“My back is cooked. I can’t even move.”Ken Johnson, after every SEMA show. This year he tried something first.

Ken works car shows and trade shows, and the SEMA show in Las Vegas is the big one: 15,000 to 20,000 steps a day, by his count. On October 7, he had stem cell treatment on his lower back at Hospital Angeles in Tijuana. This page follows the 12 months after it, update by update, in his own words.

Ken Johnson @ken
149Kfollowers on @ken 2Mfollowers on @classicsdaily, which he also runs 161M+views on Instagram
Book a call → Follow Ken’s year →

Celva covered Ken's treatment. In return, he agreed to share the whole year honestly, in his own words.

Watch Ken's day in his own words His treatment day, from the hotel pickup to the ride home.

“I’m not going to fuse my back.”

Ken, 55, in September, before his treatment

He can still do everything. He just does it slower now. Long walks leave him stiff, and after a show on his feet: “I gotta resort to taking muscle relaxers or something to alleviate the pain.”

If you’ve worked a show day on concrete, or spent a Saturday on a creeper under a car, you know how the drive home feels.

It started on a dirt bike. “I used to ride dirt bikes when I was young, and I hurt my back,” he said on treatment day. “I blew a disc in my back. Not blew it, but just bulge a disc in my back.”

The doctor who read that first MRI suggested fusing it (welding two vertebrae together, in effect, so they stop moving), but told him to put it off: “Don't fuse your back until you absolutely have to.” Ken's mind was made up then, and it still is. His read on it: “You fix one issue and you cause another one.”

It had been a long time since anyone looked. “I haven't seen an x-ray in my back in like 20 years,” he said on the drive down. So the hospital scanned it again.

What he wants out of it is simple: “being able to just, you know, not be so sore after an event.” Next on his calendar: SEMA, four days on his feet in Las Vegas.

If your back sounds a lot like Ken's, or you have some other kind of joint pain, and you'd like to know what your options are, let us know.

Find out your options →
Ken reviews his MRI with the medical team

Ken was worried about the injections.

“I'm going to get needles in my back,” he said on the drive down. He didn't know how many there would be, or how much they'd hurt. “I don't even know what my back looks like.”

The injection took about 22 minutes, under a live X-ray. The physician talked him through every step: “I'm going to let you know everything I do, okay? No surprises.” At the end: “Easy peasy. Well done, Ken.”

What was in the needles

What went in
Mesenchymal stem cells (cells the body uses to coordinate repair), mixed with PRP (platelet-rich plasma, spun from his own blood that morning).
Where they came from
Umbilical cord tissue, donated after a healthy birth, then grown in a lab and put through six release tests before use. Nothing was taken from Ken.
What it’s for
Placed around the joints and ligaments of his lower back (L3 to L5, both sides), where it’s designed to support the tissue’s own repair.
What it won’t do
It isn’t a cure, it isn’t FDA-approved, and it doesn’t work for everyone. If anything changes, it shows over months, not overnight, and for some people nothing does.

Nervous about the same thing? Ask us anything on a call, and we'll walk you through your options.

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Ken on the ride home: “It was quick, easy.”

One day, door to door.

Here's the whole day, start to finish: picked up at his hotel in the morning, back at the same hotel that day.

Watch Ken's day

  1. 01

    The pickup

    Celva picks patients up wherever they're staying. Ken's day started at the Hotel del Coronado.

    Ken and his driver at the car outside the Hotel del Coronado

  2. 02

    The drive south

    A short drive to the border, and a driver who crosses it with you. Ken's verdict: “The border crossing was really easy.”

    Ken looking out the window on the drive south

  3. 03

    Hospital Angeles, Tijuana

    A full hospital, not a wellness center. “The hospital is a newer hospital,” Ken said. “I love that it's private, it's gated when we rolled in.”

    Ken walking into Hospital Angeles with a physician and a nurse

  4. 04

    The MRI, read with his symptoms

    Same rule as any restoration: look before you touch anything. Ken hadn't had a recent MRI, so his spine was scanned at the hospital, and Dr. Alejandro Castillo and the physician team read it against how his back actually feels.

    Ken and the physicians going over his MRI

  5. 05

    Blood for PRP, then the IV

    A small blood draw for PRP (platelet-rich plasma, from his own blood), then cells by IV in the infusion suite. Ken spent the IV interviewing Celva's founder.

    A nurse starting Ken's IV in the infusion suite

  6. 06

    The injection he'd been nervous about

    About 22 minutes under a live X-ray, the cells mixed with his own PRP and placed in his lower back. At the end: “Easy peasy. Well done, Ken.”

    Ken on the table under the X-ray arm as the physician prepares his lower back

  7. 07

    Back across the border

    Home through the medical lane, the way every Celva patient comes back, past a few hundred cars that weren't going anywhere. Ken, on the way out of Tijuana: “We just are going to see the results. And I got a big SEMA show coming up.”

    The view from the back seat on the highway home

  8. 08

    Back at the hotel

    Dropped off at the Del the same day. “We're back.”

    Ken getting out of the car back at the hotel

Wondering what your own day would look like? Start with a call. It's free, about 15 minutes, with no obligation, and a coordinator will walk you through your options and answer whatever you'd ask.

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Ken asks the questions you would.

If you came here from one of Ken's posts, you probably want two answers: did it hurt, and did it work. The first is in “Ken’s worry” above. The second isn't in yet.

During his IV, Ken put his followers' questions to Tyler, Celva's founder and CEO. Below are the first ones people ask, answered plainly.

Ken in the IV chair, answering Tyler's questions Full interview coming soon
Why Tijuana?
Because U.S. rules give donor cells grown in a lab no way into a clinic outside a clinical trial, so American clinics can’t offer what Ken had. Mexico regulates these treatments through COFEPRIS, its federal health regulator. Tijuana is where that meets the rest: 25 to 30 minutes from San Diego, Hospital Angeles (a private hospital), and the medical lane on the drive home. More on why Mexico →
Where do the stem cells come from?
Not from you. Ken's cells came from umbilical cord tissue (Wharton's jelly, the gel inside the cord), donated after a healthy birth, so there is no harvest procedure for the patient. The lab isolates the stem cells, grows them, and checks their potency along the way.
What is PRP?
Platelet-rich plasma, from your own blood. A small draw is spun in a centrifuge and the top layer is kept. For Ken's lower back it was mixed with the stem cells for the injection.
Why an IV, if the injection goes into my back?
The IV carries cells through the bloodstream on the same day as the direct injection. Tyler was plain about the limits: “Stem cells, it's not a cure.” And: “Every patient responds differently to the treatment.”
Why another MRI?
Ken hadn't had a recent one. Hospital Angeles has MRI, CT and x-ray in the building, so a scan can be done the same day, and the physicians read it alongside your symptoms rather than on its own. As Tyler put it to Ken: “You're the one that feels the pain.”

Have questions about your own situation? Ask them on a call with a coordinator.

Book a free call →

The year, as it happens.

Think of this page as the build thread. Ken doesn't put his name behind something he doesn't believe in (“It would be best if I really believed in it when I told somebody”), so every update lands here, good or bad. They fall on the same schedule as every Celva patient's follow-up calls. Some changes take months to show, and some never do.

Follow along on Instagram @celvabio @ken

Next up: Ken's SEMA check-in · Nov 3 to 6

One email per update. Unsubscribe anytime.

  1. Oct 7 Treatment day The whole day, start to finish
  2. Nov 3 to 6 SEMA 15,000 to 20,000 steps a day, by his count
  3. Nov 7 1 month Coming
  4. Jan 2027 3 months Coming
  5. Apr 2027 6 months Coming
  6. Oct 2027 1 year Coming
  1. Play

    Oct 7

    Treatment day

    The whole day, from the hotel pickup to the ride home.

  2. Coming soon

    Nov 3 to 6

    SEMA

    The real test. Can Ken's back handle the SEMA show?

  3. Coming soon

    Nov 7

    1 month

    Ken's 1-month check-in.

  4. Coming soon

    Jan 2027

    3 months

    Ken's 3-month check-in.

  5. Coming soon

    Apr 2027

    6 months

    Ken's 6-month check-in.

  6. Coming soon

    Oct 2027

    1 year

    Ken's 1-year check-in.

Ken's back is one case. Yours gets its own read.

Your first call is with a Celva patient coordinator, about 15 minutes, who collects your imaging and history for the physician team's review. Then you hear it plainly: candidate or not. Some people aren't, and we say so. If Ken sent you, tell your coordinator.

Book a call →

Celva covered the cost of Ken Johnson's treatment in exchange for documenting his experience. His views are his own. Results vary; individual outcomes depend on many factors, including candidacy. How we work with partners.

These therapies are not FDA-approved. Treatments are performed in Mexico by licensed physicians in a hospital setting. Individual results may vary. Not medical advice.