able to do so every day.
I will get through this, and I know the dental surgeon is doing this in my best interest, so I will be 100% compliant. The staff at GHS have been very kind, gracious, and accommodating to my special needs. Pretty cool how it takes a staff of 6 people to service only 4 patients a day. They act very concerned about all my pain and aches and other special needs, which I greatly appreciate.
I never experienced any of this before, so its been an education for me. My youngest son happens to be an outsourced IT tech for the is same hospital system, and he is in this very building 3 to 5 days a week. He's been invited to come and visit me in person while in the chamber anytime he's near the area. That will be a nice touch, he's planning on visiting me on tomorrow's session.
All for now, I sincerely hope these treatments help make the pending surgery safer and easier. It's possible they may have some positive effect on other issues that I have described here, I can only hope.
David