New Member - Hi All!!

[annapurna]

Dextrose is the least inflammatory solution typically used. Sodium Morate is more aggressive and what I was getting for much of the prolo I got. I typically completely recovered within a couple of weeks to reasonable activity but the tissue building takes more time. If you space the injections to 4 weeks you typically get more response. If you use more aggressive things like platelets or bone marrow, you need to space it out more but also get a deeper and more sustained response.

[Stonewall_Boris]

Anna,

I can't imagine going to SM early in the treatment. I never went to anything more than p25g. Overall how did you find prolotherapy? I had it on my back, did you as well?
How many treatments did you have or do you still get prolo?

[Stonewall_Boris]

Hi Anna,

I believe prolo worked for me for the problems I was having with my mid to upper back I just had to Google on the variations that you had. Very, extremely interesting.

[annapurna]

Originally Posted by Stonewall_Boris

Anna,

I can't imagine going to SM early in the treatment. I never went to anything more than p25g. Overall how did you find prolotherapy? I had it on my back, did you as well?
How many treatments did you have or do you still get prolo?

Laura has had prolo for her SI joint, lumbar spine, C-spine, shoulders, fingers, knees, and (in an interesting variant) face; many of them during a single treatment. She then takes some pain medication and experiences a rather miserable day. She's hypermobile, as mentioned in other posts, so the prolo is pretty much the only thing that keeps her from falling further apart.

I've had prolo on my shoulder, finger, wrists, ankle, TMJ, and ankle. I tend to respond fairly well though I've moved up to platelets for the recurrent items to make sure they stop recurring. The Morate into my wrists was really interesting as it swelled the wrists to roughly twice their diameter for the day.

The number of treatments varies by area and severity of the original problem. Laura's hypermobility and ADRs mean that she's probably going to need prolo in her back for the rest of her life on an on and off basis. A couple of platelet treatments in my ankle and shoulder have pretty much fixed them for over a year with no further need for treatment. I might regret that statement tomorrow but so far, so good.

[CDW321]

Originally Posted by Stonewall_Boris

Hi CDW321,


I'll give you info on the prolo as I hope it would work for you as the least intrusive procedure. Of course I'll share my experience with surgery, as many others will here as well. And the forum posters have a lot of very good info.


According to him, the theory behind prolotherapy is that the ligaments and tendons are so weak that the muscles must kick in to, in my case, support the spine. Since the muscles are always tensed they become overworked and sore. In my case it was my spine but the same is true, I'm told, about other areas in the body. He worked Tuesday to Thursday. I had my first session on a Thursday and was warned it would knock me off my feet, he was right. The one thing that convinced me that this could work was on the Sunday, as I was taking out the garbage, I noticed something completely different, at first I couldn't put my finger on it, then after a while I realized I was not with back pain. It only lasted maybe 30 – 45 minutes but that made up my mind to continue the treatment. He “worked” mostly on my middle to upper back which I think you said is where your pain is.

Hi Stone -
You mention muscles supporting the spine in your case. Were you having strong muscle spasms along the paraspinals (muscles in middle of back along both sides of spine) from mid back to neck? If so, were you aware of any disc issues in your low back of neck at the time? I began getting these horrible spasms (running from low back to neck on right side) every since my L5 S1 herniated in 2011. It has not let up. I'm waiting on insurance clearance for some Botox to deal with some of this. I'd be interested in Prolotherapy. Is it primarily directed at muscle spasms?
Thanks for your help in advance.

[TPatti]

Prolos main objective is to strengthen and tighten ligaments to restore skeletal alignment. This could possible help with spasms if specific muscles were working to much because of compensations due to improper alignment.

[annapurna]

Originally Posted by TPatti

Prolos main objective is to strengthen and tighten ligaments to restore skeletal alignment. This could possible help with spasms if specific muscles were working to much because of compensations due to improper alignment.

There's also a short-term effect of prolo to break muscle spasms just like dry needling can break muscle spasms. That might lead to a really weird short term behavior where you feel bad right after prolo because of the inflammatory agent, suddenly start feeling better as the muscle spasms alleviate and the inflammation drops, then start feeling bad again as the muscle spasms reinitiate and the prolo hasn't had time to cause any healing.

[Stonewall_Boris]

Yes, by the time I started prolotherapy I had xrays, a CT and MRI scans. They had noted DDD in my cervical, thoracic and lumber spine. The worst area was l4-l5. I also live with a pinched ulnar nerve that makes my little fingers on my left hand numb. A neurologist did tests to confirm nerve damage.
The one thing my GP did that was really good was to give me a copy of EVERY document in his files on me. That means I have the reports of every specialist, radiologist etc in my files. So when I started with the prolotherapist he had good info on me. The only thing he insisted on was to actually see my back x-rays, as I recall he needed it to verify that I don't have missing vertebra???
I have to give you some info on a typical session. He would have me rate my pain on a scale of ten. Then he had me fill in a pain chart, a picture of the body from all angles, I had to draw in the areas of pain and the TYPE of pain. He'd come back in the room looked over the info and started the treatment. I was needled from my buttocks to just above my shoulder blades. The needling was not asymmetric. Sometimes more on on the right sometimes more on the left. And, I would say, that with the exception of my shoulder blades they were close to the spine. My spasms were more like ongoing, sometimes there was a sharp pain but mostly it was a burning sensation up my back, most notable in the middle and upper back. You couldn't touch in that area without me jumping. In a 'flare up' I had trouble putting on a shirt. If that tag on the back of the collar was still there it felt like a razor blade. My wife went to the same doctor for her neck pain and had injections in her neck.
I would not say that prolotherapy is a treatment for muscle spasms, tppati is correct on his post.
For those who have had prolo what was your doctors technique. My doc would have me lay flat on a table face down as I had back pain. He'd 'poke' at me until I kind of reacted, when I did he'd mark the spot with a marker. When he had my back marked he'd load up his syringe with the solution and injected me at the spots he marked.

C,
Just ask if you want more info.

[Stonewall_Boris]

C,
Had a much better post, aaand, the tablet looses it again. I'm sure it was me but a slight tap looses the update.

Make sure you check out prolo before you go with it.

There are good and bad reports of it on the internet.

Prolotherapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But do more research. My doc always took a sabbatical for two weeks to, I believe was Honduras, to meet up with other prolotherapists from around the world. There they would exchange techniques and treat the locals free of charge.

[CDW321]

Stone, Anna & TPatti -

Thanks for all the info.