Terry

I am an addict. No, not to a drug but to adrenaline. My favorite fix is downhill skiing, and the faster and longer I can go, the better.

I also love backpacking and hiking, and I live in a house with stairs, which I’m up and down several times a day. It’s a good form of exercise, but all of the things I like to do and must do require strong, pain-free knees. That’s why Doc Beatty is my hero!

I’ve been a patient of his for over 16 years.  When I first started to see him, he was a very good traditional physician who addressed patient complaints with traditional medications.  Over the years, he treated every complaint I came in with as a well-read, well-informed primary care doctor.  It was enough for me, but it wasn’t enough for him.  He wanted to know WHY a patient had XYZ complaints.   He soon discovered that traditional medicine is designed to profit the pharmaceutical companies and not patients.  He began to investigate and implement alternative forms of medicine—the kind that treats the individual patient and not just the symptoms.  One of the many things he did for me was to suggest that I might benefit from PRP Stem Cell treatment in my knees.

Last year he administered PRP Stem cell therapy to my knees.  For years he’d been giving me SynVisc and Supartz injections, which helped—for a time.  The injections would last for several months before wearing off.   He talked with me about PRP Stem cell therapy, and I did some research on it.  After reading everything I could, I decided to let him do it.  But not without some reservations.  It’s expensive, and insurance doesn’t cover it.  It’s also NOT guaranteed to work.  Everybody has different chemistry, different exercise habits, and different damage to their knees.

I’m going to be honest:  I did this largely as a prophylactic.  My knees were not to the point that I needed replacement surgery, but I didn’t want to GET to that point.  At 58 years old, I knew my skiing days were numbered and that my knees were not going to spontaneously get better.  I was facing more SynVisc and Supartz injections, and eventually, knee replacement.

I’m a teacher, so as soon as school was out, I had the procedure (June 2014).  Anyone considering this procedure should keep in mind that it will be several months before the full benefit is noticeable.  In my case, the first week was hellish.  My knees were swollen, stiff, and very painful.  That faded, and honestly, I didn’t notice any difference afterward.  But remember that in my case, this was a prophylactic procedure.   About October I began to notice a difference.  It wasn’t that I had pain that went away—remember, my pain came after long days of skiing or hiking–what I noticed was that my legs, my knees, seemed STRONGER.  Going up and down the stairs was no longer a chore.  The snow-covered slopes were beckoning . . .

Although the ski season was less than desirable due to the drought, I got about fifteen full days of skiing in.  I didn’t notice anything, meaning I did not have sore or swollen knees at the end of a long day.  My legs muscles were not as tired because I was not compensating for sore knees!  The expense of PRP Stem Cell therapy, the pain, and the wait for results were all worth it.

Would I do it again?  Yes.  Without hesitation.  Of course, I won’t ever need to do my knees again.  But at my age and my activity level, something is going to break down.  And when it starts to, I’m going to have Doc Beatty do PRP Stem cell therapy on me.

What sets Dr. Beatty apart from other physicians is that when a patient comes in with a complaint, his response is not only to treat the illness, but also to treat it in a way that gets results.  Permanent results.  This is counterintuitive to what most doctors are trained to do.  They are trained to dispense medication and to keep dispensing medication.  What Doc Beatty does is hone in on the problem and show his patients how to fix it permanently.  Again, insurance doesn’t lend itself to this kind of medical care.  When a patient is well, they don’t need drugs, injections, or procedures.

So the question you need to ask yourself is this:  Do I want to feel better, or do I want to BE WELL?

I want to be well.  That’s why Doc Beatty is my primary care physician.