Switched on

He has only 2 more sessions to go for the Hyperbaric treatment, which ought to have been completed last Wednesday, but didn't because he caught a cold.

Actually, he should have done a session a day continuously for 6 days a week, every week until 40 sessions were up. Instead, he caught a cold in November which lasted 3 weeks, and then there was a week of Neurosuit (pre-planned weeks in advance) which meant there was a month's break after session number 18. When we picked up where we left off and had another 20 sessions in a row, he fell sick again.

He's still sick with a runny nose and a bit of a cough despite medicine and keeping him away from school. I dont know when his runny nose will stop, but I hope it's soon just so that I can finish the 2 remaining sessions, and get on with other things!

Before he fell sick the 2nd time, I was undecided whether to add on more HBOT sessions. I was very tempted to add on to make it a series of uninterrupted 40 sessions ("more is better" syndrome!).

But now that he's sick again, I have decided not to. It's so tiring. Also, it's because I suspect that it might have made him a bit hot headed (more impatient than his usual self) and hyper (he was bouncing off the walls after several sessions!)

As it is, I'm very pleased with the positive results achieved from the sessions. We noticed the following recent progress since he started in late Oct:

Cognitive - He seems more "switched on". Keen to learn, and to play. A bit more "normal" in some ways e.g. he looks for toys to play with when I'm not doing an activity with him. Previously, he'd wait for me to direct his activities. Also, now when he asks for permission to play, he rejects my offer of therapy based activities or learning based activities thinly disguised as play! LOL. His appetite for books has grown! He goes through 10 story books a week (thank goodness he loves the library books!).

Concentration - He's able to stay focused as I read through an entire story book with him.

Speech - He talks more frequently and there's improvement in clarity too.

Self care - He went through a phase, before he fell sick, where he'd feed himself most of the time (lunches and dinners). He'd make a big mess but that's already an improvement from seldom feeding himself.

Response time - He's physically moving around faster. At times he was bouncing off the wall, which is not so good! His thinking is moving a bit faster too.

Fine motor - he's less spastic, a bit more flexible with his hands and fingers. He's able to hold and drink from an ordinary ceramic mug filled with water (shows his strength). He's able to use a pair of scissors to cut a short straight line by himself! He's now learning to cut zig-zag lines. His control of the pencil has improved a bit where he now doesn't use the pencil grip anymore.

His confidence has improved too but that's probably an indirect result of HBOT and more of a direct result of the other activities he did.



There's still a lot more he has to improve on because when compared to his peers, I still notice a difference. But, I am definitely happy with the progress as a result of HBOT.