K is for ketamine therapy. While ketamine is controversial in its use to sedate people while they are being arrested, ketamine therapy is also used to treat addiction, mental health conditions such as depression and OCD, and chronic pain therapy.
Ketamine has been absolutely life-changing for my mental health and chronic pain. In the treatment of trauma recovery, PTSD, and the overall ‘ache of existing’ that Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome comes with, these are all nagging constantly. My brain can at times be a crowded bus station where triggers and pain are everywhere, and identity related aggressions are frequent.
This treatment is covered by insurance for me, but covering it for chronic pain is relatively new. To give you an idea of what it is typically like to find treatment for a relatively new treatment, I’d like to outline the steps I went through to get this treatment.
1. February: Read about ketamine in one of the support groups I belong to. Heard positive reviews from a coworker and even more positive reviews from a friend with the same disease.
2. March: Contacted my primary care doctor for a referral. She had none so I then:
3. Contacted TouchCare to have them help me find providers
TouchCare could only find those who treated mental health instead of chronic pain. Insurance won’t approve for chronic pain.
4. Late March: Have an appointment with a doctor that allegedly uses ketamine for pain management. Filled out 16 pages of paperwork, made an 8am appointment, and at 8:05 was leaving the office because the doctor walked in and immediately said, “I don’t want to waste your time. I don’t know who told you I use ketamine to treat chronic pain, but I only use it in select surgeries.”
5. Early April: Give up for a while because I’m tired of chasing. It’s always like this? Why is getting care so hard?
6. Mid-April: Decide to use my SEO skillz to look for “denver” + “ketamine for chronic pain” +” UHC”. I immediately found two providers, contacted them both, and within two weeks had my first appointment.
7. Late May: Wrapped up my first cycle. Because of ketamine, I was able to drive to Iowa, Michigan, and Illinois to visit with friends and family, and to meet my amazing niece for the first time.
8. In June, I had my first maintenance treatment and in early July I went back for my second. With each appointment, I find I have more energy and fewer pain days. My mental health has DRASTICALLY improved in the process.
Getting ketamine therapy was a cakewalk compared to fighting for my first hip surgery to be covered by insurance, but this is still a pretty “normal” path between a new treatment plan and the amount of time it takes to actually get treatment. Our healthcare system, on top of being expensive, takes forever.
For more on ketamine therapy, check out this article from Psychology Today.