I saw a Maxilo-Facial specialist on Monday and he perscribed me a ketamine/gabapentin/lidocane face cream (compounded) to use to treat my shadows. I apply it every few hours on my cheek bone and under my right eye and it has taken away my shadows for 2 and a half hours consistently. It takes around 15 minutes to work on me.
Anyone else have good luck with this stuff? I'm looking into ketamine as a treatment for my CH cycle next.

One of the doctors who spoke at the recent clusterbusters conference has several patients on ketamine for their CH.

Joe

Guiseppi wrote on Sep 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

One of the doctors who spoke at the recent clusterbusters conference has several patients on ketamine for their CH. Joe

Do you have his name or contact information/any papers he has written about the subject?

I was hoping someone more intimately familiar with the good doc would respond. He spoke at the clusterbusters conference and was far and away the hi-lite of the weekend for me. You would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable, passionate, and caring advocate for cluster heads.

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I found him online and confirmed with the photo it's the right doctor. His session on what he uses "when all else fails" was awesome.

Joe

McGeeney is the best Neuro I have ever met, hands down.  I have been prescribed intranasal ketamine for a few years now.  Before I was prescribed it I was in and out of the emergency room all the time, it was getting to be about once a month.  Since getting put on the Ketamine spray I have not ended up in the ER once, and for the first time in my life I am working 40 hours a week.  Never heard of the topical form, glad to hear that it is working. 

I have not seen any papers the McGeeney has written on the use of Ketamine for clusters (although he did write up a pretty amazing paper on cannabanoids and hallucinogens effect on Migraines and Clusters...) but he has said he is willing to send some info on his work to other docs considering the therapy.  He has a account here on ch.com, and one on Clusterbusters.  My guess is that you can probably get him quicker if you message him on the Clusterbusters site.

-Ricardo

Thanks Ricardo, must be awesome having him as a neuro I developed an immediate "Bromance" with the guy after he spoke at the conference. What a genuinely great guy. Told my wife it would have been awesome if HE was my first neuro 35 years ago!

Joe

#necrothread

Does this doctor prefer nasal ketamine as needed or a pill ketamine on a daily basis?

The bioavailability of ketamine through the oral route is not very good, (not to mention that then you have to wait an hour for the pill to kick in) so he prescribes the intranasal spray.  I can take it 10 days straight but then I need to take at least 5 days off so I do not become a ketamine fiend...I get daily clusters so 5 days off is not the easiest thing in the world, but those 10 days make it worth it.  I also can feel kinda cranky during those 5 days.  Sometimes it's more apparent then others, don't know why.  (then again, being cranky on the days that I have to just tough it out with the clusters may not even really have much to do with Ketamine at all....) 

One big advantage of the spray is that the majority of the effects wear off after an hour or so...

Question--do you feel the intoxicating effects of the ketamine cream at all?

-Ricardo

Ricardo wrote on Oct 7^th, 2013 at 8:33am:

The bioavailability of ketamine through the oral route is not very good, (not to mention that then you have to wait an hour for the pill to kick in) so he prescribes the intranasal spray.  I can take it 10 days straight but then I need to take at least 5 days off so I do not become a ketamine fiend...I get daily clusters so 5 days off is not the easiest thing in the world, but those 10 days make it worth it.  I also can feel kinda cranky during those 5 days.  Sometimes it's more apparent then others, don't know why.  (then again, being cranky on the days that I have to just tough it out with the clusters may not even really have much to do with Ketamine at all....)  One big advantage of the spray is that the majority of the effects wear off after an hour or so... Question--do you feel the intoxicating effects of the ketamine cream at all? -Ricardo

at 2%, no. I've read reports of people who have 10% creams combined with baclofen and amitriptaline that do though.
It help (ed) me get to sleep for a few nights but it isn't really doing the job anymore.