Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RealLostSoul]

Okay so I know this will sound a bit odd but hypochondria is part of my mental illness. I am very dedicated to do LL but have some struggles with certain doubts. Two of which I‘d like to address in this post.

First thing is, me who never had anesthesia in my life is kinda scared. I am honestly mostly afraid of it, especially the respiratory ventilation. I know this will be under general anesthesia but the thought of ET scares me a LOT. So my question to anyone who did it is, how were you put on ventilation? Did you get ET (endotracheal tube) or just the LMA (larynx mask). I know there is like a million surgeries but I can‘t stand the thought of the tube being shrugged down your throat and maybe complications like necrosis or teeth problems occur . Also, how was falling unconscious and waking up for you? I imagine this like dying to a drug overdosage. Then waking up damaged.. Not a nice thought.

Other thing I am bit worried about is radiation exposure. Since you have to xray the body quite often I am wondering if you actually surpass the threshold where there is no statistical coherence between radiation and cancer, I think it‘s 100mS/year at most for radiation workers? anyways, has someone actually done the math? Would suck to do such a long term surgery then get a malignoma like 2 decades later.. I also know effective radiation damage depends on the area where it actually hits the body, legs shouldn‘t have the highest mitosis activity like other organs but I don‘t know how exactly it works when you get the osteotomy... I mean I kinda doubt there is osteoneogenesis since bone material isn‘t formed by chondrocytes like when you are naturally growing taller right? If it is however there would be more cell division and thus higher risk of tumor development. I am not an expert but would love to read some science and calculations behind this. Also have to take into account I need to fly across the Atlantic for the surgery so I‘ll get a little bit of extra radiation via that .

I hope someone here who might have a little bit more medical knowledge than me answer some questions. Thank you.

[BelowTheMean]

I'm not a medical expert, but I had surgery pretty recently, so I can at least tell you my personal experience.

I was concerned about anesthesia as well since this was my first surgery. I was concerned about falling asleep but still being conscious and feeling the surgery (I watched too many medical TV shows.) Fortunately for me everything was normal. When the anesthesiologist injected my IV line my eyelids got heavy and I fell asleep, then I and woke up in the recovery room feeling super high. You won't feel like you wake up damaged since you'll be feeling the aftereffects of anesthesia for hours after surgery. I don't remember at all what respiratory ventilation they used on me, but I think the anesthesiologist said the one where they stick it down your throat. I did have a slight cough after surgery (not great during the pandemic) possibly from the abrasion during surgery? I was on oxygen during most of my post-op inpatient stay as well. Let me tell you though, the catheter is way worse than anything they shove down your throat because that one comes out while you're awake

For radiation exposure I was concerned at first as well, but I'm pretty sure most if not all of the Stryde doctors have EOS machines, which will dose you with less radiation than traditional X-rays. I am going to try and find an X-ray center with EOS back home as well since I'm going home after the second post-op office visit. Worst case though, even if I have to get regular X-rays at home, I should only need to send the doctor two X-rays for the remainder of the lengthening period (the other times I will have to fly in to see him in person) and then possibly more X-rays later on during consolidation, but there would be much longer delay for those, unlike the ones during lengthening.

[las vegas baby]

kevin debiparshad, paley have EOS facilities. EOS apparently gives only 1/3 of xray radiation which is awesome. but which american leg length surgeons do NOT have EOS facilities?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

I got primarily a spinal anesthetic plus a strong relaxant for my LL surgery.  I wasn't 100% unconscious.  I don't remember it that well; I might not even have gotten ventilation, and if I did it was probably just a little breeze of high-oxygen air blowing at me from a mask to make breathing easier.  Certainly nothing shoved down my nose or throat.  There are multiple kinds of anesthesia you can get, so if you research what they are and find a doctor whose anesthesiologist offers a choice, you can pick the one you like.

I've had complete general anesthesia too and it's pretty much just like going to sleep every night and then waking up.

[RealLostSoul]

I'm not a medical expert, but I had surgery pretty recently, so I can at least tell you my personal experience.

I was concerned about anesthesia as well since this was my first surgery. I was concerned about falling asleep but still being conscious and feeling the surgery (I watched too many medical TV shows.) Fortunately for me everything was normal. When the anesthesiologist injected my IV line my eyelids got heavy and I fell asleep, then I and woke up in the recovery room feeling super high. You won't feel like you wake up damaged since you'll be feeling the aftereffects of anesthesia for hours after surgery. I don't remember at all what respiratory ventilation they used on me, but I think the anesthesiologist said the one where they stick it down your throat. I did have a slight cough after surgery (not great during the pandemic) possibly from the abrasion during surgery? I was on oxygen during most of my post-op inpatient stay as well. Let me tell you though, the catheter is way worse than anything they shove down your throat because that one comes out while you're awake

For radiation exposure I was concerned at first as well, but I'm pretty sure most if not all of the Stryde doctors have EOS machines, which will dose you with less radiation than traditional X-rays. I am going to try and find an X-ray center with EOS back home as well since I'm going home after the second post-op office visit. Worst case though, even if I have to get regular X-rays at home, I should only need to send the doctor two X-rays for the remainder of the lengthening period (the other times I will have to fly in to see him in person) and then possibly more X-rays later on during consolidation, but there would be much longer delay for those, unlike the ones during lengthening.

Ahhh didn‘t think of the catheter thing yet. Another tube pushed in your body . Oof. How was it for you? And is it really necessary? I mean when can you start to stand up after the surgery? I don‘t think the being conscious during surgery thing is a realistic thing, more of a horrormovie or creepypasta stuff because the anesthesiologist will give you the muscle relaxants after you fall unconscious and also they monitor your heartbeat erc. which  will definitely rise up if pain is felt you know? They will see something is wrong.
The tubes scare me though. It sucks hard especially since I‘ll have to do it more than once... but hey, I am old already and my life has been so bad I think I‘ll just have to clinch my teeth and go through with it. W/o the hope of the surgery I‘ll probably would have blasted myself already anyways.

I got primarily a spinal anesthetic plus a strong relaxant for my LL surgery.  I wasn't 100% unconscious.  I don't remember it that well; I might not even have gotten ventilation, and if I did it was probably just a little breeze of high-oxygen air blowing at me from a mask to make breathing easier.  Certainly nothing shoved down my nose or throat.  There are multiple kinds of anesthesia you can get, so if you research what they are and find a doctor whose anesthesiologist offers a choice, you can pick the one you like.

I've had complete general anesthesia too and it's pretty much just like going to sleep every night and then waking up.

Ah woah where, at which type of surgery and why were you put on regional anesthesia once? That sounds promising, I am going to Paley in summer (hopefully) so I‘ll talk to him about all these things obviously.

Nice but isn‘t it a bit odd since you wake up from your normal sleep, then go to sleep again? (Most surgeries are at pre midday or midday right?

[BelowTheMean]

Ahhh didn‘t think of the catheter thing yet. Another tube pushed in your body . Oof. How was it for you? And is it really necessary? I mean when can you start to stand up after the surgery? I don‘t think the being conscious during surgery thing is a realistic thing, more of a horrormovie or creepypasta stuff because the anesthesiologist will give you the muscle relaxants after you fall unconscious and also they monitor your heartbeat erc. which  will definitely rise up if pain is felt you know? They will see something is wrong.
The tubes scare me though. It sucks hard especially since I‘ll have to do it more than once... but hey, I am old already and my life has been so bad I think I‘ll just have to clinch my teeth and go through with it. W/o the hope of the surgery I‘ll probably would have blasted myself already anyways.

I wrote about my hospital experience in detail in my journal. The catheter was annoying but the pain from pulling it out was only like 5 seconds. I was able to walk on the afternoon of my surgery, but I was nauseated by the aftereffects of anesthesia so I would feel like throwing up as long as I wasn't laying down. That lasted until 7 or 8pm (surgery was around 7 or 8am.) I had two IV lines in me too, and they drew blood from me more than once a day on average while I was in the hospital so it was all very uncomfortable. I was so groggy from the anesthesia in the recovery room that I passed out many times and I was so out of it I didn't even know if I was asleep or awake half the time.