About 21 years ago, I fell from a ladder, knee first onto a step.
I had broken my left Tibial plateau.
The surgeon screwed my knee back together and told me that it 10 years I would have to have a total knee replacement.
18 years after the break my arthritis had grown severe, the pain would keep me awake at night and I was having trouble with everyday life.
Since the original operation I had been reading about stem cells; they didn't know what they were then.
Whilst I was in hospital from the first operation, I read a magazine article (Time Magazine I think) about a European footballer who had broken his knee and had "bone marrow" injected into his knee. His knee recovered and he went on to play Soccer for several more years.
I held on hoping the treatment he had could become available for me.
Whilst browsing the net I discovered the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney Australia was recruiting for a stem cell trial for osteoarthritis in knees. I applied, was accepted and had the treatment.
They used abdominal fat stem cells, the whole process was 4 hours walk in, walk out.
The whole process was done under local anaesthetic.
The process involved taking 300ml of fat cells by liposuction, separation of the fat from stem cells and reinjecting the stem cells back into the knee.
The doctors performing the procedure told me that the longest part of the process was in "blinding the injections" for the trial.
I went on the table at 9.00am for the "lipo" and left the hospital to go home at 1.00pm.
I went in, in pain and left under a local anaesthetic, I also had a saline injection in the knee, because the doctors said I had a dry socket in the knee.
I was told the local would last for 2 or 3 hours and the saline would reduce the pain for a couple of weeks.
I have never had arthritic pain in my knee since the stem cell therapy.
I had before and after MRI's showing the damage to the knee and tibia before the stem cells and the dramatic improvement after.
I have full range of movement in the knee.
I don't take pain relief for my knee at all.
Shortly after the trial had finished, the improvements in my knee stopped.
I wasn't worried, it didn't regress I simply thought the stem cells had run their course.
The forum had just discovered C60 and I had been tempted to try it, but part of the trial agreement was that I not use any ant-inflammatory agents for the period of the trial.
The trial was over, I started the C60 at 15mg once a week, it was like having the stem cell therapy all over again, not as dramatic as the original injection but still very noticeable compared to no C60.
Given my experience, I do recommend Stem Cell Therapy even if you have to pay for all out of your own pocket.
If you do have it done consider medical tourism.
if you have it done do use C60 and other anti-inflammatories such as curcumin.
Consider abdominal fat stem cells instead of mesenchymal stem cells if only from a pain perspective, as I have read their extraction can be quite painful.
Mike