[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
Bro, be careful! You are getting a little crazy. I was going to see Dr. Hauser, I live in Chicago, but it is expensive and insurance is a no-go for prolo.
I’ll stay tuned, but please don’t fuck yourself up! Maybe you have some one who could help you? Some one with a little bit of medical experience?[/quote]
Not covered by insurance? Shoot… how much was it? I am considering it for my tibial tuberosity and Dr. Hauser is a 30 minute drive away.
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
Bro, be careful! You are getting a little crazy. I was going to see Dr. Hauser, I live in Chicago, but it is expensive and insurance is a no-go for prolo.
I’ll stay tuned, but please don’t fuck yourself up! Maybe you have some one who could help you? Some one with a little bit of medical experience?[/quote]
Not covered by insurance? Shoot… how much was it? I am considering it for my tibial tuberosity and Dr. Hauser is a 30 minute drive away.[/quote]
Some private insurers are starting to cover it. Call them and ask.
Question:
Is it OK to inject air to replace the water or dextrose I draw out? Or, considering there are no bacteriostats in my vials, am I risking infection, especially for the dextrose vial which I will re-use many times?
It’s very hard to empty the 20ml water vials without displacing that lost water with air. Otherwise it’s extra hard to draw the water.
Very interested in this. Good luck!
[quote]Ray567 wrote:
Question:
Is it OK to inject air to replace the water or dextrose I draw out? Or, considering there are no bacteriostats in my vials, am I risking infection, especially for the dextrose vial which I will re-use many times?
It’s very hard to empty the 20ml water vials without displacing that lost water with air. Otherwise it’s extra hard to draw the water.[/quote]
No problem.
Okay, thanks Erasmus!
So today I did my next set of prolo injections! I did a few more injections on my right medial elbow because I felt I didn’t cover it thoroughly enough yesterday, and started on my right lateral elbow. Once again though, I feel that I didn’t cover it thoroughly enough, and concentrated on too much of one area. I’ve also been having some trouble in some areas pushing through the solution. Some places just seem to give much more resistance… maybe I need to back up off the bone a bit more? Try a bigger needle?
Also I feel a few of much injections might not have gone deep enough. We’ll see. I emptied about 12cc of 15% dextrose on my right lateral elbow. Tomorrow I plan to hit a few more spots in that area as well, do my right tricep, and my right wrist. Day after, hopefully my fingers+knuckles+thumb on the right side. That will cover my whole right side, then the say after I’ll probably start on my left side. We’ll see how things play out. I want to take my time and be careful
A couple times today I noticed the inflammation in my right elbow as a result of the directions 
My lateral elbow got a lot of solution today, let’s see how it is tomorrow
Videos might come along, I’ll try to put a couple up… filming+concentrating is distracting. I have some pics of the injection sites though.
Also, I found some polysporin with 5% lidocaine. Applied it before injections, about 20mins before. Definitely helped! I can focus better like this.
medial elbow. only did a few injections into it today, so you cant see much here. most of the little spots from yesterday injections didnt show up in this picture
Woke up this morning, right elbow was nice and inflamed. My body is responding to the prolo I can’t even lock out my right elbow. Still want to hit a couple sites I think I missed today though.
Finished my 3rd day doing prolo today. Took care of some sites I feel I didnt hit yesterday on my lateral elbow, and did my tricep! Tricep was pretty painful actually, right on the tip of my olecranon. Got a lot of solution in there though - pretty happy. Looks like I have bursitis because of all the solution just sitting there lol.
Also went back and hit my medial elbow again in a couple spots I feel I missed… I might be overthinking it. 3 days prolo in a row at the same area… is that bad? I mean, the dextrose causes damage to the tissue. 3 days prolo in a row, Erasmus, do you think it’s possible I did too much damage by doing that? Like the original injury, when I did too much damage and my body wasn’t able to repair it all the way. Down the line I can do more injections, but I’d like to minimize that. I was planning to hit each area every 2 weeks. Should I wait longer for this spot Erasmus since I did 3 sessions? There was overlap in the specific injection points, but I TRIED to hit new spots.
Tried doing one of my fingers - OUCH! Might need some help on that by a doctor if I can get money.
Tomorrow I think I’ll do my left elbow now instead, before going to my wrists+ fingers.
[quote]Ray567 wrote:
Okay, thanks Erasmus!
So today I did my next set of prolo injections! I did a few more injections on my right medial elbow because I felt I didn’t cover it thoroughly enough yesterday, and started on my right lateral elbow. Once again though, I feel that I didn’t cover it thoroughly enough, and concentrated on too much of one area. I’ve also been having some trouble in some areas pushing through the solution. Some places just seem to give much more resistance… maybe I need to back up off the bone a bit more? Try a bigger needle?
[/quote]
Heavy resistance means that the tip of the needle is in something solid so the liquid can’t disperse so easily.
Probably something like a ligament or tendon. If you feel you can’t press in the liquid, back off a little and try again.
I’m really looking forward to your results, good luck man, I think what you are doing is pretty balsy!
[quote]Ray567 wrote:
Also went back and hit my medial elbow again in a couple spots I feel I missed… I might be overthinking it. 3 days prolo in a row at the same area… is that bad? I mean, the dextrose causes damage to the tissue. 3 days prolo in a row, Erasmus, do you think it’s possible I did too much damage by doing that? Like the original injury, when I did too much damage and my body wasn’t able to repair it all the way. Down the line I can do more injections, but I’d like to minimize that. I was planning to hit each area every 2 weeks. Should I wait longer for this spot Erasmus since I did 3 sessions? There was overlap in the specific injection points, but I TRIED to hit new spots.
[/quote]
Yeah you really should not go overboard here.
Three days in a row the same spot is not good, even though you didn’t do the exact same spot.
What I would recommend is that you would al least leave the area alone for 2 to 3 weeks after a session.
The healing of the body takes time, even in young men like us.
I don’t know what will happen now with the medial elbow, it’s probably going to be extra irritated, that’s my guess.
I don’t think you’ve hurt yourself but this definitely is not going to be speeding up the recovery.
Do a session → leave it alone to heal.
What are you doing with your training? I would suggest to keep it light and not strain yourself too much for now.
Although there are different viewpoints on this.
Alright, thanks for the advice. I’ll probably lay off that spot for about 4 weeks then, maybe more, because I did go overboard. Probably 4 weeks for my lateral elbow too, considering I did 2 subsequent sessions. Shouldn’t be too big a deal waiting longer - my medial elbows dont even bother me that much anymore, but I wanted to be sure to hit that area as well so I know my elbows are fully stabilized again. I swear, after hurting the UCL in my elbows, they now hyperextend just a tiny bit.
Not lifting anymore. Other unrelated injuries have accumulated, and I think it will be a while before I touch weights again. I’m doing yoga, and am going to resume physiotherapy for my elbows+wrists when the inital swelling goes down. Trying to do some cardio, but I’ve got knee and hip problems too - elliptical is OK. I’m focusing on stopping any exercise I do when I feel pain though.
And thanks for the tip about injections and the encouragement The one thing that I don’t think I’m ballsy enough to do is finger injections… man that was painful. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll see if I can get some 30g insulin needles, I’ve heard of prolo doctors going that small for smaller injection sites like fingers.
Did you end up using any lidocaine in the injection itself (besides the topical)? If not, how bad was the pain while the fluid was being injected? Could you actually feel it?
I think topical is actually the way to go. I just read from the Regenexx folks that they prefer only topical lidocaine as they have concerns about injecting it into tissue. I may ask my doctor to not use any next time if the pain isn’t bad without it.
I noticed it took a couple weeks before I started to feel the tightening effects so I would wait at least three weeks before doing any more.
Didn’t end up injecting any lidocaine. The injection of the fluid wasn’t painful - I could feel the needle moving around there though, but it’s hard to tell if I’m sensing that through the hand that’s injecting and feeling resistance, or through the injection site itself. But sometimes, if I hit a tender spot, it is painful and I have to move in slowly. Hitting the annular ligament on my elbow was very surprisingly painful. But 90% of the time, 95% of the pain is with the needle going through the skin. Especially as the session goes on and the needle blunts. I’ll replace it somewhat frequently.
However, within 5-20 seconds of injecting into my elbow (elbow’s all I’ve done so far) I get an extremely tight feeling throughout my arm. Last time I injected my medial elbow, within 10 seconds I couldn’t extend my arm beyond 120 degrees (180 degrees being locked out). It goes away within a few minutes. But the tightness can be actually quite painful. When I was (stupidly) re-injecting my right medial elbow, I had to stop halfway through and sit down for a minute before I continued because of the pain. It had me hunched over for a little bit, clenching my teeth. I feel it throughout my whole arm, not just in the injection site. But I pulled through!
My theory is that this is my body’s response to the chemical injury that is taking place in my elbow; my body sensing an injury and this being nature’s way of getting me to stop what I’m doing. With lidocaine in the mix, I guess the nerves are anaesthetized and don’t send the message to tighten up my the area (in this case, being my arm)? Of course, I’m pulling that all out of my ass. But compared to what I’ve read about prolo, that doesn’t normally occur, and lidocaine is normally in the mix.
also update: today and yesterday I did no injections. Busy, people around, couldn’t find the time… etc.
Tomorrow I want to do both my wrists before doing the rest of my left elbow. My wrists are my priority so I should stop procrastinating. Typing this is painful on them but I want to share this all with you guys.
Pain from the elbow inj’s is going down, but Im noticing a little greenish-blue bruising today that I didnt notice before. mostly on my right medial elbow (the one that I didn’t do 3 sessions on). ill post a pic
had trouble with my camera - dont think that pic of bruising is coming
did left tricep and left lateral elbow yesterday (monday). So now both my elbows are completely done
Tried to do wrists… couldnt do. I tried, I really did but my GOD it was painful to do on myself. I really don’t think I can do it. Same with fingers. Considering either codeine to handle the pain of injections or finding money to get a prolo doctor to do my wrists.
If the androgen-suppressing effects of opiates didn’t exist I’d have already made my decision. I think Ill research them some more. I know they are very real, even with acute administration of opiates
Good news!
I still don’t think I can inject my wrists or fingers BUT I’ve found a doctor somewhat close to me who will treat up to FOUR AREAS (e.g., 2 wrists and 2 elbows) in one session for $100 if I understand him correctly. He’s a young doctor and although he went to the States to train under well-known prolotherapists, he’s still new and learning (he even told me he’s never injected wrists outside of his training). He has his email address online and he answers all my questions in his own time! I went in for a consultation today and he did a full body exam for me to assess all my problems. He told me that he is doing the $100 thing now, but that soon, after he gets more experience, he will change the pricing regime probably to $150 per body part. Hopefully I can get grandfathered in with the old prices!
In 2 weeks I have an appointment with him for injections where he will also do some more diagnostic stuff on other areas for my body.
Really hoping that works out. I think I’d be able to afford it.
Also, update: still have bruising on elbows. inflammation seems to be going down though
Keep posting, good luck!
Will do - thanks!
No, I have not died of infection.
1.5 weeks ago that awesome doctor I mentioned before DID in fact do both my elbows (lateral and medial) and my wrists for only $100! I’m going back in 2.5 weeks for another session. Already noticed from my own elbow prolo session and his that my elbow feel more “stable”. When I flex my arms, it feels like a stronger joint. Before, it felt like if I flexed a little harder something would snap. Like my tricep tendon would rip off the bone. Very strange feeling, not painful though. It has improved noticeably.
AWESOME doctor. He found out in 2 minutes what all the other doctors I’ve seen did not, even with ultrasound MRI and xray. About 40% (my guess, after him doing a series of pain tests on the area) of the pain in my wrist is actually not in the wrist joint, it’s at the introsseous membrane of my forearms, right before my wrist joint. He pushed hard at that spot and it replicated the pain I feel, and the pain was located at my wrist! Awesome!! So he did prolo at that spot as well (it was the most painful injection) and also at the ligaments in my wrist. He did notice that the wrist joint itself was also unstable.
