Posted by brynb on February 8, 2013, at 15:10:26
In reply to Re: Moving Forward with Ketamine » brynb, posted by jrbecker76 on February 8, 2013, at 14:52:14
> B-
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> I'm surprised they plan on stepping you down to a ketamine injection just 1x a month as an eventual maintenance schedule. Is this part of a protocol that they've formulated with their experience with past patients? I assumed they'd at least wait for you to stabilize more on a week to week basis before making that determination. From what I've read, most patients receiving maintenance treatment on a weekly to biweekly schedule. Curious what there experience is with maintenance dosing.
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> Also, what is the dosage per injection?
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> I was also wondering about your experience with the benzodiazepines. You mentioned issues with anergia and being reclusive. For me, the benzos made these issues worse. But I found that Valium and Klonopin were bigger offenders when it came to this than Ativan was. Not sure if you have any experience with it but just wanted to throw it out there.
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> JBHi JB-
I'm not really sure, but I think their protocol has been once the patient is stabilized via Ketamine, maintenance is once or twice a month or every 3 weeks. I'll speak to my doctor more about this next week (I'm going in again on Tuesday). I've reacted positively fairly quickly. It seems I have a high tolerance for it, too. Dosages are based on weight, but at my session yesterday, I had an initial 30 mg, then a 2nd round of 30 mg, and lastly, a 10 mg injection for a total of 70 mg IM. I titrated up to this dose over the past 2 weeks. I'll let you know what they decide to do in terms of number of injections, etc. going forward.
It's costly. At $250 a treatment, it's been $500 a week, but I will say that the pdoc is there to talk to me and answer questions and I'm not charged separately for his time. He doesn't rush me and he listens. My family is paying for it; without them I don't know where I'd be.
As far as anergia, I'm pretty tolerant to benzos, and found Valium to be the best for me; I get a lot of muscular aches and pains and it helps with that, too. The Ketamine treatments render me exhausted afterwards. I'm still having difficulty with cognitive functions and irritability, but I was told to give that time, so I'll reassess in the upcoming weeks. Actually, I wonder if Lexapro is contributing to these symptoms, too. I don't doubt it.
Hope you're doing well,
b
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
poster:brynb
thread:1036949
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