Happy new year everybody! Let it be a happy, healthy, wonderful and blessed 2020 with a lot of love, self love, and gratitude.
You haven't heard from me in quite a while. I'm very sorry for that. As you may be already know, I started this blog because I couldn't find info online about being healthy while being ill. There are a lot of articles about a healthy lifestyle, food, skincare, makeup, fitness, etc. But they all assume that you're in perfect health. But it turns out that a lot of people have their inconveniences/illnesses. Some have a minor impact on your life and others ones have a huge impact on your life and your quality of life. I'm experiencing the same as I've had a car accident and I'm still recovering. The last couple of weeks I was in a lot of pain and it could barely be controlled while I had to wait for my next treatment: Ketamine. The pain took over my mind, so I couldn't write any blogs.
But now, over to the Ketamine treatment. I'll tell you about my experience up till today and add later on some new information. I had the treatment for nervical pain but it's also used for depression.
Prep
I got a brochure from the clinic with info about the treatment and I googled quite a lot. You'll find there's a lot of information online and that they're not all in line with each other. At least high over I knew what to expect, and for the rest, I didn't really care. My main objective was to get rid of the pain, and I didn't care in what manner I got rid of it.
I only prepped a bag to bring with me for during the treatment. I brought:
Different kinds of food with me because you are likely to get nauseous. So I brought food with me that calms my stomach and I feel like eating even when I'm nauseous. Also I don't really like hospital food, so I figured to bring something myself. In retrospect I only liked my yoghurt as they had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.
Some drink I really like, to make sure I would drink enough during treatment. This wasn't necessary as they gave me an IV with fluids and they had tea and water.
Bring entertainment as it's quite a long day. During treatment my eyes had a hard time to focus so I couldn't read a book. The letters were dancing, and my mind had troubles putting the storyline together. I brought an iPad and watched movies a had seen before so I was familiar with the storyline for the moments I dozed off.
Treatment day
On THE day I was very early at the clinic. They brought me to a bed and told me it was okay to keep my shoes on as that would make it easier for bathroom trips during the day. I couldn't really imagine this as I thought I could slip into my shoes when I needed to go to the bathroom. But later I was thankful for this advice.
The IV was inserted and connected to the Ketamine. They started with a shot of Ketamine to create a level of it in your blood and later on it will drip in slower and will be increased over time. That shot was one of the weirdest experiences I ever had. In advance they told me that the first couple of minutes could be quite intense and that I shouldn't try to fight it as that makes it more uncomfortable for myself and just enjoy the ride. This was a great advice and avoided me being overwhelmed by what happened next. I blacked out for I don't know how long. The first thing I experienced consciously next were a lot of colors and shapes whilst having my eyes closed, very intense smell, and sound (the clinic was next to a construction site so there was quite some sound), and I felt as if I was rolling over backwards. It's quite mellow when you don't try to fight it. When trying to fight it it felt quite uncomfortable.
After a while I was able to slightly open my eyes and my vision was crappy, so I closed my eyes again until most effects of this first shot wore off. While my vision slowly stabilized I figured out I could only speak jibberish and my hands and feet felt like they were somebody else's. So it was great they told me to keep my shoes on Do I didn’t have to put them on for bathroom brakes.
Most of this wore off so I could grab a drink and start watching a movie. Time flew by as I dozed off once in a while and I was in a kind of happy high mood. It was best to keep my eyes open as I saw the colors and shapes again the moment I closed my eyes. When they unplugged the IV I still had to stay for an hour and could go home as I felt okay.
After
The first 1,5 weeks after the treatment you can experience the side effects and it can also take up this time to feel any effect. The side effects I experienced were:
Blurry and unstable sight
Nausea
Sleepy
Unstable walk
Lightheaded
Dizziness
Feeling high
My side effects take longer than what I expected. Which is tricky as being unstable caused me to walk into walls, doors, and almost falling over. So I need help and ask other people to do groceries and smaller inhouse chores. Also I didn’t realize that everything costs a lot of energy due to compensating for the side effects. So give yourself a break to recover from the treatment.
This is all from personal experiences, and won’t guarantee that this is the best option for you. Every person is different and react different to influences, products and treatments.
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