Breathe deep
Our St. Martin vacation was fabulous! But this is not a Fabulous Vacation Blog, it is a cancer blog, and "breathe deep" refers not to the sweet sea air but instead to pure oxygen. The latest chapter in my treatment saga takes place inside the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. I started this therapy on Monday, part of a study about treating breast cancer treatment-induced lymphedema. The lymphedema in my arm is mild, but it's there and it bugs me. This treatment is experimental, expensive, only available through studies, and has had very successful anecedotal results. This is the first time in a while I am happy to be travelling to the hospital, to be undergoing treatment that doesn't hurt me in any way, and may actually help me.
The chamber itself is pretty cool. It looks like a submarine, and there's space for eight people. In my group, there are four other people, being treated for a variety of ailments. We go into the chamber, sit in our chairs, then the attendant closes the door and we "go down" to 33 feet below sea level. It takes about 10 minutes to do that, ears popping wildly. Once at the "bottom," we put on our oxygen masks and breathe pure oxygen for one hour, then take it off and breathe air for five minutes, and then masks on and oxygen again for another hour. Back up to the surface, and that's it. During that time, there's not much to do. Nothing electronic is allowed in there, and reading is almost impossible because the mask is bulky and awkward and you have to hold the book up to read. We can, however, watch movies. Someone picks out a movie each day - usually it's this oldster who likes Gene Hackman flicks a lot - and we watch on the smallest TV ever that's placed outside the chamber's tiny round porthole, and listen through staticky headphones. Not the most ideal situation, but it's perfect for me, especially if it works! I've had four days out of 20 so far. No difference yet except that I feel very clear after two hours of pure O2. Here's the link to Penn's hyperbaric medicine.
The chamber itself is pretty cool. It looks like a submarine, and there's space for eight people. In my group, there are four other people, being treated for a variety of ailments. We go into the chamber, sit in our chairs, then the attendant closes the door and we "go down" to 33 feet below sea level. It takes about 10 minutes to do that, ears popping wildly. Once at the "bottom," we put on our oxygen masks and breathe pure oxygen for one hour, then take it off and breathe air for five minutes, and then masks on and oxygen again for another hour. Back up to the surface, and that's it. During that time, there's not much to do. Nothing electronic is allowed in there, and reading is almost impossible because the mask is bulky and awkward and you have to hold the book up to read. We can, however, watch movies. Someone picks out a movie each day - usually it's this oldster who likes Gene Hackman flicks a lot - and we watch on the smallest TV ever that's placed outside the chamber's tiny round porthole, and listen through staticky headphones. Not the most ideal situation, but it's perfect for me, especially if it works! I've had four days out of 20 so far. No difference yet except that I feel very clear after two hours of pure O2. Here's the link to Penn's hyperbaric medicine.
posted by Rachel Troxell at 10:15 PM
1 Comments:
Rachel, I'm thrilled that your vacation was "fabulous." Checked your site to get a report on your vacation and found the hyperbaric story instead. It will be interesting to see if you have any unexpected positive results from the pure oxygen. I'd sure like to clear out the cobwebs in my brain!
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