PRP Update

I saw the doc who did the PRP this morning. One of my first questions to him was about the healing timeline. I have to assume that by now, the platelets have dispersed and are no long actively involved in any healing at the injury site. So, I asked him how long I should expect to see improvement. In particular, is where I am now the full repair or will it get better?

He told me that the typical timeline they've seen is that the first two weeks get you back to your pre-treatment state. The next two weeks usually bring a very slight improvement. From weeks 4-12 is when the athlete starts to notice the real improvements. And, he said that some people continue to improve out to 6 months or so.

So, despite the fact that I've seen some real improvements already, I'm just entering the period where I should see the real improvement.

He told me today that my case is very interesting to him right now because he has two college varsity athletes with the same injury and both are considering PRP. I asked him if I was the first person he'd treated with this exact injury. He said I was the third, but then said I was the first "real athlete" of the three. Clearly, he was delusional, because he called me a "real athlete". So, he is watching my progress carefully as he tries to figure out the best way to treat the college athletes.

I'm supposed to start pushing things a bit now. Not too fast, not too hard, but harder. He'd like me to move my running to the trails and away from the roads for a while, or at least away from pavement. He'd like me to start some moderate speedwork, starting with uphill repeats, then level repeats, and finally downhill repeats, all on soft surfaces.

And, I can go back to using my foam roller to massage the injury area and the rest of my legs.

I left the visit feeling a lot better than when I arrived. While I'm happy with the progress so far, I was starting to wonder if I'd already seen all the improvement I was going to see. Instead, it sounds like there's potential for some significant improvements over the next two months, which would be perfect for ski season and beyond.