Stem Cell Update

[martyg]

Executed today at The Steadman Clinic in Edwards. My doc, Dr. Karli, has a separate company. His company, Greyledge Biotech, is building the dataset for FDA approval of stem cell therapy.

The knarliest part was having my hip tapped, in two places, to harvest bone marrow. Stem cells are then centrifuged from the bone marrow. No IV sedation, just one Diazepam. It took the edge off, but it was still uncomfortable.

I have two weeks of limited activity. Then I ramp up, with my first ski day about 4 weeks in. That will mean two weeks of being just friggin’ boarded -sitting on my ass, and cruising ski and bike porn on-line.

Hanging at a hotel in Edwards for a night or two. Started ice cream therapy, which combines icing and calcium boosting.

Looking for to how this nets out this summer.

 

[Prosper]

The rule of thirds typically applies to the bone marrow biopsy/harvesting: 1/3 feel virtually no pain, 1/3 feel mild to moderate pain and the last 1/3 feel like a hot knife is being stuck into them. When I had my stem cell harvesting I didn’t take any meds and thankfully was in the virtually no pain group.

 

[Plai]

@martyg Reread your original post in thread a few times. Sorry, missed the context/purpose for the stem cell harvesting. Why are you going through this? Fixing some other part of yourself, helping another fellow? More back story please. [I'm guessing I missed something in another thread.]

 

[Tom K.]

Started ice cream therapy, which combines icing and calcium boosting.

As an avowed lover of ice cream, I'll be using this line.

Good luck with the rest of the procedures!

 

[scott43]

I always like how the holes are exact circles. My buddy had rods in his leg and the holes are like perfect dime size circles. I'd just mess that up into a pile of goo. Good thing I'm no doctor...

 

[martyg]

@martyg Reread your original post in thread a few times. Sorry, missed the context/purpose for the stem cell harvesting. Why are you going through this? Fixing some other part of yourself, helping another fellow? More back story please. [I'm guessing I missed something in another thread.]

Paul - quickly:

- Diagnosed with compromised discs some decades ago. It was just a result of riding my body hard, no specific point of trauma.

- When this was diagnosed some decades ago my action plan was to manage it with stretching, core work, massage, etc. since then, I have started to have more bad days than good days.

- Dr Karli at Steadman IDed that my MRI is consistent with someone my age (turning 60). So it was not disc degeneration that was the core issue, but rather a symptom of.

- Various steroid injections IDed my L hip as the core driver.

- Stem Cell injectors in L hip and SI joint.

Really looking forward to see how this progresses. Dr. Karli also owns Greyledge Biotech. His company is building the FDA dataset for FDA approval of stem cell therapy. He’s a competitive body builder, MD, MBA, and has performed 10,000+ stem cell procedures. The guy is hyper intelligent.

Overall, I love the process and attitude of the Steadman staff. They are students of their craft, and used to working with super motivated individuals who place performance over comfort.

I can’t recommend them highly enough.

 

[martyg]

The rule of thirds typically applies to the bone marrow biopsy/harvesting: 1/3 feel virtually no pain, 1/3 feel mild to moderate pain and the last 1/3 feel like a hot knife is being stuck into them. When I had my stem cell harvesting I didn’t take any meds and thankfully was in the virtually no pain group.

They tapped my R hip first. It started out like a hot knife. Apparently there are peripheral nerves running off of a major nerve network in that location. They made an adjustment - not sure what it was s I was on my stomach- and it went to mild discomfort.

After that, while they were doing both hips, it was more mild discomfort. However the sensation of a self tapping screw being torqued into your hip is creepy.

As per Dr Karli, they have to keep any numbing agents to a minimum, as it negatively impacts platelet formation once stem cells are inserted. I has 5mg of diazepam going in, some local lidocaine in dermal, but that was it.

Hips are plenty sore today. Going to get a light, upper body weight workout in to rev my metabolism a bit and get the healing process accelerated.

 

[Prosper]

@martyg how’s are you feeling 2+ weeks post-procedure?

 

[martyg]

@martyg how’s are you feeling 2+ weeks post-procedure?

Awesome. Thanks for asking.

The frustrating thing right now is that I feel like I have my 30 year old back. However you have to stay very chill, and follow PT protocols very exactingly. If you introduce undue stress and impact to joints too early, the stem cells tend to calcify.

As my PT (who is PhD level and one of the smarter people that I know) explained, it is all about the mechanics of cell division, and it doesn’t matter if you are Micheal Jordan or active old guy (me), the timing is the same.

So for now.... I feel 100%. I am doing two PT sessions per day, and bathing my cells in a clean, nutrient rich environment.

I’ll have an article out over the summer on the process, what I learned, and my subjective reading.

 

[Prosper]

Good to hear. Keep up the PT. Hope you continue to feel better.

 

[Tom K.]

Good to hear things are progressing well.

Back on skis later this season?