Emory University had quite a bit of information about their stem cell research online, which was intriguing to me. The idea of regenerating my damaged cartilage seemed like a no-brainer, especially when compared against what, in my mind, was an invasive surgical treatment alternative!
I found several testimonials and videos from former stem cell patients who, like me, were in horrible pain and with the stem cell injections could now walk & enjoy a much improved quality of life.
I made the appointment.
From the start, the amazing staff at Emory told me that there were no guarantees. My hip was really bad, and they shared that they had at least one person who's hip was worse than mine and the stem cells were beneficial, and at least two others who had a less damaged hip, but received no benefit.
My insurance company didn't cover the cost as they considered the treatment "experimental", but luckily for me, although costly, it wasn't an exorbitant amount of money.
The procedure was pretty intense. The doctor had to extract my bone marrow from the back of my hip. While they provide some numbing to the surface skin, there's not much they can do in terms of numbing bone, so yeah, it was a bit uncomfortable, especially when they needed to hammer into my back hip...ick! After that, they take the marrow and put it through a centrifuge and using a fluoroscope, re-inject it within the hip joint.
About a month after that process, I had to return for PRP or plasma rich platelet injections, where they take cells from the patients blood and create a plasma rich soup that is re-injected into the joint. The idea is that the plasma helps encourage additional stem cell growth.
Within a month after the procedure, I noticed improvement, which was SO encouraging. It was the first time that I experienced an improvement without the use of cortisone. And while I wasn't back to "normal", the procedure had greatly reduced my pain, therefore allowing me to sleep better and to walk better.
The relief lasted for about 9 months. And then, slowly but surely, the crummy arthritic pain started to return.
The doctor at Emory ordered an MRI and delivered some bad news. In addition to the wicked arthritis, my femoral head and hip socket was now starting to collapse from Avascular Necrosis or AVN. My doctor also mentioned that it appeared I had an old injury - a cracked femoral head. This is the same "injury" that my first ortho doc mentioned, and clearly I had some sort of incident (most likely while skiing, many years before) where I got a hairline crack in my femoral head. I had no idea or recollection of any specific incident, however I do remember several major spills where I was indeed sore for weeks and sometimes even months. I do recall one spill in particular where I thought I broke my tailbone - and the pain from that incident lasted months.
With two doctors reviewing both Xrays and MRI, their opinion was that the "old" injury caused my femoral head to slant forward, and over the course of many years, it started shredding my cartilage. Over time, my femoral head bone began to "die" via AVN, and was now collapsing.
My stem cell doc then recommended a surgeon over at Emory who specialized in anterior hip replacement.
I was devastated.
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