HBOT

Kajoli had asked about how the HBOT was going in her last comment (thanks for reading, by the way, Kajoli!) so I wanted to touch base on that quickly before going to get Hutton at the bus stop.

We did two sessions daily for a little under a month in the mild chamber we rented, and returned the chamber the Friday before Thanksgiving. So, it's been two weeks since we stopped, and now we're in the "watch and see what happens" phase, which is always a bit hard, as there's not a black and white answer to "does this help or not?" I'm going to keep watching over the next month and hope we see more improvements, but we won't be renting the hyperbaric chamber again for a while, even if we do see wows, because we don't have the money right now! Isn't that the case with most people? Sigh.

So, the positives I have seen so far: Hutton has been talking in longer sentences. This is always a tricky one, though, because couldn't it just be something he'd do anyway? Who knows? A new thing he started on our trip -- writing labels for various rooms and doors. At my sister-in-law's house, Hutton was given a pad of paper and some crayons. He wrote an "EXIT" sign and taped it to the door! Next, he asked about the spelling of "outside" and put that up below the exit sign. He proceeded to make signs for every room (kitchen, living room, office, bathroom, bedrooms, etc.) and make signs with "EXIT" for all doors and "outside" for doors that led outside. That was a crazy new thing, but I think it's a positive. He was writing, and learning how to spell new words. He made some signs for various rooms and doors when he got home, as well.

Another thing I noticed, also on our trip, was that his drawing has improved. He drew a picture of the motel we stayed at overnight the first night in NC, and it had three floors, stairs, and windows and doors. It was clear what the drawing was of, and Hutton has not really been interested in drawing before.

Other than those two things, I haven't noticed anything dramatically new or different, but again, I'm hoping for more developments! On our trip, cousins who hadn't really seen Hutton before all commented that they couldn't really tell he has autism. That's always good to hear, even if they're just being polite!

Oh, and we discovered that Hutton likes to play basketball, which I hadn't seen before, since we don't have a basketball hoop at home. I don't know if he's played at school or recess. My mother-in-law will probably be doing something about our lack of basketball hoop for Christmas!