Hi LL community,
I had the surgery done in August with Dr M out in Los Angeles, California. I stopped lengthening at 7.7cm due to the many complications I have faced with the precice 2.2 nail. I was wondering if any of you guys could speak to your experiences with some of the challenges I am facing?
1. I am unable to straighten my legs out and have a 30 degree extension contracture in my left leg and a 20 degree contracture in my right leg. I’m getting mixed feelings from my PT’s and Dr. m himself. My PT’s say I should be back to normal once I finish lengthening, but I need to work on stretching more. Told me there’s a possibility of being stuck this way. DR. M didn’t act phased at all and told me not to worry about it. His bigger concern was that my ROM is very poor. It seems like I can’t bend my legs further than 60-70 degrees on each leg.
I reached 90 degrees around 6cm, but my leg muscles and calves have become remarkably tight since I have lengthened to 7cm+. My initial goal was 8cm, but I had to stop just shy at 7.7cm because of the pain I am in. Dr. M asked me if my PT’s were even doing there jobs, but their understanding has been that as I’m lengthening that it’s hard to improve ROM and important to maintain.
Can a LL veteran help shed some light? Will it loosen up once I start my consolidation phase? I’m very nervous as I don’t want to be stuck like this.
You are saying things which seem contradictory. Can you confirm you are a bilateral femurs patient? In which case very tight calves would be bizarre. Also 20-30 contracture is a loss of ROM just like only being able to bend them 60-70 degrees. So you are saying your legs are stuck partial bend with only 30-40 degrees ROM? Your Dr not worried you can't fully straighten but is worried you can't fully bend? Because the 20-30 contracture is loss of ROM but you say that doesn't worry him just the max bend to 60-70?
My experience was with bilateral femurs with Paley so I stretched daily 4 hours and kept my legs straight nearly all the time and was warned they'd stop lengthening whenever I couldn't bend well past 90. 90 was minimum allowed to continue lengthening.
I think you should stretch constantly at this is point. Breaks to eat and sleep but otherwise non stop. As far as Dr wondering if your PTs even doing their job, sounds bizarre. Doesn't your Dr know all the PT folks? Stretching is 1 hr 5x a week with PT and minimum 3-4hr 7 days a week on your own right? Dr worried about the PTs or worried about you stretching on your own? Everyone who had ROM issues when I was at Paley Institute were the patients who did little stretching on their own. Were you stretching minimum 4hrs/day this far? If Dr and PT did not recommend that (or more given your loss of ROM) shame on them. If they did but you have not done that much stretching then shame on you.
It won't get worse now that you're in consolidation phase but unless you are stretching several hours a day it's unlikely to improve quickly. Some people get away with hardly stretching, soft tissue grow came easily for them, but for many there is no escape from the endless hours of stretching. You need to stretch like your ability to walk again depends on it...
I don't know if you're trying to troll Dr M, if Dr M sucks, if you are a crappy patient, or what is going on but I've never heard of ROM issues as bad as yours and you need to stretch relentlessly. I don't mean light stretching either but stretching really hard.
Sorry if I seem harsh. I wish you the best of luck and am hoping you fully recover very quickly. Now go stretch and stretch and stretch, then stretch some more...
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Topic: Leg extension contractures, poor ROM 3 months Precice 2.2 - Help? (Read 719 times)