PRP

The time came to take the leap and go for the PRP injections. I was super nervous but also more than ready and excited to see if this would be a good step forward in my healing journey. The procedure would consist of them drawing a whole bunch of blood and then spinning the blood in a centrifuge, then injecting me with the healing properties from the blood into my si joints, as well as throughout my sacrum/pelvis area. She explained that she would inject me with freezing first and then start the treatment.

Prior to this big day, my family doctor had told me on numerous occasions that he wasn’t on board with me doing this treatment but that he would support me regardless. He had looked into the studies and knew that they had success in knee problems but there were no current studies on the si joint/pelvic region. I knew that it was experimental going into it and had done my own research and had also read a lot of success stories from people in my online support group. “What is the worst that could happen with this treatment?” I asked him. “Well, infection, but my worry here is that you will have so much hope riding on this and have sunk in so much money and find it doesn’t work.” I was grateful for him and how he was looking out for me. We had this conversation numerous times before and I told him, “There is nothing left for me to try and I need to give this a shot, even if it doesn’t work, I just need to know.”

I lay on the bed with my face down. She started with the freezing, “Okay, not too bad,” I thought. But then the time came for the PRP injections and whoa! You know when someone in the movies is being tortured and you can see the veins in their face popping out as they are gasping for air and screaming bloody murder, well, that's how I felt. The needles are very big and actually go right down to the bone. I could feel ever-y-thing! Thankfully the big Covid shut down had just happened and nobody else was allowed in the clinic while I was there. I screamed and hollered at the excruciating treatment. I flailed my arms in the air, signaling for her to stop. “How come I’m feeling everything? I thought with the freezing, I wouldn’t feel anything.” I said. She explained that it was for the initial poke of the needle at the surface but not the deeper stuff. “Okay, you ready to keep going?” She asked. I nodded my head and screamed bloody murder as tears trickled down my cheeks. I was exhausted and so sore and beyond happy that it was all over. She had originally wanted to do my mid back at the same time but I told her that I wanted to see how my body responded to the treatment in my pelvis first and go from there.

Many people in my group had different experiences with the aftermath. Some were so flared up and inflamed for weeks and others months, that they questioned if they should’ve tried the treatment in the first place but with time, things settled down and they noticed change. Others had no flared pain and didn’t notice any change and so they had to go through the treatment process numerous times until they received any change at all. I had no clue as to what to expect and felt a little scared of my pain being even more heightened. You can’t take anti inflammatory meds and they discourage you from taking certain pain meds, as it messes with the goal of inflaming the area to cause your body to put it’s focused attention to that area to bring healing. My sister offered to come and help out if we needed it, which I was super grateful for because I had no clue if I would be wiped out and bed ridden for a bit or not. Thankfully I didn’t get a super intense reaction and would have to be patient and wait at least three months to know if my body responded positively to it or not and to know if I received healing or any change.

I continued on with my physio regimen and was still feeling hopeful with the little blips of progress that I was experiencing. My nervous system was extremely sensitive and it didn’t take much for my body to go into a long flare. We had to take my physio very slowly and gently and be patient for my body to receive the physio treatments, which took quite a few months. At this point in time, I'd on a regular basis, wake up in the middle of the night with my right hand going floppy and the blood being drained out of it. It was terrifying as I couldn't wiggle my fingers or move my hand, and it would just hang there until the blood slowly went back into my hand. My physiotherapist found rotator cuff issues and I've worked really hard on getting that issue under control. My body has needed work from head to toe, which at times has felt a little overwhelming. Different muscles have shut off and other muscles have picked up jobs that they weren't supposed to which in turn causes nerve, joint and muscle pain. I've had to work on training my brain and muscles to pick up areas that need the attention, to help stimulate and activate the muscles. Obviously, because I hadn't gotten the proper treatments throughout these years up until this point, we had to undo the other treatments that were done on my body and take it slow. Sometimes as we work on one area, it triggers a different area that needs work and so we sometimes have to stop working on one area and deal with the newly risen issue first.