In my last post I talked about how I avoided another knee surgery by using an alternative treatment called Regenexx SD. Essentially the procedure extracts stem cells from my hips and injects them into my right knee. This was back in February and since that time, I have had some requests for another update. So this post is to report on my follow-up with Dr. Centeno since having the treatment.

Current Status

A couple of weeks ago I had my first follow-up with Dr. Centeno since I had the Regenexx treatment back in early February. It had been seven weeks since the treatment and everything is going extremely well. I've been doing cycling workouts as well as various core workouts lately to get back into shape for the cycling season (the foam roller is my personal masseuse right now). The day before my appointment, I had just started running two to three times a week. I'm also coaching my youngest daughter's soccer team again which requires running, kicking, etc. So far I'm happy to report that I have no pain during these sports at all. This is great news because it means that the tears in the meniscus are doing very well as a result of the procedure. The only issue I have currently is some stiffness of the muscles around and through the right knee which were preventing me from doing a deep squat on that knee. This is a result of my mental guarding of that knee to protect it. At the urging of Dr. Centeno and my physical therapist, I started squatting deeper and deeper a little at a time to stretch it and get it used to regular full motion. I have already found that this continued stretching and squatting is helping that along nicely, even just in the last couple weeks.

Dr. Centeno also performed the standard Lachman test on my right knee. To even his surprise, it was quite tight and responded very well. As a point of comparison, he also tested my left knee (the one that has never been injured) and it is very loose. It was so loose, in fact, that I could see the dislocation. Again, even he was surprised. So he tried my right knee again and he really tugged on it, but still it wouldn't budge. Because I was also diagnosed with a partial tear to the ACL, this was wonderful news! It means that the procedure has changed the state of the the ACL as well. We were both very happy to see this level of progress. I guess it was wonderful news for my right knee (the one that had the Regenexx treatment), but not so good news for my left knee. After this demonstration, I explained the stiffness in the left knee that has been increasing over the years. I had even been joking that perhaps I should have the Regenexx treatment on my left knee after the right knee is all healed up. So I'm having a MRI on my left knee to see what's going on with it. Depending on what we find, I am seriously considering the Regenexx treatment for my left knee as well. This is a testament to the results that I have experienced from the Regenexx treatment. I'm not sure if I will have it right away or not. I've got come cycling events coming up in June, so I would need to have it done really soon if I'm going to keep up my workouts in preparation for those events.

Continued Physical Therapy + Supplements

Not only am I continuing with some minor physical therapy to loosen my right patella but I am also continuing to take doses of a chondroitin/glucosamine supplement and a hyaluronic acid supplement twice a day. (The Collagen II contains the protein building blocks to support damaged cartilage and the hyaluronic acid lubricates the joints and helps to prevent free radicals from destroying healthy cartilage.) Additionally, last week I began a series of IMS (Intra-Muscular Stimulation) treatments for some muscles in my hamstrings, quads, IT bands and lower back. IMS is essentially deep tissue acupuncture to create micro-damage in key muscles to encourage them to heal themselves. It will take a few more treatments before I see some distinct results, but I'm hoping that this will dovetail well with the core workouts, yoga and cycling that I do.

Regenerative Medicine

I have a friend who sells surgical tools and equipment. One tool he's selling now is a laser that is used to create micro-damage in very specific locations of the human heart. Just like what Dr. Centeno did with my knee, such micro-damage causes red blood cells to respond to heal the area (i.e., encouraging the body to heal itself). This creates an ideal situation for the injection of stem cells to grow new tissue in place of damaged tissue. He told me that they do this procedure for patients who have chronic heart disease and in some cases they can double the heart's ability to pump blood. For some patients, this translates into adding years to their life. So when I mentioned this procedure for my knee to him, he immediately knew what I was describing and told me that regenerative medicine is the new wave. So, in my opinion, the FDA better wake up and embrace the future and stop playing favorites with big pharma. Here's some interesting info on the lawsuit against stem cells from the FDA:

• Former FDA Commissioner on our “Your Cells=Drugs” Case
• Texas Medical Board puts Rules around Stem Cell Use
• FDA: Your Body is a Drug and We want to Regulate It
• More on “Your Body is a Drug”

Conclusion

oAccording to my doctor, my verall my progress has been excellent and, at this point, I couldn't be happier that I chose the Regenexx procedure vs. surgery. Now tomorrow I have an MRI on my left knee to begin the possible pursuit of the same regimen of treatment for my left knee. Stay tuned.

In my last post I talked about how I avoided another knee surgery by using an alternative treatment called Regenexx SD. Essentially the procedure extracts stem cells from my hips and injects them into my right knee. This was back in February and since that time, I have had some requests for another update. So this post is to report on my follow-up with Dr. Centeno since having the treatment.

Current Status

A couple of weeks ago I had my first follow-up with Dr. Centeno since I had the Regenexx treatment back in early February. It had been seven weeks since the treatment and everything is going extremely well. I've been doing cycling workouts as well as various core workouts lately to get back into shape for the cycling season (the foam roller is my personal masseuse right now). The day before my appointment, I had just started running two to three times a week. I'm also coaching my youngest daughter's soccer team again which requires running, kicking, etc. So far I'm happy to report that I have no pain during these sports at all. This is great news because it means that the tears in the meniscus are doing very well as a result of the procedure. The only issue I have currently is some stiffness of the muscles around and through the right knee which were preventing me from doing a deep squat on that knee. This is a result of my mental guarding of that knee to protect it. At the urging of Dr. Centeno and my physical therapist, I started squatting deeper and deeper a little at a time to stretch it and get it used to regular full motion. I have already found that this continued stretching and squatting is helping that along nicely, even just in the last couple weeks.

Dr. Centeno also performed the standard Lachman test on my right knee. To even his surprise, it was quite tight and responded very well. As a point of comparison, he also tested my left knee (the one that has never been injured) and it is very loose. It was so loose, in fact, that I could see the dislocation. Again, even he was surprised. So he tried my right knee again and he really tugged on it, but still it wouldn't budge. Because I was also diagnosed with a partial tear to the ACL, this was wonderful news! It means that the procedure has changed the state of the the ACL as well. We were both very happy to see this level of progress. I guess it was wonderful news for my right knee (the one that had the Regenexx treatment), but not so good news for my left knee. After this demonstration, I explained the stiffness in the left knee that has been increasing over the years. I had even been joking that perhaps I should have the Regenexx treatment on my left knee after the right knee is all healed up. So I'm having a MRI on my left knee to see what's going on with it. Depending on what we find, I am seriously considering the Regenexx treatment for my left knee as well. This is a testament to the results that I have experienced from the Regenexx treatment. I'm not sure if I will have it right away or not. I've got come cycling events coming up in June, so I would need to have it done really soon if I'm going to keep up my workouts in preparation for those events.

Continued Physical Therapy + Supplements

Not only am I continuing with some minor physical therapy to loosen my right patella but I am also continuing to take doses of a chondroitin/glucosamine supplement and a hyaluronic acid supplement twice a day. (The Collagen II contains the protein building blocks to support damaged cartilage and the hyaluronic acid lubricates the joints and helps to prevent free radicals from destroying healthy cartilage.) Additionally, last week I began a series of IMS treatments for some muscles in my hamstrings, quads, IT bands and lower back. IMS is essentially deep tissue acupuncture to create micro-damage in key muscles to encourage them to heal themselves. It will take a few more treatments before I see some distinct results, but I'm hoping that this will dovetail well with the core workouts, yoga and cycling that I do.

Regenerative Medicine

I have a friend who sells surgical tools and equipment. One tool he's selling now is a laser that is used to create micro-damage in very specific locations of the human heart. Just like what Dr. Centeno did with my knee, such micro-damage causes red blood cells to respond to heal the area (i.e., encouraging the body to heal itself). This creates an ideal situation for the injection of stem cells to grow new tissue in place of damaged tissue. He told me that they do this procedure for patients who have chronic heart disease and in some cases they can double the heart's ability to pump blood. For some patients, this translates into adding years to their life. So when I mentioned this procedure for my knee to him, he immediately knew what I was describing and told me that regenerative medicine is the new wave. So, in my opinion, the FDA better wake up and embrace the future and stop playing favorites with big pharma. Here's some interesting info on the lawsuit against stem cells from the FDA:

• Former FDA Commissioner on our “Your Cells=Drugs” Case
• Texas Medical Board puts Rules around Stem Cell Use
• FDA: Your Body is a Drug and We want to Regulate It
• More on “Your Body is a Drug”

Conclusion

oAccording to my doctor, my verall my progress has been excellent and, at this point, I couldn't be happier that I chose the Regenexx procedure vs. surgery. Now tomorrow I have an MRI on my left knee to begin the possible pursuit of the same regimen of treatment for my left knee. Stay tuned.

In my last blog post, I discussed the problems I have had with my knee, the recent injury causing meniscus tears and about the alternative treatment I elected to have instead of surgery. Well this week I underwent the treatments for the Regenexx SD procedure on my right knee and so far things are looking good. In fact, I just finished a very brief and very easy spin session on my bike (on the trainer, not outside). Although my knee does not have 100% range of motion, it is returning quickly.

The procedure involved the following treatments over a period of days:

• Day One, Pre-Injection - Injections to the knee to cause your body to think that the knee has been injured. This causes red blood cells to rush to that area so that the body can begin healing itself.
• Day Two, Blood Draw - Took blood from my arm to be spun down to get the platelets.
• Day Three, Bone Marrow - Draw bone marrow from my hips early in the morning to be spun down to extract my own stem cells. Return a few hours later to have platelets and stem cells injected into the knee, directly into the tears in the meniscus.
• Day Four, Blood Draw - Took more blood from my arm to be spun down
• Day Five, Post-Injection - Inject the knee with the platelets to encourage healing. This is like adding more fertilizer to the knee.

These treatments were focused on my torn meniscus and, overall they went really fast throughout the week. I don't have a problem with needles, so it wasn't a big deal, though my knee did get sore throughout the week from having so many injections. The procedure to harvest the bone marrow was a bit strange because, once the doctor had me numbed up, he was putting his body weight on you to drive a needle into your hip bones to get to the bone marrow. They are actually going into the bones in the small of your back called the iliac crest. It's uncomfortable, but not painful. I definitely felt the injection of the stem cells because they put the needle right into the meniscal tears for the injection. Afterward it felt like my knee had been reinjured for day or so, that wasn't fun but it was much better than surgery. During the treatments that were performed, they were using a special x-ray to observer the proper insertion of the needles. This was pretty cool because I could watch what they were doing and see the needles going into my knee and hips.

After all these injections, my knee was filled with a lot of fluid, so there was some swelling, I did not have full range of motion and I was limping because of this. But that seems to be returning pretty quickly as I can do stairs pretty easily now and my limp is nearly gone.

• Days Six and Seven - My knee felt like it had been reinjured and my back was a bit sore.
• Day Eight - My knee is doing much better today. The pain is gone from the knee and it is hardly sore at all, but now my lower back is definitely sore deep in there, especially when I sit in a hard chair or the seat in a car. It's not painful, but when I sit down without being gentle it definitely gives me a jolt and makes me think, 'Oh, that's sore today!'

For the first three days or so afterward, they tell you not to do much, just take it easy. After that, you can begin cycling and swimming for two weeks, but not full-on. They still tell you to take it easy. By the third week, you can walk as much as you like and by the sixth week you can begin integrating back into the activities you did previously, adding 20% per week. Additionally, I need to take collagen and hyaluronic acid supplements daily now to help maintain the cartilage in the joints. Somewhere between 6-12 weeks after this procedure, I will probably have my knee injected again to focus the ACL. There is a partial tear in the ACL, but not as bad as the meniscus which is what was causing most of the pain.

This treatment is really new and not yet standard by any means. Although they have treated over 1100 people and had good success in most cases, it's still not a procedure that you can get anywhere in the United States. Right now, it's only offered in Broomfield, Colorado and a few other clinics in the US. In fact, the two doctors behind the Regenexx procedure are embroiled in a law suit with the FDA over one of their procedures. There's some really great discussion on the Regennex Blog and in a Forbes article titled Stem Cells and the Lawsuit That May Shape Our Medical Future. I am fascinated by the law suit because it seems to me that the FDA is favoring someone who offers an alternative treatment and basically playing politics instead of being objective on the whole thing.

One common question that I've received is whether or not insurance covered the cost of the treatment and the answer is no. For me, this was an easy decision based on what happened with my previous surgery some 24 years ago. When I had surgery to reconstruct my ACL, literally the following week they began doing a different surgery through an arthoscope that was much less invasive and required far less recovery time. Because of this change right after I had my surgery, I was left feeling like I received the tail end of the surgical treatment technology at the time. I decided that I did not want to feel that way about having another procedure on my knee. My goal was to feel like I tried the newest proven techniques and treatment for my injury and I feel I have met that goal with the Regenexx procedure.

The other item that figured into this for me was what I read about folks who had surgery for a torn meniscus and wound up worse off. Either they had part of the meniscus removed or enough shaved off that it affected the stability of the knee permanently. I didn't want to chance winding up worse off than I am now because I am so active. I can still have surgery if I ever need to, but I'm hoping that won't be necessary.

Because the procedure is not covered by insurance, the very next question folks ask is how much it cost. This is where I explain the cost relative to the surgical procedure that I was scheduled to have before I discovered Regenexx. Consider the following numbers comparing the cost of surgery vs. Regennex:

	Surgery	Regenexx
Procedure Costs	$7000+	$5600
Hospital Costs	$8000-10,000+	N/A
Physical Therapy	5 months+ (2-3 times/week)	6-8 weeks (1/week)
Downtime (no activity)	4-6 weeks	3-5 days
Covered by Health Insurance	Yes, partially	No

There are certainly trade-offs here and everyone needs to make their own decision. Of course, at least part of the traditional surgery is covered by insurance, but not 100% of it. For me, the decision was rather easy to forgo the surgical option because I didn't want to chance having my knee wind up in a worse situation than where I started and I didn't want to take so much down time. Now only time will tell if this was a good decision.

In my last post I talked about how I avoided another knee surgery by using an alternative treatment called Regenexx SD. Essentially the procedure extracts stem cells from my hips and injects them into my right knee. This was back in February and since that time, I have had some requests for another update. So this post is to report on my follow-up with Dr. Centeno since having the treatment.

Current Status

A couple of weeks ago I had my first follow-up with Dr. Centeno since I had the Regenexx treatment back in early February. It had been seven weeks since the treatment and everything is going extremely well. I've been doing cycling workouts as well as various core workouts lately to get back into shape for the cycling season (the foam roller is my personal masseuse right now). The day before my appointment, I had just started running two to three times a week. I'm also coaching my youngest daughter's soccer team again which requires running, kicking, etc. So far I'm happy to report that I have no pain during these sports at all. This is great news because it means that the tears in the meniscus are doing very well as a result of the procedure. The only issue I have currently is some stiffness of the muscles around and through the right knee which were preventing me from doing a deep squat on that knee. This is a result of my mental guarding of that knee to protect it. At the urging of Dr. Centeno and my physical therapist, I started squatting deeper and deeper a little at a time to stretch it and get it used to regular full motion. I have already found that this continued stretching and squatting is helping that along nicely, even just in the last couple weeks.

Dr. Centeno also performed the standard Lachman test on my right knee. To even his surprise, it was quite tight and responded very well. As a point of comparison, he also tested my left knee (the one that has never been injured) and it is very loose. It was so loose, in fact, that I could see the dislocation. Again, even he was surprised. So he tried my right knee again and he really tugged on it, but still it wouldn't budge. Because I was also diagnosed with a partial tear to the ACL, this was wonderful news! It means that the procedure has changed the state of the the ACL as well. We were both very happy to see this level of progress. I guess it was wonderful news for my right knee (the one that had the Regenexx treatment), but not so good news for my left knee. After this demonstration, I explained the stiffness in the left knee that has been increasing over the years. I had even been joking that perhaps I should have the Regenexx treatment on my left knee after the right knee is all healed up. So I'm having a MRI on my left knee to see what's going on with it. Depending on what we find, I am seriously considering the Regenexx treatment for my left knee as well. This is a testament to the results that I have experienced from the Regenexx treatment. I'm not sure if I will have it right away or not. I've got come cycling events coming up in June, so I would need to have it done really soon if I'm going to keep up my workouts in preparation for those events.

Continued Physical Therapy + Supplements

Not only am I continuing with some minor physical therapy to loosen my right patella but I am also continuing to take doses of a chondroitin/glucosamine supplement and a hyaluronic acid supplement twice a day. (The Collagen II contains the protein building blocks to support damaged cartilage and the hyaluronic acid lubricates the joints and helps to prevent free radicals from destroying healthy cartilage.) Additionally, last week I began a series of IMS treatments for muscles in my hamstrings, quads, IT bands and lower back. IMS is essentially accupuncture to create micro-damage in key muscles to encourage them to heal themselves. It will take a few more treatments before I begin to see results, but I'm hoping that this will dovetail well with the core workouts, yoga and cycling that I do.

Regenerative Medicine

I have a friend who sells surgical tools and equipment. One tool he's selling now is a laser that is used to create micro-damage in very specific locations of the human heart. Just like what Dr. Centeno did with my knee, such micro-damage causes red blood cells to respond to heal the area. This creates an ideal situation for the injection of stem cells to grow new tissue in place of damaged tissue. He told me that they do this procedure for patients who have chronic heart disease and in some cases they can double the heart's ability to pump blood. In some cases, this translates into adding years to the patient's life. So when I mentioned this procedure for my knee to him, he immediately knew what I was describing and told me that regenerative medicine is the new wave. So the FDA better wake up and embrace the future. Here's some interesting info on the lawsuit against stem cells from the FDA:

• Former FDA Commissioner on our “Your Cells=Drugs” Case
• Texas Medical Board puts Rules around Stem Cell Use
• FDA: Your Body is a Drug and We want to Regulate It
• More on “Your Body is a Drug”

Overall my progress has been excellent. I couldn't be happier that I chose the Regenexx procedure vs. surgery. Now tomorrow I have an MRI on my left knee to begin the possible pursuit of the same regimen of treatment for my left knee. Stay tuned.

During my kids' spring break at school a couple of weeks ago, we traveled to Japan. My oldest daughter's soccer team did a cultural exchange with a soccer team in Arao, Japan, staying with host families, playing soccer and experiencing Japanese culture. Here's a photo of all of us just as we arrived at the Fukuoka Airport in Japan.

We had a wonderful experience in south Japan in a city named Arao in the Kumamoto Prefecture. It's a very rural area with many small towns and lots of farming all around. The girls played in a soccer tournament and had three exceptional players from Japan join their team for the games. It was a very different style of play on a smaller, dirt field with only eight players per team and 12 minute halves. The ball traveled very fast on the dirt and the Japanese teams were all boys with only a few girls. They were very precise in their play and very fast. Then we traveled a couple of hours to Komamoto city to play a two of all girls teams on a turf field. Again, very precise passing and very quick feet, overall a great time was had by all. The girls were exhausted after all of the soccer.

At the end of the first few days while we were still adjusting to the time zone change, every evening my youngest daughter Bailey and a friend's son Cameron would fall asleep at dinner. They are each nine years old.

After playing soccer for a few days, we went sightseeing for the rest of the trip. Here are some of the things we experienced:

• The first day we arrived we visited the mayor and the school superintendent of Arao city (in all of our exhaustion from traveling). This was very special to them and we were very happy to be a part of it. The next morning it was raining so in the morning a few of us went bowling with all the girls while another group of adults visited a sword maker and an historic Buddhist temple (I was chosen to chaperon the kids bowling so I missed out on visiting the temple - I would have loved to experience this). Then in the afternoon all of us joined up and went to a mall for some shopping. The bowling alley and the mall both looked like they could be in nearly any city in the US really.
• While in Kumamoto city we visited Kumamoto Castle which dates back to the 15th century. The size of the entire castle complex is enormously vast measuring roughly 1.6km from east to west, and measures 1.2km from north to south. The height of the main castle keep is 30.3m. The complex has 3 castle keeps, 49 turrets, 18 turret gates and 29 smaller gates. It's size and beauty has to be seen to be believed really.
• One day we traveled to Amakusa to go dolphin watching (dolphin watching photos). It was so much fun to be in a boat cruising along side the dolphins as they swam. We even got to see some baby dolphins swimming with their mother.
  * Another day we traveled to Nagasaki to visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park, a memorial to the victims and the history when atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki by the US in 1945. This experience left a lasting impression on myself and most everyone else; the atrocities that humans commit upon one another is shocking. This was a similar to Janene's and my visit to the Halocaust Museum in Washington, DC years ago.
• Still another day nearly everyone went to an amusement park named Greenland Resort and Amusement Park (this site is in Japanese but the photos are great). A few of the adults also went to visit a Japanese pottery studio.

We also had multiple dinners and parties while we were there both at large areas where we could gather and in small groups in Japanese family's homes. Experiencing the Japanese life and culture in this way was something that we will never forget. It was a very good for all the girls to experience life in another country, especially one that, at times, could seem so different from the US and yet so similar. I have always enjoyed the experience of other cultures throughout my travels in Europe and I'm glad that my girls got to experience Japan.

Nearly everywhere we went during our trip, there were Japanese people who were amazed by my youngest daughter Bailey. Evidently the Japanese people are enamored with her blonde hair and blue eyes. She was like a celebrity and they wanted to have their photo taken with her. They would ask to touch her hair and stroke it with a look of awe. I was a bit freaked out by it at first but it became so common and hilarious that we all just laughed and laughed.

If you would like to see more about our trip, take a look at the blog and photos that Janene and I maintained while we were in Japan. There are plenty of photos and blog entries by the girls about their experiences.