“I don’t even know what I would be like right now if I had gone through with that surgery, because once you’re cut open, that’s it. You can’t reverse stuff like that,” says Toronto resident Stevie Simpson.
Stevie had contemplated hip surgery after endless visits to various medical doctors and physiotherapists proved unsuccessful. She even received MRI scans but was still misdiagnosed for years. No one could tell her what was wrong with her hip.
About 10 years ago, the 37-year-old played on a football team called the Toronto Triumph. While doing routine drills, she experienced such excruciating pain that she couldn’t move.
“I did just one more, and I was on the ground. That was it. I couldn’t lift my leg at all or even walk,” recalls Stevie.
Stevie says that over time, while she started feeling better, she never improved enough to play sports or be active in any way, which is very important to her.
“I had to quit almost everything, right down to just normal gym workouts,” says Stevie.
Just a few months ago, Stevie heard about Eterna Health and decided to give the clinic a try.
“I saw Dr. Smith; his ultrasound alone is amazing. I was lying down for an hour. Just the thoroughness and patience… you can truly feel the passion behind his work,” says Stevie.
Dr. David Smith, Eterna’s lead regenerative physician at the Mississauga, Ontario clinic, found a buried tear that had been missed by other medical practitioners. He was able to tell Stevie exactly what was wrong with her for the first time in 10 years.
“I re-evaluated her and found more areas of tearing in the tendon origin of the rectus femoris, the commonly injured part of the quadriceps muscle,” says Dr. Smith. “We treated her with a high dose of PRP, which was combined with thrombin to promote clot formation in the tears, so that the platelets would release their signaling chemicals and growth factors over a prolonged period of time, anywhere between two to six weeks.”
Before treatment, Stevie couldn’t maintain a straight leg raise for more than 30 seconds. Eight weeks after she was treated, she had no trouble holding her leg up even against resistance, adds Dr. Smith.
“I got so emotional just a couple of weeks ago. I played a little scrimmage of tennis with my friend, and I haven’t touched a racket or done anything like that in almost a decade,” says Stevie.
She is also working with Eterna Health’s chiropractor and neuro-functional sports practitioner, Dr. Sunny Gandhi, who is helping her with physio exercises.
“He is amazing. I did all of my warm-up exercises that he recommended and played for an hour and a half. I actually worked up a sweat, which was nice because it’s been so long,” says Stevie.
The former athlete shares that she feels 85-90% healed.
“It’s a mental thing too because it’s been a decade where every day I felt this pain, this lack of being able to do stuff, and something that’s always weighing me down. I feel like that has to shift as well, even in my head,” shares Stevie.
Stevie plans on sticking to her physio at Eterna Health and bringing sports back into her life because being active makes her happy.
“Most doctors just create Band-Aids, and this is the first clinic where I’ve actually felt seen as a person. I feel like the questions that Dr. Smith asked me were so personal and dated right back to the injury. You can really feel it and a lot of love within the clinic,” says Stevie.
