Limb Lengthening Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Questions for internal femur LL veterans  (Read 279 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

SpeedDialer

  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1389
Questions for internal femur LL veterans
« on: November 04, 2022, 03:44:41 PM »

Currently doing internal (gnail) femurs now, trying to ask for help in brainstorming ideas to manage the pain

So far, this is what I've been experimenting with to manage the pain:

1. Taking the painkillers and nerve pain pills 1 hour before physical therapy, not sure how much it is helping. Need to try this a few more times to see if its worth it or if I should change the timing. Not sure the dose, but maybe 1 tramadol, 2 paracetamol pills, and one lyrica for nerve pain 1 hour before physio? Maybe there are better strategies?

2. Resting/only doing seated quad stretches in the hour or so after clicking to prevent right hip pain that I sometimes get after clicking, not sure if this is the best option or if I should do more movement or just rest with eyes closed right after clicking. Have found that certain stretches right after clicking make the right hip pain worse

3. Ice padding (putting a big soft ice pad on the area of pain) everything down whenever there is pain, I mean I don't see any downside of this yet aside except the hassle of having to go to the fridge. The only time I don't do this if I have very mild hip pain and then I don't want to even go the refrigerator because sometimes that very short trip increases the hip pain a bit when I could have just waited the mild hip pain out instead

4. Big pillow under knee seems to help alot for knee pain when combined with ice padding the knee down

5. Instead of clicking in the morning before physical therapy, I am experimenting with the idea of just focusing 100% on stretching the morning right before physio and then doing the 'morning' clicks after physio. This seems to be easier in terms of pain. Not sure if there are better strategies instead of this though?

6. Sometimes I noticed if I take a step that is a bit too far with my right leg, that also causes the aforementioned right hip pain. Lying on my side seems to be bad, like I can do it without pain initially, but it sometimes it seems to cause hip pain later. 

7. Another patient and I noticed that when the weather outside is beautiful, sometimes the nice sun/gentle breeze feels good enough to just distract you from the pain, I'm gonna do more stretching outdoors using a wheelchair + my leg on a second chair I think

8. Ozboy recommended just pointing hot water shower nozzle at your thigh, but unfortunately the "hot" water of the montaza hotel in Athens rooms is a bit hit or miss, for me maybe like 90% of time it is sort of only warm-ish at max warmth, but occasionally gets hotter after like 15 minutes. I'm hoping Novotel in Athens will have more consistent hot water, maybe I just got unlucky with my rooms in Montaza?

Could you help be brainstorm some other ideas?

I heard that in the olden days before anesthesia they had patients bite a stick during surgery, and I'm thinking about getting some kind of thing to bite on during physio that won't be be bad for the teeth, not sure what object might be good? Maybe a small hand towel? On the other hand, I am thinking maybe tensing the jaw or any body part during stretching might be bad compared to trying to go limp
Logged

readyprecisestryde

  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 183
Re: Questions for internal femur LL veterans
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2022, 04:08:45 AM »

Dr Robbins prescribed Gabapentin 900mg daily for nerve pain and It took a week for it to kick in. The physical therapists @ paley came up with different stretches to minimize the pain and they were very good at it since they deal with lengthening patients all the time so you may want to also brainstorm with your physical therapist to customize the stretching sessions. Dr Robbins allowed me to take Ibuprofen since I had fast bone healing and he did not see a non union issue. I Ibuprofen helped with the pain but most patients can not take it because it may slow down bone healing.
Logged

readyprecisestryde

  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 183
Re: Questions for internal femur LL veterans
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2022, 04:16:17 AM »

I also reduced lengthening from 1mm day to 0.75mm a day to mange the nerve pain and tightness
Logged

SpeedDialer

  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1389
Re: Questions for internal femur LL veterans
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2022, 04:47:14 AM »

Right so far they decreased lengthening to 0.66 mm per day

And they do modify one of my stretches to help me deal with left shin nerve pain

It seems to be right after my clicking that a movement is more likely to cause me some hip pain or trigger some hip pain, it makes me a bit afraid to move for like 30 minutes after clicking

I've started getting out the ice pads before I start clicking so I can insta ice pad the hips right after clicking if any trouble comes up

I think that + the overall stiffness and soreness in the morning are the biggest problems excluding physio pain. Often in the morning I find the soreness annoying and end up popping a tramadol or paracetamol for the soreness
Logged

readyprecisestryde

  • Jr. Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 183
Re: Questions for internal femur LL veterans
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2022, 10:47:03 AM »

I had hip pain and different types of pain were popping up. It’s part of lengthening and it went away several months after I stopped lengthening. I remember Sometimes I had new type of pain coming out of no where so it is a frustrating process and takes a lot of patience. I had the nerve pain and hip pain for many months after I stopped and it went away. My nerve pain was bad and I was scared. I went to a neurologist after I had stopped lengthening. he prescribed Mentanx. I took it but not sure how much it helped. This process takes a lot of patience. I don’t have any more pain and don’t think about it any more. Ibuprofen worked the best for hip pain and tightness …gabapentin ease the nerve pain
Logged

SpeedDialer

  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1389
Re: Questions for internal femur LL veterans
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2022, 12:20:02 PM »

How do you guys like to max out your thigh stretching when your arms are tired/don't want to use the arms or straps that much?


I'm currently trying this:

1. Lying on my back by the edge of my bed

2. Wheelchair by bed facing me

3. One foot on wheelchair + pillows to adjust height/angles/difficulty -> stretches quads in one leg (the one hanging down towards the floor) and hamstrings on the other leg (the one on the wheelchair)

And I just alternate and my upper body goes completely limp while my legs are being stretched

There's that and then I scoot up on the bed and do the position where I am lying down on back, knees bent, and put the heels of my feet together -> stretches adductors and actually quads a bit because my quads in that position feel slightly stretched. That and the one leg straight and one leg being tucked into my chest -> stretches hip flexors on one side of body.

I find myself sort of rotating between these stretches and occasionally doing abductors but those haven't been a problem during PT

Trying to find other ways to max out my thigh stretching when my upper body is sore/very tired

max out as in like, be able to spend more time light stretching consistently over the long term
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up