Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy for Chronic Illness

Hyperbaric chamber therapy is thought to help increase the oxygen flow to the blood and subsequently the brain and other organs, aiding healing. We decided to try hyperbaric therapy to 1. help our son sleep better, and 2. make a dent in the aerobic bacteria in his stomach.

Not sure if it worked for either of those things. We did 20 sessions around January 2008, and at the time I think it was about $75 a session. The chamber was an inflatable chamber that was big enough for both my son and I to lay down in. I had to be in there with him.

I would watch my iPod, and he would watch a movie on DVD, or we would play games and read. It was terribly difficult for me as I am so claustrophobic; the first time I was zipped in, I thought I would have a total panic attack; however, once they showed me how to get out from the inside, I managed to be ok with going in. It was more difficult than anything I could imagine; you will know what I mean if  you are also claustrophobic (I even avoid elevators!)

Anyway, the chamber is soft-sided, and there are portholes at either end and on the side, and there was a window above, so it wasn’t terrible, but certainly not easy. My son didn’t care either way, sometimes he was just fine and well behaved other times I would spend an hour being targeted from start to finish. Either way, it didn’t seem to help much with his sleep, so we stopped right at the 20 sessions. That was the marker that the doctor had given us, suggesting that we should have seen some positive changes by then or it probably wasn’t going to help much at all.

I have heard that some people find it has excellent results for their children, and if you are one of those people, please take the time to comment with your story. The goal of this website is to open up to other people considering treatment options, and just because it didn’t work for us, it may have worked for some people; it would be good for people to see that if it is a possibility.

Later on, we purchased our own in-home hyperbaric chamber that became part of my COVID recovery and my husband’s recovery from Stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma.