Ketamine IV Infusions - Possible Cure/Treatment.

Hello fellow VS sufferers. I don't normally post on Reddit, but have followed this subreddit after acquiring visual snow about 2 1/2 years ago. I felt obligated to make this post as I am shocked at my results so far. This may be a lengthy post, but I wanted to share my experience in case it can help anyone else who has been bothered by this condition as much as I have.

How I Got VS: About 2.5 years ago I had been working around some very bright LED lights for a few days. One night during this time I had the worst migraine of my life. Looking at any light was physically painful. The next morning I noticed the symptoms all at once. They had never been there before that I am sure. I know this because I have always been a night owl and spent significant time outside at night stargazing. The sky was always crystal clear in color and my night vision was very good.

My symptoms:

1. Static across entire visual field, especially noticeable against white, blue, and black surfaces. At night the sky was filled with static so bad I could barely distinguish the snow from stars. My snow moved as well, looking like a falling rain of white/grey pixels if that makes sense.
2. Palinopsia (light trails, after images when looking at certain things that would stay for far longer than I was used to before VS appeared)
3. Photophobia. I was unable to look at bright lights or go outside in the sun without wearing sunglasses all the time or my eyes would feel like they were burning.
4. Huge auras/glare around things like street lights and car headlamps, especially at night. Talking about maybe 6-8 feet in diameter around a normal street lamp.
5. Trouble reading lines of text. I think this was due to the static moving around causing the lines to be difficult to read.
6. Trouble seeing in low light conditions and difficulty seeing contrast. I had always had excellent night vision, and because of the static it became much harder to distinguish objects under these conditions.
7. Blue Field Entoptic Phenomenon

I may be forgetting one or two, but these were always the main ones that bothered me. The only thing that would help was to stare at that one YouTube video titled, "Visual Snow Cure/Relief" that is sometimes posted around here. I would stare at it for 2-3 minutes and the only symptom that would disappear would be the static, and only for around 30 seconds to a minute.

The Ketamine Treatments:

I have been struggling with depression and anxiety for the last 10 years of my life. I have tried dozens of medications over the years without any relief. Everything from SSRIs/SSNRIs to mood stabilizers and anti seizure medications, atypical antipsychotics to benzos and even low doses of stimulants. Nothing really worked for my depression except the stimulants, but I did not want to be on those long term. Also they made my anxiety much worse. Finally after giving up on medications for the past few years (I did try Lamictal/Lamotragine again after I got VS only because I read it helped some - I was on 200 mg for 6 months and it did absolutely nothing) I decided to start trying something more experimental for my depression and anxiety issues. I have followed the research on ketamine and FDA NMDA antagonist candidates in general for awhile now, and I decided to give Ketamine Infusion Therapy a shot as there is a clinic in my area.

I met with the psychiatrist who runs the clinic and she said I was a perfect candidate for the treatment. She said she had her patients start with 6 infusions over 2 weeks and evaluate from there. I started right away. This week I had 3 infusions, and I will have my next 3 next week. The dose was 0.5 mg/kg administered through an IV over the course of an hour.

My Results So Far: I am in disbelief in how much it has helped so far regarding my depression and anxiety, but this is a VS subreddit so I will talk mostly about that. I was not expecting anything to be different in terms of VS, so it is an unexpected but most welcome surprise.

After 1st infusion I did not notice any improvement in VS symptoms, but I wasn't looking for it so there may have been some mild improvement.

After my 2nd infusion I was shocked that the static was about 25% reduced. I began to see much clearer at night. The auras and afterimages were reduced as well.

After my 3rd infusion, it has been 2 days since and my symptoms are at least 50-60% reduced. All of them. The static is far less dense, and my night vision is much closer to what it used to be. The afterimages/light trailing are nearly gone, or what I think is normal for most people. The auras around street lights are only 6 inches to a foot in diameter now.

I have my next 3 infusions next week and I will update my results at that time if you guys are interested. I'm hoping for a complete cure, but the improvement so far has been remarkable. Next week I go up on the dose to 0.6mg/kg and the rate of the infusion will be slightly faster.

I am still trying to be guarded, as the symptoms could worsen at any time, but so far they are drastically reduced and not getting worse again. If anyone has any questions at all please feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer. The treatments are expensive ($500 per infusion here - not covered by insurance as it is off label in US), but if they continue to work for even the VS alone they are worth it to me.

I hope even if nothing else that this gives someone hope that improvement/ a cure is possible especially as we learn more about the brain and its complex systems. Also, just because this seems to be working for me, does not by any means guarantee it will work for others, but I'm sure you all know that.

UPDATE: I'm afraid I have some disappointing news to report. I waited to update so that I could let things settle and not report prematurely to avoid giving any more false hope.

The VS returned to my normal baseline level last Sunday following the week with the initial 3 infusions. The second round of the final 3 infusions did not have any effect on the VS like the first time. Not sure what happened, but the one positive I'm taking away from it is that the symptoms temporarily drastically improved - so at least I know it is possible one day that a targeted drug could give the same relief from symptoms.

If anyone has any questions about my experience with the therapy regarding depression and anxiety, feel free to PM me and I can share my experience with you regarding those conditions. Hang in there guys, do your best to not let VS bother you, and hopefully one day soon we will have treatments for it.