A year ago I had injured myself during a workout. Fast forward to what really happened: I had a left ischial tuberosity avulsion fracture of my left hip. Basically, a fracture that took some hamstrings with it. This is a very rare and painful injury. After six weeks of recommended immobility by my Primary Physican and countless sessions with Physical Therapists it was recommended that I see a Surgeon due to the fact that I was no better off and the pain was becoming unbearable. Surgery looked like it was the only option. This is a very rare and complex fracture, which normally occurs in teenage boys. I am a 65 year old woman. After seeing three surgeons - including Stanford, basically none of them wanted to move forward with this surgery - it was just too complex and high risk. I have a cardiac condition and that just made matters worse. Because this was such a rare injury, no one wanted to touch me. One surgeon had performed three surgeries, another had preformed 13 and the Stanford Surgeon didn't know exactly, however he hadn't performed many more. Faced with few options and little faith in any of the Surgeons, and still in complete debilitating pain, my Primary Physician recommended Dr. Panero at Sacramento Orthopedic Center. Let me just say here, my active life, as I knew it, had ceased to exist. For the first time in my life, I was extremely depressed and felt like this would be my new normal. No one could help me. So taking my Primary Dr's recommendation, I met with Dr. Panero. I must say I was very skeptical and didn't know much about PRP. At this point, I was wiling to try anything that didn't require a 12 month surgical recovery with no guarantees. My husband and I met with Dr. Panero and after hearing about PRP, we decided to go ahead with these procedures. I received three PRP injections, each one week apart. After each injection, I remained immobile during the entire week and used crutches only when absolutely necessary. A Physical Therapist was present at the time of my first injection and continued with me through my rehabilitation and Physical Therapy. After three injections, once a week and immobility, I started Physical Therapy with Results P/T in Sacramento. Fast forward to today, 12 days short of a year of my injury, I am 85-90% back to where I was when my injury first happened. I am active and happy and able to do most things I was able to do before. For me, surgery was not an option, as there were no guarantees and I couldn't find an Orthopedic Surgeon that felt surgery would be a success. I absolutely believe with my whole heart, if I hadn't had PRP, I would not be able to have the life I have today. I was absolutely loyal to the Physical Therapy, both at the Results facility and at home, that was set up for me at Dr. Panero's office. I love the fact that they work together and follow your progress. I was not a believer at the beginning, but I am now. PRP was the best thing that happened to me in the last year.... I didn't even know what it was before that. The Staff (Connie is so exceptional, words can't describe how wonderful she is ) and Dr. Panero is absolutely wonderful. All I did was cry in his office as I was trying to tell him my story/journey. I was an emotional mess, but he was wonderful and caring. So my journey has almost been a year now and I'm doing great. So thankful I chose PRP and Dr. Panero.
