Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy here we come!

Angelina starts HBOT at the Hyperbaric Centers Of Texas in Richardson tomorrow (10/26). She will have 2 sessions per day 6 days per week for 3.5 weeks! So she and I will be travel partners for the next three weeks back and forth...everyday...until 11/19. I have to admit while I am excited about her finally beginning to start this therapy I am apprehensive about the drive and the time commitment each day. We will leave around 9:30 a.m. and won't return home until 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. Now I realize that is less than the typical work day for most but I think Cirstyn and Brady will be non-to-thrilled with me being gone all that time. I would like to take Cirstyn with me but Larry and I agree that exposing her to others during flu season isn't the wisest choice so she will be bottling some and I will be pumping while we're gone. Brady will still go to MDO on Monday and Wednesday so those days he probably won't be to crabby about me not being there when he gets home, but the other 4 days I think he will! I am hopeful he will just have fun. Larry is going to stay up tomorrow morning, take Brady to MDO and stay with Cirstyn. Brandie Jo is coming by for a couple of hours so Larry can take a nap until I get home. He will be in charge Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Karen has taken Thursdays, Nanny has Fridays and Mom has Saturdays.

I am going to take my camera and video camera in case they will let me take pictures. It's supposed to be really simple. She will just lay on a bed inside this large plastic clear cylinder and breathe. She will have a TV and I am going to take some DVD's she likes in case there is a DVD player hooked up. They call the sessions "dives" because it's pressurized like being underwater and I am hopeful that she will be able to clear her ears when each dive is over. I will make sure to take a sippy cup to give her water so that she has to swallow to clear her ears. Dr. Johnson told us that if she can't he can just "pop in some tubes" so she can. We'll see. We had the option to let her use the single person chamber or the group chamber. If she used the group chamber then I would sit in the room with her but she would have a helmet like device on her head to administer the oxygen through. When the tech told us that Larry and I looked at each other and in unison said "the single chamber please!" Originally we thought that she would do better in the group chamber but when he told us about the helmet, well that was the end of that! I so hope she does well with the process and that her body will respond this therapy. Not in the "miracle cure" way but just being a little more coordinated.

Now that I think about it, this time last year is when I started doing research on alternative treatments and therapies to help my beautiful little girl. I was doing research on stem cell therapy and found the info on HBOT. I haven't given up hope yet on stem cell therapy and am hopeful that someone will be doing "donor cord blood" stem cell therapy soon. The latest that I have heard on that from the Dr. at Univ of Arizona is that they are having to reapply for funding to start that research. I can't believe it's been a year already since all of this started. Angelina has changed so much since then and all for the better. Larry and I have always said that if there was no more progress with her and she stayed the way she is that would be okay with us, but we have to give her the opportunity to heal just a little if she can. She has made lots of really great progress this year with all of her therapy and she knows she can do more things now. I can see it in her eyes when she is trying to get up but just can't quite get there. I can see the words running through her mind - I think I can, I think I can. Angelina just amazes me. She makes me remember that no matter how bad I think it is, I can find a smile so that means it's all okay. Larry was right when he told me that God gave her to us to teach us patience. I remember this when I get frustrated with the monotony of the routine or the endless appointments. She truly is a blessing in so many ways. She continues to be the little engine that could....little by little! :)