Told to stop running — back on the road with no restrictions.

Watch Paul's story

In Paul's words

"She didn't tell me to stop running. She gave me options."

Most doctors that I've seen have said, "Yeah, you got to stop the running. That's the first thing you got to do." She didn't say that at all.

My name is Paul. I'm an active father and husband. I met my wife in Central Park running. We both coached for the New York Road Runners for a while. I've really been consistently running for the whole of my life up until about 2019, where I had arthritis of my left knee.

In 2021, I first went to see a knee surgeon. They gave me cortisone shots and physical therapy. It didn't really help. I waited another 9 months or so, and then went back, we got an MRI. We decided at that point surgery was the right route. So I had an arthroscopy in the fall of 2022. It didn't really help. So my surgeon at that point told me that the next step was really partial knee replacement. I wasn't ready. The restrictions were that I wouldn't be able to run.

But at that point, my second knee was starting to give me issues as well. So, Dr. Strickland — she really came to the top of the pile with the regenerative work that she was doing. That was one of the things I was looking at. I really was trying to avoid the partial knee replacement.

“At that point, I was very clear that, hey, look, this is me. I'm a runner. She was quite happy to work with me to enable that to continue.” — Paul

In the meantime, she gave me a diagnosis for my right knee, which is basically a flap of cartilage was loose, and that was what was catching up in my knee and causing pain. We decided that the best course of action was to actually have an arthroscopy on that knee. So, surgery, but in addition, she was going to do a procedure called BMAC.

Recovering from that surgery was amazing. Within 5 weeks, I was back to hiking again. At the 6-week mark, the 6-week post-op, I came into the office for an appointment with Dr. Strickland where we focused on the left knee. So we started to think about that. She introduced me to the MISHA knee, which is a shock absorber for the knee.

Completely no restrictions. I can do anything that I choose. I can run. I can ski. There's no restrictions there. There's no restrictions for racket sports. I also like to play badminton. These are all things which are still kept alive essentially by Dr. Strickland working on these newer technologies. I'm also really really looking forward to running in Shelter Island, which is off the end of Long Island where we have our annual vacation.

I know this for sure. I would definitely come back to Dr. Strickland. She always has options and you can pick your own path with Dr. Strickland. It's not a case of "this is your treatment." That's the real key here I think with Dr. Strickland — you get the option.