Life Enhancement Clinics of Montana
Shan Watters
March – April 2026 • Vol 4, No 21
My name is Shan Watters, and I am an artist, author, and Tibetan Buddhist living in Kalispell with my husband George. It has been almost three years since we left California for Montana to be near our two daughters and three grandchildren. We love the Big Sky Country and enjoy being out on the beautiful lakes with family, seeing our granddaughter thrive with her horses, and celebrating real seasons that just don’t happen in California.
My own healing journey began around 2000. While coordinating an art project, my sore knee that had been bothering me for some time really began to be a problem. The pain was acute from constant meditation postures, walking, and life’s busy-ness with family and grandchildren. An Orthopedist told me I had cysts in my knee, gave me an injection and said that was all he could do. For years I tried to live with constant limping, icing, knee braces and not sleeping well until I decided to get another opinion. I was experiencing excruciating pain while in the process of coordinating a five-year arts project, the Shi-tro Mandala for Universal Peace Project being done by Tibetan Lamas and artists. It was the first of its kind done in the U.S. This project kept me really busy, as well as a curriculum I produced for peace education, which has been used by over a million students, called Tools for Peace.
My new orthopedist showed me where I had a torn meniscus and performed Arthroscopic surgery, which relieved my knee pain for about 6 or 7 years. Subsequently, we had retired and moved to the Central California Coast to a lovely community called Cambria. I loved it there, with the wide expanse of the ocean and hills. My love of walking and hiking just fed my artistic soul.
I began painting and sketching in earnest, totally committed to finally settling in to my own work with great joy. As life is always in constant change, my knee began to be painful again. I went to another Orthopedist and was told I needed a knee replacement. He gave me a Corticosteroid injection and his surgery schedule. Totally depressed at this point and frustrated, I began researching other solutions and learned about human umbilical cord tissue (HUCT) injections. My healing journey then took me to Stanford University Medicine to receive these cutting-edge injections that draw directly from their regenerative research into umbilical cord treatments. It worked great and eight weeks later, I received a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection to act as a booster.
I felt better immediately and was able to hike on the beach and hills and spend lots of time at my easel. Several years later, I needed another injection and discovered that California had made umbilical cord injections illegal. The only path forward was to do a procedure where they harvested my own stem cells from bone marrow in my hips, spun it, and injected it into both knees. It was a long, uncomfortable procedure, and I had to return to get stitches because of profuse bleeding in my hip area. A huge bruise decorated my entire lower back, and it took weeks to heal. The benefits only lasted for about a year.
Eventually, we moved to Montana and my knee started causing me severe pain again, as our new home was three stories with lots of stairs. I couldn’t navigate them so we put in an elevator, which helped a bit. I began searching for HUCT treatments and even considered getting a knee replacement, as much as I didn’t want one. They didn’t always work and were painful to recover from. I’ve had enough surgeries in my life and didn’t want to go through that again!
I searched the internet and was thrilled to discover Life Enhancement Clinics of Montana. I immediately contacted Dr. Spence, who was very generous with his time, listened well, and proposed a unique procedure that he thought would benefit me the most. It was a very comprehensive approach. A small wave of hope began to blossom in me and took root when in April, 2025, we began a three-month regimen. First, I received six injections in all areas of pain in my body which included both knees, neck, and lower back. The following two months we repeated each, with six injections each month.
I also followed their recommended anti-inflammatory nutritional program and slowly began to feel better. Within two to three months, I felt like a new person. It had worked, and I was thrilled and beyond grateful to the wonderful folks at the Missoula clinic, and especially to Dr. Spence’s belief and work with this treatment. There were follow-up calls during the recovery process where Dr. Spence assured me they would do booster injections if I felt I needed more. That helped me relax and let my body heal. Additionally, Dr. Spence recommended working regularly with my local chiropractor, Andy Armor, who did neurological adjustments and soft wave treatments to facilitate the healing process. He also offered to consult with Andy about any particulars he had questions about.
I am now able to go for walks, enjoy the beauty of Glacier’s treasures with my family and spend lots of time creating in my studio. Life is good. It’s been almost a year since the injections, and I look for-ward to next year being a healthy one.
Recently, a friend was scheduled for cancer surgery, and I gifted her with a small mandala painting to aid in her handling the process and recovery. It was small so she could take it with her, and later she told me it really helped her face her illness, focus, and heal. I am just now launching a program called
The Healing Wall Art Project where I offer a large, painted mandala with small ones around it that are gifted to hospitals and healing centers. People can take whatever small painting they feel helps them with their healing and offer a donation to the hospital or The Healing Wall Project. Art is a tried-and-true healing component in many people’s recovery from surgery, trauma, depression, anxiety, and so on. Maybe one of these days, you will have a painting or art piece that will help you along as well.
May your journey be filled with a return to vibrant good health and happiness! I highly recommend Life Enhancement Clinics of Montana for anyone suffering from joint pain.
Explore Shan’s gallery at ShanWatters.com.