Monday, December 21, 2009

HBOT and a little holiday fun!

A fun day! We took Matthew to the Irvine Railroad park to ride the Christmas train and see Santa.


The weather was very nice and the lines were not bad.


We love our little guy!

After the train we went to Ladera Ranch to walk Candy Cane Lane and see the pretty lights.

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Today we started HBOT, or Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Here is a link that explain it's use in ways I never could.
http://www.hbotreatment.com/Autism.htm
I know many people would think this is drastic and does not have enough data to prove it's worth, but we have found some great gains with unconventional and alternative medicines. We have friends whose children have benefited greatly from this so we felt we needed to give this a try.
So......today was rough. The chamber is small and we are in for 70 minutes. In addition, Matthew wears a hood that he cannot remove that delivers pure oxygen to him in addition to the pressure from the chamber which is at 1.3 ATA. As the pressure was turned on he creid a lot because his ears hurt. Mine did too. The hood prevented him from rubbing his ears and even wiping away his tears. He did adjust after about 15 minutes or so but did not find it a pleasant experience at all. Needless to say it was a LONG 70 minutes. He was exhausted from crying and and took a nap on the way home. Typically it takes about 20+ dives before any changes are seen so we will see how it goes.


Matthew was all smiles when we got there. He said he was going in the space ship and wearing a helmet like Buzz Lightyear.

You can bring in toys, DVDs and computers. Anything to pass the time but no food or water and the helmet stays on until he exits the chamber.

He was a trooper and it made me so sad that I could not even kiss away his tears. He is such a brave boy and made it through. 1 session down, 39 to go!
His ears were hurting as he had not adjusted to the pressure yet.

Once his ears adjusted he was a little calmer but could not wait to get out!
Mom and Dad are so proud of you Matthew! You did a great job!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Matthew and Santa


This year is fun as now Matthew gets Santa. He is not particularly fond of sitting in his lap but will in order to tell him that he wants a toy dog (took some prompting to slip the word "toy" in). At least we got him off the kick on answering "brother and sister"!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The smile that makes my day!




This child is pure joy! The love of my life!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

December Days

This weekend was our kickoff to December. Saturday we got together with Keiko's family to celebrate her 40 th birthday at our favorite place....Shabu! We all love it and have a great time there.


Still fab at 40! Ridiculous that she looks so good.
Happy Birthday Keiko!

All of us with the owner, Hot Mama!
After dinner we took the boys ice skating. It was a beautiful night for it and they had a blast.


My precious nephews....they are growing so fast.
I love you Andrew and Zach!

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Sunday we went to get our Christmas tree. Matthew had fun just running around and hiding behind the trees. Does he have an impish face or what? I loved these photos!




He was all smiles and so sweet.

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Last night I had a chance to get out with friend and see Roger's Gardens for their Christmas display. It was beautiful, really quite amazing.


Such a nice relaxing evening, perfect way to start a week.

Thanks for a great night!