Photos at the clinic

In the Infusion Room before the treatment started. That's not a bad smile after a 5Am start! There are 11 of these chairs in the infusion room and there have been 6-8 other patients having the same treatment at the same time.

5AM starts are catching up! This extra sleep came in handy when Luke and I had an 8km walk to Chestnut Hill this afternoon.

Day 3 Treatment

Another 5AM start to get Emma to the infusion room by 7AM. Today she received the same dose as yesterday (150mg of ketamine over 4 hours). She is taking 1mg of lorazepam morning and night to avoid the bad dreams that ketamine would otherwise cause. She calls these her "Harry Potter pills" as Harry was given something similar after a clash with "you know who". She continues to have midazolam at the beginning and the middle of the infusion to help with nausea and today she was also given something else to stop her being sick. Tomorrow the dose of ketamine will be taken to 200mg over 4 hours and she will continue on this for the rest of the week and all of next week. After the infusion Emma comes out tipsy and quite wobbly. The unsteadiness results in me carrying her up the stairs when we get back to our house. She has something to eat and then falls asleep. She says that she is sleeping the best she has in years. Dr Scwhartzman has said that no-one with RSD sleeps well. After 3-4 hours sleep she wakes and is very hungry again - has a meal and then, of course, a big plate of icecream.
The weather is improving - temperatures have risen quite a bit. Today's walk for Nikki and Luke to see the Liberty Bell while Emma had the infusion was at a relatively balmy 4 degrees C.

Day 2

Day 2 and Emma's ketamine infusion was increased from 80mg to 150mg over the 4 hours. They had originally planned for day 2 to be at 100mg but she coped really well with the previous day. Tomorrow's dosage is likely to be at 150mg. Emma was sick a few times at the end, but overall is coping really well with the treatment. After Day 1 we could see some signs of the treatment starting to work for Emma. One thing is her hands which are normally cold and clammy, are now dry and warmer.

Our Phili Neighbourhood

Thanks to all of our family & friends in New Zealand for the emails and feedback on the blog. Emma loves hearing from you all. We all really appreciate it.
We are renting the upstairs section of a house in Mt Airy - Germantown, Philadelphia. The place is working out well but a tad chilly! A couple of electric heaters and a big open fire that puts most of it's heat up the chimney! Spring seems to be here according to the trees beginning to bud & blossom but there is a cool wind most of the time. It takes us about 30 minutes to drive down to the hospital in the center of Philadelphia.

Emma has slept for a few hours this afternoon after the treatment and is back to her cheeky old self and her usual appetite for ice-cream has returned.

Strollin' in the 'hood

Upstairs - Our place



The neighbourhood is filled with beautiful old houses

Co-op store across the road provides the food and has a great community atmosphere

1st Day of Treatment

The treatment went well today. We arrived at the hospital at 7am and Emma had an IV line put in by 7.30am. She was taken to the infusion room and given a lazy-boy chair to sit in. She had with her a pillow and blanket, and mp3 player, so she was quite comfortable. She was first given Midazolam at the beginning of the infusion and again half way through, this is to combat potential side effects of the ketamine. Emma tolerated the 4 hour ketamine infusion well and tomorrow they will be scaling up the dose quite a bit. It's now 3 hours after the treatment and she is sleeping back at the house. The staff have been really good to Emma and making a fuss of her. Emma is Dr Schwartzman's first NZ patient. I have just read that Dr Schwartzman has been judged America's top Pain Physician and one of the top 3 Neurolgists in 2007-2008 (as judged by 50,000 expert physicians), so we think she is in good hands! Dr S. has said to Emma (and us) quite a few times that she is "one tough kid".

Emma's Photos

The White House

World War II Memorial

Mid-air squirrel



The squirrel Luke and I fed

Sea Turtle bones at the National Museum of Natural History (BEST PART... Fred's great granddad)

Update

Well... been in America for over a week and missing home lots!
it's really cold in philadelphia and can't go outside without millions of layers!
Went to Washington DC in the weekend... was even colder than phili if that's possible.. got too cold an had to go back to our hotel, well i did any way.
The white house was much smaller than i expected... and really white!!! spose that goes without saying though.. there were secret service people on the roof, kinda freaky.
went to the art museum where there were really cool photographs by Robert Frank.
I got to feed this really cute squirrel so i'll post a few photos of it... and other cool stuff we've seen.
Treatment starts tomorrow so pretty hopeful about the outcome :D