Hello! My name is Dana, and I just recently had LL. During my recovery I have had so many questions and have had a really hard time finding answers and support from people who have gone through the same experience. Hopefully this Diary can help someone else as well as myself.
HISTORY:
As soon as I was born I had Leg Length Discrepancy. As I grew, so did the discrepancy. Please don't discriminate based on my height. We all want to be normal, right? I am 5'10" and had an LLD of 2" (5cm) by the time I stopped growing. I have been living with heel lifts and shoe lifts in and on my left shoe for several years, and I can tell you this is definitely not ideal. You cant get lifts for this much of a discrepancy and still function normally when your Femur and Tibia are both 1" too short. Your knees don't end up in the same place. Your back and hip constantly hurt and I was having my hip wear down and dislocate constantly. I haven't run in years. I am 27. I am American, but have been living in Australia for 2 years. And guess what, you can get this surgery for free here (at least for LLD. I don't know about cosmetically). You just have to be on the wait list for a whole year. And you don't find out until the week before surgery that you are having and internal device. You don't find out until the day of, that they meant the Precise nail.
SURGERY and STRETCHING:
In January I had my LL surgery using the Precise nail on my femur. I was in the hospital for 6 days. It hurt SO much, but I have a low threshold for pain. After 1 week I went to visit my surgeon and he gave me the Remote for the precise nail to take home. I lengthened .5mm twice a day until I reached 23mm. It took one month. The first few days it didn't hurt, then the pain came on fast. I called up my doc and asked him to give me a prescription for OxyContin, like I had been taking in the hospital. The pain was unbearable. The meds made it so much better, but still very hard.
For the length I needed to achieve, I couldn't imagine using any other device. External is to cumbersome, and there is risk of infection. The twisting that other nails use would have been too painful for me. I didn't even need to consider weight bearing. Even if my nail would have allowed it, it would have hurt too much. This was the nail for me.
By the time I had stretched about 17mm, my lower leg started to go numb. I kept on stretching. 2 days later my lower leg was burning like it was on fire. It got worse every day, until I was laying in bed t night keeping my husband up with my crying. Pain meds don't help pain form nerve damage. I called the doctor and he told me to stop stretching for 48 hours. I was so happy I could stop, but after going through so much I didn't want to not achieve my required length. After a 3 day break from stretching the burning had stopped, but I was still numb. I continued to stretch for the next week. It was very hard since the burning was starting to come back, but not as bad as before. I made it to 23mm, 2 mm short of 25, but close enough for me. The measurement of discrepancy is not an exact measurement, and I was happy to be within the threshold.
RECOVERY:
During the month of stretching I lost quite a lot of muscle strength. I lost a lot of my range of motion in my leg. I lost a lot of weight in my whole body.. except my arms were super strong. And, I don't know about anyone else, but it really messes with your mind being a cripple. Especially when it was your own decision to do it. But I gave it 6 weeks for my bone to heal after stretching. After I stopped stretching and my Dr was happy with my length and healing, He told my I had to get off of the narcotics. And that makes you feel awful and messes with your sleep patterns. But it's not that bad if you don't wait too long and don't consume caffeine.
After another 6 week of bone healing, I went back to my Dr, and he told me it was time to start walking. My lower leg is still numb. He said it can take many months for the feeling to come back. But My muscles are all still working, and it is only the sensation on my skin that is missing. If it doesn't come back within 12 months, it probably never will. But, if I had know that I would lose feeling in my leg before surgery, I still would have done it. Also, my hip is sore and I still can't lay on it. The screws irritate it. It is so annoying. My Dr says that the rod doesn't have to be removed unless I want it to. And I think I will after all is said and done.
After leaving the Dr, I started walking on my crutches straight away. It was not easy after being in a wheelchair/ on crutches for 2.5 months. But, not as bad as someone who needs to stretch a much longer amount. After 2 days of walking I lost one of the crutches, and started exercising my leg. I've been walking a lot. It does hurt. My leg feels like a rock, and my knee is very stiff. I can't afford to see a PT. This is so different from anyone else who has this done. Usually they spend tons of cash to get the surgery, and PT is not a problem. But I have had the surgery as a poor person. I have been scouring the internet for stretches and exercises to be my own PT. The stretches help not feel so stiff. But after a few days of walking my hip was stiff too, and now it's not. So I think I just have to keep exercising. I'm excited to go buy a pair of running shoes now to do exercises in that won't require a lift or build up!
After I can walk with no crutches I will be happy. How long will it take me to get to that point? and to a point where I can walk naturally? Any ideas on what has worked for anyone else during recovery as far as exercises and stretches and frequency of exercise?
I will be going back in October to have my tibia done, so I want to be back to normal for a few months before that happens. It will be a lot better for me mentally to be completely healthy before they break me again I think. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Author
Topic: Internal Femur to correct LLD (Read 5733 times)