Doing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

I just cam back from Cyprus. On the island, I spend 2 weeks sitting in a chamber for 90 Minutes, breathing pure Oxygen while under a preassure of 2.0 bar ata. I did this because there are some very promising studies on it for Long Covid and it is way cheaper over there. I'd like to use this post to reflect on this journey.

Planning

I had HBOT as an treatment in mind for a Long Time, especially because of this overview study. To the best of my knowledge, at time of writing, HBOT is one of the few (the only one? I don't know) treatments that have shown significant reduction in symptoms in up to a year follow up questionaire - and of course, that's what we are after. Long term healing. After doing some research where I could do it, it became apparent to me, that doing it in Germany would be way more costly than in other countries. I eventually settled for Cyprus. The total cost for 10 sessions was 1450 EUR (only had to pay for 9), whereas in Germany it would have been 3500 EUR. Given that I was planning to fly with my girlfriend, the trip doubled as vacation.

Arrival

Arriving at the small medical facility on the 7th of Januarary, I was kindly greeted and led into the doctors office. The conversation was the one I expected. I described my symptoms and was recommended HBOT. The doctor theorized that my Problem was mainly hormonal. The nighlty waking up at the same time would be an indicator for that. She further said that I should take some thyroid and adrenal gland support. At last, I said to her that I heavily suspect a histamine - more clearly that I think I suffer from Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and explained my reasoning to her. She refused and said MCAS is not real. The reasoning for why HBOT would help me was "to let your body heal" (not exact quote). I remember her reasoing as using many vague words. But this did not discourage me, knowing the state of the studies.

Just for a fun comparison: My doctor in germany (who applies a lot of HBOT) has the following view: MCAS is real and many Long Covid Patients suffer from it, additionally to other systemic prolems. He also said that we simply don't know the pathogenesis of Long Covid. We also don't know why exactly HBOT works but he suspects it repairs damaged blood vessles, especially in the brain.

The Sessions

As far as sitting in the chamber goes.. not very spectacular after the first time. The only unpleasent times might be compression and decompression, at the start and end of each sitting. I had more problems with compression than decompression - I experienced some pain in my forehead (sinus cavities), we stopped the descent and I was able to balance it out by performing pressure equalisation.

But I was not alone. I met some very nice people in there, most of them doing it for Long Covid, while others did it for Lyme and (as far as i could understand) for post-cancer. I was eager to speak to the Long Covid patients. Somehow it gives you some comfort if you know someone else is experiencing the same symptoms.

I went to the clinic every day during the week. I was always very sleepy after it and slept for 20-40 minutes when I arrived at my airbnb (if I could).

Effects on my body

I'll make it short. the only thing that happened after 4-5 sessions was my nasal polyp had completely shrunk and I could breath through both nostrills. As I said before, I was very sleepy after the treatments but other than that, I had my usual ups and downs of both fatigue and brainfog. I dreamt a lot mroe. My nail bed has a very white color, which isn't health (one doc said its a sign of bad blood circulation). I was hoping to see some improvement there but nope.

External Factors

Big one. If I learned one thing, then it's that - again - Long Covid is an illness that affects the whole body and thus manifests itself in every part of ones daily live. Traveling to and from the clinic was stressfull for me, as Larnaca busses are really unreliable. Also, there are a lot of loud cars and the air quality is not the best. Additionally, I had to follow my low histamine, unprocessed diet a bit more strictly (because I didn't want to ruin my progress). This in turn meant, that we had to cook in a very restricted kitchen in our Airbnb every day. If I would have made this journey on my own, I probably wouldn't have been able to follow the diet. I was so exhausted sometimes, that I couldn't cook. My girlfriend luckily cooked for me most of the times, which I'am super thankful about! Sadly, the list of stressing things did not end there. At the time we both had some strict uni deadlines we had to obey and thus, when I was finished with treatment and had slept a bit, we were both busy working on uni for the rest of the day. This, combined with not the best sleep due to there being parties in the city late at night and generally loud cars in the early morning put a lot of external stress on my body. Everyone who suffers from chronic illness knows what stress does to you.

Closing Thoughts

You might find it suprising, but I'm still an advocate for HBOT, because of the stduies. One must say, that I only did 10 sessions, where all studies used a minimum of 20. In retrospekt, the external stress of being in another country, having to cook every day, the transfer (including initial and final 10hour transfer from and back to germany), and the the university deadlines were suboptimal. I think I would have gotten way more out of the treatment if I had no stress and plenty time to rest.

Next time, I'll make sure those factors are right and I'll plan for more sessions. But maybe humanity has found some other treatment by then. I am not overly sad. I'm glad I tried it and will stick to everything I know works for me and not give up!