I was told my ACL was completely torn. But a second opinion about my meniscus led me to stem cell therapy—and two years later, my surgeon discovered something that made me question everything I’d been told.

I wasn’t looking for stem cell therapy to repair my ACL.

As far as I knew, that ligament was already completely torn.

Spoiler alert: I’m not against stem cell therapy. Quite the opposite.

I’ve experienced firsthand what I believe is its regenerative potential. I’ve seen the changes in my own MRI images, and what my surgeon discovered two years later only deepened my curiosity.

But my experience also taught me that regenerative medicine is far more complicated than a simple success story.

So I want to take you through what happened to me, what scientists have actually discovered about stem cell therapy, where the evidence is strongest, and why I believe this field deserves our attention.

Before diving into stem cell therapy, it’s important to understand why I was considering regenerative medicine in the first place.

As a former Division I athlete, being active and doing what I love for longer has been major part of my life. I’ve spent years training, competing, and pushing my body to perform. Running, jumping, changing direction, and reacting instinctively were things I rarely thought twice about.

Until injuries began changing that relationship.

During a college basketball game, I went up for a rebound and landed on someone else's foot, causing my knee to hyperextend. I heard a noise, felt immediate pain, and sat out the rest of the game. After a few days off, the usual RICE treatment (rest, ice, compression, and elevation), and being cleared to return, I was back on the court.

But looking back, there were signs.

Even after my basketball career ended, that same knee would randomly hyperextend during hikes. I didn't think much of it at the time.

Fast-forward to one of the last rugby games of the season. During the second half, I got the ball and made a sharp change of direction—COMPLETELY BY MYSELF 🤦🏽‍♀️. No contact, no collision, just one wrong movement.

I heard several pops and immediately fell to the ground in pain.

Following the injury, I underwent an MRI.

A doctor and the MRI technician told me my ACL was completely torn.

That interpretation carried significant implications.

For an athlete, an ACL rupture can mean surgery, months of rehabilitation, and uncertainty about returning to the sports you love - sure I was ready to embrace that.

But I also had a meniscus injury which the doctor said he would just remove the piece since it was in the posterior horn (low blood flow = lower chances of healing) and that was what led me to seek another opinion. Removing the meniscus at a young active age as mine 30yrs meant arthritis and partial knee replacement down the road. I WAS TERRIFIED.

I wasn’t searching for someone who could miraculously regrow my ACL.

I was trying to understand my options for treating my meniscus, so I sought alternative options. (Which is super sketchy and expensive that deserves its own blog).

That's when I landed at Centeno Shultz and Dr. Markle and Instead, I learned that the diagnosis I had accepted might not have been the full story.

At the regenerative medicine clinic, Dr. Markle reviewed my imaging and performed a physical examination.

He believed I had a severe partial ACL tear, not a complete rupture.

I didn’t know how the story would unfold.

But for the first time, I was considering a treatment approach I hadn’t originally gone there to discuss.

Why I Decided to Try Stem Cell Therapy

As a registered dietitian and professional research assistant, I had a foundation in human physiology, cellular biology, and scientific research.

As a former Division I athlete, I also understood the frustration of injuries and prolonged rehabilitation.

The idea of influencing the body’s natural repair mechanisms made sense biologically.

But I also understood that a plausible mechanism doesn’t guarantee a successful treatment. The hope of this may work was better than the certainty of a partial knee replacement in the future for my meniscus.

Still, after discussing the possibilities with Dr. Markle, I decided to move forward as some other people with a similar degree of tear had a success story.

The MRI Results That Changed My Perspective After receiving the treatment, I underwent follow-up MRI imaging.

When I compared the scans from before and after treatment, I could see substantial differences in how the ligament appeared.

To me, the change was unmistakable.

I believe the bone marrow-derived stem cell treatment helped regenerate tissue in my ACL.

That’s my personal and medical conclusion given what Dr. Markle told me and imaging observed.

And I want readers to be able to examine those images themselves.

Before treatment: MRI showing the ACL injury before the bone marrow-derived regenerative procedure. You can see the shredded tissue in the middle.

After treatment: Follow-up MRI showing changes in the appearance of the ACL. A dark band in the image is what the ACL is supposed to look like.

These images document my personal experience. They should be interpreted alongside the radiology reports and clinical findings. Imaging changes alone cannot establish which biological process or treatment caused them.

Why MRI interpretation matters

An improvement in MRI appearance doesn’t necessarily mean a ligament has recovered its original mechanical strength.

That’s why clinical examination, stability, functional performance, and follow-up outcomes are equally important.

The images looked great, the functional test told me I still had ways to go.

Could My ACL Have Healed Without Stem Cell Therapy?

This is one of the most interesting questions about my experience.

Although ACL injuries have historically been considered difficult to heal naturally, newer research suggests some can recover without surgery.

A 2023 analysis of the KANON trial found that 16 of 30 patients (53%) who remained in the rehabilitation-only group showed MRI evidence of ACL healing after two years. This was a selected subgroup, not evidence that 53% of all ACL tears heal naturally.

In my case, Dr. Markle identified a severe partial tear, meaning some ligament fibers remained attached. That raises the possibility that natural healing contributed to the changes I experienced.

Does that change my belief that stem cell therapy helped regenerate my ACL? No.

I saw substantial differences in my MRIs and felt physical improvements afterward.

But I also understand that my experience is a single-person case study. Without a comparison group, we can't definitively separate the treatment's effects from the body's natural healing processes.

My experience is meaningful, but it isn't universal proof.

Two Years Later: What My Surgeon Actually Found

Two years after my stem cell treatment, I injured my knee again—this time, not during basketball or rugby, but while on the floor cleaning. What should have been a routine day turned into another setback in my recovery. This injury eventually led me to undergo surgery with a bucket-handle tear in my meniscus

Bucket handle meniscus tears just don;t casually happen, usually you need trauma or a faulty Meniscus.

During the procedure, my surgeon directly examined the ACL, and what she found was fascinating.

Much of the ligament tissue appeared to be in great condition.

According to her visual estimate, approximately 60% of the ligament remained attached.

This wasn’t a formal measurement. It was her approximate assessment during the procedure.

But the quality and amount of remaining tissue made an important difference.

Rather than performing a traditional ACL reconstruction, which involves replacing the torn ligament with a graft, she was able to perform an ACL repair using the existing tissue.

She also repaired my meniscus, and added PRP to assist healing my meniscus.

That distinction matters.

ACL repair aims to preserve suitable native ligament tissue.

ACL reconstruction replaces the injured ligament with graft tissue.

Not every ACL injury is appropriate for repair.

Surgeons consider the location and pattern of the tear, tissue quality, remaining ligament structure, and other patient-specific factors.

In my case, my surgeon determined that repair was possible.

And I couldn’t help returning to the same question:

Did the stem cell treatment contribute to the condition of the remaining ligament tissue?

I believe it did.

I had seen substantial differences on MRI after the treatment, and now my surgeon was describing relatively good-quality remaining tissue.

The Part Nobody Wants to Include in a Recovery Story

After surgery, I worked through rehabilitation and gradually returned to running.

Approximately eight months later, I attempted a 10-mile run.

I made it almost to the finish.

At mile 9.8, I heard another pop. Anyone who has dealt with a serious knee injury understands how unsettling that sound can be.

After months of rehabilitation, suddenly I was dealing with another setback.

But that is a history for another time

Today, I’ve finally returned to recreational basketball and flag football (yeeey).

But I’m not playing at full intensity.

I’ve been holding back at roughly 80% while rebuilding strength, confidence, and trust in my knee.

I hope this helps someone considering regenerative medicine.

Would I Consider Stem Cell Therapy Again?

My experience hasn’t made me dismiss regenerative medicine.

If anything, it has made me more interested in understanding what these treatments can and cannot accomplish.

I believe the bone marrow-derived treatment contributed to tissue regeneration in my ACL.

That belief comes from the changes I observed on MRI and the condition of the remaining tissue described during surgery.

But I also recognize that my experience alone cannot establish how reliably the same treatment would work for someone else.

As a professional research assistant, I understand the importance of study design, comparison groups, and reproducibility.

As a registered dietitian, I’ve learned that plausible biological mechanisms don’t always translate into real clinical benefits.

And as a former Division I athlete, I understand why someone dealing with a serious injury might be motivated to explore emerging treatments.

These perspectives don’t always lead to simple conclusions.

For me, the ultimate goal isn’t simply to repair one injured ligament.

It’s to preserve my ability to move, compete, explore, and continue doing the things that make life meaningful.

That’s why I created Outlast Blueprint. Because the real goal isn’t just to live longer. It’s to do what you love for longer.

Where I'm Looking Next: peptides Stem Cells were my first step into regenerative medicine. Peptides are the next thing I'm researching.

READ NEXT -> Why am I optimistic about Peptides

How Much Did My Stem Cell Therapy Cost?

One of the biggest considerations when exploring regenerative medicine is the cost. Here's the breakdown of what I personally paid for my treatment at the Centeno-Schultz Clinic in Broomfield, Colorado.

Expense	Cost
Initial consultation	$400
MRI (insurance co-pay)	$250
Stem cell procedure	$7,000
Total out-of-pocket cost	$7,650

My total cost was $7,650.

These were my personal expenses, not necessarily what another patient would pay. Treatment costs can vary depending on the procedure, clinic, and insurance coverage.

The five Questions I’d Ask Before Paying for Stem Cell Therapy

After everything I’ve experienced, these are the questions I would want answered before considering another regenerative procedure.

What exactly am I receiving? Is it bone marrow aspirate concentrate, an adipose-derived preparation, a purified or culture-expanded cell product, or something else? This is extremly important. You want bone marrow from yourself or fetal umbilical cord.
Does your clinic has any case study or published papers? I would want evidence involving the same or a comparable preparation and a patient population with a similar condition.

Research involving cartilage damage doesn’t automatically apply to a ligament injury.

And research on one cell product doesn’t necessarily establish the effectiveness of another.

How does it compare with established treatments? What evidence suggests it offers an advantage over rehabilitation, conventional medical treatment, surgery, or observation?

And is the potential benefit large enough to justify the cost and risks?

What are the realistic risks? I would want to understand the collection method, processing standards, infection prevention measures, adverse-event data, and long-term unknowns.

I would also ask what complications the clinic has encountered and how they are managed.

How will we know whether the treatment worked? This might be the most important question.

Before treatment, I would want to establish meaningful outcome measures.

For an orthopedic injury, that could include pain, stability, physical function, strength, and return to activity.

Imaging may also play an important role.

But I’d want to know what improvement should realistically look like and how it would be measured.

If a clinic can’t clearly explain how treatment success will be evaluated, that’s a reason to ask more questions before proceeding.