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I had the pleasure of meeting Tara through OxyHealth’s Give Back To Military Families program. I got to talk to her about her husband being in the military and how beneficial it would be to use hyperbaric chambers. That then lead to us talking about her son, Issac, who has autism. She ended up getting chamber for Issac and has been gracious enough to share their experiences with the chamber, so I thought it would be a great idea to turn Tara and Issac’s experiences in to a blog series! Here is the first update from Tara and I can’t wait to continue to share their story with your throughout the month.

Isaac has been using the hyperbaric chamber for almost 4 weeks now. We have used it every day. He has been in the chamber twice a day.

As a family we are committed to helping Isaac recover from his brain injury. Michael is the military member and he has gone into the chamber with Isaac. Sometimes when Mike is at work on a 12 hour shift one of Isaacs older sisters will go in the chamber with Isaac.

I have also gone in the chamber with Isaac (Tara, Isaac’s mom) Here are some of the things that we have seen as Isaac uses the healing power of oxygen.

Isaac has started to verbalize and make more sounds. He is nonverbal, but putting commands together so that he can communicate more effectively with us. You can see his mind at work, when he points to an object or a direction that he wants to go, and he also uses another gesture with it. He has never done this before. He is putting phrases together by using gestures and pointing. It appears to us that he is thinking ahead, and wants to tell us that he is doing just that.

He is more compliant when we tell him what we expect of him and let him know that he will receive something for his good behavior. This has helped tremendously with stopping meltdowns in the store, and out in public. Before we used hyperbarics with Isaac is was a nightmare going out to the store, because if he didn’t get what he wanted, he didn’t understand why and he would make a scene. We limited outings because I do not want others to try to interfere with doing what they think is best, because he is Autistic and he is to be taught differently than a typical child.

Isaac has made sounds and has longer sounds that he can vocalize after using the chamber every day.

He is sitting down and reading books (he is hyperlexic) and listening to others reading books to him. He has not done this before hyperbarics. He would sit for a minute, and then try to turn the page, or get up because his focus wasn’t on the book any longer.

Isaac wants to play at the park, and he wants to run. I took him to the park, and he went inside a tennis court and closed all the gates. He started to run around the tennis court and he screamed with excitement. He has never done this before. He closed the doors and started to run. He has also started turning on the lights all by himself when he walks into a room. It’s not a stim, but a functional activity that he initiates.

When Isaac first started the month of hyperbarics, he was very cuddly with his aide, and with his family. He was very loving, and usually he does not show affection towards us, so we welcomed this from him.

Overall for Isaac hyperbarics has been beneficial for his recovery. We know that it’s not a sprint but a marathon. We know that recovery is hard.

My husband’s use of the hyperbarics has helped him recover from physical exercise that he participates in order keep in shape for the military. It has been a morale booster as well, when we know we are doing all we can to help Isaac recover, and that you all have helped us do just that. We have all benefited from the use of the hyperbaric chamber. Isaac is healing every day.