Thank you so much for your response. Because of the ketamine reducing my pain, I've gotten off the gabapentin (2400 mg/day). However, I think it might have actually been a mood enhancer for me. Not sure. And it did work well for me for the pain. Nevertheless, I don't miss the negative side effects. I'll deal with the reduced pain I have now without it.

It's very helpful for me to know the low dose ketamine you've been getting, similar to what they use for depression, has not affected your mood significantly. Perhaps it's not as effective for RSD patients as for patients with only or mostly depression issues.

I do take Effexor for neurogenic pain. It's the only drug I'm on now specifically for RSD. It's also a good antidepressant and it has helped with that as well. I also go to therapy. Twenty to 30 minutes of my neurofeedback sessions are with a licensed therapist to discuss feelings the neurofeedback is addressing or bringing out as my brain tries to normalize. I go to neurofeedback about three times a week on a regular schedule, so that's a good amount of therapy and the therapist is a good one for me. Due to some unavoidable circumstances, I haven't been able to have regular sessions over the last couple of months but I'm still going when I can. I'm on the schedule for three days next week. I can't describe the beneficial change in mood these treatments have brought me when I went regularly. It's expensive and insurance doesn't pay but it has been well worth it.

The entire reason for my question is because I had completed my sessions for the pain and mood centers of my brain and a second brain mapping showed improvement in the these areas at the time of the brain mapping. At this point I should only need boosters for this area since it has been "trained" and should pick up the more normal pathways with a little help now and then. How often we don't know. RSD affects the limbic centers of the brain so my mood and pain centers will continue to be affected negatively by the disease. I've had one booster and it showed we may need more frequent boosters than for someone with normal depression (not to minimize normal depression. It just may be different).

But back to the point of my original question. I also have POTS and it's out of control. My heart rate is shooting into dangerous zones upon standing. I'm dizzy and pass out frequently. I've done all the normal things with no relief. My rheumatologist wants me to travel to a center that specializes in treating POTS. POTS can be extremely refractory to treatment, as I have experienced. There's some scientific evidence that qEEG neurofeedback like I'm doing in those areas of the brain that control heart rate and blood pressure can help. So I want to do a full 30 sessions in that area first to see if it helps before I travel to yet more doctors. The problem is I'm now very depressed due to some life circumstances that would depress anybody, frankly. I was expecting and hoping that the ketamine I had a couple of weeks ago might help with the depression so I could proceed with the POTS treatments that I've already started instead of interrupting them by going back to the mood and pain centers of my brain, which would help my depression.

I can choose which areas I feel are most important when I go to my sessions. Unfortunately, it looks like I can't "cheat" by expecting the ketamine to help my depression so I'll have to suffer through more POTS disability before I can continue with those treatments. These treatments make you very tired since your brain has to work hard to reprogram so doing both areas at once or in seperate session on the same day is not an option.

Anyway, I hope this answers some questions, and perhaps even provides some information for others as I continue my journey of healing.

Thanks again,

Denise