Pain Treatment
Chronic pain is any pain that lasts for 3 months or longer. The pain may arise from an injury or an ongoing illness. Chronic pain can significantly limit a person’s movements including their strength, stamina, and flexibility. It also can often lead to a person becoming completely incapacitated and unable to perform daily tasks. Over 100 million Americans suffer from some type of chronic pain.
Pain signals from an injury or traumatic event can remain active in the nervous system for months, or even years. Those dealing with chronic pain often develop feelings such as depression, anxiety, fatigue, anger, and stress – making the pain even worse. The combination of these can lead to a decrease of the body’s production of natural painkillers.
Types of Chronic Pain
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain that causes widespread pain and tenderness within the muscles and tissues of the body. The level of pain can range anywhere from moderate to severe. It is still unsure what exactly causes Fibromyalgia, but researchers believe Fibromyalgia affects the way in which your brain processes pain signals, causing it to strengthen painful sensations. Fibromyalgia has also been found to be more common in women than in men.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), is a disorder caused by damaged nerves on a specific part of the body. CRPS usually occurs after an injury. In the most serious of cases, CRPS can disrupt a person’s daily life and even lead to depression or other disorders. The pain associated with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is often alleviated through pain medicine, which many doctors are hesitant to prescribe, or even antidepressants.
Symptoms of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome often include changes in skin temperature and color, abnormal sweating around the affected area, restricted muscle and joint movement, burning pain, swelling, and extreme sensitivity to touch.
Ketamine Infusion Treatment for Fibromyalgia and CRPS
Ketamine Infusion Solutions offers low dose Ketamine infusions to patients that suffer from Fibromyalgia and CRPS. Ketamine infusion treatments have shown to help significantly lessen the chronic pain that Fibromyalgia and CRPS bring. Research has also shown that infusion therapy has created a positive impact on the body’s nervous system by giving its neurotransmitters a “reboot”.
Prescription pain medications often bring with them long-term side effects and dependency issues. Ketamine infusions help to prevent this dependency of prescription pain medications and antidepressants.
These infusions are not a cure, but rather an ongoing treatment that helps to stabilize the negative effects of chronic pain. In order to obtain the best results, Ketamine infusions should be used in conjunction with other treatments, such as prescription medications or therapeutic programs.
What to Expect During Your Ketamine Infusion for Chronic Pain
The infusion is administered by IV. Shortly after the infusion process begins, you may start to feel a tingling sensation or a sense of feeling “heavier”. Many patients find this to be a calming and relaxing feeling. Each patient will have a different reaction to the treatment. Most common side effects of the infusion include drowsiness and mild nausea.
Very rarely do patients ever feel uncomfortable during the treatment. If you’re concerned about feeling anxious, we welcome you to bring a family member, friend, or even some calming music to listen to in order to make you feel more at ease.
Ketamine infusions will not cause you to hallucinate. It has not been shown to affect the same receptors that other hallucinogens do. Rather, Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that is used in a dosage low enough that this should not be a concern. The treatment may cause you to become more sensitive to light, so we make sure to keep the lighting low to diminish this result.
Some patients begin to feel relief from the pain while still receiving the infusion, while many also begin to feel relief within just a few hours after they’ve received the treatment. Results tend to last for a few days after the first treatment. With subsequent treatments, your results should begin to last for a longer period of time, allowing for less frequent treatments. Many patients see a significant improvement in their pain within as few as 1 or 2 treatments.
Ketamine Infusions and Medications
Before you receive your first Ketamine treatment, we will discuss with you your medical history, including any medications you are taking. While most pain medications are safe to take while receiving Ketamine treatments, pain medications may need to be reduced or stopped if it is felt they may not react well with the Ketamine infusion. These decisions will be discussed with a physician.
