Home › Blog › Regenexx-C Patient Testimonial: Restoring a Nurse’s Active Lifestyle

 Pixie Greenemier underwent the Regenexx-C procedure as an alternative to traditional knee surgery.  This is her Regenexx-C Patient testimonial:

“I’m a very active person – I snowboard, take conditioning and self-defense courses, and am always out doing something. I’m also a nurse at The Children’s Hospital in Denver, so I’m constantly on my feet, always moving around.”

“When my orthopedic doctor performed arthroscopic surgery on the knee, he was surprised at the amount of damage – I was basically down to bone-on-bone in the knee. He said that short of a total knee replacement, there weren’t any treatments that would help me.

I was doing a one-legged squat during one of my conditioning courses when I tore the meniscus in my right knee. After that, I was constantly in pain. My knee was swollen, and it got to where I couldn’t even get up from squatting down without having to pull myself up. I couldn’t do my self-defense and conditioning courses, and there was no way I could snowboard.

When my orthopedic doctor performed arthroscopic surgery on the knee, he was surprised at the amount of damage – I was basically down to bone-on-bone in the knee. He said that short of a total knee replacement, there weren’t any treatments that would help me.

At the same time, I had also been a patient of Dr. Centeno’s, and I found out about his cartilage regeneration procedure. My orthopedic surgeon encouraged me to try the procedure, so we went ahead with it in early 2007.

I was amazed at how quick, painless and non-debilitating the whole thing was. I had four bone marrow draws and two stem cell injections, with only a small bruise after any of the procedures. I was back on my feet one hour after each treatment. Even my co-nurses at the hospital couldn’t believe it.

Still more amazing, however, were the results. After the third week, the swelling was completely gone, and my knee actually looked like a knee again. We did an MRI a little while later and found 20 percent regeneration in the cartilage, so I asked if we could do another round of the procedure, which we did in June.

Now, I’m back to my conditioning classes, doing squats, lunges, jumping rope and even a little bit of jogging. My knee feels, looks and works better every day. I’m definitely looking forward to the winter and getting back on my snowboard as soon as I can.

I would recommend the Regenexx-C procedure in a heartbeat to anyone who’s dealing with joint injuries or osteoarthritis. It’s put me on track to getting my life back to where I want it.”

NOTE: This patient was treated with the Regenexx-C cultured stem cell injections and not Regenex SD.  Regenexx-C is a medical procedure and like all medical procedures has success and failure rates and therefore not every Regenexx-C knee patient can expect to this same result.

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile