About 10 days ago, Linmarie included a posting on this thread in which she said, in part:

Just wanted to let you all know that I talked to my PM about this. He was open to it & gave me the number of the psychiatric unit at a teaching hospital. He said, by definition, all people with RSD are depressed. No offense, GJmom. I think it's his way of saying that we should be able to get it. Maybe, away around the insurance.

Well, I met this morning with my psychologist, who raised the possibility that DSM IV Diagnostic criteria 293.83 for Mood Disorder Due to . . . [Indicate the General Medical Condition] might be able to provide a psychiatric diagnosis that we, our insurance companies and the ECT practitioners could live with. The full version of the Diagnostic Criteria reads as follows:

DSM IV Diagnostic criteria 293.83 for Mood Disorder Due to . . . [Indicate the General Medical Condition]

A. A prominent and persistent disturbance in mood predominates in the clinical picture and is characterized by either (or both) of the following:

1. depressed mood or markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities

2. elevated, expansive, or irritable mood.

B. There is evidence from the history, physical examination, or laboratory findings that the disturbance is the direct physiological consequence of a general medical condition.

C. The disturbance is not better accounted for by another mental disorder (e.g., Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood in response to the stress of having a general medical condition).

D. The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of a delirium.

E. The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

I have submitted this for my PM/shrink's review, but it surely looks like an interesting possibility.

Mike

Great find Mike! Hope that allows you guys to run with it!!

And speaking of running with it, CONGRADULATIONS BOSTON!!!

Had my 5th treatment today and all I can say is there's nothing here but upside folks (meaning it's all positive as far as I can tell). RUN - do not walk to get treated here as quickly as possible and get out of pain or at least get to a much more manageable level of pain!!!

Jan,

GREAT NEWS!!!!!
Thanks for keeping us posted

and MIKE
Those Celtics did indeed "run with it"
They were AMAZING
Our Lakers didn't have a chance

peeeeaaaaccceee

GnP

I'm disappointed to say that I'm logging back in today in order to report that this last treatment (on Friday the 20th) did not go well - pain in my knee actually increased rather than decreasing. Moreover, this time I am indeed experiencing noticeable and uncomfortable problems with short term memory loss and reliability. According to my partner (who is generally more attuned to these things than I) there has been noticeable memory dropout occurring since somewhere around the 3rd or 4th treatment.

Impact is enough that I won't be having any more treatments and am hoping that it clears up quickly now that we have stopped treatments.

Dear Jan -

PLEASE do not drop out without talking to your psychiatrist. It is my understanding that unless ketamine is used as the general anesthetic, a temporary loss in short term memory almost always "goes with the territory" of RUL ECT, but one recovers from it after 4 - 6 weeks. (This is in marked distiction to BL ECT, where there can be permanent retrograde amnesia.)

Frankly, I'm somewhat surprized that your practitioner didn't mention this up front. But seriously, it is not to worry.

Mike