My son David

Let me introduce you to my eldest son David, he is 15 and suffers from chronic osteomyelitis, a terribly painful infection he has had for more than 2 1/2 years, a pain he has borne with strengh and courage and never a bad word.

Because pain is something you get used to when it repeats itself, it’s almost an accepted way of life and can be dealt with silently and stoicly by those like David with an uncomplaining nature. Fortunately, it is occuring in less frequent bouts. Nevertheless, as his X ray showed this week at the world famous Great Ormond Street Hospital, London the infection is still in his jawbone, raging away and held at bay by very strong antibiotics that turn his bones yellow.

One course of treatment I discussed with his consultant Peter Ayliffe is hyperbaric oxygen therapy similar to the one highlighted by the link. He has used this treatment on similar cases in Scotland and was successful in varying degrees.

However, the treatment could involve daily visits to the pressure tank for seven months, so it needs to be readily available in the area close to where you live. So if you know of any practitioner with a pressure chamber in Cambridgeshire. please let me know asap.

While visiting the hospital, and with David being a happy chappy despite everything, we always count our blessings when we see so many terribly more unfortnate children than David.