Originally Posted by LovesTerriers

Personally, I did not benefit from the treatment. In fact, it was a complete nightmare. They started me at 20 mg/hour and after 2 days I was up to 200 mg/hour for 7 days(fyi..I am 5'7" and weigh 125 lbs). I was told I would be able to eat and converse. Nope. I was confined to my bed, could barely find the button to push for the nurse to "bed pan" me, was unable to eat (besides a Ensure nutritional drink every so often), I was hallucinating wildly, as the only drug they gave me to control hallucinations was Ativan, which did nothing. When I got outpatient infusions I received Versed and had no hallucinations. I really did not get all of the facts up front, and should have asked more questions on the medications I would be receiving. I seriously thought I had died and was living a "Groundhog's Day" type of purgatory each day. Finally, on the last day when they stopped the ketamine and asked if I wanted to try to get out of bed and walk and was so relieved and wanted to run out of that hospital.
I did get some pain relief for about 6 weeks, however, my symptoms of insomnia and night sweats persisted. After the 6 weeks, the pain did come back with a vengeance. I know some doctors and programs have patients go through boosters a few weeks after, then a month, 3 months, 6 months, and so on. The doctor I was seeing did not believe in boosters. I did re-start my outpatient ketamine infusions with my local PM, however, they became ineffective and no longer provided pain relief.
I am now looking at other options for pain control. Options I thought I would never consider, but I am at my last resort for pain relief, as I need to have hip surgery on my CRPS leg and the surgeon will not do it until my CRPS is under control. Kind of a "catch 22" of sorts.