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[Disobedient]

Hello

so this is "clear" or " Alpen Rose"  from old forum , I got banned but  I don't know why?!!
I was really happy that I can share and get some info from LL patients
but hopefully I'll be able to do that here...

so lets start my diaries

Who am I?

Gender : Female
AGE: under 25
Height: 5 feet
Weight: 56-58kg
Country: UAE- Dubai

 

Why DO I want to do LL ?


obviously, because I'm short, I didn't face any problem with my height like it was hard to me to date or smth..
actually many men think that my short height is giving me extra bonus since they can feel more manly with my petite size
But I hate being short ..!

Where?

I was thinking to do this surgery in several places :-

Firstly, I thought of Germany since I was promise to  be 2nd secretory  in my Embassy over there, and in this way I can afford living in Germany and the surgery's cost too, also, I love European  countries so living there for more than year is not consider an issue for me.  BUT, getting this job  will take time around (3-6months) , and I want to do the surgery RIGHT NOW,so I  chose another country, since I cant afford living in Germany nor the cost of the surgery.

Secondly, China, it is a  good choice, but my friend have been in china for more than 3 months and she told me that is so hard to communicate with ppl over there, cuz they are not speaking English.

Thirdly, Russia , Despite  my tries to contact many hospitals but I got no replay

Fourthly, Thailand, I love this country, moreover, the hospital over there are very great and the doctors too. However, I found just one hospital that perform  LL, so I changed my mind and I chose...

Finally, India, there are many hospitals that offer to do this pressure, and the cost of living in India is so low.. so I decided to go and find the hospital and the doctors by myself .. ( I'll write later about what I found in India about ppl/cost/etc)...

The journey to find hospital ...


I found over 15 hospitals  that offer to do LL ( using different methods) across India, however I Just met with tow doctors in tow different hospital ..

The first hospital: Forti hospital
The name of the doctor : Dr. Vivek Mittal
The technique: Ilizarov
My impression about the doctor: he is very realistic, and he thinks more about patient's health than money
he was against doing this surgery for both my tibia and femur. Also, he was explained me and warning me about the pain that I may carry..
The cost: the surgery is 6000USD include the investigation tests  and so on, staying in the hospital is cheap too (750INR/night) and I spent tow night over there and it is a good hospital..

Note: I found cheaper hospital in Mumbai,..but money it should not be the first priority when it comes to your life and health...

Second Hospital : Nova Hospital
The Dr name  : Dr. Anil Raheja 
I met Dr Rehaja and he explained for me about the  external fixator which he will use and its called monorail fixator .. For me this fixator it looks more comfy than illizrov method ..
I told him my true tension to get lengthening both my femur and tibia and he advised me to do just my tibia...
but for me I think I can stand the pain (i guess) and technically lengthening both femur and tibia is possible and I shouldn't get trouble with lengthening both parts..
the cost of the surgery included (7days) in hospital and 2.5months physio therapy is 11000$

(I'll write about the accommodation later )

 

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Hello and welcome to this forum. You won't bet banned for asking questions about bicycles here. 

[Russianblues]

As someone that is struggling with an Ilizarov external fixator on their tibia right now, please god DO NOT do external femurs and external tibias at the same time.



Before this surgery I thought I was tough. I played rugby for a decade, I always thought I could push myself harder in the gym than anyone else, I've had serious illnesses causing me to spew my guts up etc for days and not be phased, called tough by siblings/friends, just a general arrogance thinking I'm special and LL won't be much of a challenge for me, similar vibe to what I read in your post. Boy was I WRONG. It is so hard! Crying has been a daily occurrence for me for the past few days. Today I had to get an x-ray so they had to carry me downstairs put me in a taxi and drive there, every bump was a sharp stab in my pins, especially one. On the way back I was assisted by people clearly inexperienced with LL and they just yanked my legs to get me in the taxi, I already had an existing knee ligament issue and the pain was unbearable, if not for only a few seconds though. I cried all the way back.



I cannot even fathom doing this with another fixator on my thigh ESPECIALLY SINCE EXTERNAL FEMURS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SO MUCH MORE PAINFUL. I cringe so hard thinking you are even considering doing this, listen to the doctor and just do tibia. I would say if you are dead set on increasing your height a vast amount go for 8cm-12cm on tibia. Although I wouldn't recommend this at all it would undoubtedly be far better than having duel fixators.



Look, I don't know you, I could have read this post and just moved along. But I saw an opportunity to help you. I can almost guarantee (99.99%) you will regret doing this probably the day after your surgery, that soon. If you do this you will be in for an extended period of literal torture/hell. Please don't do this I am shuddering even thinking about having to deal with another worse fixator on my thigh. Please post back saying you have reconsidered. If you want I can ask the others in the guesthouse to post here as I am positive they will only backup what I have had to say, it sounds like even the doctor is extremely hesitant.

[Disobedient]

Medium Drink Of Water
so they banned me because of bicycle thing?

Russianblues

Actually I did it ... I just didn't got time to post about the details..
I'm on day 30 or 31

[Muse]

As someone that is struggling with an Ilizarov external fixator on their tibia right now, please god DO NOT do external femurs and external tibias at the same time.

I totally agree with this.  Encourage the OP (original poster) to really give some serious consideration about this decision. You might take years to recover from this, not only physically but psychologically.  There will be alot of pain and immobility, not to mention complications with recovery when you do both Femurs and Tibias at the same time. 

The results of patients who have done it are not encouraging.  Also suggest that you think seriously about NOT doing External on Femurs, as the pain level and complications level are quite high so it's quite a risk.

Going to unknown doctors is not advised, unless the doctor has legitimate specialized training in Limb Lengthening and patient's feedback that you know of. 

Update: You posted that you have done the surgery, so the advise above would not apply to you anymore.  Wish you well on your recovery and you will have the support of the community.

[Disobedient]

Russianblues


about the taxi.. I think I had the same experience few days ago when I went to hospital
but to be honest I didn't suffer a lot .. cuz I got some ppl who carried me 
however , I have to say moving out isn't easy too, so next time I think I let them to come and  have the x-ray here in hotel with these portable devices, the quality  of x-ray want be so good,, but it will do the job..


Diameon

about the doctors I'll say he is well known as a good orthopedic doctor "he did many knee replacement surgeries"
BUT for LL he "claimed" that he did 20 LL surgeries  ...
thanks
 

[Disobedient]

DayZero ..

I was waiting to shift into my room about 3-4hours and  when I shifted (at 8pm) I felt very comfy the room is big and nice, and nurses are so friendly (note in India they called nurse by sister )
They asked me to have shower , shave my private area, and wear the gown... after that I did several tests which include x-ray, blood test, and 2 or 3 other tests.. they asked me million questions too.. and then..
they put the cannula and told me to not eat any thing 10hours before the surgery .. Oh I forget to mention the surgery will be tmw at 12:00pm, 24th-Sep
was it a hard day?
I don't know !but it was cold  I hope that those "warm inches" that I read about will break this feeling and make me warm sooner or later..
I really I had no idea what kind of thoughts were in mind or maybe I don't have any of them..  ... but  I wanted the surgery to be done and these 8 months to pass quickly..
then? yeah I knew what will happen next not exactly but at least I'll be taller.. and that's what I want, that's what I always want to.. no need to google the height of actress to see if they are as same height as am I anymore.. and no need to wear high heel when I know that I can rest my feet now" after LL" by wearing flat... what else? I dunno..
how could I describe my feeling ? exciting ?sad ? afraid? what? I dunno again
but I know that I wasn't sad that I'm alone cuz I chose that, however there are few ppl or may be certain person you need him/her to be with you.. not to do any thing just to be with you and tell you that you'll gonna be fine and you're strong enough just to come to this place alone , he should say it via phone, email, or whatever !!!
I remembered in that day too that I was listening to ROAR it's a good song indeed...also I remembered that I received my new clothes that I made here in India ..so the night  passed while I was trying my new clothes... I'm looking good  with these clothes..but I'll  be Goddess after LL..

[Sweden]

I don't think I really understand all this. You are now doing both tibia and femur external at the same time - right now?

Kiss your former life godbuy and welcome a crippled one.

The nerves can't take that amount of lengthening.

Which famous doctor agreed to do this to you?

I'm sorry you destroyed your life, and for what? Guys already liked you.

[Disobedient]

yes I'm doing my tibia and femur with external fixator.."monorail fixator" in the pic below



sorry for the low quality of the pic

and about the nerves issue I already spoke to the dr.Anil Raheja  and he said, if anything happen to nerves we can compress the bone since the bone tissue is so soft
and he wasn't fully agreed to go for both tibia and femur at the same time but I told him that I can stand the pain so he did it..

I'm Engineer, and I have been deal with numbers mostly in my life and this surgery to me is like mathematical problems that deals with many numerical value..
For me I thought gaining 7cm in 6months by doing just tibia is not good as gaining the double amount at the same period of time...
I may take few months more so I may take 8 or9 months but it's not bad too
cuz I'll suffer just for one time, I do the surgery just for one time ,,,and then I'll be taller 15cm ..
it may the dumbest decision I ever made but  any problem I would face it seems to be manageable ,,,

[Muse]

Sweden, whatever done is done.   My opinion is that

- Nothing constructive can come out of criticizing her decision at this point in time.  You may have valid points, but it's pointless now that the surgery is done.  Plus remember that reasons for doing LL is very personal, it won't make sense to others.

- I don't agree with her decision to do double surgery with external techniques, and neither do you or RussianBlues.  That's very clear and we have reasons for saying so.

- Despite all that, the best thing for now is to give support to Disobedient (be it emotional or technical information) so she gets through this.  I would also like to know who's the Doctor for general awareness, but that's up to the patient's decision to disclose.   

[Blackhawk]

Hey Disobedient,

Thank you for posting your story here!

I hope all is well with you and you have a successful experience.

How much have you lengthened so far?

[KiloKAHN]

Hi Disobedient,

I remember you from old forum . I'm amazed that you went through with both segments at the same time. You've already seen the reaction from others so I don't need to tell you that you're in for a really rough ride. Good luck with everything. Hopefully you find this place to be a good support group. I'll be in India this December and may do my surgery with a doctor there.

[Sweden]

So it was true. Geeeeez. Alright then, well go from here.

We're you the confused girl who traveled through India looking for a doctor to do LL with on old forum ?

About numbers:

This has been tried before but with disastrous results. Fine, you broke all of your bones in your legs but I hope we can convince you not to lengthen 15cm.
You will never in you life heal up more than just barely walking.
You have your reasons but what life do you expect to have when all of this is done and over?

You're doing it with the most terrible lengthening device and method there is. It is no where near weight bearing nor is it stable at all and can break/bend your femurs any time if you sit on a chair.

It's not my intention to scare you or anything but please understand that what you're doing right now is very dangerous. I strongly advice you to absolutely don't lengthen any mm more than 10cm of total.

I don't know to what higher force I should pray to but I am praying for you to make this as easy as possible.

I have seen and heard of a lot of patients that went with the monorail. NONE of them did it complication free. I really hope you don't get any of the serious kind when they hit you.

I'm thinking about your ballerina. You need to stand every day, but you can't with the monorail. There are so many things I can tell you that you need to do to be able to come back close to normal one day.
Remember, I stayed with Dr Sarins first cross lengthening guy and we became good friends and still are. He was an Indian guy and told me everything about the process. He did 7cm on tibias and 4cm on femurs(it got preconsolidation at 4cm, he aimed at 5). He is doing fine now but was one of the most lucky ones together with me at the guesthouse.

Please update us with more better pictures, tell us which doctor it is, keep posting about what you're doing. You're not alone, remember that.

Best of luck.

[Leonardo2013]

Disobedient,

So, of all the Drs you visited, they did external only? I mean, no Lengthening over nails? I would like to do 6.5cm on tibias but have double thoughts about doing externals only because of the time I will have to have the frames on.

[Adriano]

this very interesting.

I also wanted to break 4 bones at once but apparently its very hard and very risky.
the truth is you can break as many bones as u want because they r separate bones. However, nerves run the whole length of ur leg so it will be very difficult to lengthen them so quickly.

Its been pointed out that lengthening the bones is the easiest part of LL. Muscles and nervous r your major obstacles.

Spend a lot of time reading Crazy+6's femur diary and make sure you do what ever u have to do to avoid the problems he had because of his monorail.

Good Luck. 

[NBW]

You've made a very risky decision doing femurs and tibs. So I wish you all the best in the process and recovery. Majority of surgeons generally discourage people from doing femurs and tibs at the same time and there are obvious reasons for this. I don't think it's okay for a surgeon to allow this, but what's done is done. I remember reading that females have it better in a way, because their bones are more flexible, etc. So things might turn out fine.

I think you should know that it's not all about the costs and more so about your own body. When doing something like this (femurs and tibs), you should have chosen a well known and reputable doctor.

I recommend that you lengthen a short amount in both segments to prevent major problems from occurring.

Good luck.

[Russianblues]

Easier for females due to higher pain tolerance and higher natural estrogen levels which makes soft tissue/joints more flexible. Testosterone also contributes to muscle shortening.

http://www.netplaces.com/krav-maga-for-fitness/developing-flexibility/factors-affecting-flexibility.htm


http://health.ninemsn.com/whatsgoodforyou/factsheets/798263/women-have-a-higher-pain-threshold-than-men


I think men react to pain better though even though an equivalent pain would be felt more by a male. Will find a source later.

[Russianblues]

I admire your courage. I already said what I thought of it, but I guess now you've taken the leap there's nothing left to say but know pain is temporary height is forever!


I wish you all the best on your journey and I will be keeping a very keen eye on the progress. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan!

[Russianblues]

this very interesting.

I also wanted to break 4 bones at once but apparently its very hard and very risky.

*6 bones

[Disobedient]

Hi all

I know that "first" is with i not e, but I didn't notice that I wrote it with e!
can I change it 

Disclaimer


I said this to someone in the msg and I'll say it here again
Dr Raheja is a good doctor and Dr vivak too, and until now I didn't face any serious problem with the surgery, so do I recommend the Dr Raheja?
NO I'M NOT, cuz I still don't know if every things will gonna be fine till the end of my journey !
and how could I know if he is good or bad in this short time seriously !!!!
 I know that the cost of surgery would attract the attention of some ppl since it's low, but please think about other staff don't make your decision based on my diary cuz I'm still in the very beginning of this journey, who knows what will happen next ! !! I may regret doing this surgery later !!!




Dameon

I mentioned my Dr name many times
Dr Anil Raheja
this one
http://www.novaspecialtysurgery.com/dr-anil-raheja

Blackhawk

thanks, I'm still not sure, but beyond 1 cm

Kilokahn

thanks .and good luck too in your LL journey
did you decide the method and with whom dr you gonna have LL ?

Sweden

yes I'm that girl except that I'm not confused girl 
anyway, about the 15cm it is my target, but if I'll face any  serious problem I'll stop, actually I'm  lengthening 2mm/day right and so far no problem or unbearable pain..
about the method,  I think you're right about the weight bearing, however I think I could mange this by special exercises with my PT doctors, but if you know anything else would help, please share it here... cuz I do need these kind of advices so badly
right now my major concern is about my knee since I still can't bend it 90 deg.. although I'm doing my best in exercising

about the pic, I don't have good cam I'm using my laptop's cam that why the quality will remain low until I'll buy smart phone or new cam

and thanks for supporting me

Leonardo2013

I just met with two doctors  in two different hospitals, but I was contacting many, as far as I remember one of the hospital offer to do internal method with 8000USD, but I don't remember the name of hospital nor the doctor..


Adriano

Actually I think I have 8 fractions on my bones!
Body Builder did monorail too and I read his diary, but I have to read  Crazy+6's diary too
thanks

NBW

it wasn't just about the cost, I mentioned that I found cheaper hospital in Mumbai
and right now, I'm lengthening 2mm/day following my doctor advice..


Russianblues

hi, how you doin?

I read about the pain tolerance thing before and there is big debate on that, But thanks God that I'm girl anyway
Also the type gender is just one factor there are many other factors that affect the pain tolerance
But I like the conclusion in the first article "Men of the world, you have no idea. Leave it to the women. Forget the whole pain-threshold debate. We have nothing. Women win, men don't. The end. "

[An_Apple_A_Day]

Jesus Christ girl!

You're brave.  I wish you all the best.

Can you even weight-bear with both femur and tibia in a fixator?

I suspect you have a long road ahead of you my dear.  Take it cautiously and go slow, one bump can really screw things up!

Wishing you all the best!

[LiveLife]

You sound very calm and independent.  This is a unique and very interesting diary.  I look forward to your updates.

[Disobedient]

 Hi all

I have to jump to today since I need your advise

few days ago I had several mosquito bites all over my body, and today in the morning I had fever. sweats and chills "shaking" and muscle pains  and after I took my regular medicine "one of them is pain killer and treated fever as will" the fever disappear and I was very fine ..
However, at 6pm I had the same symptoms again, ...
 its important to mention that b4 the surgery my immunity was so strong (FX: I'll have fever or flue every three or four years), but after the surgery I had fever at least 5 times ! although it does not last for more than 12 h..
when my PT doctor came for the exercising he told me that I may have Malaria !
I don't know if he is exaggerated  or not  because for me I used to have all of  these symptoms whenever I have a fever..
and I really  wont to avoid going to hospital as much as I can..

Do you guys experienced the same symptoms after one month of the surgery?
any suggestions ?

[Russianblues]

Mosquitos + fevers = get a blood test asap

I got sick once and was told it's normal. I was actually being a complete idiot and touching my food with my hands after not washing them for days. When your in situations like this sometimes common sense goes out the window.



What daily medication are you taking? A painkiller everyday as routine?

[Disobedient]

maybe I should do that since it is india ! although I'm still thinking that I'm fine, my temp is 100.5 F but I'm feeling so good..

for the medicine I'm taking

PANTOCID " once ,prevent  stomach pain since I'm taking 3 types of medicine"
vizylac  "twice"
chymoral forte "for the inflammation and healing of wound" twice
aceclofenac and paracetamol "pain killer & treating fever" twice
 and ULTRACET  " I used it only when I have pain,

 

[Adriano]

Y didn't u take the malaria vaccine if there is one?

[Shorty]

hey

how are you, hope every thing is OK & get well soon, I am really worry about you  . Waiting an update with a good news...

[KiloKAHN]

Hi all

I have to jump to today since I need your advise

few days ago I had several mosquito bites all over my body, and today in the morning I had fever. sweats and chills "shaking" and muscle pains  and after I took my regular medicine "one of them is pain killer and treated fever as will" the fever disappear and I was very fine ..
However, at 6pm I had the same symptoms again, ...
 its important to mention that b4 the surgery my immunity was so strong (FX: I'll have fever or flue every three or four years), but after the surgery I had fever at least 5 times ! although it does not last for more than 12 h..
when my PT doctor came for the exercising he told me that I may have Malaria !
I don't know if he is exaggerated  or not  because for me I used to have all of  these symptoms whenever I have a fever..
and I really  wont to avoid going to hospital as much as I can..

Do you guys experienced the same symptoms after one month of the surgery?
any suggestions ?

You should see a medical doctor at that hospital that can give you medicine right away. I hope you get through your symptoms and that it isn't something as serious as malaria.

That aside, for anyone planning to go to India here is some information you should know. If you're an expat in India you are just about guaranteed to get really sick while there, there's really no way around it outside of sheer luck. Often times you will get sick just from eating the food - not to say the food is bad, but rather your body just isn't used to it. I have family/friends who have lived/currently live in India and they all tell me that every foreigner  gets very sick at least once, usually a few weeks after first arriving. One in particular told me that even though he grew up in New Delhi, after living in America for a decade and returning to India he got very sick because his body lost its natural resistance. It's best to be prepared for it with antibiotics and multivitamins.

[Disobedient]

Adriano

no, I didn't thought about these staff actually before I come to India

Shorty

I'll write it down

Kilokahn

today I went to hospital, but you're right about India..I'll ask the doctor about the vaccinations that I have to get




So what happened to me ?
Last night , was a very horrible night I started shaking I couldn't even say a word.. after few min I tried my best to reach the phone and call the room service to turn off the AC ..
I don't remember what happen next except that I was in a real pain ...when I wake up I found myself holding 2 tablet one for the fever and the other is the pain killer  it seems that I was trying to take them when I was in this shaking thing.. , but I really didn't remember when did this happen
I measured my temp and it was 104.2 so I msg my doc if I can take the tablet again (I'm suppose to taking it  just 2 times)..
the fever decreased gradually and in the morning my temp was 100.2 however I couldn't move my body not even for one inch
I had muscular pain and back pain actually I felt the pain all over my body..

at 3 pm I felt much better so I had shower, then immediately to the hospital, I got my x-ray and I was happy to know that I grow 1.2cm in my left tibia , however this number is not fixed for the other parts
my right tibia is 9.2mm
my left femur 4.7mm
my right femur 4.2mm
however the bad news is that there is a beginning of a reunion in my right femur...Dr Rah wasn't there "since I was supposed to see him at 12" so I met with another Dr..
I asked him why these number is not fixed! and why did I got just 4mm in my femur while I'm suppose to gain 1cm...
He told me that these things is happen and no need to worry about, he also assumed that I'm not doing the turning in the right way" for me I'm 100% sure that I'm doing it in right way" ... but in general I'm happy that I'm almost 1.5 cm taller 

After that I told him about the fever so I got blood test , and they asked to have urine test, although that I drunk 1L of water but nothing came out.. so I told them I'll send the urine sample in the morning...


and that's what happened today.. I am 1.5cm taller

[Goodnews]

Hello Disobedient,

I'm concerned for you. I'd like to make some suggestions. The first one is that you need a full time private caretaker to take care of you and be your advocate. You're too sick sounding right now, to wait for care. I'm concerned that you may have Malaria or a bone infection starting. You need to have both checked immediately. Please INSIST. You need immediate medication for this and not to ignore it. There is someone on the other site that had infections and signs of Malaria and neither were treated immediately which makes no sense. If you do not have Malaria talk to the Doctor about immediately taking the medicine for prevention. You need to use something to prevent further Mesquito bites.

After these issues are checked out, delt with, you will need a very experienced, skilled Physical Therapist with LL. It's too difficult to manage this stuff in your condition. Do you have a family member that can come and take care of you around the clock? I'm sorry with all the suggestions but having done both Tibs and Femus's externally completely incapacitates you and you're now very sick with a temp that high. You need to be cared for and not be told everything is fine.

You have our support and care. Please take care of yourself and get a full time advocate to take care of you, someone who will care. You cannot ignore the temperature. It could be either an infection or Malaria or both. Insist on testing and treatment.

[Sweden]

Try to eat garlic. It starts to fight infections within seconds.
Coconut oil also helps a lot.

Did I miss it? You do have regular physical therapy for at least 2 hours right?

Since you have monorails on you can't stand up and fight ballerina. It'll take you more than a year to be able to walk close to normal if you do 7cm on tibias without any standing.

The device on monorails for lengthening easily malfunctions so you have to pay attention when turning them. It's common to change the lengthening device on them both 2 and 3 times.

The femur bones consolidates very fast so you have to turn them 2mm/day up until 3-4cm but your doctor should decide this together with you.

Be very careful how you sit down regarding your thighs. If you put too much force at one point your femur will snap and heal misaligned. I've seen this before.

Are you going to have 4 intramedullary nails put in after your done lengthening or plates on femurs?
If they put nails inside your femurs your knees will most likely be permanently damaged.
The plate is better but not weight bearing and leaves ugly UGLY scars.

How does your daily food chedule look like? What and how often do you eat?