A little piece of heaven

That’s the woooooooooooord of the day……….exhaustion.

It’s been a rough couple of days. We took Nathan to see Dr. Feldman first thing yesterday morning and she said he has lots of congestion in his nassal passageways and throat. That’s why he was crying in the chamber. So we took yesterday and today off and the plan is to see how he’s doing so we can try again Monday.

Next week Owen is going to Irvine with Nathan for Hbot take 3! I’m excited that they’re going to do this together.

In the meantime, I leave you with some cuteness:

Maybe I jinxed myself. Yesterday I mentioned how well Nathan was doing with his Hbot. Because today, it was a total disaster.

We put Nathan in the chamber – as usual. Everything was the same. Then about 15 min’s later Kathie, Nathan’s nurse, went to find me to tell me Nathan was really upset and screaming in the chamber, so they pulled him out. I asked them to try again, but it was the same thing – after a few minutes, he started screaming bloody murder. We didn’t know what to think of it, so I took him to the RV and he took a nice long nap. We thought maybe that was it – he was just tired.

So after lunch and his nap, he went for his suit therapy. He was happy as can be! I was shocked to hear that he hardly cried during the 2 hours of suit therapy! He’s supposed to do 4 hours every day, but because of the crying incident, we allowed him to sleep and he only had 2 hours of therapy. As you can see, he’s happy as can be:

After suit therapy he had a snack, some water, and it was time for another attempt at HBOT. He was happy at first:

But about 15 minutes into the dive, he started screaming again. It wasn’t an annoyed cry, it was an blood curling, agonizing scream. So we depressurized, pulled him out, gave him water and hugs, tried again – same outcome. At that point we gave up for the day.

This is one of those times I really wish he could talk, so he could tell me what hurts.

So I decided to drive home to take him to his doctor in the AM, so we can at least rule out ear or sinus infection. If those are negative, then we’ll head back down and simply try again.

I’m “melt into a puddle” kind of exhausted, and gonna have an early night. At least I get to sleep in my bed tonight! Sweet dreams!

We’re finishing our 2nd day of HBOT and it’s going good so far!

Last night went well – nobody disturbed us where we parked. Today we got permission to park outside of the therapy center so we’re excited about that! I don’t think I could’ve handled another sleepless night.

For those of you wondering what I’m talking about – we drove a friend’s RV to the therapy center and we’re staying in it. The reason is that it’s so convenient to have the RV parked at the therapy center – we can take naps during the day, cook, eat snacks, and have everything we need handy! It also means I don’t have to drive that monster car at nights which is a lot less stressful! The nearest place to park the RV and hook it up is about 30 min’s away and I am trying to avoid that at all costs. So we are staying in the RV parked outside of the therapy center and it’s working out well! Nathan doesn’t mind being in the RV, but I do think he misses his house, dad, and routine. He’s been a cranky monkey for the last couple of days.

He’s only had 6 hbot treatments so far – and he really likes it! The pressure doesn’t bother him at all and he LOVES that he gets to watch movies while in the chamber.

He did a couple of hours of suit therapy today. He wasn’t happy at all to have to work again – he’s been on a 2 month vacation from physical therapy! So he was pretty cranky.

On a little side note..I’ve been trying to teach him to spend time on his back happily. Typically the moment he is put on the floor on his back or belly he starts complaining. So I’ve been trying to do it while we’ve been in the RV. This afternoon I put him on his back and he started complaining instantly. After about 15 min’s of whining, I noticed he was quiet. I was like…hmmm… I checked and this is what I saw!

He rolled from his back to his side, got his hand around the ball and pulled it close to his mouth, then used the ball to prop his arm against it so we could chew/suck on his hand. That boy! It was so cute, he was so proud of himself! Again, I know it doesn’t sound like much, but for him it’s great, it showed him that even though being left on his back is hard, he CAN use his body to find entertainment.