Limb Lengthening Forum
Limb Lengthening Surgery => Limb Lengthening Patients Experiences => Topic started by: Classical on June 17, 2014, 10:51:37 AM
-
Hi everybody, I decided to start a dairy of my journey of lengthening. It's such an extraordinary experience that I feel would be worthwhile to make notes. I have benefitted so much from reading other veteran's dairies, I feel that it's also my time to contributes and share.
I had my surgery on May 26th with Dr Lee at the Severance Hospital. Due to financial reasons, I chose the LON method instead of internal. The surgery itself was painless. I did spinal anesthesia with sedation. The night of the surgery was not as bad as I imagined. Dr Lee came and told me that the surgery was successful. I was in the hospital for five days. They taught me exercises and how to dress my pins, gave me necessary medications, and discharged me.
-
I have been lengthening at the apartment I rented close to the Severance Hospital for more than two weeks now. Let me just say my lengthening process turned out completely out of my expectation. I was told to lengthen 1mm per day for two weeks before I take my first post op X-ray. From the very first day, my lengthening has been excruciating. I am naturally a very flexible person. To prepare for this surgery, I have been doing Yoga and various stretching exercises for a year. Even Dr Lee said that he felt my soft tissues are very soft during the surgery, that I should be fine lengthening to 7cm. But no, I had muscle pain, skin pain, nerve pain, tendons pain the first two weeks. Yesterday I went and got my first X-ray, and according to the X-ray, even though I was turning at 1mm rate, due to pin bent, I only lengthened 7mm! According to Dr Lee, I might be one of those super unfortunate person who experience excruciating pain from beginning to the end. OMG!
-
Hey Classical!
Thanks for sharing your LL experience.
I presume that you are lengthening your tibias since you have stated LON and the excruciating pain you are experiencing is maybe due to lengthening 1mm per day.
Many doctors and LL veterans usually advice tibial lengthening around 0.66-.075mm per day unless you risk premature consolidation.
Anyways it will be great if you post your pre-op height.
All the best :)
-
Thanks for starting this patient experience. It's been informative so far. I'm glad we've got a patient of Dr. Lee's here telling us what it's like to get LL with him.
Is he giving you any medications for the pain?
-
@TheRisingShorty: Thank you for your advice! My starting height is 150cm. At this point, since the pain is so bad, I am happy to lengthen just 5cm, maybe even less. Yes, I do agree with you that 1mm could be the reason why I am experiencing so much pain. I asked Dr Lee to slow me down to 0.75mm/day.
@Medium Drink of Water: Thank you for the encouraging words! I am reading your dairy, and am loving every minute of it! Yes, Dr Lee prescribes three kinds of pain meds. Tramadol for weaker pain med, Targin for stronger pain med, and Lyrica for nerve pain. I was trying to avoid taking Targin and Lyrica because of the side effect. However, my nerve pain is driving me crazy, I am back on Lyrica. I was reading many of the dairies from Beijing, seems like Tramadol is the main pain med patients are taking with good results. However, it seems that Tramadol doesn't do much for me.
-
Hello Classical! Thank you for sharing your adventure and I wish you the best! Feel free to post pics!
-
Absolutely! I will ask Dr Lee for my X-ray and post it here.
Main while, I started to stand per the doctors request. Dr Lee said that walking is not very important, however, standing is. Yesterday was my first day of standing. It felt like a thousand needles going through my feet and shin. Today was definitely better :)
-
are you male or a female
-
Dont mean to sound rude but can you tell us about one of the most important aspects in CLL, the price. We all know Dr Lee's prices has gone through the roof since he moved to the new hospital. Simply unaffordable now, actually I think unaffordable is an understatement, its a rip off now. Add to that the internal Precise dilemmas he's had with two previous patients and you can see why there hasnt been any more Dr Lee diaries lately, that is again only my opinion so its a subjective thing.
I pretty much put pen on paper that I would do my first LL with Dr Lee, that was until he raised his prices exponentially. So could you please outline your cost for the surgery itself, the apartment you are at and how did you find it, do they help you look for an apartment? I heard looking for an apartment in South Korea is quite hard. And everything else in between.
Thanks for the diary, been looking forward to some more Dr Lee diaries but for obvious reasons there hasnt been anymore since his price hike. Seems to cost more than Dr Paley, Guichet and co now
-
Good luck, Classical! Sorry about all the pain you are in. Are you in touch with other patients of Dr Lee that you can hang out with so you are not lonely over there at least?
-
are you male or a female
I am female :)
-
Dont mean to sound rude but can you tell us about one of the most important aspects in CLL, the price. We all know Dr Lee's prices has gone through the roof since he moved to the new hospital. Simply unaffordable now, actually I think unaffordable is an understatement, its a rip off now. Add to that the internal Precise dilemmas he's had with two previous patients and you can see why there hasnt been any more Dr Lee diaries lately, that is again only my opinion so its a subjective thing.
I pretty much put pen on paper that I would do my first LL with Dr Lee, that was until he raised his prices exponentially. So could you please outline your cost for the surgery itself, the apartment you are at and how did you find it, do they help you look for an apartment? I heard looking for an apartment in South Korea is quite hard. And everything else in between.
Thanks for the diary, been looking forward to some more Dr Lee diaries but for obvious reasons there hasnt been anymore since his price hike. Seems to cost more than Dr Paley, Guichet and co now
Of course! I understand your concern. In fact, it was such a big concern for me that I almost aborted the idea of doing with Dr Lee after the price raise. However, after I had my in person consultation with Dr. Lee, I realized that it's not as bad as I thought. I decided to do the LON method because of less scars, and I want to avoid the 2nd traumatic surgery like the LATN method. The price for the surgery including 7 days of hospital staying is 33,500,000 Korean Won, which is roughly about $33,500 USD. Originally Dr Lee offered this hotel that's close to the hospital for $80 per day during the distraction period, but i found it to be still quite expensive for 3-4 months of staying. I then found this Korean version of Craigslist, and was able to rent a studio online that is high-rise with elevator for about $1200 per month including wifi and utilities. After I am discharged from the hospital, Dr. Lee also requires patients to visit him every two weeks. Each time, it is about $300 for X-ray, two weeks of meds, and doctor's visit. The good thing is right now, Dr. Lee is offering the Stem Cell Therapy for free, which costs $5000. All in all, everything together including food, rent, surgery, doctor's visit is about $40,000 USD for the LON method. I know it is still more expensive than going to China or India, especially considering my native language is Chinese. However, growing up in China, I know how the hygienes can be in those develop countries. I read many dairies of LL veterans getting their pins infected, getting horrible complications in India. To me personally, I would prefer to pay $10,000 more to get a world class surgeon in a world class hospital. Lengthening surgery is no joke, I would rather be safe than sorry.
-
Good luck, Classical! Sorry about all the pain you are in. Are you in touch with other patients of Dr Lee that you can hang out with so you are not lonely over there at least?
Thank you! Unfortunately, since this price raise, there is no international patients here. Sometimes I envy those who are doing the surgery in India and China. It is always nice to have others whom are going through the same thing to hang out and exchange experiences.
-
These are the pictures of my legs right now. In the first picture, you can see that I am wearing those specially shoes 24/7 to avoid ballerina foot. The 2nd and 3rd picture shows my incision. Dr. Lee is such an artist, I am very happy with my scars so far (3 weeks post-op).
-
Wow. I really envy those osteotomy cuts. Mine were so sloppy. I got plastic surgery (an extra expense BTW) but they're still not nice like yours.
-
I like how Dr.Lee does the incision with meticulous care. I reckon it's very important for females to have minimum scarring.
-
Agreed, one of the reasons why I wanted to do tibias with Dr Lee first was because he actually cares about aesthetics and tries to keep scarring to a minimal. Still remember reading Walk6's diary and all the praises he had for Dr Lee.
Is physio still included in the new prices? Or is that an extra you'd you have to pay on top? If so, how is the physio going?
And what do you do regarding food? Who buys and makes them for you? With the old price it was already included and the nurses would bring you food, now we're all on our own it seems. Does Dr Lee provide some kind of made/assistant service like Dr Jamal in the Ukraine?
-
Yes, I consider myself very lucky to have Dr Lee to operate on me :D
In terms of PT, there isn't any available. Dr Lee and his assistant gave me a set of exercises such has lifting my legs, towel pulling the back of the feet, standing... He said as long as I do these exercises religiously, I don't need PT. I only stayed in the hospital for seven days after my surgery. The hospital food for my standard is quite bad (but don't listen to me, I am just spoiled. My dad is a chef, and he is the only person who's cooking satisfies me :)). One thing that is super important is that you have to either bring somebody to take care of you or you would have to hire a caretaker. I am very lucky that my mom came with me, and took care of me since the beginning of the surgery. To be honest, I can't imagine how I would live without her. Going to the bathroom is a big problem, not to mention cooking, cleaning, etc... Korea is not a cheap country, I imagine to hire a caretaker would be very expensive. The good thing here is takeouts seem to be quite cheap. You can probably have people deliver food to you for $6 per meal.
-
Classical once you reach 5 cm , can you take a pic and put it on the forum ?
-
Yes, I will take a picture once I reach 5cm, however that's going to be in at least 1.5 months.
Everybody, I need help! I am almost 4 weeks post-op, just started standing about five days ago. Right now, when I straighten my knees, I can only stand about 1 minute each time, otherwise my shin starts to hurt. I think if I let my knees curve a bit I can stand more, but Dr Lee is big on keeping the knees straight. I read many other dairies, and it seems at this point of lengthening, people are already walking 1-2 hours a day. Am I super behind? Should I just let my leg hurt and keep on standing for longer anyway?
-
I had problems in the beginning too and decided not to do much standing or exercise. I caught up just fine towards the end. I say just do what you can when you're able to do it.
-
Thank you, Medium! You are right, I am going to just do whatever my body limits me to do. Hopefully I will be able to to catch up like you did :) I can't wait till the day I take off these stupid fixators!
-
Dr. Lee's assistant just emailed me my first set of X-ray. They are three weeks post-op. In about three days, I will be getting my 2nd X-ray, and I will post those also for people to compare. According to Dr. Lee, I only lengthened about 7mm at that point due to severe pin loss (I turned 1.4cm). However to my surprise, the gaps seem quite clear.
-
Left leg
-
Right leg
-
Those cuts are tempting me to reconsider doing tibias with Dr Lee again, its what hooked me in the first time around lol. He has quite a few videos of patients and their recovery periods and they seem to recover quite quickly, based on his Youtube videos. I actually might reconsider and do LON with Dr Lee, just one problem and that is assistance. Unlike you I'll most likely be doing it solo, could you ask him roughly how much it would cost to hire a caretaker? Or how much would it cost per day to stay at the hospital, Im guessing its quite a bit now
Also regarding your search for the studio, could you maybe link us the site? Did you find it once you got to Korea or whilst you were still in your home country? Is there a specific place you go to for someone to help you find a place? And regarding the Stem Cell Therapy being free now, is that confirmed by Dr Lee considering like you said it was about $5,000 before
-
Hi ShortyMcShort,
I saw Dr.Lee today, and asked him about assistant. He said to hire a caretaker in Korea costs about $80 per day. I think the hospital is very expensive, single room is $700/day, double is $560/day, and five people room is $340/day. The good thing is Dr. Lee is in the process of getting a guest house for his international patients. Once that is founded, you wouldn't have to worry about finding your own accommodation, and there will be people taking care of you. The link for apartment: http://seoul.craigslist.co.kr/apa/ I called a couple agents listed there, and found this place. Hope the information is helpful :) In terms of the Stem Cell Therapy , since Dr. Lee is new at the Severance Hospital, something about the procedure needs to get approved by the hospital. While it is not approved, they will give it out for free. And yes, the stem cell therapy is $5000.
If you have any questions, you can also email Dr. Lee's assistant, her email address:assistdong@naver.com I address her as Ms. Han.
-
Thank you for taking the time to answer all my questions Classical given your condition, much appreciated
A guest house will do wonders for future international patients considering majority of people do this solo with no assistance bar you of course, lucky you :)
The price as mentioned by you doesnt seem too bad for LON at all if one can find a decently priced accommodation, its when you stay longer at the hospital that really adds up and makes it ridiculously priced. Did he mention when he thinks the guest house will be completed by any chance?
The hospital prices are ridiculous :'(
-
Hi ShortyMcShort,
From what Dr Lee was saying, it seems that the guest house is only in the beginning phase as he is still having his friend to look for a suitable location.
My right leg is now 1.7cm, and the left leg 1.4cm. Ever since I took TheRisingShorty's advice and started lengthen 0.75mm instead of 1mm per day, my pain has gone down significantly. So thank you!
When I saw Dr. Lee on Monday, he looked at my pin site dressing, and said its way too loose. Next thing, he demonstrated how to dress my pin site by pressing into an already teared hole and tightly wrapped the site with gauze. Man, it hurts!!! Apparently by wrapping it tight, it prevents the pin from moving back and forth, therefore stops the skin from tearing. Next thing, I dressed all my pin sites as tightly as possible. As soon as I did that, these pin sites started hurting like crazy, and my entire lower leg was swollen like a ballon.
The one thing I REALLY look forward to is eating at the hospital cafeteria after I see Dr Lee. On Monday, I ordered the Korean seafood noodle (Jjiangppong). A huge bowl of noodles with mussle and crab only cost me $6. I then ordered sweet and sour pork to go. They gave me so much that I ate for three meals. The food there is SO delicious, in my opinion, way better than my mom's cooking!!
-
Just want to write down my thoughts about lengthening these days. Definitely days are a lot easier than nights. For me, the pain level is about the same. However, not able to sleep at night, staring into the dark sky and very slowly turning clock makes depression. I long for those days of my legs free of the metal fixtures. It's amazing how easily we take life for granted of all these simple things, and how simple things could make lives so wonderful. I am laying in bed, constantly thinking how my life would be only without the fixture! Then I count and count how many days I have left to reach my goal and stop turning. The sad part is at this point, this day seems so unrealistically far away. This gives me more respect for people that have gone through this hard process. It definitely takes a strong personality to stick it through!
-
I know how you feel. Right after I started using my walker and seeing how heavy my steps were I missed being able to move quickly and easily. Taking 10 minutes to walk to the bathroom really makes one think about how fortunate they are to have a normally functioning pair of legs. Lying with you feet propped up in bed during the day seems to make time go slower too. And it takes forever to try and fall asleep these days.
-
Hi classical,
Finally you made your surgery with doctor Lee, good luck. I think he is a very good option. I am planning my surgery with doctor salameh in september, but a lot of times i think to do LON with doctor Lee i Korea, but i have fear to get knee pain by the nail, and i think for my goal 5,5 cm, is better only external.
cheers paco.
-
@Peco: Hey, how's it going! Congrats on doing your lengthening in Sep!! Dr. salameh sounds great. I'm sure he will do an excellent job with you :) I understand your concern with knee pain. But honestly Dr Lee is so experienced and skilled, of all the patients I spoke to that did surgery with him, nobody has had any trouble with knee pain from him. Speaking from my own experience, my knees feel great so far, I am currently 1.5 months post op. I have of course pain from stretching the muscle, tendons, pin sites, etc... But my knee has been just as strong as pre-op, and no pain at all!
Ever since I followed Dr Lee's instruction and dressed my pin sites very tight, my holes from stretching at the pin sites have magically closed! Woo, he really knows his stuff :)
Yesterday I went to see Dr. Lee, and I am now officially 2.5cm, hooray!!! It's amazing how every two weeks, I get to grow 1cm, that's a lot! While waiting outside his office, I saw 5 or 6 patients that either are doing lengthening or did lengthening with him. The ones that did lengthening with him are coming back to get their rods removed. Man, they look good! Honestly, I can't tell at all that they did lengthening. All of them have excellent recovery! After talking with them, everybody was super happy with their results. I am so glad that I made the right choice to do my lengthening with Dr lee! He is truly the master of limb lengthening!!
One thing that bothered me from my appointment, Dr Lee said my callus formation was OK, but not good enough for him. He wants optimal callus formation, since in a long run, my consolidation would be faster, and as a whole, it shortens the process. He suggested for me to turn only 0.5 per day, but I really didn't want to as I have such limited time to lengthen, if I don't turn 0.75 per day, I won't even reach 5cm when I leave... Oh gosh, he already gave me stem cell therapy during my first surgery. I can't imagine if I didn't have the therapy... I guess genetically my bone growth is very poor. What should I do to get better callus formations???
-
Are you doing lots of weightbearing? That's the natural way to stimulate callus formation.
-
Hi classical, congratulations.
what is your lengthening goal?
Then you are in a hotel with your mother, near the hotel.
You have to pay the price for removal nail now or when the removal nail is made.
I am in doubt between doctor salameh and donghoolee.
cheers, paco
-
How old are u?
-
Medium drink,
Do you think you could have lengthened 8 cm. I am thinking about doing that. Originally it was 7,5 cm but now im thinking 8cm. What you think about that
-
How long do you intend on staying in South Korea for?
-
Medium drink,
Do you think you could have lengthened 8 cm. I am thinking about doing that. Originally it was 7,5 cm but now im thinking 8cm. What you think about that
I think I could've done 10cm if I'd wanted to. I wasn't having problems toward the end; all my problems happened in the first half of my lengthening. I went with 7.5cm because it's 3 inches and, being an American, I think about height in feet and inches. Also because I was running out of time and didn't want to pay extra money to change my flight.
-
I think I could've done 10cm if I'd wanted to. I wasn't having problems toward the end; all my problems happened in the first half of my lengthening. I went with 7.5cm because it's 3 inches and, being an American, I think about height in feet and inches. Also because I was running out of time and didn't want to pay extra money to change my flight.
I just noticed if i put my foot up while sitting relaxed in a couch or even at the computer chair,
My Tibia is unproportioned long for my femur like it's a Tibia of a 5'11-6'0 guy.
And the femur of a under average guy. Maybe im seeing to much but putting your foot up is about 5 cm so adding another 2,25 cm on that would make it obvious no?
So i think i might go for femurs instead but that might look messed up when you walk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also what was the mental part of this journey for you,
I mean the day you sat down and made that appointment from home to the doctor for visitation, Too actually being on the flight and then later on at the hospital talking to the doctor saying you want to pay large amount of money to lengthen/fk up, your legs? How was his reaction on that.
And did you feel anxiety the first 1-5 days of actuall lengthening? Like what to do, and if you should call the doctor with the smallest doubt of pain/panick.
Also lets say 3 months into lengthening what was you thinking about like you must have had the same 10 things pop into your head.
"what are the folks at home gonna think"
"is this worth it"
Stuff like that. Obviously you had a rather easy road compared to alot of the other lengtheners*.
And you was already on good ground at home but generally i want to know what it was to be you at that moment. ty-.
-
I answered your questions here so we wouldn't be hijacking Classical's diary.
http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=99.msg12979#msg12979
-
Hey Medium and Slim, no problem at all! Feel free to discuss anything related to LL in my dairy, you are more than welcome :)
Are you doing lots of weightbearing? That's the natural way to stimulate callus formation.
Thank you Medium for the excellent suggestion! To be honest, I have been a bit of those lazy example and didn't weight bearing much. Whenever I stand, my tibia would get purple, and I feel a million needles poking me legs, very painful. However, as you and Dr Lee both have suggested, I am going to suck it up, and weight bearing as much as possible now. In fact, I just stood six times, 4 mins each time yesterday. That's 24 mins in total, a huge improvement compare to my usual 6 mins per day, haha.
Hi classical, congratulations.
what is your lengthening goal?
Then you are in a hotel with your mother, near the hotel.
You have to pay the price for removal nail now or when the removal nail is made.
I am in doubt between doctor salameh and donghoolee.
cheers, paco
Peco, I am renting an apartment near the hospital. It's a lot cheaper to rent apartment than stay in the hotel. I am not paying for the nail removal now. According to Dr Lee, the nail removal will be two years after I leave this time. I have never met Dr Salameh, while I believe he is excellent, I am in no place to make any comments. However, with Dr Lee, I have experienced everything first hand. After seeing what he has done for me and for many of his other patients, I can confidently say that you will be worrying free if you choose to go with Dr Lee. So far, of the 10 patients that I met and spoke to, nobody has had even slight complication, and in average, his patients go back to normal life a lot faster than the average time frame I read from other doctor. I know there were two incidents earlier with the Precise2 nail not lengthening. However, that was the nail malfunction, not his fault. The two patients wrote in their dairies that they were upset and disappointed at the result,however, they think Dr Lee is a world first class surgeon, on par with Dr Paley, Betz, and Guichet. That, I cannot agree with them more.
How old are u?
I just turned 36. Haha, definitely senior citizen here ;D
How long do you intend on staying in South Korea for?
I did my surgery on May 26th. I am intending to leave on Sep 20th. I told Dr Lee that by the time I leave, I have to be able to use a crutch and walk, so that I can get on and off the plane, also use the bathroom. He estimated to remove my fixture around last week of Aug or first week of Sep. he is usually very conservative and careful with what he says. I trust this estimation.
-
Yesterday, I had an emergency visit to Dr Lee. I had an allergic reaction to the surgical glue that was used to close my incision sites. Lots of red bumps and blisters started spreading out from the incisions, it was extremely itchy. This all happened duing the weekends, and there was no pharmacy that's open. I swear if I had to wait for one more day, I would have scratched my skin bloody! Dr Lee said it's Contact Dermatitis. He prescribed me oral Antihistamin and hydrocortisone lotion. It has only been two days, the itchiness is already much better, and the rash seems a bit drier.
The second unfortunate thing: contrast to ballerina foot, my right foot is stuck in the 90 degree position, and unable to relax anymore. I have been reading all the horror stories on dairies about ballerina foot. Sweden being as determined and strong as he is, was struggling and got depressed for more than a year from ballerina foot. Everybody is stressing on the importance of wearing the foot holding shoes 24/7 to prevent ballerina foot. Of course, my eyes lit up when Dr Lee handed me a pair of those right after my surgery, and naturally I followed his instruction to the millimeter. I might be behind in everything else, but I was sure proud of my ability to wear those shoes. I was wearing them to sleep, to the bathroom, to do excercises... these shoes became a part of my disabled body. Until one day, I realized I can no longer take one of them off. As soon as I took the shoe off, this tendon close to my big toe starts to get extremely painful. I can no longer relax my foot, let along bend it the other way. The only position that doesn't hurt is when it's 90 degree from my tebia. When I explained this to Dr Lee, and begged for a shot of steroids, Dr Lee explained that my tendon is not inflamed, therefore the steroids won't help. Basically if one doesn't wear foot holding shoes, they will get ballerina foot, however, people like me that wear them all the time, our tendon will sometimes reset itself to the positions of the shoes, therefore can no longer go without it. He assured me it will resolve by itself later. I don't know how it will, but I am sure in a lot of pain right now, and am very worried for my LL future.
-
Unfortunate that you've had both those issues at once. Thankfully the itchiness is going away. As for the sandal straps, every so often I'll take off the straps, hold on to both of them, and move my foot up and down for a bit before reattaching them. The physios here said to also lie on my back and stretch my feet down and up for ten seconds each direction for sets of ten. They said to do that every four hours. So far I haven't had any problems and I think it's because of those exercises. Then again maybe it's because I'm not as far along in distraction. Hope your issue resolves itself, regardless.
-
classical, yes, i was aware of this'
basically, for most of us, there's no getting around some kind of complication.... you don't wear shoes, ballerina... you wear shoes, you can get other issues..... there is no foolproof way to do this... but both issues seem to resolve themselves.... i'm sure even in the worst case scenario, there's a minor surgery to fix your issue, just as there is with ballerina
lengthening is hard
-
That's scary about not being able to move your foot. How much have you lengthened by now? Have you tried not wearing the sandals for a period of time (say a few days) and seeing if the issue resolves itself?
-
Thank Kilo, Crimson and Medium for your kind suggestion and genuine concern! The great thing about this forum is that I get such amazing spiritual support from people that are knowledgable about LL, and sincerely care about everybody that is going through this hard process.
Good news! I went to Dr Lee for an emergency visit as my ankle was getting worse. After I showed Dr Lee my right ankle and foot he got so worried, and said if my situation continue to get worse, I would have to stop lengthening. He checked my foot, and pressed my leg muscle. When he was pressing this one section of the muscle that resides close to my right knee, I yelled out a loud "ouch". Apparently this muscle and tendon that hurts my foot and big toe is one big connected tissue. My muscle was very inflamed which pulled up the end tendon, and caused the immobility and extreme pain around my ankle and foot. He than injected me a dose of cortisone, and Tada!I was immediately able to take off the shoe and relax my foot, the pain is gone!! These days I am doing a lot of stretching to regain the ROM on this ankle. It's only been two days, but I can already see clear improvement. So all of these pain and issues I had with my right ankle was actually not due to the repositioning of my tendon, but rather a section of badly inflamed and cramped muscle.
Also, the allergy rash is getting much better. It's no longer itchy. I believe in a week also the rash should disappear completely.
Life is back to peace with my two evil enemies gone! I am praying that it will be smooth sailing from now on :D
-
Ahhh cortisone. An LLer's best friend. That was the one thing that helped with my inflamed knees.
-
Ahhh cortisone. An LLer's best friend. That was the one thing that helped with my inflamed knees.
Haha, medium, you are right!! Actually you know what's funny is that while I was having pain in my foot and ankle, I kept thinking about your knees, and how you got better immediately after the cortisone injection. Secretly, I was hoping my ankle would be just as lucky as your knees, and get a quick relieve. At first when I requested the cortisone injection into my tendons, Dr Lee rejected my request in fear of tendon rapture. It was not until the second week when he found out the cramp of my muscle he decided to inject me with cortisone ;D
I must say that one thing I am very happy throughout my lengthening process is that fact I chose Dr Lee to do my surgery. Over and over again, Dr Lee has proven to be extremely caring, skiLL Forumul, knowledgeable, professional. Also I want to mention about his assistant Ms Han. From the very beginning, before I even met Dr Lee, she was answering all my questions, making arrangements for me. After I decided to have surgery from Dr Lee, she was helping me with finding a place to stay. After I arrived here, due to the language barrier, she has been my personal translator for everything. She also is ordering take outs for me, finding me a wheelchair company, looking for care takers when I needed one. She even offered to stay with me in my apartment the first day when the care taker came to make sure things are OK. Whenever I encounter any trouble, she is always the first person I ask for help, and without fail, she always resolves the situation for me with a smile(http://)
-
Good that you are feeling much better, do you have any knee pains or discomforts? You said a while back that it was ok, how is it now?
-
Good that you are feeling much better, do you have any knee pains or discomforts? You said a while back that it was ok, how is it now?
Thanks for asking! I'm at 4cm now, no knee pain, no ballerina foot. Everything is fine :) (knock on the wood)
-
How is the pain when standing/moving leg.
-
How is the pain when standing/moving leg.
Standing and walking is almost pain free for me now. I get some tight feeling if I stand for a long time, but that's it. Right after surgery, I got quite a bit of pain standing and walking, but as the time goes, the pain got less and less. I think each individual reacts differently from pain. I know another patient of Dr Lee walks and stands all day long without pain 2 weeks post op.
-
Generally are they the skinny person you know with tibias the size of a tennis ball. Fragile people. compared to more stocky/manlier men who do this surgery. So maybe it's best to get as skinny as possible while still training legs.
-
Hey Classical. Glad pain is better now.
Do you have info on 2 Precice Dr Lee patients having problems? Are they okay now?
-
Generally are they the skinny person you know with tibias the size of a tennis ball. Fragile people. compared to more stocky/manlier men who do this surgery. So maybe it's best to get as skinny as possible while still training legs.
Haha, maybe you are right :D I think in general Asian have smaller bone structure. Being an Asian female myself, I can definitely testify for that. Hey Classical. Glad pain is better now.
Do you have info on 2 Precice Dr Lee patients having problems? Are they okay now?
Thank you! Although I have seen a few patients that are doing internal when I go for my check ups, I haven't spoken to any. However according to another of his lengthening patient that I speak to regularly, there is a Korean lengthening forum called the 'Cafe', and all of Dr Lee's Korean patients go on and post dairies and discuss lengthening. He said he hasn't heard anybody complaining or writing about Precise nail complications. In fact when I told him what happened to Woverine, he was shocked. That's all I know.
-
Why was he shocked? He already knew about it at the time didn't he?
Anyway, do you know how much he currently charges for Precice 2?
-
Why was he shocked? He already knew about it at the time didn't he?
Anyway, do you know how much he currently charges for Precice 2?
Oh I meant my friend whom is a currently patient of Dr Lee was shocked to hear the story.
I think for precise 2, it's about $70,000 with seven days of hospital staying.
-
Ahh sorry my bad, I see your point now after re-reading your comment :)
So as of now how many cms are you still going for?
I really wish Dr Lee would finish setting up his guesthouse soon for international patients, would help alot especially for the ones who are going solo like myself
But it probably wont be settled for another year or so? :(
-
Lengthening after 4cm is definitely harder. After a long period of almost pain free days, my bone started to hurt occasionally, especially when I stand. It's still not bad, I am not taking pain meds. But I fully expect it to get worse as I lengthen approach 5cm.
@ShortyMcShort:At this point, I am still shooting for 5cm. Actually, my soft tissue is doing quite well, if i had more time to stay in Korea, I would be able to do more. Unfortunately, my time is quite limited as I have to get back to work soon. As for the guest house, yes, I would say maybe in a year also. In fact, I am very tempted to talk to Dr Lee and ask him of the possibilities for him to have his own private practice in the future. That way, the price would drop significantly, and everything can be catered towards lengthening patients. Another thing, according to my friend who is also lengthening with Dr Lee that there is rumor that Dr Lee is in the process of making his own internal nail collaborating with a Swiss company. Let's see :)
I had an X-ray yesterday. After viewing my X-ray, Dr Lee informed me that my fibula is not growing well. Despite the fact I had stem cell therapy, my mom is cooking for me everyday, and I am taking all the necessary supplements, weight bearing all the time, I can't believe my bone still refuses to grow! This makes me believe that good bone growth is largely dependent on genetic genes.
Another thing that upset me is I found out I had lost half of my lengthening due to pin bend. For two weeks, I was turning 0.5mm/day, I only grew 4mm totally on my right leg. I always thought that pin bend usually happens in the beginning of lengthening stage. Once the pin bends to a certainly degree with enough tension, pin bend stops. I have not had pin bend for more than a month, I can't believe it happened again.
LL is definitely a roller coaster ride. I just hope I can keep my spirit high and always be positive as this is the only way to keep me on the right track.
-
Hang in there classical, You had some bad luck so far but you are handling it well with your positive attitude, i found it very hard to avoid depression during my lengthening phase, despite that everything went well and as expected for me.
I think you can only say for sure that the pin wont bend anymore is when you are done with the lengthening phase, some fixators have stronger pins than others though, but they all bend more or less before you are done lengthening. But i dont think your pins should be able to bend more than they already have, you should ask the doctor though to make sure since you have restricted time.
-
Lengthening after 4cm is definitely harder. After a long period of almost pain free days, my bone started to hurt occasionally, especially when I stand. It's still not bad, I am not taking pain meds. But I fully expect it to get worse as I lengthen approach 5cm.
@ShortyMcShort:At this point, I am still shooting for 5cm. Actually, my soft tissue is doing quite well, if i had more time to stay in Korea, I would be able to do more. Unfortunately, my time is quite limited as I have to get back to work soon. As for the guest house, yes, I would say maybe in a year also. In fact, I am very tempted to talk to Dr Lee and ask him of the possibilities for him to have his own private practice in the future. That way, the price would drop significantly, and everything can be catered towards lengthening patients. Another thing, according to my friend who is also lengthening with Dr Lee that there is rumor that Dr Lee is in the process of making his own internal nail collaborating with a Swiss company. Let's see :)
I had an X-ray yesterday. After viewing my X-ray, Dr Lee informed me that my fibula is not growing well. Despite the fact I had stem cell therapy, my mom is cooking for me everyday, and I am taking all the necessary supplements, weight bearing all the time, I can't believe my bone still refuses to grow! This makes me believe that good bone growth is largely dependent on genetic genes.
Another thing that upset me is I found out I had lost half of my lengthening due to pin bend. For two weeks, I was turning 0.5mm/day, I only grew 4mm totally on my right leg. I always thought that pin bend usually happens in the beginning of lengthening stage. Once the pin bends to a certainly degree with enough tension, pin bend stops. I have not had pin bend for more than a month, I can't believe it happened again.
LL is definitely a roller coaster ride. I just hope I can keep my spirit high and always be positive as this is the only way to keep me on the right track.
Just want to drop in that blood flow is a humungous improvement in bone growt. and being so sedentary you can eat all the vitamins and food you want your body is not using it.
-
I am at 5cm now. Yesterday I went to see Dr Lee and got X-ray to check on my alignment. Good news, my legs are completely straight :) Still, no ballerina foot, and my knees and ankles has good ROM, no pain in either places. Pin bend seems to be in control, I only lost 1mm out of 10mm in the last two weeks.
Since my flight back home is on Sep 20, Dr Lee scheduled my second surgery to take off my fixture on Sep 5. He instructed me to turn till next Tuesday, then I will officially end my lengthening phase. This is my last week of lengthening, I am really hoping to squeeze in some extra mms ;)
My experience with Dr Lee had been more than excellent! So far throughout my lengthening phase, I have no ballerina foot, no pin infection, no pain in my knees and ankles, and my incision scars are no tiny that it's almost invisible, and my legs are 100% straight according to the X-ray. The only complications I had was skin allergy with surgical glue, and muscle cramp, which were easily fixed within a week, and none of which were caused by the doctor. I can say that the reason why I had such a smooth lengthening journey is mainly due to Dr Lee's world first class surgical skill and professionalism towards his patients. Also, I would like to mention that his assistant Ms Han has been extremely helpful. I feel guilty for asking for help from her almost all the time, from ordering take outs to letter for my mother's Korean visa. She has been so patient and kind. My experience here would have been very different without her. All in all, I highly recommend Dr Lee to anyone who is interested in doing LL surgery.
I will update after my 2nd surgery.
-
Excellent news, Classical. Glad that your experience has been great overall and that Dr Lee lived up to his reputation. Are you going to post your final x-rays later?
-
It's been a long time since I last updated my condition. I did my frame removal surgery on Sep 5, and got back to the States on Sep 11th. Things have been going very well since I got back. I lengthened 6cm in total, and can drive and walk with aid, incisions are also healing very well. Dr Lee decided to give me another stem cell therapy during the 2nd surgery on top of the one i received during the first surgery to aid with my bone growth, which is super kind of him. My scars look very minimal even now. again thanks to Dr Lee. I think with time, they will fade very nicely. I just did my first xray one month post frame removal surgery. I am waiting to hear from Dr Lee and get permission to see if i can start walking without aid. I will try to upload a picture of my tibia with current scar formation and my most recent x-ray.
-
Good to hear Classical, hows your knees? Any discomfort or knee pain now post removal?
-
Good to hear Classical, hows your knees? Any discomfort or knee pain now post removal?
Hi how r u my knees feel great. Honestly I have never felt any discomfort with my knees even during lengthening. Now, my knees can bend the same as before LL. I think Dr Lee must have done a fantastic job inserting the nails into my knees consider how painless and comfortable I feel.
-
Nice, so you can kneel down on a hard surface and feel no pain? If so thats great.
And please post some more pictures of your scars when you're ready, Dr Lee patients tend to have better looking scars than say China so Im curious to see yours if its not a bother.
Do you know how much in total you spent thus far? If you could give a rough outline of how much you spent it'd be great. Also would be ok with doing a walking video? Just film the bottom area and not upper area like chest, face, etc necessary. Im still sceptical about the Dr Lee videos on Youtube and their time frames so would like to see how you're walking atm with your given timeline
Thanks
-
Nice, so you can kneel down on a hard surface and feel no pain? If so thats great.
And please post some more pictures of your scars when you're ready, Dr Lee patients tend to have better looking scars than say China so Im curious to see yours if its not a bother.
Do you know how much in total you spent thus far? If you could give a rough outline of how much you spent it'd be great. Also would be ok with doing a walking video? Just film the bottom area and not upper area like chest, face, etc necessary. Im still sceptical about the Dr Lee videos on Youtube and their time frames so would like to see how you're walking atm with your given timeline
Thanks
Sure, I will post more pictures of my scars and walking video. Yesterday, I got permission from Dr Lee to start walking without aid slowly. It's really seems like a miracle today that I am already walking around my house without the walker. At first I was a bit skeptical as I have been always using aid, but once I tried a few steps, I realized its really not that bad. What a difference it makes when I can walk without walker! I no longer have to ask my parents to hand me everything. Of course, I still walk like a zombie, but I am sure in a month time, my walk will be much better. And yes, I can knee down on a hard surface and feel no pain.
-
Hi Classical, finally you made it.
I am very happy for you. You need walk a lot and with time you will be better. You can swiming too, and biking to stay stronger and then you can move your tibies more easy.
Cheers Paco.
-
great diary
any update?
can I contact u via personal message
-
Hey,
May I ask how long did it take for you to be able to walk unaided since the day you stopped lengthening?
-
Hi Classical, finally you made it.
I am very happy for you. You need walk a lot and with time you will be better. You can swiming too, and biking to stay stronger and then you can move your tibies more easy.
Cheers Paco.
Thank you Paco! So good to hear from you again! Yes, walking is getting better everyday, I am also doing some stretching and strengthening exercises.
-
Hey,
May I ask how long did it take for you to be able to walk unaided since the day you stopped lengthening?
I was able to walk zombie style one month after lengthening is stopped. Now I am about one and half month post 2nd surgery, and I can walk inside my house and for very short distance outside. My walk is by no means normal right now, still a bit off balance and stiff, however, its much better than two weeks ago. I plan to go back to work in two weeks, hopefully I will be able to walk somewhat normally.
-
is LON weightbearing during lengthening period?
can u walk when lengthening?
-
is LON weightbearing during lengthening period?
can u walk when lengthening?
Yes.
-
I was able to walk zombie style one month after lengthening is stopped. Now I am about one and half month post 2nd surgery, and I can walk inside my house and for very short distance outside. My walk is by no means normal right now, still a bit off balance and stiff, however, its much better than two weeks ago. I plan to go back to work in two weeks, hopefully I will be able to walk somewhat normally.
That's great to hear. I actually did my surgery around the same time as you did (a little earlier though, around mid May). I'm still consolidating and not given the green light to walk yet. (I'm about 5 weeks into consolidating).
So your doctor permitted full weight bearing? Is this because the rod supports your weight or because you have a bone bridge now?
-
That's great to hear. I actually did my surgery around the same time as you did (a little earlier though, around mid May). I'm still consolidating and not given the green light to walk yet. (I'm about 5 weeks into consolidating).
So your doctor permitted full weight bearing? Is this because the rod supports your weight or because you have a bone bridge now?
How much did you lengthen, and was it harded than you thought,
-
That's great to hear. I actually did my surgery around the same time as you did (a little earlier though, around mid May). I'm still consolidating and not given the green light to walk yet. (I'm about 5 weeks into consolidating).
So your doctor permitted full weight bearing? Is this because the rod supports your weight or because you have a bone bridge now?
I think it's both. Dr Lee gave me two stem cell therapy to speed up my bone growth which helped tremendously, plus I have the rod to support my weight.
-
Hope you are fine
Any updates please
-
Hi clasical,
How are you doing?
-
i m in china, can i see u?
-
你在韩国增高qq群里吗