Once Bitten
Patients who struggle with the incapacitating symptoms of Lyme disease and other inflammatory ailments find healing relief through Oxygen Oasis Hyperbaric Wellness Center.
by Bill Donahue

Tommy Calkins spent nearly 15 years dealing with a raft of mysterious and debilitating symptoms that increasingly disrupted his life. His inability to concentrate made school and work challenging. Pain in his joints turned the simplest movement into a chore. He suffered from extreme fatigue. Doctors could not seem to pinpoint his ailment.
 
Finally, at age 25, he received an accurate diagnosis: Lyme disease, caused by the bite of an infected tick. Through antibiotic treatments, paired with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) at Oxygen Oasis Hyperbaric Wellness Center in Langhorne, he found the healing relief that had eluded him for so long. He’s a different person now, free of chronic pain, and blessed with better cognitive function and more energy. From his career to his personal relationships, nearly every aspect of his life has improved.
 
“Lyme disease is hard to diagnose, and it can linger for years,” says Victoria Bliss-Calkins, the founder of Oxygen Oasis, as well as Calkins’s stepmother. “Too many people suffer for so long, until they find appropriate treatment from a Lyme-literate doctor. Many Lyme-literate doctors are very knowledgeable about HBOT and how well it works in concert with antibiotics to treat the tick-borne disease. Once people are diagnosed accurately and treated effectively, they regain their quality of life.”
 
Lyme infections have been detected in all 50 states, with the highest concentrations in Pennsylvania and other parts of the Northeast, where disease-bearing ticks are abundant. As her stepson’s case suggests, Bliss-Calkins says too many people are misdiagnosed for long periods of time. She cites Kris Kristofferson, the actor and singer whose memory loss had been misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. Rather, testing revealed he had spent as many as 30 years grappling with the incapacitating symptoms of Lyme. After several HBOT sessions, Kristofferson began to recover from the disease and act more like his old self.
 
“Lyme causes not only neurological symptoms, but also physical ones,” Bliss-Calkins adds. “We’re treating patients with Lyme who have many different symptoms, ranging from chronic joint pain to carditis, which is a potentially very serious condition because it interferes with the normal workings of the heart. We want to educate people who may be struggling with Lyme that there is a noninvasive alternative. HBOT, especially when paired with antibiotics, has been a very successful treatment. The outcomes are significant.”
 
HBOT’s effectiveness comes from its ability to increase vascularization and drive more oxygen into the bloodstream, allowing the repair of tissue, organs, and areas of the body that may have had restricted blood flow. Harmful organisms such as Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, thrive in anaerobic environments, so the oxygen-rich environment created by HBOT kills the bacterium in the body. Jason Friel, safety director for Oxygen Oasis, says Lyme patients tend to experience relief in as few as 10 treatments.
 
HBOT helps patients with multiple conditions tied to inflammation caused by disease or injury. Oxygen Oasis has treated patients for concussion, autism, stroke, migraine, and multiple sclerosis, among many other conditions.
 
Prior to prescribing HBOT, members of the Oxygen Oasis medical team evaluate each patient’s health history and overall wellness. Each 90-minute HBOT session immerses a patient in 100 percent oxygen within a pressurized hyperbaric chamber. During these sessions—called “dives” because the pressure simulates the experience of being 17 to 33 feet underwater—the environment increases oxygen concentration in the body at 15 to 20 times greater than normal at the cellular level. This, in turn, stimulates the formation of new blood vessels, reduces inflammation throughout the body, and accelerates the body’s ability to heal. 
 
Oxygen Oasis offers HBOT in two chamber options: monoplace, designed for a single patient or a parent and a child; and multiplace, a larger chamber that can be used to treat multiple patients comfortably in a single session. Certified hyperbaric technicians supervise each session to protect each patient’s safety for the duration of treatment, according to Bliss-Calkins. She adds that Oxygen Oasis is accredited by The Joint Commission, meaning the facility has been thoroughly vetted by a respected independent body and been determined to meet or exceed a high standard of care.
 
As for Tommy Calkins, he cannot imagine returning to the Lyme-related misery he experienced prior to undergoing 40 HBOT dives in combination with antibiotics. He feels remarkably better to this day, with resolution to the Lyme symptoms that upended his life.
 
“The aches and pains in my joints have gone away, I have more energy, my memory has improved, I am more focused at my job, and I can complete tasks on time,” he says. “The clarity I feel now is what I assume to be normal. I am so glad that I have experienced the healing relief of Lyme disease through the protocol of antibiotics and HBOT.”
 
Oxygen Oasis Hyperbaric Wellness Center
848 Town Center Drive
Langhorne, PA 19047
(215) 352-3720
o2oasis.com
 
Photograph by Nina Lea Photography
 
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, January 2022.