Kathy -

I am so sorry to hear what you went through.

This is all so strange to me. Six years ago I had a 5-day Lidocaine infusion at Hahnemann, owned at that time by Tenant, with wonderful care provided by Dr. Schwartzman and his group, Drexel Neurological Associates. I remember one morning in great pain - the Lidocaine wasn't working - and a kindly resident prescribed a shot of Demerol. And then when my hospitalization took an extra day because I needed a (now quaint) central line in order to get the leads into my constricted veins, Dr. Schwartzman came in on a Saturday and spent over an hour in a discharge meeting with my wife and me, explaining that a trip to Germany for the ketamine coma was then my best option: something that was scratched once the German doctors learned I had glaucoma.

But in my time, the only thing that people of that time routinely complained of was how hot the 20th floor always seemed to be.

I have no idea what/why things appear to have changed. The one thing that hasn't - to my knowledge - is the ketamine patient's need to remain as stress free as possible in the weeks after discharge, in order for the infusion to do its thing. As tough as that sounds, you have to try and give it a go.

Good luck.

Mike

PS Sandy, let me get the jump on Pete here, Dr. Getson trained with Dr. Schwartzman alright, but it was at Thomas Jefferson Hospital, i.e. pre-Drexel University School of Medicine. Heck, I remember when Drexel was just an engineering school adjacent to 30th Street Station.