This is where to start if you are considering having prolotherapy performed by Dr Chad Edwards at Revolution Health & Wellness Clinic in Tulsa, OK.
The first step is to call and schedule an appointment for evaluation in our clinic. We cannot determine if prolotherapy is right for you until you have been examined and we are able to review your history.
As a new patient, we will send you an e-mail with information about how to create & login to your patient portal. Your portal allows us to save an incredible amount of time in the clinic so that we can spend more time with you instead of entering information into the computer.
Prolotherapy Instructions:
Before your procedure:
- Complete the patient portal information online to include your medical history, surgeries, allergies, medications
- Wear comfortable clothing that will facilitate the required exam. Wear shorts for anything from the waist down. It may be beneficial for women to wear sports bras if they have a complaint above the waist.
- Do not take any anti-inflammatory medications (motrin, ibuprofen, aleve, naprosyn, celebrex, etc) for 3 days prior to your procedure or any after your procedure if possible. It is not a problem if you have, it just may decrease the effectiveness.
- Arrive at the clinic 45-60 minutes early if you would like to have the topical anesthetic cream applied prior to your procedure.
- Take your pre-procedure medications 1 hour prior to your scheduled procedure time.
- Make sure you have a driver who can take you home after your appointment if you are receiving medications for the procedure.
After your procedure:
- Take your pain medications, if prescribed, as needed after your procedure.
- Ensure you are active and moving after your appointment. This increases the circulation and can help the healing.
- Do not do painful or other activities that you know will strain the ligaments/tendons. These areas are weak and need time to strengthen.
- Exercise: 30 minutes per day of modest exercise (resulting in light sweating) will optimize the function of the maintenance healing system. We do not exercise-restrict during treatment in the vast majority of cases. You may want to decrease the intensity & duration until you know how it will affect you.
- Weight training: If you are training consistently and we are treating a damaged structure, you should drop to about 40% of your usual weight and go up on the reps when using this structure. As the pain resolves at one weight during treatment, slowly increase, keeping below the pain threshold. Once you are at full resistance, pain free, you will be released from treatment.
- Our preference is for heat to be applied to the affected area but some patients do benefit from ice on a short term basis only (within 48 hours).
- Avoid anti-inflammatory medications as much as possible for at least 4 weeks after your procedure. These medications inhibit the healing process that prolotherapy is trying to stimulate.
- Call us if you have any concerns or issues.
Most patients tolerate the procedure very well but you may have some discomfort. Some patients have significant soreness afterward prolotherapy. This can last for several days but typically lasts from 2-5 days. You may also have some bruising from the injections. The ‘recovery’ is a process that lasts weeks while the tissues are healing and getting stronger. You will likely have a fluctuating course of improvement where you have good days and bad days but this will get better and better over time.
If needed, you can download the Prolotherapy Instructions here.
