Dwight Howard Gets An Injection; What’s Ahead?

The Houston Rockets had somewhat good news to break out as of late.

The edema that Dwight Howard has been battling may not be as serious as they thought.

Yesterday, Howard underwent a bone marrow aspirate injection to that beleaguered right knee to help with the healing and be re-evaluated in a month.

The Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen reports:

Walter Lowe, the team’s physician, feels that this procedure that was completed will help speed up the healing, eliminate the swelling/pain associated with it and improve the damaged cartilage in his knee.

"“Honestly, it not that big a deal,” Lowe told Feigen. “Just the right thing to do to get Dwight back to being Dwight.”"

Lowe also downplayed the cartilage damage.

"“His cartilage injury is tiny,” Lowe said. “It’s certainly not a surgical problem. But the pain comes from this edema or the bone bruise that forms underneath it. It’s a cumulative deal from his just pushing hard from when he initially had this flare-up.  We’re doing it to speed up his healing that will help his transition back to the court a little quicker than without it. It’s certainly not any major, magic dust. It’s just the right time to put him through that. I really think we will see him play… hopefully, way before playoff time.”"

This injection involved the use of stem cells from Howard’s pelvis to inject into the knee to help heal the edema. I know Lowe is optimistic that this will work but I honestly think that this is a band-aid to a problem that may be just the tip of the iceberg.

Although it’s extremely true that this will heal him enough to be ready for the playoffs, this may be a sign that his knees are starting to degenerate as he ages and this could be a problem that may continue to re-occur.

For goodness sake, I hope not.

It may be something Howard will have deal with for not only the rest of his career but for the rest of his life. This sounds like the early stages of arthritis — it’s quite understandable, his knees have taken a beating over his career.

Just look how greats like Phil Jackson and Kevin McHale have graced the sidelines in their lives after basketball.  One can tell they’ve logged a lot of miles playing professional basketball. I just hate to see this happen to Howard while he still is in the prime of his career.

Even 610 SportsRadio’s Nick Wright asked Kenneth First, an experienced orthopedic surgeon about the whole issue:

I’m not a doctor by any means but since it’s the bone that’s the issue, then that may be ultimate solution to fix his knee.  We may hear that he has to have it when the off season arrives, whenever that may be.

That would likely put him out for most of next season as well.

It has been said that the success rate for these types of procedures are 50/50 so we have to wonder as fans if he’ll ever be the same player he once was.

I still continue to hope for the best because he will be a key piece of what the Rockets are trying to do what they haven’t done in more than 20 years — win a championship.

More from Houston Rockets

• Houston Rockets and Texans: Two different coaches with one glaring similarity
• Houston Rockets: Dig in, make threes, win series
• Houston Rockets: The time to make a statement is now
• Houston Rockets: Rest Russell Westbrook for remainder of the OKC series
• Houston Rockets: G2: What has put the team in driver’s seat against OKC

But the Rockets will press on with Josh Smith, Terrence Jones, Joey Dorsey and Donatas Motiejunas to continue to go out and win basketball games in his stead.

So far, the Rockets are 12-5 without him so that record speaks for itself.

But come playoff time, we’re going to need him when he usually turns up a notch.

Optimism is key Rockets’ fans and we’ll need plenty of it.

Until we hear that D12 is ready to return back to the hardwood, we must wait.

And to that we shall.

Go Rockets.