I want to lengthen both segments and my budget limit will be $55k max. I'm going to do full external tibia in Russia to save cost on nails and additional surgeries it requires so it will cost me max $5 000 and 4-5 months of accommodation expenses (including living costs).
In theory, I can afford PRECICE femur in Turkey with the rest of my budget but LON femur seems to be the most realistic option I guess.
On average, LON femur costs between $20-25k without hotel in most Turkish clinics. Living expenses won't be much for 3-month stay there, it's about $1k / month for apartment and another $1k / month for decent amount of groceries and other expenses like transportation, cellphone fees, etc.
My mother will take care of me throughout the whole journey. She will buy groceries, prepare food, help me with personal hygiene, transportation and everything I will need. So, I will save decent amount of money this way.
My only concern is LON femur and its associated risks of bone infection, otherwise I'm mentally prepared to resist the pain and discomfort it brings. I will live very close to the clinic and will be able to go there when needed for checkups, x-rays, etc., so it won't be an issue.
Regarding tibia, pure external with Ilizarov is much safer than LON femur, although I will have to wear them for about a full year and I'm ready for that too.
I can, for example, go in Russia and get the tibia done first and invest the rest of the money while being in frames to afford PRECICE femur after I remove the fixators and heal from tibia, but I wan't to do the whole thing consecutively, so doing femur first and after about 4-5 months post femur surgery do the tibia to save time.
In about a year post tibia surgery, it will be about 1.5 years post femur surgery so I can remove the external frames from tibia and internal nails from femurs in one surgery and be done with it.
What do you think is the best path for me? Do the femur first with the LON (basically take a risk) and after 4-5 months do the tibia and wear the frames for about a year or do the tibia first, wear the frames for about a year and then, when I recover and start walking, undergo PRECICE surgery on femurs (maybe after about 2 or 3 years from tibia surgery due to time needed to get enough money from investments to afford PRECICE surgery).
I will lose about 2-3 years if I choose the second path, which is a lot since I'm no longer in my early / mid 20s.
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Topic: Wisest use of $50-55k budget for double LL (Read 692 times)