Hello there!

My name is Tasha, and I am asking for help accessing ketamine infusion treatments that may finally offer relief from the severe Complex PTSD (CPTSD), chronic pain, and fibromyalgia that have taken over my life.

For years, I have lived with CPTSD, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia. The chronic pain is a direct result of the trauma my nervous system has endured and continues to endure. I have spent years working with doctors, specialists, therapists, and other healthcare providers. I have tried EVERY treatment that the Saskatchewan healthcare system has been able to offer me. Some have helped me cope, but none have provided enough relief to give me my life back.

Today, I am forced to take large cocktails of serious medications every day simply to function. Even with those medications, most days it feels like my body is on actual fire, and the side effects of those medications are no joke.

Something as simple as a bedsheet touching my skin can feel like burning. My nervous system becomes overwhelmed and my body enters a constant state of fight-or-flight. When that happens, my thinking slows down dramatically. I begin to lose my ability to concentrate, then my ability to speak. Shortly afterward, the burning pain spreads throughout my body.

When the symptoms become severe, I have to medicate and retreat to a dark, quiet room for hours at a time while I try to calm my nervous system enough to function again. I lose many hours of every day to the pain this way.

The pain affects everything.

It affects my ability to work, to socialize, to maintain relationships, and to enjoy the things that once brought me joy. Reading a book is impossible. Watching a movie is impossible. Spending time with friends, whether online or in person, is often impossible. Even DJing - something that once brought me tremendous happiness - is something I can no longer do.

Without effective treatment, my world continues to get smaller as pain and exhaustion limit more and more what I can do each day. Even walking my dogs has become problematic.

I no longer feel like I am truly living. Most days, I feel like I am simply existing and that existence is filled with severe physical pain and debilitating mental chaos.

Over the years, I have experienced several nervous breakdowns as my health has deteriorated. Each time I have fought hard to find my way back, but each recovery has become longer and more difficult than the last, and it's gotten harder and harder to bounce back to whom I was before.

Thankfully, I am blessed to have incredible friends who I consider family and an exceptional family doctor who has worked tirelessly not just to help me find tools to cope and survive, but who has also helped to assemble an excellent care team. Even that excellent care team has only been able to do so much.

There was a time when I was the person people called when they were in trouble.

I was a fierce advocate for my friends and loved ones. If someone needed help navigating a system, making phone calls, standing up for themselves, or simply having someone to show up and fight alongside them, I was there. I believed nobody should have to face their hardest moments alone, that no one should be left behind. I did everything I could to help the people I cared about.

Now I am the one in trouble.

For one of the first times in my life, I am the person who needs help. That is not an easy thing for me to admit. I have spent years exhausting every option available to me through Saskatchewan's public healthcare system. My healthcare providers and I have reached the point where we must look outside the public system for answers.

Ketamine infusion therapy has emerged as the most promising next step.

While it is being pursued primarily to address my CPTSD and the devastating effects it has had on my nervous system and quality of life, the treatments may also help my chronic pain. It is the next logical and legal step in my treatment journey, but unfortunately it is not available to me through Saskatchewan's public healthcare system. It's a private care treatment that is approved for use in Canada.

My healthcare providers and I have identified the program offered by the Linden Medical Centre as the best opportunity for me to pursue this treatment. This clinic is in Saskatoon, two hours away from my home of Regina, and while that is not far, I will need to stay overnight following each treatment, as it is applied as an anaesthetic.

https://thelinden.ca/

The initial course of six ketamine infusion treatments will cost $4,100 CAD. Because I must travel for treatment in Saskatoon and remain near the clinic, transportation, lodging, meals and related expenses bring the total cost to approximately $7,000 CAD.

Living on disability benefits - that is, a limited fixed income - means this amount is simply beyond my reach.

I am not asking for a miracle. I am asking for a chance.

A chance to reduce the pain. A chance to quiet my nervous system. A chance to spend less time surviving and more time living. A chance to reconnect with the people and activities I love. A chance to once again be there for the people who have always been there for me.

I still have dreams. I still have goals. There is still so much work I want to do to help other people. I want to get off of disability benefits and reenter the workforce as a professional healthcare advocate. Right now, however, I am struggling just to help myself, to do more than just exist.

If you are able to donate, I would be deeply grateful. If you are unable to donate, sharing this fundraiser would help tremendously.

Thank you for taking the time to read, for letting me tell you my story and for helping me pursue a treatment that may finally offer hope after over a decade of painful struggle. Thank you for helping me to have hope that I might be able to live again, not just exist.

With gratitude and love,

Ms. Tasha Natalya Gamble