Stem Cell Therapy-desperate for opinions please ?
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hi all - I would really like to know IF any members here from Australia,USA ,UK or any where else have had this done ? What was your opinion & how successful did you think it was ? I know it is not covered under private health in Australia & may cost around at least $6000 BUT what is a person's quality of life worth IF you can get the money together. ? It has been featured on "Today Tonight" here in Australia which is a major current affairs program.Apparently it has worked well for athletes & major league football players. I am at the stage of thinking that IF this has a chance of working that I will look into it further. I may even need to travel interstate to have it done but I don't care as I am so desperate.IF I can avoid a partial or full knee replacement I will be happy as I am in daily pain & stressed to the max with living with the loss of my lifestyle & constant pain..I can barely walk for 5 minutes without being in agony & have been declared medically unfit to drive. I have lost my independance & I want to get my life back. I have had an arthroscopy 6 months ago for a medial menicus tear which did pretty much nothing for pain relief & now my recent MRI shows I am bone on bone with no cartilage on my inner knee.
I really hope to hear from some members who may have had this procedure done & hear what they think & if it has been of benefit to them.I am truly looking forward to other members input as I can not cope much longer with the loss of my lifestyle & level of pain. Thanks Colleen
0 likes, 11 replies
CHICO_MARX colleen52029
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This is from the National Institutes of Health...
"In conclusion, stem cell therapy may not become a standard treatment for knee OA till the end of the decade due to various aspects regarding the clinical safety (e.g., risk of complications after surgery, compatibility of donor stem cells) and the affordability of this treatment for the general public. Moreover, there is still no sufficient amount of clinical data on the effectiveness of stem cell therapy when compared with pharmacological treatments for this particular disease."
I'll send you the link to the whole article.
colleen52029 CHICO_MARX
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CHICO_MARX colleen52029
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colleen52029 CHICO_MARX
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colleen52029 CHICO_MARX
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Thanks for the link. I am only new here & you made me realise that their is a PM aka messages facility here.
michael82177 colleen52029
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Don't think it's a viable option. All I know is that something like 95% of TKR patients are happy with results. It is what it is. Good luck to you.
johnny17592 colleen52029
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Hi Colleen
You mention Athletes and footballers maybe they have to take a chance on the stem cell treatments in order to carry on with there careers i to was very worried about my tkr you mention you are in a lot of pain i was to after all the years of no cartilges which becomes arthritic yes its tough afterwards but the joy of knowing the arthritis dissappears can carry you through go for it and do everything your told to by the doctors and physio's it will change your life good luck and take care.
cathy2868 colleen52029
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Hi Colleen I had Stem Cell injection from my own rib injected into my knee along with microfracture on both ends of my knee bones. They also shaved off the arthritic bone on bone areas. Plus repaired a mensiscus tear on the other side of the knee on April 15th of this year. Honestly, I think the fixing the mensiscus tear worked. I do think I am growing some new cartlidge slowly. However, I am still in as much pain as I was before just a different kind of pain. A deeper hurting pain. Knee is still extremely swollen and cannot walk much at all or it gets very bad. So before my surgery I could not walk through wal-mart, 7 months later I still have problems walking through wal-mart on most days. I think the biggest issue I have is with the shaving the bones off and the microfracture they did. I think the stem cell injection is working but healing from the rest of my surgery is not doing so well. Unless it makes a huge turn around in the next few months I do not think it has given me any long term results. Knee replacement is still in my very near future. Sorry to say. Ask questions. Lots of questions. I went in not realizing what microfracture was and not thinking I would have to have that but it was bad enough they did it. I was totally off my knee for 3 whole weeks. Which doesn't sound like a long time but it is. Then 3 more weeks just to hobble around. I can now walk a decent pace on most days for not very long at a time. Hope this helps you
colleen52029 cathy2868
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Hi Cathy,
I might be wrong but it sounds to me like you had an arthroscopy to fix your medial menisus tear as well as a good clean up of the area + then also had the steam cell procedure ? I sorta gather that you are not in Australia. I know in USA, Canada & UK that the health system is totally different to Australia. In Australia we have free public health care & we pay into a private health fund IF we want a choice of Doctors / Specialists ,, to get into hospital a hell of a lot quicker & also to be able to be admitted to private hsopitals for treatments & surgery, If you are a public patient you can wait many years for elective surgery.
I am not sure where you are from so don't know how your health system works. Are you able to tell me how much the stem cell procedure costs & if you had it done in hospital or the Doctor's surgery rooms ? How many days was it spread over ?
I gather what you have said that you have long term osteoarthritis. I have had the arthroscopy & feel that it did not do a great deal but I am no longer on a walking frame but a walking still & still can't walk far & in daily pain. I had a medical menicus tear & have extensive osteoarthritis. I look forward to talking more. Cheers Colleen
Atthe end of this week I am having Synvisc ijection. My original surgeon is only inerested in doing a TKR & I am thining that he is seeing $. I went to see a 2nd orthopaedic surgeon last week & he has suggested this injection which has worked for a lot of people but not everyone so I am sure prpapred to try iit . It does cost $480 & I I expect to only get $100 from my private health fund BUT what prie can you put on good health, a high quality of lifestyle & days free of constant chronic pain ?
cathy2868
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Yes you are correct. They did it all at 1 time. I am in the USA. My insurance didn't pay on stem cell portion. That cost me 2500.00. Synvisc does nothing for me. Steriod work for a few months then each time it was less and less time that it worked. That's when I finally gave up and did the repair surgery. Good luck to u!
cathy2868 colleen52029
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