Bethel Park yoga instructor benefits from stem-cell treatment, to provide testimony for FDA
Julie Cerrone demonstrates her liberation from crutches after undergoing her procedure.
Julie Cerrone at Rehabilitation and Pain Specialists in O’Hara Township, which now offiers the procedure she underwent
Julie Cerrone
It is kind of hard to imagine that Bethel Park yoga instructor Julie Cerrone used to be on crutches and in severe pain most of the time.
But she was.
“I was always on the go,” said Cerrone, 30, who is also a wellness coach. And she was in pain.
After consultations and tests with more than a dozen doctors and health care professionals, she finally found the answer, She had avascular necrosis in her femur bone, specifically the knee joint. The condition, which has fewer than 200,000 cases per year, is the death of bone issue caused by lack of blood supply. There is no cure, but the condition can be managed.
Cerrone said her malady was caused by an autoimmune and blood-clotting condition that was discovered during her many medical tests.
In her case, doctors found bone tissue in two places in her left knee had died, and it was in danger of collapsing on itself.
“I would be on crutches for 10 years until my knee collapsed,” she said. “I did not want that.”
With the help of her parents, Gary and Margie Cerrone of Bethel Park, along with social media and her own determination, Cerrone began researching her condition and the various treatment options.
What she found was that Centeno-Schultz Clinic in Broomfield, Colo., halfway between Denver and Boulder, could treat her decaying knee and subsequent pain through using her stem cells in a process called Regenexx.
Cerrone’s knee pain had reached the point where it literally took her an hour to get from her bedroom and into her car. In March 2015, she underwent the Regenexx procedure, which cost her $7,000 and was not covered by insurance. By comparison, a knee replacement can cost $40,000.
“It took several months to work. But three months out, I was off the pain medications. Six months after it was done, 40 percent of bone had regrown, and I was off crutches. And by March 2016, 60 percent of the bone had grown back.”
Cerrone said there is no guarantee that her knee will heal completely. But she is no longer restricted in what she can do.
Through her social media contacts and the need to tell her story, Cerrone started a blog, “It’s Just A Bad Day, Not a Bad Life.” And it was through her contacts that she learned the FDA will be holding hearings Monday and Tuesday on the regulation of human cells, tissues or cellular or tissue-based products. She will tell her story at Tuesday’s hearings.
Following the FDA hearings, Cerrone will fly to California to tell a medical convention at Stanford University how she used social media to determine her treatment options.
“There are no godsends,” she said. “You have to be your own advocate.”
To learn more, read Julie’s blog at www.itsjustabadday.com/regenexx-avn-procedure.