Mike’s Musings: Stem cells for the knee- do they work?

Anyone out there in reader land that has had stem cell injections to repair an arthritic knee?
I apologize out of the gate. Many of you don’t want to hear about my personal problems. It seems the older we get the more concerned we become about our health, that’s just a fact. This column is devoted to my right knee to gain knowledge about what course of action I should take.
My right knee is toast, it has been for a few years. It is the culmination of a football injury back in high school and a bad fall down several stairs. It was further exasperated nine months ago when I hit a pothole while riding my bicycle and took a nasty spill requiring emergency surgery on my hip. My artificial hip is doing just fine but the knee- that’s another story.
All of us up in age can attest to some type of arthritis. It is debilitating whether it’s your arm, leg, shoulder or wherever. It can be constant throbbing pain, or simply shows up when you want to use the limb. In my case, my pain only occurs when I walk.
It’s not really pain. It’s more like a weakness. At any given moment I feel my knee will collapse and I will fall. Sometimes it is difficult to get out of a chair and when I do walk, it is with a noticeable limp. After tennis, pickleball or a long walk, and I sit to watch Netflix or a sporting event, I notice my knee swells extensively further inhibiting my walk. I also notice how crooked it is. Compared to my good knee, it juts out at a wicked angle.
To my credit I haven’t let it stop me from playing tennis, walking long distances, or shooting hoops. I limp around and haven’t the mobility I was accustomed to, but it still is exercise. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a determined sort, and won’t let anything stop me from playing the sports I love.
But it’s not getting better, and therefore if I want to remain active, I’ve got to find a solution. I have received a couple cortisone shots and that helps for two or three months, but as one doctor said, that’s not a long-term solution. Your knee, he said is one of the worst I’ve seen, you need to get a replacement and soon. That was two years ago, and I’m still hobbling around on it.
However, I had a hip replacement just nine months ago, and I’m in no mood to park myself in a hospital bed and have my knee replaced with an artificial one. Thus, I have begun researching stem cell treatment, and if you believe what you read, it might be a good option for me. That is why I’m reaching out to readers, now. If you have had stem cells injected into your knee or other body part, please give me a shout and let me know if the procedure was successful.