My name is Frank and this is my story.

My right knee cartilage was gone. I was bone-to-bone. The pain was unbearable. I went to doctors and they wanted to do surgery they wanted put out official knee, I didn't want to go that way.

ARO changed my life.

I had a stem cell procedure done and now I'm riding, no pain. It's like I started a new chapter in my life. It's a miracle, it really is that I'm back cycling.

It's like my dream come true.

Over 3 years ago I had developed severe pain in both knees and the left knee was worse. So I was told I needed open knee surgery. A replacement knee surgery. It went awful, it was terrible. They didn’t treat me up, it still hurts till this day. And it’s over 3 years ago. At the same time the other knee was hurting, not as much, but waiting 3 years to do smth about it, and I didn’t want to go back and have the same thing happen to the other knee. So I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t do anything for 3 years. I was in a wheelchair sometimes. The sypthoms in my right leg included pain, it was so bad that if I rolled over in bad in a certain way, the pain would wake me up. And that was while I was sleeping. And I don’t even want to remember what it was like when I was awake and trying to walk or do anything. I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t do anything! I loved to drive, I loved to go shopping. I liked to do things… My life was stand still and it was everybody’s mercy to drive me anywhere, which is a horrible feeling. I wanted to be independent. I love my independence, I love the freedom of being able to just jump into the car and go wherever I wanted to go. That came to the stand still. Emotionally I wanted to die. I’m not kidding. I’ve felt my life was over. I couldn’t walk without emmence pain. I just had no quality of life. And I really wanted to die.

I didn’t think that anything could help. I didn’t want to go through with the right knee what I went through with the left knee. I would never have going to go through that again, I would have rather spend my life in a wheelchair, than go through what I went through with my left knee. All I was is sitting in bed, laying in bed, making friends on Facebook. I had no outside life. I wasn’t even on a charge anymore because I was loosing faith in everything.

The minute I walked in to ARO started to change my outlook. Because I said “wow, just looking and listening to the people from the receptionist to the doctor, was a totally different world”. It couldn’t help getting a little excited. And even though I was very skeptical, I was also getting help back. I was starting to thing “Maybe this is going to work, maybe God is answering my prayers.” Because I want to be able to live again. To be able to drive, to be able to do some housework, to be able to do some laundry, to be able to walk across the room.

I was very impressed by the doctors here in the ARO. Because it was nothing like I expected. They talk to you like a regular human being. Dr. Dean was the first person I met and I love him! He is so sweet and kind and easy-going. In ARO, when I came here, I felt that at that point I had nothing to loose. I was very skeptical. I said “if this works, it sort of a miracle.” And I wasn’t even sure I will be a candidate, so I just tried to keep my excitement to myself, because when dr. Dean spoke to me, I was so excited. I said to myself “what if it doesn’t work”. I had doubts. It sounded too good to be truth. But I always had hope. Dr. Dean did a little test where he put an injection or smth in my knee. And I could walk! But I thought to myself that it is not going to last, it is just a test. I was excited I had no pain! When you know what it is like to have terrible pain and than all of a sudden not to have it. It is a miracle. ARO is a miracle. I’m so thrilled. I love every single doctor that I met, every nurse, the people that worked at desk, everyone.

They saved my life and my sanity. I’m very grateful. I’m so glad I didn’t give up. I’m already almost back to normal of before my knees gave out. I’m 69, soon will be 70 years old and I see the best years ahead of me. I’m not going to run any marathons but I don’t want to. I’m able to do what I need to do and I’m happy. Thank God! I’m glad to be alive and that’s it. Just from napping and constant pain, and anyone who’s been in constant pain knows what I’m talking about. When you’re a cripple practically and you can’t walk, what would you give to have you life back again? I even started dancing a little bit again. I always danced through all my life, not professionally, just loved to dance. And I’m able to dance again, I’m finding my rhythm back and it’s amazing!

I knew I was injured on October 30th. I was riding my new bicycle and I was going up to one hill on a neighborhood. I felt something in my right hip area cracked and I knew something was wrong. The next day the hip still hurt, but I went to work and I set down for about 2 hours. After I stand up suddenly I couldn’t walk. Now the knee was swollen. I knew that feeling because I had torn meniscus in my left knee 2 years ago. It’s a horrible thing when you can’t walk. I was willing to tolerate the pain and do what I could with Advil: swimming and doing physical therapy. Before I did a really intelligent and well-educated opinion. I did not want to have a total knee replacement if I didn’t have to. Any time the cut into the body, it is serious. I knew plenty of people who had knee replacements and they told me how painful it was. I heard good stories and I heard horror stories.

Even the simplest thing like walking was painful. I had pain shooting through my right knee. I was hobbling, I couldn’t even walk like a normal person. When I sat down, I went to get back up because it was incredibly painful. When we went to restaurants and I needed to stand up from the chair, I felt like I was 99 years old. And less you’ve had that knee pain, it’s very hard for people to sympathize. They would watch me grimace and make faces while I was trying to stand up and they felt sorry for me. But they didn’t understand that the type of excruciating pain I as in.

It was really depressing and painful at the same time. Everybody’s looking at me saying “Sue, just go get that knee replaced. Yo need to have it replaced. Just get it done.” And I was like “ok, I will get it. I will make a research about it after Christmas.” And that’s what I did. I talked to a friend of mine and she said “Sue, there is a great doctor in Tampa.” She gave me his name. She gave me his phone number. She highly recommended him.

I called the phone number and Regina from ARO answered the phone. I was quiet surprised, I’ve never heard of Advanced Regenerative Orthopedics. I thought “this sounds cool. I like that.” She said “I recommend you to come in and get the free consultation, free review of your MRI and your X-rays and than you can decide.” She said that they do minimally invasive procedures. That was like music to my ears. When I first met with the doctor here in ARO, I was very impressed. I was impressed the facility, I was impressed the punctuality. I didn’t have to wait very long to see the doctor. He reviewed my MRI and my X-rays and came in and told me two things. 1. I was too young for total knee replacement. (I loved that, because on the other side I was told I was too old and I’d better have the knee replaced) 2. that the knee wasn’t that bad. That they could do the denervation process and clean up the torn meniscus. And then do the stem sell injections. I asked about the stem sell injections because I have never heard of that before. And he told me that the stem sell injections would regenerate the cartilage and a bone in my knee. And that I have good enough cartilage in there to regenerate for long term effects and long term improvement on my knee.

The team here at ARO is fantastic. They are very clear, explaining what they can do and how they are going to do it. They took the time to explain that to me. I liked the fact that they have been orthopedic surgeons in the past and they have done just meniscus repair, perhaps even total knee replacement. But they are looking at new and different ways to improve people’s lives without doing the total knee replacement.

Overall, I’ve had an extremely positive outcome. I was happy that I was able to bend it, I was able to seat, able to do normal things. I was just thrilled. I couldn't say enough about Advanced Regenerative Orthopedics. I went into retirement that was going to have a better possibility of having a healthy knee. Being able to walk and enjoying my grandchildren. And I am thrilled to help share the story, because I think it’s one of hopes and I think it’s great for the health of anybody. Because we need our knees to walk. I need these kneed to work for my children and grandchildren and enjoy the rest of my life.

In January I turned my rotator cuff and that let to having the surgery. If you have severe pain - you cannot sleep laying down, because when the shoulder drops you get pain. You’re not getting a good night sleep and and you cannot raise your arm at all. It is very difficult to do all the housework.

I knew it should be repaired. The question was that who should do the repair and how.

I started to search who are the organization that actually do the stem cells. It seems to me that all the latest success was in regeneration. Here we have people who’s been practicing for years. And they have no history of malpractice claims, that’s incredibly important. The atmosphere in this office is so low-key. First I met with dr. Dean. He explains every single thing, all ARO options available to you. He takes as much time with you as you possibly could need. My doctors took hours with me, explaining everything that was going to go on. If you have any questions – you can always ask them. There is an incredibly woman Regina who calls you and reminds you of your appointments. I have never seen such incredibly inclusive pre-surgery instructions. They have a much better understanding of a person.

The surgery center is incredible. Everybody there was very good. Everything is done very quickly. I wore sling for 6 weeks, and then took it off for my recovery. Doctor gave me the pictures of my shoulder before and after. The next day I came and got me stem cells injection. And I was healed!

What does it mean to me? It means a freedom. I’m looking forward getting in the swimming pool.

I think that if anyone has problems with their knees, their hips or shoulders – they absolutely should come to this practice. They will find people who will spend time with them. You will not be by yourself here. I think that this is an amazing group and I would recommend it to anyone.

I’ve been having knee pain for several years. And I’ve been getting injections in the knee and they seem to last maybe about 3-4 weeks the most. After that the pain would return in my knee. And I was told by several doctors that I needed total knee replacement, because I have bone on bone. And the pain would probably not disappear. And the pain was, on the scale from 1 to 10, sometimes was maybe 9. It was not all of the time, but it did come and go. Especially at night when I tried to sleep the pain on my knee was excruciating. At that times it was just unbearable. There were many things I couldn’t do with having this pain. I live in a house that has steps and it was very difficult to go upstairs and come down. I had a fear that sometimes my knee would give out and I would fall. Several times I did fall and scratched my face.

You live with it but you don’t want to live with it and you want to know what your options are. Rather than having sacred I decided to do some research. I found out that stem cells are relatively new, but it is a big thing now. So I decided to come to this group and let them talk to me about stem cells. The doctors set down and explained to me the different types of treatment. They told me what they could do and was they do in this particular office. I was wholly impressed. They weren’t pushing or anything like that. They sit down with me and went over the entire procedure. They also told me that we are going to do what they call “a dry run”. If that was successful, maybe I was a good candidate. I had just a great experience listening to them. And the procedure, I found it to be very easy. Just a little discomfort. So far so good. I haven’t had any pain and I was able to do things that I couldn’t do. I could walk down the steps with ease.

I’m very thankful to doctors for what they have done to me. I’m pleased, happy and I would wholly recommend to my friends or anyone else. People who are not thinking about having the procedure, they have to try it. I think it’s a lot better than going under the knife to have total knee replacement. I have talked the people who had knee replacement. And my experience comparing to their experience is much better.

Several years ago my knee started to hurt. I was playing in the park with the children and I twisted my ankle. It started to hurt. Eventually the swelling went down, it took about 6 months and I thought I was better. After 2 months of not being able to walk, pain came back. So intense that I couldn’t even stand. So it’s been a lot of years. And a lot of different doctors, I’ve lost counts of MRIs. I was told that I was getting old a that this is normal arthritics. I felt like giving up, hopeless. It was very depressing. I stopped going out, I was just stuck.

After meeting dr. Mirabello, they discussed with me the options of surgery. At first I thought it can’t get any worse. I didn’t know if they were really able to help me. But when I thought about my position, I realized that they can’t make it any worse. So I was going to give this a try. After meeting the doctors, after my surgery I feel like I have new life. I can walk again, I’m looking forward to do many activities, I wasn’t able to do previously because of the pain I had on my left leg. It is an incredible feeling of freedom. And being able to walk again is amazing.

I cannot express the gratitude and a feeling of joy that I have inside to doctors who helped me here and taken away this pain from me. Anybody who’s in pain should come and get their MRIs reviewed and see if there is a possibility that they can help you. I don’t have enough words to say how grateful I feel. Thank you!

All too often with degenerative joint issues such as arthritis or meniscal tears, the immediate solution is replacement. What can be expected in replacement surgery is a long and involved surgical procedure followed by weeks to months of rehabilitation and a long recovery period. Many times replacement surgery is presented as the only option to patients. This is exactly what happened to Orchid P, who recently shared her story with us.

Orchid was a vibrant woman in her seventies who had a full knee replacement years ago that was fairly successful. She was left with a limited range of motion but otherwise she was functioning just fine. Her other knee had some degeneration, but Orchid stayed active and managed her pain with an anti-inflammatory. Basically, Orchid had no complaints.

And then she was in a car accident.

The accident tore what remained of Orchid’s deteriorating meniscus. She was left with severe, acute pain and limited mobility. She now needed a cane to walk. Orchid’s life was seriously changed.

It became a domino effect. Orchid was unable to work and, with limited mobility, she started gaining weight—another added stressor to a failing knee. Orchid reached out to her Orthopedist for advice.

“My doctor wanted to do a complete knee replacement and I said ‘no, I won’t go through that again.’” Orchid recalled what she had experienced with her knee replacement. She didn’t want to repeat that and hoped instead to preserve her knee if at all possible.

Orchid made an appointment with Advanced Regenerative Orthopedics. After a thorough evaluation and assessment, Orchid was offered another option: Minimally invasive surgery that would fix the tear, inject regenerative medicine, and use a denervation technique to deaden the pain.

“This triad fuses three technologies of arthroscopic surgery,” said ARO Medical Director, Dr. Robert Dean, “to preserve her anatomy and extend the natural life of her knee, so that she doesn’t have to have their only alternative, being a knee replacement.”

Orchid decided to move ahead with ARO and the day following her surgery she walked into Dr. Dean’s office with no pain and no cane.

“I am on my way now to walking normal, like I wanted to from the very beginning,” she said.

Informed decisions are crucial when considering treatment for degenerative joints. Major surgery and full replacement should be a last resort with other, less invasive options explored first. That is the philosophy Dr. Dean lives by.

“If we can give another year, two, three, five, or ten years of function of that natural joint, that’s what we’re all about.