Age: 16
Height: 181 (Morning) 180 (Evening)
Goal: 186 - 185
Hello. This is my first post to these forums and I'm not well informed on the etiquette here so pardon me if I make any mistakes.
I recently learned that my growth had effectively finished; at most our family doctor said I could gain 1 cm and that was if I was lucky. This irked me. I've always been tall for my age, so this sudden halt in my growth was an unwelcome surprise. It doesn't help that the average height for a man in my family is around 187.
I've struggled with insomnia for a long time and I believe this stunted my growth to an unprecedented degree (My growth chart used to put my adult height in between 185-190). HGH isn't an option as it only works with individuals who's growth plates haven't closed and mine have.
I watched Gattaca about a month ago and learned of the "Limb Lengthening" technique used in the film. It piqued my interest, but the gruesome nature of the operation turned me off initially. However, I looked into it more and found out that major developments had been made and that methods like PRECICE, other than the pain of the broken bone, came with very little risk of serious complications like infections and permanent crippling.
The price is a bit steep, but it is a boutique and cosmetic surgery. I figured that if I began saving money now, I could probably get the operation done by the time I'm 24-25. But I had a few things I was wondering and decided to post looking for help here, as you guys are well versed on the ins and outs of this operation.
How painful is it on a scale of 1-10? I've heard many people rate it around 6 to 7, but some people have gone as low as 3 and some have gone as high as 9.
How long will it take to return to my normal fitness ability? Since I'll be lenghtening in the "safe limit", I was wondering how long it would take for me to go back to running/ swimming/ hiking. I've seen a lot of people who have claimed to have made a "full recovery" only be able to jump 15 cm and I've seen people who have said that they were "in the process of recovery" who could run and jump better than I can now.
Where should I lengthen from? People tend to gravitate towards the Femur because it can apparently be lenghtened further than the Tibia, but since I'll be lenghtening in the "safe limit" I was wondering which one would be more beneficial.
Are proportion as important as people say they are? My arms have a 180 cm wingspan and I have relatively long legs so I was wondering whether the proportion would really look as jacked up as people say.
Are there any specific countries/ doctors you'd advise me to go to for this operation? I don't want to go to some crackpot doctor in the middle of nowhere and wake up with both my legs bloated with pus just because I wanted to skimp out on the price.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I'd appreciate any information you guys can give.