www.homeschoolblogger.com/earthenvessel/
Knight #2's doctor has wanted to try this treatment with him for a while now. They recently got the chamber and have been working to get funding to provide free treatments to families who can't afford them, (like us). Today was the first one for Knight #2. Basically he goes into this tube like thing and then it fills up with air. They gradually increase the pressure so as not to cause problems with their ears. The child is wearing an oxygen mask and that provides extra oxygen to the brain and other areas of the body. We are hoping that this will help to reduce the symptoms of his Aspergers.
Dr. K adjusting the pressure.

Knight #2 inside. He is also wearing earphones to protect his ears. The equipment gets a little noisy. He was looking at the DS he was playing.

Knight #2 being silly with mom. He had to stay in there a little over an hour. The first 30 minutes or so was spent just getting the pressure up to the proper level. He had his webkins and DS in there with him.

This is a shot of the side of the chamber.

This is the pressure gauge. It got all the way up to two knotches past 4. Dr. K was very impressed that Knight #2 was able to go up to the top pressure the first time. He said that he is a very brave boy.

This is the knob that adjusts the pressure. Like I said they have to increase the pressure very gradually. Sometimes if it jumped too quickly Knight #2's ears would start to hurt. Dr. K had given him a signal to let us know if that happened and he would point to his ears. Dr. K would then reduce the pressure again. Knight #2 would give us the thumbs up when all was well again. Oh, he also had to learn how to make his ears "pop" to help reduce the pressure on them.

These are the tubes going into the chamber. Notice Knight #2's shoe next to the wall? There were little windows around the sides of the chamber and a big one on the top. Dr. K calls it the spaceship.  |