Session Eleven 6-26-09

Session 11 of HBOT with Sevyn

(diagnosis autism age 3)

6-26-09

Today we fallowed yet another Olympic athlete in the hyperbaric chamber! Very cool! Sevyn jumped right into the chamber, but was really wanting to talk into the PSI meter like it was a microphone and I struggled a little bit with getting him to sit down so we could zip up and start compression. After yesterdays very promising Play Study with Marisa and my own successful skill time session with Sevyn, I decided to try going without the DVD player today. We sat at the observation window at the end of the chamber together and calmly sang and toned through the compression. We took it a little slow and he did really well. He’s been drinking water from a pop top sports bottle and that helps with popping his ears along with eating fruit leathers and singing. Dr. Matt’s assistant guided us through compression nicely today and came back to check on us regularly while Dr. Matt saw his patients. Shortly after we reached full compression Sevyn was telling me a story about space and I decided to try to film him since he was being so articulate. Well he snatched my camera right out of my hands. He’s never really cared about it before and I take lots of pictures of him. It seemed to me like he had just noticed it for the first time. He preceded to take photographs of me and the entire chamber for the rest of the hour! He was very focused and I was even able to get involved. I asked him to take a picture of me and he did! I posed by his feet and he took the picture when I smiled but not when I was frowning! I asked him to take a picture of my hand while holding it next to my foot and he carefully photographed my hand. Then I asked him to take a picture of himself and he photographed his foot and said "foot" then his knee and said "knee". Next he took some shots of the zipper and the pressure valve and said “not a choice” to me when we looked at the pics together!! I was in awe! He also photographed the windows in the chamber and was disappointed when he noticed that the stars had fallen from the side of the chamber saying “stars broken” and "all gone"with a sad face. Such amazing observations! He didn’t ask about Sponge Bob once throughout the session and was completely engaged and attentive to the activity of taking pictures with the camera and examining them. He labeled his hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth , teeth , and shirt for me using a photograph he took of himself!!!! He also said his name several times when I asked him who the boy in the pictures was! "Seben!" When we came home today Sevyn was quite calm. He helped me water the plants outside and even helped make dinner. He’s very interested in what I’m up to these days and comes up to me often to “check in” like never before. He’ll say “hey mom” and just give me a big hug! Oh, and today his father and I were folding laundry and he came into the room and said “babee Grey -TV!” in an urgent voice. Sure enough Grey had climbed our entertainment center and was messing with the TV! Sevyn told on his brother! He observed something that he knew was bad happening and came and let the adults know about it!! We are so proud of him!!! His diapers are looking better today. More formed poop and more of it, a little mucus and runny parts, but we started him back on the Slippery Elm and that should help. His sleeping was quite broken last night, but overall is definitely improving. Everyone benefits from him resting!