Jim decides to try HBOT~

Completely frustrated with treatments to date, and after three months of Vertigo, we started looking for something else. We are both quite open-minded about treatments. On the drive home from the chiro, Jim saw an Oxygen truck and said, "That's what I need - Oxygen!" Part of this comes from his SCUBA background. As divers know, the air we normally breath is only 21% oxygen (O2). However, some divers are trained in the use of 100% oxygen for emergency treatment. Jim used to breath 100% to treat his migraines, and it worked.

So how to get O2 treatments? Jim immediately thought of a recompression chamber since he was also trained as a chamber operator as part of his dive background. We began looking for traditional chambers (used in the medical world for burn treatments, etc.) but the chambers at hospitals are expensive and pretty much reserved for patient care, i.e. Jim couldn't just waltz in and go thru a course in the chamber.

BUT now there are "mild" chambers and these are portable and quite cheap to use/rent/own. The treatment is known as HBOT (HyperBaric Oxygen Therapy). The chambers go to a max of 1.3 ATM (atmospheres=pressure, i.e., 1.3 times sea level pressure) and supply "enhanced" air, i.e. a bit more O2 (we are not sure how much yet). Our thoughts = we live at 8100' which is equivalent to 0.74 ATM and the 'mild' chamber goes to 1.3 ATM so Jim will have an increase in pressure of about 80%

There are quite a few places in Colorado that have mild chambers on site, and they cost something betwee $75 and $100 per session (say an hour or so). But we fould a place that would rent us a chamber. So that is arriving today! Jim is very excited and I think psychologically this has beem a real boost. We are hoping that if he does two treatments per day at 1.5 hrs each, for two weeks, it will help reduce the inflammation in his inner ear and allow some healing. The vestibular nerve, along with the auditory and facial nerves, travel thru a very small space as they go into the brain. The concept is that the increased pressure with reduce the inflammation on this area. Vestibular neuritis is apparently somewhat similar to Bell's Palsy. And remember, we are not doctors but just trying to understand all this!

HBOT is authorized by the FDA for many problems and these small chambers seem very safe (whereas large chambers are quite technical in operation and also involve 100% O2 which presents many safety problems). So, more to come later today as Jim tries HBOT for the first time and we'll take some photos.