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| March 20, 2011 | | Back from Denver | | It has now been 46 weeks since Dr. Glashow and his assistant Chris Prezzano transplanted a De Novo NT Allograft into my left knee. It has been 22 weeks since my last arthroscopy. And it has been a year and twelve weeks since I tore a pothole (1.5 cm X 2.1 cm) in the articular cartilage of the femoral condyle of my left knee.
It has been another two weeks since my last blog. During the last two weeks, I traveled to Denver to begin what I hope will be the final answer to my knee puzzle. BTW - I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the snow on top of the mountains again!
However, when I woke up and found snow everywhere I was somewhat shocked. This desert boy is just not used to the amount of snow that I have seen this winter.
And I was even more shocked to find my car under snow also!
In an effort to ensure a complete recovery, I am still augmenting my De Novo transplant procedure with stem cells. . DeNovo has been a blessing - the addition of the stem cells is just icing on the cake! In addition to Dr. Harshfield's technique I have also introduced the Regenexx procedure.
The Regenexx™ procedure is a breakthrough, non-surgical treatment option for people suffering from moderate to severe joint or bone pain due to injury and other conditions. Regenexx is only performed in one place and that is at the Centeno Shultz Clinic just outside of Boulder, Co.
The Procedure Explained
Stem cells live in all of us – they are the repairmen of the body. The problem is that as we age or get injuries, we sometimes can’t get enough of these repair cells to the injured area. The Regenexx™ procedure takes care of that problem by amplifying your body’s natural repair process.
The Regenexx™ procedure begins when the doctor thoroughly numbs the back of the hip (PSIS) and takes a small bone marrow sample through a needle. In addition, some blood is also taken from a vein in your arm. These samples are sent to the Regenerative Sciences lab.
This picture was actually taken last April when I had my cells harvested the first time. Unfortunately, due to new FDA regulations, I had to undergo this procedure again. It actually looks a lot worse than it actually was.
Their trained staff isolates the mesenchymal stem cells. These cells are then grown using natural growth factors found in your blood. The goal is to achieve much greater numbers of stem cells than you could muster to the injured area. It has been shown that the Regenexx same day method yields approximately 3X as many MSC cells as a traditional bedside unit.
After the harvest, reinsertion begins with the aid of Fluoroscopy. Fluoroscopy is an imaging technique commonly used by physicians to obtain real-time moving images of the internal structures of a patient through the use of a fluoroscope..
The next piece of the puzzle is the reinsertion of the needles. These are carefully guided via fluoroscope into correct position. Again, it is way cool to see these instruments being placed in real time via the fluoroscopy.
This reinjection focused on a couple of areas : (1) the medial femoral condyle, (2) the trochlear groove, and (3) the ACL and MCL ligaments which Dr. Schultz wanted to tighten up!
After the needles are placed in the correct place via fluoroscopy - see the monitor below. The growth factors are reinjected into the appropriate locations!
The goal in all of this is to close any remaining fissures in my articular surfaces. Below, it is possible, but not certain that I have a small fissure, less than 1mm, that remains on my medial femoral condyle.
Thanks for checking in! I feel like I am so very close now. In five weeks, I will try and strengthen the muscles surrounding my knee again and with some luck these interventions will be over. Never give up folks. You can and will destroy your limitations!
The numbers below represent two weeks of work. I have not blogged in a little while and I wanted my numbers to remain accurate. I did, however, have a huge swim week two weeks ago when I logged 36,000 yards!
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