On blood-drawing days, we had to keep the samples chilled, and for this purpose we would keep a basin filled with ice chips next to the bed. Test tubes waited for transferring blood collected from the syringes. It was best to remove the tops from these vacuum tubes before the study began; otherwise, they made a loud distracting “pop” when opened. Finally, there was the rectal probe, or “thermistor.” We wanted tomeasure temperature several times before, during, and after DMT administration.
The least trouble was to have the thermometer in place throughout the session, rather than requiring Alex to actively interact with yet one more piece of equipment. And the most accurate temperature readings are from the rectum. All these factors added up to a rectal probe. Laura inserted it a half-hour before the study, and it stayed in place until wewere done.
The probe was about an eighth of an inch in diameter; it was made out of rubber-coated wire and was quite flexible. It went in about four to six inches and rarely caused any discomfort, except in those with hemorrhoids. Despite being taped in place, it sometimes slipped out if a volunteer was especially restless during the session. Only Nils refusedthe rectal probe.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Laura was the research nurse working with us that day. She arrived and began the preparations for the low dose. She placed a blue, plasticlined cloth, about fourteen inches square, under Alex’s arm. This cloth protects the bed linens from the antiseptic iodine solution. The cloth also absorbs any blood that might drip out of the intravenous line before she can cap it. She began scrubbing his forearm skin over the vein in which she was to insert the intravenous line with the antiseptic. She placed the blood pressure cuff on the other arm and took another heart rate and bloodpressure reading.
On these first non-blind DMT test days, we drew no blood. Rather, a single small needle was all we needed for administering DMT. However, if we were going to take blood samples, Laura would insert another more complicated apparatus into the other arm. This setup consisted of several extra pieces of plastic “plumbing” that permitted drawing blood into syringes, while at the same time providing a steady drip of sterile saltwaterinto the vein.
After drawing blood, Laura would squirt a little bit of heparin, a blood-thinning drug, into the line to reduce the likelihood of any clots. Clogging of that needle made for a very difficult day, since we were so dependent upon measuring levels of various substances in the blood.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Another factor over which we had no control was noise from outside of the hospital. The busy Albuquerque International Airport and a major U.S. Air Force base were only five miles south of the hospital. While flight patterns usually were concentrated south of town, away from thehospital, weather occasionally forced jets to fly overhead.
The noise, although buffered by double-paned windows, could be jarring. Sounds from the hospital grounds also could be grating, especially those arising fromthe trash compactor located right below Room 531’s window.
Once Alex settled himself into Room 531, the ward nurse who walked him down the hall checked his heart rate, blood pressure, weight, and temperature. Someone from the research kitchen staff came by and asked Alex what he’d like to eat after the study: a snack, late breakfast, early lunch, vegetarian or meat, what to drink. We rarely received complaintsabout the food!
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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My former wife, a tapestry artist, and I pored over dozens of swatches of material for the chairs before finding one that met all our needs. The design needed to be relatively soothing, but not so dull as to dampen or depress the volunteers’ mood and perceptions upon opening their eyes. Another requirement was that it be consistent with the particular type of visual effects wrought by DMT, but not so stimulating that volunteers would be startled or disoriented looking at the furniture in their highly alteredstate.
The best fit was a pleasing blue, subtly multicolored, with speckles, flecks, and patterns embedded within it. A solid light blue carpet and soothing pale blue paint covering the formerly bright white walls were thefinal pieces of the refurbishing effort.
These changes to Room 531 nevertheless left several minor, but insurmountable, problems. Because the room now had become almost soundproofed from the outside hall, the ceiling fan seemed louder than ever. Many volunteers paid this no heed, but for others it was an irritant. In addition, the bathroom shared a wall with the shower between our room and the next. When someone used the shower, we could hear it quite well. If that person happened to be ill, their coughs, groans, and cries were audible through the wall.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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We met with the hospital’s clinical engineering department and made several modifications to the room. Carpenters built a cover over the tubes and hoses emerging from the panel behind the bed and a little closet below the sink to hide its pipes. Extra insulation on the top and bottom of the door more efficiently sealed the room from hallway sounds.
And, after one particularly unnerving session in which the public address system blared repeatedly from the speaker in the ceiling, the electrician designed a switch, controlled at the nurses’ station, that turned off the room’s speaker.
We could do little about the bed, because it needed to be a regulation unit, and specially built hospital beds are outrageously expensive. A wooden headboard and footboard added a somewhat more pleasant touch. However, nicer furniture made a big difference: a rocking chair and footrest for me, a comfortable oversized chair for Laura or other researchnurses, and two visitors’ chairs.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Another room on the same end of the ward was the bone marrow transplant room. Absolutely sanitized, with a ceiling full of high-powered fans and two sets of double doors partitioning off an anteroom, it was a germfree environment where these highly infection-prone patients could remain in relative safety. Thankfully, there were switches with which I could turnoff the fans.
We needed a nicer room. I requested to remodel a room on the ward over which we would have scheduling priority. The budget in my grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse included funds for this renovation.We chose Room 531.
This room was square, about fifteen feet to a side, and relatively quiet, being the last one on the north side of the hall. At the end of the hall was the door to a hospital stairwell, and across it, but nearer the stairway, was the lead-lined room. Directly across from Room 531 was the entrance to the bone marrow transplant room, but from our doorway, it was hard to seewhat was in it.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Alex signed in at the nursing desk, where one of the regular ward nurses greeted him. “Hi, DMT-22,” she said. “How are you doing?” “Fine, although it’s weird being called DMT-22.” “Oh, don’t worry. We’re used to it. Here, let me put your ID band on you.” She attached this identification to his wrist, then walked Alex down to Room 531
At first, we used whatever room happened to be available in the Research Center. It was best to have a quiet one—far from the nurses’ station, away from the bustling kitchen, but not too close to the double doors leadingonto 5-East.
Some days we had little choice about which room we could use, and the setting could be grim. For example, occasionally we had to use a leadlined room at the very end of the ward designed for patients who were receiving radioactive implants for cancer. Other days we might need to use the “traction room,” where patients stayed who suffered from multiple trauma and fractured bones. A “cage” over the bed provided several convenient access points from which to attach ropes, pulleys, and cables for suspending casted broken limbs. A few volunteers professed that they didn’t mind the cage, but I found it intimidating and disconcerting. After one or two sessions maneuvering around it, I made certain to disassemble this structure before we got started.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Alex’s laboratory values and EGG were normal, so we scheduled the psychiatric examination. This formal psychiatric interview followed a ninety-page form and could take several hours. Laura, our research nurse, performed all these interviews; it was their first opportunity to get to know each other. Laura then sent Alex off with one more pile of questionnairesand rating scales.
After he returned them to us, we scheduled Alex’s first non-blind, screening DMT sessions: a low dose of 0.05 mg/kg, followed by a high dose of 0.4 mg/kg the following day. For Alex and the other men, the first sessions could occur whenever our schedules permitted. In women’s cases, we needed to standardize when in the menstrual cycle we studied them. We arranged for the women’s first two doses, and all subsequent ones, tooccur during the first ten days after their menstrual bleeding stopped.
On the morning of his admission, Alex left his car across the street in the monolithic parking structure facing the south side of the hospital. He told the guard he was coming in for “a research study” and got his appropriate sticker. Walking across the footbridge over busy Lomas Boulevard, he found the hospital’s Admitting Office, where clerical staff checked him in as DMT-22. They directed Alex upstairs to the fifth-floor Research Center. He walked past the outpatient clinic and entered the ward througha set of double doors.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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