Sunday, August 10, 2008

HBOT - DEALING WITH THE ROUGH DAYS



One of my new HBOT friends wrote to me recently about how her HBOT journey was going. She is in one of those rough periods, when the pain actually gets worse before it gets better. She said it has helped a great deal being able to read the blog because she knew ahead of time that these rough patches were going to occur, if she hadn't know that she probably would have quit. 

Her HBO Tech, at the clinic, told her that it was the reason why so many people quit; they just aren't mentally prepared for their pain to worsen before it improves. It is a story that is repeated at clinics all over the country, a frustrating one because these technicians and Drs know that if these patients would only stick with it, work through those difficult spots, get through the wall especially, they would see remarkable improvement. They know because they have seen it happen time and again. It just could happen so much more often than it does. 

And sometimes a patient sees their greatest improvement after they finish their sessions! It could be as long as weeks after they are done. Why? It is an ongoing process, this remarkable healing of the body. It is not something that happens overnight, or like the flipping of a light-switch.

Hopefully I have helped to prepare some of you for these tough times so more of you can achieve success; either partial or complete. Any relief is a help.

I am not too worried about this new friend of mine. Why? Because she is a fighter like me. Let me share with you what she wrote;

but I am strong - we RSDer's (are) the strongest people around . We  get knocked down wipe ourselves off and get back in game over and over and over again -Most people have that challenge once or twice in their lifetimes. We sometimes have it 10 times in a day;)
 
So true. When you get right down to it, we deal every day with what is classified as the most painful form of chronic pain that exists today, CRPS. On the McGILL Pain Index nothing else is even close. We have to cope with occasional flares that produce even greater pain. If there is anyone better equipped to handle increased pain, I guess it would be us! Especially if it means the possibility of eventually reducing that pain.

That same friend wrote something that quite a few others had written in one way or another that I wanted to share because I wanted some of the Drs and clinicians who are following this to read it. Some of them were very nervous and/or against the idea of my doing a blog about HBOT, documenting my journey, for several reasons. Some of them I could understand.

1) They were concerned that people would think that if it didn't work for me that it wouldn't work for them. Hopefully I have made it clear that every case is different and especially so in my case where I have had CRPS for more than three decades and mine is full body. Entrenched is a perfect word to describe my CRPS! 

2) That people would have a difficult time understanding in a blog the complexities of the HBOT process. I hope I have dispelled that by taking a lot of time to explain the process in detail, how it works, why it works, information on the various types of chambers, sharing all manner of websites and information, etc. 

3) That when people heard about THE WALL, it might scare them away. Hopefully the contrary is true, that by informing people of what lies ahead of them they re better prepared for it and are then able to mentally work through it so they can stick with the therapy instead of giving up on it.

Having said that, here is what she wrote today.

There is not enough written about the difficulty of this process . Your  BLOG IS DOING A  GREAT SERVICE ON THAT END. People think they go in- they do the  treatments and they come out in remission or at least a whole lot better. No one talks about this CRAZY journey.


So I hopefully have helped a few people better understand it :)
 
Someone wrote about whether or not Fibromyalgia would be helped by HBOT. There are many websites that speak to this, you can find them linked on our HBOT SECTION on the American RSDHope website, but you can also find a quick and easy answer by going to HAELEN HYPERBARICS.

Next week, is week seven! Only two weeks to go, 10 treatments. That is the plan!

Remission or bust! well, or really really close. 

See you tomorrow, go hug your significant other, caregiver, or maybe a really cute stranger.

Keith 

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