Hyperbarics

Every morning at 7:15 I leave my house to go to the hospital in Idaho Falls for hyperbarics. Because I'm still taking lots of pain pills, I have had people take me to my appointments. Dennis has also been able to take me since school has been out. When I get to the hyperbarics room I'm greeted by a happy bunch--three fellow patients and three nurses. I go into my dressing room and put on the scrubs that the nurses have put in there for me. They also put a blanket in there because they have noticed that I'm always freezing. I then go sit in a chair outside the tank and one of the nurses takes my vitals and checks my ears. We usually have a few minutes to visit while they get ready for the dive. It is called a dive because the tank gets pressurized and it is if we were 30 feet below water.
Dennis came to hyperbarics with me and took these pictures. He was surprised that it was an actual tank. He thought it was a room or something.The nurses load Ruby first because she sits in the front on the right and they have to help her out of her wheelchair. I go next because I sit right across from Ruby. (the seat is not folded down in this picture because it gives them more room to load Ruby.)Jeff and Brad sit behind us. The nurses take turns going on the dives. She sits on a folding chair in the very back.

The nurse closes the 1100 pound door. We go through a checklist--do the phones work?--does anyone have jewelry on?-- is there anything in our pockets?:--did Katie take off her socks?: (I forgot and wore my socks once-not good--anything that could generate static could cause an explosion! All their scrubs and blankets are laundered in a special way. We are not allowed to take books or electronics or anything for that matter inside the tank.) Then we are set to get pressurized. We are all chewing gum that they have given us to help our ears pop. They also provide us with a water bottle and that helps too. My ears have been fine but one of our passengers had to get tubes put in his ears because they wouldn't pop. Once we get pressurized we have to get rid of the gum and the nurse puts our helmets on. The helmets have pure oxygen fed into them. Breathing pure oxygen has been proven to promote healing. (I hate it when I need to itch my nose or something. You just have to take it!)

The dive lasts 90 minutes. We are in the tank for about 2 hours because of the time it takes to pressurize. During the two hours we watch a movie. But I nearly always have a 90 minute nap. It is not bad at all. I do enjoy it. It is relaxing and the socializing is kind of fun too.

Dr. B. wants me to continue hyperbarics for quite awhile because my skin flap and graft are struggling.