My shoulder pain began in early 2021 and got to a point whereby I simply could not use it, could not sleep on it and was in severe pain. I decided to see Dr. Ali Anderson and get this sorted out once and for all, and she sent me in for an MRI. Results showed I had an old shoulder injury possibly from my earlier rugby days. The pain I was in was seriously affecting my day to day life, I couldn’t do gym, ride my mountain bike, or simple things at home like playing with my son, swimming etc.
The damage was between my clavicle and Acromion and over time had turned arthritic and causing severe movement restrictions and pain. The amazing Dr. Ali Anderson suggested two courses of action, one being surgery with a possible 6-8 month recovery, and the other was to try GOLDIC Therapy. GOLDIC at the time (Oct/Nov 2021) was fairly new in South Africa, but I was willing to try anything to relieve this pain and avoid surgery at all costs. I believe I may have been one of the first 5 patients to have this therapy in South Africa.
I was sent to see Doctor Jeff Swartzberg, who drew 4 vials of blood and this was sent off the laboratory to separate out the plasma. The plasma is then infused with GOLDIC into 4 separate injections. Doctor Jeff Swartzberg gave me a local anesthetic in my affected shoulder area to begin with, and using a ultrasound proceeded to inject the GOLDIC. These 4 injections were done over a four-week period. Before all 4 injections were completed, I already felt a change and improvement in my shoulder, although it was not a total relief. Over the next 2-3 months improvements just kept coming, my shoulder movement returned, and my pain was reduced dramatically.
The way I explained it to Ali Anderson was that if I had 100% pain, GOLDIC therapy took me down to about 20% which was more than I had hoped for.
It was about 3-4 months after the therapy where I felt the biggest change, I returned to gym & cycling and can say that I am now basically pain free.