I understand what you're saying about Calmare, but frankly I'm also not interested in a debate. My options right now are:
1. drug me up so much that I can't have a normal life.
2. drug me only enough that I can attempt a normal life while living every moment in agonizing pain wondering "what if" about alternative treatments.
3. Calmare
4. ketamine
5. SCS or pain pump (and frankly I'm not interested in a pain pump)

I view SCS as a last alternative. I want to explore every possible other option before I let some doctor slice a hole in me and start implanting things in me. Some people say they have had success with Calmare. Some is more than none. And it's still cheaper for my portion of the payment than the payment than SCS.

There isn't a lot of "scientific" evidence for essential oils and how they can help either. And I thought that the idea they could help was a lot of wacky hippie nonsense. Until to get a friend off my back about it I let her give it a shot and they actually helped. It wasn't some placebo effect because for that to happen you have to believe in it, and I honestly thought it was stupid.

Maybe Calmare won't work. Maybe it would. I don't know. What I do know is that it is noninvasive and not particularly expensive compared to other treatments. The only reason my insurance is denying it is because of who would be administering the treatment, not because of what the treatment is, and they said that I may be able to still get it approved with enough supporting evidence. I'm not interested in some FDA paperwork that says it's a bunch of BS, I'm interested in whatever keeps me from going under the knife. At any rate, since the ketamine is approved, if it works it could be a very long time until I need to explore Calmare again and push for approval.