21st October 2021
Uskomaton potilasmatka
Kööpenhaminassa asuva Hanne Staanum johtaa useita alueen korkean profiilin kuntosaleja. Innokkaana urheilijana hän aloitti kilpailemisen lapsena. Kun loukkaantuminen pakotti hänet lopettamaan kilpailuihin osallistumisen myöhäisessä teini-iässä, hän kääntyi pyöräilyyn vaihtoehtoisena keinona pysyä kunnossa ja terveenä. 40 -luvun lopulla hän alkoi juosta useammin ja 50 -vuotiaana aloitti triathlonin - voitti Ironman 70.3 -Euroopan mestaruuden. Vuonna 2017, 51-vuotiaana, vähän ennen kilpailemista vuoden 2017 Ironman 70.3 -maailmanmestaruuskilpailuissa, Hannella diagnosoitiin nivelrikko (OA) vasemmassa polvessaan. Niin kipeänä, että hän ei ollut juossut yli kolmeen vuoteen, Hanne kokeili lukuisia hoitovaihtoehtoja ennen kuin häntä hoidettiin Arthrosamidilla toukokuussa 2021. Uskomaton potilasmatka, jonka voit lukea alla.
![An incredible patient journey](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Farthrosamid.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com%2Fnew-uploads%2F_1800xAUTO_crop_center-center_none%2FAn-incredible-patient-journey.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Tarinani urheilijana alkoi, kun aloitin juoksemisen seitsemänvuotiaana. Olin keskimatkojen juoksija useita vuosia, mutta teini-iän puolivälissä minulla alkoi olla ongelmia sääressäni, jossa minulla oli tulehdus luun ja sen takana olevan lihaksen välillä, polven alapuolelta aina jalkaani asti. Minulla oli tämä ongelma muutaman vuoden ajan, ja vaikka kokeilin erilaisia hoitoja, 18-vuotiaana olin lopettanut säännöllisen juoksemisen. Tietysti siihen ikään mennessä minulla oli muita kiinnostuksen kohteita ja juoksin vain, kun pystyin. Kokeilin muita urheilulajeja, kuten taekwondoa, muutaman vuoden ajan ja sitten sain lapsia. Minulla oli aina juoksujaksoja virkistystarkoituksessa, mutta ajattelin, että se oli se minulle ja kilpajuoksulle. Ja sitten, noin 13 vuotta sitten, kun olin 40-luvun alussa, aloitin pyöräilyn.
Aluksi aloin pyöräillä maastopyörällä ja aluksi vihasin sitä todella! Mutta silloinen poikaystäväni oli todella kiinnostunut pyöräilystä ja se oli meille luonnollinen tapa viettää aikaa yhdessä. Olin treenannut lapsuudesta asti, joten liikunta tulee minulle luonnostaan ja huomasin olevani itse asiassa aika hyvä pyöräilemään! Joten aloin osallistua kilpailuihin ja pärjäsin melko hyvin. Kun olin 40-luvun lopulla, pyöräiltyäni pari vuotta, aloitin juoksemisen uudelleen, mutta jälleen kerran aloin nopeasti saada vammoja.
Tuskani alku
Kärsin plantaarifaskiittia kaksi vuotta. Lääkärini eivät voineet kertoa minulle, miksi minulla oli se, mutta se oli erittäin tuskallista; Minulla oli yöllisiä kipuja, enkä usein pystynyt kävelemään kunnolla, kun nousin aamulla. Kokeilemani hoidot olivat turhia; Kokeilin verihiutalepitoista plasmaa (PRP), mutta sillä ei näyttänyt olevan paljon eroa - vaikka oli vaikea sanoa, mikä toimi ja mikä ei. Parin vuoden kuluttua tein kengilleni räätälöidyt pohjalliset ja pystyin yhtäkkiä juoksemaan uudelleen - ja pidempään ja pidempään. Sen jälkeen, kun koin hieman kipua juoksun jälkeen, hoidin itseäni kohdennetulla shockwave-hoidolla.
Kun täytin 50, päätin aloittaa triathlonin. Otin uimatunteja oppiakseni ryömimään, koska minulle ei ollut koskaan opetettu sitä, ja aloin osallistua paikallisiin ja alueellisiin kilpailuihin; Ne olivat aluksi vain lyhyen matkan kilpailuja, ennen kuin siirryin olympiamatkoihin ja sitten puolimatkoihin. En koskaan tehnyt täysiä Iron Man -matkoja, koska olin huolissani siitä, että vanhojen juoksuvammojeni vuoksi harjoittelukapasiteetti olisi minulle aivan liian riskialtista.
Coming to a head
The situation came to a head after I’d competed in the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championships in the USA. I’d tried not to run too much or for too long in advance of that and I’d slowed down my training. I also used strong doses of ibuprofen to help with the pain in the run up to competitions, but it was still quite severe. I remember that I was staying in a hotel during the World Championships, and I recall having to go out to buy some ice cream which I held against my knee with string in a bid to cool it down and ease the pain... I was in so much pain and I knew then that I really shouldn’t continue. I’d already been diagnosed with knee OA about six months before the World Championships but, at that point, my condition hadn’t been too severe. I’d had some treatment, some cortisone injections into my knee. I’d been seeing a rheumatologist who’d been a triathlete himself and we’d discussed the prospect of me retiring from competitive running, but I wanted to keep on going until I couldn’t.
When I came home from the World Championships, although I was suffering with my knee, I ran in two or three trail competitions. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have done this because after that my knee was finished. It hurt to go up and down stairs or to walk any distance. It was not good — my knee was severely swollen with edema in the bone. I knew I needed to speak to people who knew more about what I was experiencing.
I found another Danish athlete, a former ski runner who was living in France, who’d had a treatment called lipogems. This is a stem cell therapy which involves fat cells being harvested from areas of the body and then injected into the knee. So, as it wasn’t available here in Denmark, I went to Poland to have this treatment myself. They took fat cells from my thighs and injected it into my knee — but I experienced no effect at all. My specialist then suggested I try PRP again to see if that gave me a boost but I wasn’t keen as I’d only experienced minimal relief when I’d previously tried it for my plantar fasciitis.
Nothing was working for me. All the treatments I’d tried before had only provided me with symptomatic, short-term pain relief. I’d tried steroid injections and they gave some pain relief for two weeks to a month, when I found I could run normally again, but the effect hadn’t lasted. The specialist who’d recommended the treatment in Poland had already looked at my knee for a second time and rejected surgery as an option because my left knee was now too badly damaged. We’d also talked about me having an artificial knee which I considered for a while but he and I both thought it was too early in my prognosis and too risky; I know some people can run with an artificial knee but I felt it wasn’t worth taking that chance. As a trained nurse, my view is that there’s always more possibility of experiencing problems when it comes to surgery.
Everyone I talked with in Denmark told me ‘we have nothing left to offer you’. After that, I just gave up on the hope of finding a treatment. I was quite sure I needed something inside the knee to take the pain away but I was trying to find a solution and it just wasn’t happening.
At this point, I wasn’t running at all and then I was forced to stop cycling for three months when I developed a Baker's cyst at the back of my knee, causing my knee to become incredibly swollen and irritated. So I wasn’t allowed to do any training at all — and this was a major setback for me.
It was devastating actually.
So much of my identity is combined with my sport and it took a long time to come to terms with the fact I couldn’t do what I loved anymore. It affected my relationship and also my work; I’d had a great career with a challenging, high-pressured job in the community and I’d given this up, changing roles in order to be able to commit more time to training twice a day before the World Championships — and now I couldn’t do that. I also started to actively avoid doing things that I knew would make my knee hurt. I learnt to alter my behaviour.
Discovering Arthrosamid®
And then an acquaintance told me about Contura and explained that the company was about to launch a treatment that might help me. So I started researching and following Contura online so that I would be aware as soon as the product was launched. I discovered that one of the doctors who’d treated me before was actually involved in the trials for Arthrosamid so I contacted him to see if it was worth me trying it. He’d trialled Arthrosamid® on himself and, having had the same symptoms as me, was now able to run 5 to 10km once or twice a week so he thought it was definitely worth me giving it a shot. He explained how Arthrosamid worked and gave me the reassurance I needed that it was worth exploring as a treatment option. I then managed to get in touch with a key person within Contura who was really informative. Two weeks after my conversation with them, on 25th May 2021, I had my injection.
Immediately after treatment, my knee wasn’t swollen at all, but I could definitely feel something ‘extra’ in my knee joint and it felt a little tense — but I didn't have any pain. My consultant told me I could try running after a couple of days to a week post-injection, but I actually waited nearly a month before I went for my first run; I was a little nervous to test it out! I just started by walking down the stairs and then, on 21st June, I did my first short run along the pavement outside my building. I think I only ran for 600m that first time, and combined that with walking a little, running a bit more, and then walking again… My legs felt a bit stiff because I was afraid to put too much weight on my knee and I was scared that the pain would come. And it did actually but it wasn’t excruciating, and I could run again for the first time in years, albeit slowly and for short distances.
After that first run, I was still a bit tentative but I felt I’d got off to a good start; I could run for a few minutes and I didn’t have any pain afterwards. A couple of days later, I tried again and it felt OK so I did the same two days after that and, again, it felt OK. I slowly felt more secure in my abilities so I started attempting longer distances and going out to run in the forest again. A couple of weeks after that first run, I started accelerating a little and running a little longer. Three months on, I had no pain at all when I was running straight or on asphalt.
I then went on a cycling holiday, returning to Morzine which is very hilly! Here I found that, whilst I’d experienced some pain and swelling to my knee during and after the same very long, steep rides when I’d done them the previous summer, this time around I had no problems at all.
Now, almost four months on from my treatment with Arthrosamid®, whilst I’m not completely free of pain, it’s nothing like I was experiencing before. If I run in the forest or on unstable ground, where I might have to jump over a hole or a branch or something, then I might sometimes feel a sting in my knee but it’s bearable — and it just reminds me to be careful!
It’s difficult to explain how I feel about Arthrosamid® and the effect it’s had on me. Going into treatment, I was obviously hopeful it would work but my expectations were very low after everything I’d tried before. It felt like my last chance. But now I’m very happy because, after a three and a half year break, I can run again and I love running — especially in the forest! Whilst cycling is very nice and you get to travel longer distances and see more, it’s not the same as running in the forest. It's a quite a special feeling; the flow in your body, the smells and the sounds around you… It's just great.
Being able to train is also very important for my mental health — I like to have the feeling that my body can perform and Arthrosamid® has given that back to me. Before treatment, the pain I would experience when running meant I couldn’t even run for a bus. In fact, when I started the treatment, I said that if it made it possible for me to run just 5km twice a week, I would be happy. I’ve taken it slowly over the last four months but I’ve now achieved that goal.
Given my nursing background, I see Arthrosamid® as an alternative to having knee surgery — you can push that operation further down the line for the patient, if they even need to have surgery at all. That’s a big plus for the healthcare sector. More importantly, patients like me won’t have to experience a reduction in their quality of life or forgo all the things they love to do whilst they wait for surgery. I really can't see any reason to hesitate in having treatment with Arthrosamid®.
OUS/ARTHRO/DEC2021/029.V1
Get in touch with your local clinician providing Arthrosamid® to find out how you could change your life with our novel treatment for knee osteoarthritis.