The image above, sent to us last year by Dr. Schultz’s patient Craig, tells the story. Look how happy he is to be on the slopes! In 2011, an orthopedic surgeon wanted to amputate his knee and replace it with an artificial one, but, thankfully, knowing this would drastically limit his active lifestyle, Craig declined and made his way to Dr. Schultz instead. While his expression certainly gives away his knee stem cell treatment update, let’s review his treatment story.
Craig’s Story and His Knee Stem Cell Treatment Update
We first saw Craig in our clinic in February of 2011. He’d fallen a year before while backcountry skiing and had been having knee pain ever since. He also had a history of prior surgeries on the same knee. First, in 2004, he’d had part of his meniscus excised (an arthroscopic meniscectomy). He’d also had another arthroscopic knee surgery to excise some cartilage and more of the meniscus.
In 2011, Dr. Schultz performed a same-day stem cell treatment on Craig’s injured right knee, during which his stem cells were harvested from his bone marrow, isolated, and then reinjected under precise imaging guidance into the damaged areas of his knee.
Craig was not only able to return to the slopes, clocking 100+ days on the snow within his first six years following his stem cell treatment, but he was also still able to compete as a water skier. He was so pleased with the results of his knee treatment that he returned to our clinic in 2016 to have his rotator cuff tears assessed.
Craig’s Shoulder Story and Stem Cell Treatment
In 2016, Dr. Schultz again saw Craig, this time for rotator cuff tears in both shoulders, both of which were pretty big tears. His supraspinatus tendons in the rotator cuff as well as the shoulder-stabilizing ligaments were affected. It’s important to note here that his shoulder ligament damage created instability in the joint that wasn’t detected by his orthopedic surgeon, so it’s a good thing Craig, again, declined rotator cuff surgery and returned to Dr. Schultz. Our goal was to precisely target his rotator cuff ligaments, and Dr. Schultz was able to accomplish this, again, with a precise injection Craig’s own stem cells.
Craig, again was quite pleased with his results. He’d been told by the orthopedic surgeon he’d never be able to bench press even 5 pounds, but his daily routine now involves pressing 25 pounds.
You can read more of Craig’s story in his own words at this link.
There’s nothing more exciting and rewarding to us than to see our patients who thought they’d never be able to get back to doing the activities they love out there living life to the fullest and participating in grand adventures. And getting shoulder and knee stem cell treatment updates like these of their joyous expressions in the midst of those adventures is always a huge bonus!
