Connective tissue is an important tissue... one more reason to know more about it!

Yesterday in the NY Times, Sports section there was an article "Studies Link Rare Ailment in Cartilage to Pain Pumps" that was rather unfortunate. The article was about young athletes who went in for basic shoulder surgeries like one for a torn labrum and a couple of years later developed chondrolysis - an "ailment" where the cartilage degenerates, dies and leaves the joint to grind together. As with all medical mishaps the article shows everyone from the anesthetic companies right down to the FDA pointing fingers and NOT taking the blame for the tragic endings of dozens of young athletes career's.

Although in the article it says, "Wheter the pumps caused the chondrolysis... is subject of more than 150 lawsuits working their way through state and federal courts, it is still unknown why the chondrolysis develops." it seems like a simple reason of why the damage to the joint occurred. It's not really the pump, it's putting a local anesthetic direclty into the shoulder joint or any joint for sustained periods of time!

I will tell you why I think it develops, simply, if you pump local anesthetics for 3 days into a joint the medication turns into a toxin and the cells become fully dehydrated. No fluid around or within connective tissue kills connective tissue. This is DEGENERATION caused by toxicity and nothing more. Once this is set into place, the damage is done if the toxins are unable to move from the local joint. With shoulder surgeries, the joint is imobilized for weeks. This, plus local anesthetics is a disaster. I am not a surgeon or medical doctor but this I KNOW FOR SURE!! Now these young athletes are getting FULL SHOULDER REPLACEMENTS at the young age of 25!

So now the orthopedic surgeons are pointing their fingers at the pain pump manufacturers who sound like they were slow to react to evidence that using these pumps to pump anesthetics directly into joints was harmful. Of course the surgeons liked the pumps at the beginning because they lessened patient pain and got them out of the hospital faster. The FDA says they never cleared the pumps for use directly in joints in the first place and in November of 2009 the FDA issued a warning about using pain pumps in joints. They even ordered the manufactureres of local anesthetics and pumps to change labels for such use.

Sadly, the article was a bunch of legal back and forth, many claims were denied because the courts ruled there was not enough evidence that it was actually the pain pumps that caused the problem... blah blah...

It's not the pumps... it's what they are pumping into the body with the pumps that kills the cartilage. It's like saying knives kill people. Ah, no... people with knives kill people but it would be safe to say a knife isn't going to jump out of a cabinet and stab you on its own. So who's to blame? Is it the manufacturers of the pump? Is it the local anesthetics used in the pump? The doctors? The FDA?? If you ask me, I know it matters who is to blame but what's more important is figuring out who was administered the pump and who can we help NOW before their cartilage degenerates.

And by the way, I didn't see anywhere in that article that if the toxins are driven right to one joint it's only harm may be at that local joint. Once the rehab begins, the toxins go everywhere, less in mass but don't think they stay just in the joint... what if it is the anesthetics... if it is, then joints nearby the shoulder will also be affected like the upper spine!

Super, no one wants to take the blame. Super, no one wants to put more care to the patients and actually figure out how to now save the kids who have had this surgery who are going to eventually need a replacement. And by the way, now that we know, if you catch it soon enough and get fresh fluids back to the capsule, it is possible for that tissue to regenerate. MELT CAN HELP WITH THIS I AM SURE OF IT!!!

However, just like the article says, "These allegations have not been scientifically proven by any valid scientific methodology... There's no study that I'm aware of that shows a direct cause..."

SO PEOPLE... IS ANYONE LISTENING TO ME OUT THERE? Are we okay with waiting around for "valid scientific methodologies" to come to our rescue or are we going to do something about this? Because we can help this. If we wait for legal suits and the FDA to do something many more kids will be getting their shoulders replaced because of stuff like this.

I am mad today. Somebody out there tell me we aren't just waiting for litigation to make sense of stuff like this. By then it will be too late. If I waited to have a full blown scientific study showing that MELT works for people, I'd have helped no one. Although it's time for a study on MELT, it's time we all realized medicine and medical studies DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE ANSWERS... or the solutions. Let's make one ourselves, shall we?

If you know anyone who has had this surgery, have them contact me. I'd be happy to help.