Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs. Peyton (Sorry, from the initials I can't tell wheher
it's Mr. or Ms. or Mrs.):

In reading today's (9/19) PDIEN Digest, I saw your note about how
administering 02 apparently helped your father by diminishing/halting his
hallucinations. I have no experience directly with this, but I
thought that you might be interested in a few related items:

(1) Within this past week, I saw a TV news-item (it may have been on the
NYC affiliate of Warner Brothers TV Network, WPIX-TV) about an "oxygen
bar" that was recently opened somewhere in California (probably San
Francisco) and is said to be the first of its kind. Instead of going in for
a drink, people go in, sit at the counter, and, for a fee, are hooked up with
a nasal cannula (=thin breathing-tube that goes under the nostrils), and
are given pure oxygen to breathe for awhile. In the news-item, customers said
it's a great stress-reliever and energizer. So if your doctor is shocked at
the idea that you're suggesting 02 for your father, maybe you can track
this item down and tell your doctor about it.

(2) Since the mid-1970s, there has been a well-established medical
treatment utilizing high percentages of oxygen, for a variety of
illnesses and medical traumas. It's called "hyperbaric oxygenation
therapy". Some hospitals are equipped with the necessary devices -- e.g.,
a special (and usually large) cylindrical pressure-chamber, similar to the
decompression chambers used by divers to counter the dangers of having the
bends. (I don't think that there are any HBO Therapyy devices for the
home.) The key idea of this HBO Therapy is that the patient is placed
inside the chamber, and then the ratio of 02-to-air inside the chamber is
gradually increased to a specified level, as the pressure inside the
chamber is also increased to a specified level; the result is that the
oxygen is forced to be more effectively dissolved into the blood, via
bubbles that are far  smaller than they'd be in regular sea-level
air-pressure, and thus the oxygen (also at a higher %) can more readily
reach (and provide nourishment to) those areas of the body/brain that
otherwise would not have enough 02.

Check into this. Perhaps it can offer something of use; and *if* your
doctor or hospital (and insurer) approve its use for even a "trial run"
for your father (if he's up to it), and *if* it helps him, perhaps that
would offer a powerful clue as to planning a course of 02-treatment for
him. (Note: I am not a medical professional, and I am only speculating,
based on your PD Digest note, that 02 may be of help.)

(3) Lastly, just a thought: If, as you implied in your PD Digest note,
extra 02 helped diminish/remove your father's hallucinations, have you
considered (and has the doctor considered) that perhaps a key cause of the
hallucinations is not so much PD alone but possibly (a) PD meds impacting
on the oxygen-uptake mechanisms of the brain, (b) PD itself impacting on
the oxygen-uptake mechanisms of the brain, (c) a *non-PD* cause of the
brain getting insufficient oxygenation during the hallucination-periods?

I hope my thoughts are of some help. ASnd I wish you and your father well.

-- SS
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   9/19/96