I think it´s just best I tell you the whole story. I´m a soccer player and I´ve played it almost all my life. I just finished my collegiate soccer career in Florida. I was a part of a very successful team. We won our conference and also the National Championship.
It all started early 2011. We had a new athletic trainer and he wanted everybody to do the same. For me that was too much and I didn´t realize until it was too late. I could barely walk after one training and there I wanted to put a stop to this. I had been diagnosed with runner/jumpers knee. I tried ultrasound, massages, exercises for me knee, cycle, swim and nothing helped. I got in contact an orthoscopic surgeon back home and he cleaned everything around the knee. Next step was rehab and it took me 3 months to get back on the pitch again.
At that time I didn´t know about PRP. It wasn´t until I came to the States. I had a good season the fall 2011 and I didn´t feel anything until the summer 2012. I did rest it and the things that I did before but it wouldn´t go away. Then the 2nd season started the fall 2012, I was wearing a Mueller strap that helped me keep most of the pain down but at some point I had to do something. I tried Ibuprofen, steroid tablets and they just helped me temporarily.
October 2012 I had my first PRP shot. I had never heard of such thing before. I met with Dr. Puritto(I think that is his name) and he told me about this treatment and how successful it was. He flew all over the world to do this kind of treatment, so I was positive that this was going to help me. Just so we’re clear, I tried everything else except 2nd surgery before I had my first PRP shot. I basically told him my story and we booked an appointment 2 weeks later or so.
It was at a physician clinic I remember and he asked me start to take stym cell pills a week before the injection and keep taking them until i finished them all. I finished the last pill 2 weeks ago. I do not remember how much blood they withdrew from my arm but I had to wait about an hour until they injected the plasma in my knee. I don´t quite remember what he did to prepare the injury for the injection but what I do remember is he doped me with novocaine so I would feel less pain I guess, but I´ve never felt so much pain in my life before. It was painful. He started by putting the novocaine in my knee and it felt great, and two minutes later he took that long needle with the plasma and injected it into my knee and I screamed so loud. The pain itself didnt last for long, maybe a day or so.
After the Injection, I could barely walk and the swelling was quite much but in two days I could walk normally again and I started my normal routine three or four days after. The entire visit took about 2 hours. Can´t remember if my knee was wrapped in something but most likely yeah. After the Injection Dr. Puritto just told me to take it easy for a couple of days until the swelling was out. Then I should bike for a day or two and then get back on the pitch. He did write me a prescription for pain medication but I didn´t really use it. The pain wasn´t that great after it. Just the swelling and the difficulty of walking.
The PRP cost me $700, a lot for a poor student. This kind of treatment costs about $200 back home(Iceland) but it´s hard to compare it honestly. A week after the injection I started playing again and I definitely experienced improvements. It took about 50-60% of the pain away and like I said earlier I was wearing the strap and that helped as well. So I basically played almost pain free after the Injection but it didn´t quite fix the problem. It helped for a while but I still have this inflammation under my knee cap. It´s not much but something I need to get rid of before I play again. I have minor knee surgery next Tuesday and I´m hoping I will be back in business 4-6 weeks after that surgery. When I think back the best thing would have been to rest it and do my exercises for 4-6 until I went on the pitch again, but I didn´t have that luxury.
The following is a patient experience submitted by a collegiate soccer player from Florida.
