Dear Byates,

Yes, I do feel it worked, but in my case I feel some possible damage still resides in my arm from my original injury. Having symtoms of pain is not always RSD, so when 1 person says "it worked great for me" and 1 says, "it's did nothing and was a horrible experience. Who know's what is going on in each persons situation to get such different opinions. I would try and go day by day with Dr. Kirkpatrick and see how she does each day. It's a very hard call. If I was in your shoes and could afford it I would make the trip to NYC and get a second opinion. If you decide to call there, I believe I gave you the website, they will tell you he is not taking any more RSD patients on but I believe he will do a ketamine infusion, 5 day inpatient, and then have the follow up with her current pain managment team or someone else for the boosters. The pain team at HSS do many other treatments besides ketamine, ketamine is properly low on the list. I believe the hospital will only allow one person per week, it's looked at very seriously.

What SandyRI said is very true about treatment v expensive. I don't believe in doctors who want all cash up front. I have stated this before on this fourm but one of the doctors treating me during one of my infusions made a statement about some doctors and ketamine treatment. The statement was an answer to a opinion I asked about this whole ketamine treatment with the boosters and doctors who just do that and there are quite a few and quite famous for it. Without talking against any particular doctor the statement was and this was from a pretty well known doctor, and I quote him, "if thats all they do what do you think". In my situation I was a long time patient of my doctor who did my infusions in NYC and I was never asked for a penny prior to my infusions, I did have some out of pocket but as I said in my previous post my insurance did cover most of it. I don't know much about Dr. Kirkpatrick and I hate to make a negative statement about him because I know your hopes are so high for your daughters recovery but you want real reacovery if it can be reached. Another thing I have learned about doctors, we treat them like they are above us, but medicine is a strange game it deals with human life but it's still a business just like anything else, so I treat it like I treat my business and clients with respect until they don't deserve it anymore.

I truly wish you the best. Keep us posted.

Gabbycakes.