Originally Posted by betsykk

My daughter is 30 hrs into a 5 day inpatient ICU treatment. No real pain changes yet but she is definitely getting foggier and more out of it. She has had ketamine several times before but only outpatient for 4 hrs/3 days a week. I am just wondering what to expect in the next few days.




[I'm not sure if you're dd is going inpatient or out. I did my 5 day inpatient in NY with another doctor and do my outpatient treatments with Dr. Shwartzman.

Honestly, everyone is different. I did feel some relief after about the 3rd day in the hospital but you tend to feel more significant relief as time goes by a bit more. I had my 5 day on November 1-5 2010 and have now had 3 of the 2 day booster infusions and I have felt improvement with each one.

After my 5 day alone, my drop in needed pain meds was dramatic. For the first time in years my pain actually felt manageable and I had hope again and looked forward to getting out of bed again. I went from being on every narcotic and opiate possible to now being on none. I do still take tramadol because we all have bad days but that's all I ever really need.

As for the booster infusions, they're done because most of the top RSD doctors do believe at this point that the dose of ketamine is not as important as the repeated treatments of it. Basically, the nervous system needs reminders every once in awhile so it behaves.

I really cannot recommend ketamine highly enough to people as long as their doctors feel they are good candidates and they're reputable doctors. That said. it is important to keep in mind that unfortunatelyl it doesn't work for everyone but when it does, it really is wonderful. But do realize, it isn't a cure and still is a daily struggle and will be for life, it just makes it so much easier to deal with and gives you such a better quality of life if you can get it.

Good luck and feel free to ask away with any questions.

Dawn