Ketamine Works!

I promise I'll go back and fill in how I ended up in the hospital again and how I found out about  ketamine, but I'm trying to first get info to the other patients I met who battle with depression.  Today is day four.  On Sunday (day 3) at 2:40 pm a thought came to me:  I want to live!  Today--I'm NOT DEPRESSED!  I'm still sleeping through the night.  I had a great day; nothing special--did a thorough scrubbing on my bathroom, had lunch out with a friend, just got home from a board meeting with the Domestic Violence advocate service I volunteer for. 

I'm not being negative when I say I'm making full use of my six days--the average time the ketamine effect lasts.  In 100% of the case studies, the effect wears off.  I can handle some more days or even months of depression.  What I could no longer handle was what I perceived as the sheer hopelessness of the depression. 

This is the link to the Medscape article (which I would never have found without my contributor Delle) about ketamine:  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/736133 - "Is ketamine ready for prime time? It's very close to being ready for prime time. These are approved medications; they are very safe. Ketamine is used many times a day in this very institution, at UCSD Medical Center. We have a population of patients who have no other option; they are extremely ill, their lives are miserable; they have tried everything. For that reason, weighing the risks and benefits, we have actually begun a protocol here at UCSD Medical Center where we offer intravenous ketamine infusions for patients in this situation, making it clear to them that this is not an approved medication, that this is not going to be covered by insurance, but that it could be very beneficial for them. If nothing else, sometimes it is helpful just to provide hope. Some people with treatment-resistant depression have not felt well for many years, and they start believing that nothing will make them feel better. If you can give them some hope, sometimes that itself is very beneficial. Keep an eye on intravenous ketamine; I think it could potentially be a real game changer in our field."

You can hear more about ketamine by going to National Public Radio's website and searching for the 2 broadcasts on Jan. 30 and 31, 2012.  Several people contacted me that night and the next day to tell me about the broadcast on the 31st.  It gave me so much hope I immediately called my new shrink (but I'd known him from when I was in the psych ward in Jan. '11) to make an appt. which was 3 weeks off.  I then canceled my appt with suicide on Feb. 2 and thought I'd make one last effort.