Saw Improvements Almost Right Away
If you read the previous article “Spravato Treatment For Depression: My Experience Part 1”, then you know a bit about my history with Severe Depression and how resistant I was to treatment.
In that article, I also discussed my suicidal thoughts and death fantasies, how frequent they were, and how long they could last.
After my first treatment with the Spravato Esketamine nasal spray, My suicidal thoughts and death fantasies went from constant, throughout the day, lasting five to ten minutes up to hours at a time, to only a couple a day that didn’t last very long.
After my third treatment, suicidal thoughts and death fantasies became rare, and when they did come, they were fleeting.
Spravato Esketamine Nasal Spray Treatment Schedule
There is a schedule for the treatments. They start out pretty heavy and then over a 3 month period start to slow down.
When you start, the treatments are done three times a week for the first month. There has to be at least one day between treatments, so unless the clinic or doctor's office is open on the weekends the treatments will be done on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
When you reach month 2, the treatments go to twice a week. At this point, you can work out what works best for you and the clinic/doctor's office as long as there is at least one day in between the treatments.
I set my schedule to every Monday and Thursday. That way there was only a three to four-day period in between treatments.
By month three, the treatments go down to once a week for another month. By this point, you should find that your mood stays stable between the treatments every week.
After the third month, the doctor will likely set the treatment schedule to every other week, to begin with. At this point, the doctor will work with you on what kind of treatment schedule is needed.
If you find that your mood starts to decline before the two-week mark for the next treatment, mark down how many days since the last treatment had passed when you noticed the start of the decline in mood.
In my case at around day nine my mood started to decrease and by day fourteen was beginning to decline further than either the doctor or I wanted to see. So my treatments after the third month were every 9 days, give or take a day depending on if it fell on a weekend.
Everyone will be different, some people may notice they can go longer and others a shorter amount of time.
Once you have the schedule figured out for what works best for you after month three, you continue with that treatment schedule for a year.
After the year is up, the treatments will either slowly phase out or stop. You may need to go in for “maintenance” treatments. If your mood starts declining again, you will likely go in for one treatment session.
I can’t be sure how everything works after the year mark as I have not made it to that point myself. Unfortunately, my coverage stopped after 8 months.
The benefits company said that I no longer met the score requirement for depression to continue coverage of the treatment. I didn’t meet the requirement because the treatments were working.
It took two months of appeals to get the treatment covered again. In the two months it took to appeal, I lost everything I had gained in the eight months of treatment.
It’s still an extremely new treatment, and very expensive, about $400 per bottle. So benefit companies don’t fully understand how everything works with the treatment, and with the high cost, I can understand the cut-off.
Improvements Over The Eight Months Of Treatment
Before the treatments began, I wasn’t interested in the things that I used to enjoy such as writing, reading, game development, and some other hobbies. I also spent most of my time at home watching TV/movies, surfing the web, and taking naps. Basically just trying to pass the time until it was time to go to bed.
It took a few months for things like interest in hobbies and an interest to start getting out of the house, to kick in. When they did start, it felt great. I was starting to get some semblance of a life back.
Around the fifth or sixth-month mark, I started getting back into my interest in game development as a hobby. I began listening to some audiobooks as well. I have chronic neck pains so reading a paper book or eBook would trigger the pain from looking down.
I was also able to start working more shifts. It may not seem like much, but it was a big deal for me. I went from one or two shifts a week, at five hours per shift, to consistently working three shifts a week.
Around the beginning of the eighth month of treatment, I was beginning to finally feel like I was living a life and not merely existing.
I was considering increasing my shifts at work to four or five days a week, still at the five hours per shift. I also began looking into finding other types of jobs that I felt I could handle at forty hours a week.
Along with those considerations, I began taking a course on becoming a Virtual Assistant and a Life Coach.
I felt both the Virtual Assistant and Life Coach were jobs I could do full time and enjoy both. I knew I could handle the basics of a Virtual Assistant and do that full time without any problems.
The Life Coach I wanted to pursue because I have been through more than most have, I have survived it, I have learned a lot from it, and I look at things differently than most because of what I’ve been through.
I wanted to be able to use all those negative experiences and turn them into something positive and help those who were looking for someone who could problem solve and see things from outside the box.
My Current Status Since Restarting Treatments
As I mentioned, in the eighth month of treatment, my benefits plan canceled the Spravato Esketamine nasal spray coverage. It took two months to appeal and get the approval for coverage again.
I lost all that I had gained in the eight months of treatment and had to start all over again. I am currently in month three since restarting the treatments.
Interest and motivation are slowly starting to come back. Along with that, focus and concentration are starting to get better.
I find myself getting extremely frustrated because of how far I had come, where I was about to take myself in life, only to have to start over again.
I have been on Disability for income for such a long time, and you don’t get enough from Disability to properly survive. Being able to go back to work has helped with having a little extra money, but things are still hard.
Money for basic needs aside, working also helped with my mood in that it gives me a sense of accomplishment and contributing to something.
I am looking forward to the day that I feel I can take on learning to be a Virtual Assistant and/or a Life Coach again. I don’t feel the need to be making six figures, but it would be nice to get back to a point in my life where I can live comfortably and be able to put some money away.