Another Injection

Last Friday I had another injection into my right SI joint. Actually it was more than just the joint, I had one injection into the joint itself and then 4 more injections into the fascia and tendons of the surrounding areas.

This is an entirely new stream of treatment with a new doctor. This doctor is a ND which means he is an actual doctor but he does natural treatments. Now you all know how desperate I am to get this fixed because I really don't trust natural medicine stuff. At this point I've pretty much exhausted all the traditional options short of surgery. I'll try anything out now.

If I were to go forward with surgery it would involve fusing the SI joints on both sides of my lower back. basically they open you up, shave off the outer layer of both the bones and then keep the joint immobile for several months. It would take me out for quite a while and I just don't think I can afford to do it.

So, I'm trying this other thing which is Prolotherapy. The idea in Prolotherapy is to introduce a proliferant into the tissue that encourages the body to restart the healing process. They've been doing this for years with chemical proliferants but in the last few years they've found that Platelet Rich Plasma is actually the most effective proliferant. Evidently blood platelets contain most of the growth factor hormones related to healing. By injecting the PRP they get the same effects as a chemical proliferant on the cell structure but the healing is much more dramatic because the platelets are already in place to produce the right hormones as they are metabolized.

So, the procedure involves drawing blood with a very large needle as to not disturb the cell structure, spinning it down to red blood cells, plasma and platelets and then drawing off most of the plasma and all of the red blood cells and then injecting it into the joint and surrounding tissues.

I don't really know if this is going to work or not, but I thought I should at least try. It's $700 per shot and insurance isn't covering most of it, so it's going to be expensive. But it's the last option I have.

The shot itself is quite painful and it put me in bed for the entire weekend. You wouldn't think it would hurt to put your own blood back into your body but it really hurts. I'm supposed to repeat 2-3 more times at one month intervals. I'm praying this is the one.