Well it has been a busy few months, and I have been getting numerous questions regarding the PRP treatment on my lower back. Must be time for an update!
On February 25th I had a fasting blood draw. Christine extracted 34 vials of blood, because she could and it was flowing since I was well hydrated. Fortunately she had some juice for me before I got up. She worked her magic and extracted the liquid gold platelets. I went back in the afternoon and Dr. Glaze took that liquid gold and injected it into various locations in my lower back to wake up the atrophied muscles. I must have hurt him as he said, "Ouch!" before each injection. I was able to watch on the x-ray monitor as he worked his way around my back. As hard as I tried on some of the injections my back twitched - I guess you cannot control all the nerves. There was enough liquid gold for 26 injections. When he was done, I was just going to get off the table; but Christine stopped me before I could. I felt fine; but she had to put on the large bandages that would annoy the heck out of me until the next morning. You know the kind that just pull on your skin with any slight movement. I was then wheeled into the recovery room for a few minutes before I could get dressed. After I was dressed, Dr. Glaze came in and gave me the post procedure run down. The back felt tight; but not painful (except when the bandages pulled on the skin). Once those bandages came off the next morning, I felt great.
I stayed in Grass Valley an extra day/night just to make sure I took it easy. Recovery included walking and lots of heat. My physical therapist also made me wait before starting up physical therapy just to give the platelets time to get to work. I did 6 weeks of PT before being released to get back to my normal activity level. The "normal activity level" this time around included painting, installing flooring and building a path for the new "She-shed" in the back yard. Now it is time to get into the gym and work on the strength training and cardio on a regular basis. I have been cycling again; but not running (run/walk style).
As a side note, my back has only gone out once since the treatment - most likely because I was not paying attention to the warning signs while working with concreate and flagstones. The recovery was so much faster than pre-procedure where I would be in pain for a number of days if not weeks. Lesson learned, the back is still healing and I should not be lifting heavy things (yet)!
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