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How Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Helped Erica
Walking on a waterbed is just no fun. It’s unstable and you wobble – a lot.
That’s how Rachel McCarroll felt when she walked. A 2010 fall injured her right leg and led her California doctors to put a pin in her right femur. The Phoenix resident didn’t feel comfortable from the start. “I assumed they must have touched the muscle,” she said. “Nothing showed up in the MR, X-rays, or anything. After they let me go to the hospital, it still hurt.”
McCarroll, 74, was told the pain was part of the healing after the operation and would improve. But she told the doctors the pain was in her hip, not her leg. And she didn’t improve. “My feet felt like they were walking on a water bed,” McCarroll said. “I had no balance. It hurt worse than having a baby.”
Physical therapy didn’t help either and her internal medicine specialist suggested she visit Southwest Spine & Sports to talk about Platelet Rich Plasma. “It will rejuvenate your muscles,” he said. Retired from work in the California Court System, McCarroll first learned about Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) on the Health Channel and thought the treatment could help. But she didn’t expect immediate relief after six years of wobbling discomfort. That’s what she experienced when she was treated by Dr. Michael Wolff, MD at Southwest Spine & Sports.
“The first shot was awesome,” McCarroll said about her initial PRP treatment. “By the time I left the office, there was no wobble. My feet were already better.” A second session helped, too, but the muscles still weren’t at full strength. An unwise choice to leg-press too much weight caused a slight setback. But a third PRP treatment put McCarroll back on track.
A diabetic, McCarroll notes she still uses a cane, but can walk well and without that waterbed feel. PRP is an all natural alternative that does not raise blood sugars like steroids often do in people with diabetes.
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