This is a clinic testimonial video (recorded Jan 13, 2025) in which Dr. Joshua John-Ram Schacter interviews patient Sandy Lam about regenerative knee treatments at Pinnacle Integrative Orthopedics. Sandy (a 52-year-old police officer) received a Pinnacle program including bone marrow aspirate and multiple PRP injections beginning about a year prior; she reports noticeable improvement in ~2 weeks, resumed workouts, avoided knee replacement surgery, and describes a recent right-knee flare that improved within 3–5 days after a repeat treatment and 3 weeks of rest. The clinic emphasizes ongoing follow-up care, occasional "tune-ups," and a value-focused, full-service approach rather than one-time procedures.
Questions this video answers
January 13, 2025
52 years old
Bone marrow aspirate and multiple PRP injections
About two weeks
About three to five days
Chapters
We have Sandy Lam back in the clinic. It's been a while. Sandy's one of our local heroes. She's a police officer, and she's been our patient for a long time. But we started working on your knees last year.
Yes.
And so we did one of our Pinnacle goal programs on her. She had bone marrow aspirate, and then she had a couple PRP injections. She has been doing amazingly well. She's very active in her job and is a workout person. And Sandy, just tell us a little bit about your experience with our procedures here at Pinnacle and what your pain was like before we started a.
Well, when I came here a year ago, I thought I was fixed to have surgery because I couldn't take the pain anymore. And I felt like that's probably my only option. And then when we started this, yes, certainly in about two weeks after I had it done, I could tell that there was a difference. I could do things that I wasn't able to do before, like go down the stairs without holding onto the rail because I wasn't for sure my knees weren't going to give out. And it got progressively better after that. And then I started working out, and that also helped. And I recently, just in the past month or so, had a setback with my right knee. Not exactly sure where it even came from, but came back in and we did it again. And same situation. About three, I would say about three to five days after that, I started feeling considerably better. Swelling had gone down. Everything that I had started seeing was going away. And at your advice, I took about three weeks. I didn't do anything. And then I started trying to work out again. And I have had zero issues with it. If there's any flare ups, meaning if it starts to swell, all I have to do is just put a brace on it and I can go on about my day.
I think it's important for us to remember we do have some osteoarthritis that we deal with regenerative procedures when we do PRP and stem cell. And every once in a while we'll have a flare. And here at Pinnacle, you know, we're not like a normal stem cell clinic where you just take your money and then they never see you again. After that first injection, we're a full service wellness clinic. And so we really want to follow our patients. So Sandy's coming in to see us following up, you know, months after the fact. And if there's an issue. And every once in a while we do have to do a little tune up. We have the capability to do that. We're happy to do that for our patients. And certainly we don't take insurance for these things. And for the amount of money that you invest in yourself when you do one of these programs, we want that value to be there. And, Sandy, what do you think as far as value? I mean, it's real money. It's more than a couch. You know, we strive to make it worth it. What do you think?
No, I think it's absolutely worth it because if I hadn't done this, then I wouldn't be able to do some of the things that I enjoy doing.
I'm.
I'm 52, you know, there's still things that I still want to do, and so I'm gonna have to be smart about it. I'm not trying to do things that are out of my scope, but just like, the type of stuff I like to. I like to play on the lake. You know, I do enjoy working out, and I'm able to do those things. When I first, you know, came to you a year ago, kind of thought that was over without having surgery. So as far as being valuable, I really can't put a price on that, considering, you know, the way what I said to you that day was, you know, I could take this money and probably go buy a new sea doo, or I can take this money and take my knees and then hopefully still be able to still do that kind of stuff.
And it looks from your tan like you're sea doing. You're out there doing it.
Yeah. Matter of fact, I just bought a new pair.
That's great. So, I mean, that's our goal, is to give patients as much value as we possibly can. You ready to show off a little bit?
Thank you.
All right, Sandy, stand up for me. Let's do it. So Sandy has pretty significant arthritis. When she came to us, she could not do a deep knee squat. Let's do it. What do you got? How far down can you go? Out of the way. And then can you. How far back can you get this?
Yeah. Awesome.
Do the other one.
Whoops. We'll be on the spot.
All right. Perfectly athletic. Come and see us. We're ready to get you feeling better.
