You get injured – a fall, a sprained ankle, whatever. Time passes, maybe a lot of time passes, and you’re still having problems with the injured region. It is a natural human hope that it will still heal. But, how long does healing take? If a year or two have gone by, is there hope that it will heal on its own in the coming year? The human body is complex, and maybe there can be various outcomes, but here are the basics about how and when different stages of healing occur.
New growth of repair tissue
This is the critical early stage where new collagen tissue fibers grow and weave into the damaged fabric, repairing it. This stage lasts 3-4 weeks. That’s all! It is just a scary short window of opportunity for replacing torn fabric with new collagen! When that’s over, there will be no further repair. And even this 3-4 weeks of potential repair can be aborted with use of anti-inflammatory drugs. On the other hand, PRP Stem Cell Therapy can re-ignite multiple new 3-4 week rounds of tissue growth and repair.
This is the key stage, the critical stage for healing for ligaments, tendons, meniscus, and other joint tissues. Get this right, make enough new growth happen, and the other healing stages may take care of themselves. Here are the other stages that follow.
Remodeling
The newly grown tissue optimizes over the following year or more. No doctors needed, no physical therapists needed, it just happens. The new tissue organizes itself better and better along lines of use, along the vectors of your movement. It matures and becomes stronger and more functional. You don’t need to do anything in particular, just live, and this remodeling occurs naturally. Essentially no new tissue is grown over this time, but the tissue becomes more fiber-like and stronger. This occurs after an injury, after a series of PRP Stem Cell Therapy procedures, or even after a surgery. It is another stage of healing.
Neuromuscular re-learning
For a year or even more after is a stage in which nerves and muscles adapt to the new situation. PRP Stem Cell Therapy repairs parts in a joint region, and then it is up to the nervous system to figure out how to best use the muscles around the newly improved joint parts. This happens on its own, but it can be wisely accelerated and deepened by expert guidance from physical therapists or others. It is another layer or stage of healing.
Conclusion
Certain kinds of healing may go on for well over a year. However, the basis of the later stages of healing is the success of the initial stage of actually getting the torn or degenerated tissue regrown and repaired. That is why PRP Stem Cell Therapy is a key to this entire healing process.
One song played at our office is Fragile, by Cassandra Wilson. We are fragile because we are human. Yet, because we are human, we have the capacity to heal.
We have a large wild cherry bush in our home’s back yard. What follows are some of my photos of its recent process of blossoming.
Dr. Jonas Skardis
