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[BullSurfer]

4 turns in one go, that's nut. I find most painkillers have no effect whatsoever except injection types.

Diso, may I suggest exoskeleton? No need to put in energy in order to walk.  Maybe you can afford a pair, I think it's on the market now.

[Leonardo2013]

Diso,

Glad to hear that you're getting your frames off soon. I can imagine how excited you must be. Now you can start a serious routine of physical therapy to get your knee ROM back. I have some questions to ask you:
1) what's the maximum amount of cash that you're allowed to bring into India when you travel (airport)?

2) what's the most amount of cash you can withdraw from an ATM per day? Is it safe to withdraw cash in public without being robbed?

3) approximately how much extra cash should I bring with me if I'm planning of staying 6 -7 months in India (hotel, food, laundry, internet, maid/nurse?

Thank you.

Leo

[RGKEY]

Hello Disobedient!!))

im glad you are almost done, some journey you had!! how is that knee bending?? did you get any side X-ray?? maybe in a future ill do 5cms on my femurs with monorail. Now you will not only have the perfect height for a woman but also nice sexy long legs!! that must be super excited for you)) you will be breaking necks everywhere!))lol Big hug sister))) congrats!

Rgkey

[Disobedient]

BullSurfer

the only different between the injection and the pills, is that the pills take around 20min to has an effect in your body..  that's what the doctors claim..
for me yes I found these IM painkiller much better, I even told my doctor that I know how to give myself IM but he told me to stick into pills ..
anyway, how many cm left for you ? you have almost 2 weeks left for you..

about exoskeleton, I think the walker will do the same job..

Leo

Hi leo,
it seems that you're planing to do LL in India, did you consider to team up with another LL patients who interest in doing LL in India too?

you would save A LOT OF money if you'll do that, and it will be easier for you to stay in India with  someone who undergone the same surgery..
 
think about it, find another 3 or 4 patients, then instead of staying at hotel, you could rent a small villa ( villa better than apartment since it hard to find building with elevator or apartment in first floor), and take full time (24 hours) maid  (( you'll pay some thing like 6000 INR/ month and usually 9000 for the agency.. )) .. you could cut the cost by half or even more and you'll still have lot of advantages of being in you own villa than staying in hotel ex; your maid would be able to do your laundry, cook for you, you won't be stuck in one room, internet usually faster than hotel, You cant open the window in the most of hotel in India so staying in your own villa will guarantee you having good ventilation.. , and off course the space that you'll have

1- I don't remember, for me no one touch my handbag so even if  i loaded it with money, or drugs! nobody would know, but I don't know if they do that with all passengers
but here is a thing if you want to bring some dollars with you, it would be so easy to find place in your suite-bag  to hide them.. hmm ignore what I said just bring your visa card, don't take a risk..

2- this is depend in your bank.. it's nothing to do with ATM here, they do limit the each withdrawal by 10,000 INR but you can have multiple withdrawals at same time ..
Is it safe? well I never withdrew   cash without being companion with my caretaker, also, the atm is beside my hotel... even if it wasn't... don't worry about that a lot, you can withdraw money each time you go to hospital to has an x-ray, and save it in you locker "most of hotel provide you with your own one"

3- it's really differ from one to another, but I used to spend around 1000-1200USD per month ..


RGKEY

hi there,..
well yeah my journey wasn't excited as yours, but good thing I'm at the end of it.. my knee bending is something like 15-20 deg.. I'm not pushing myself at all.. and I'm pretty sure my legs is far from being sexy right now with all these scars lool, but gonna have surgery to remove them when the time comes for that
Good luck , and the good news is lengthening femur is less painful than tibia,..



 

 

[RGKEY]

so femurs is better than tibias??)) cool))
scars?? dont worry about that, just need a small surgery and done, long, sexy and smooth like a baby butt)))

[BullSurfer]

Im depressed and excited at the same time. Depressed because I don't know how it's gonna be once I'm home. Excited because im taller, also just to be home around my family and familiar things.

I think femur lengthening would have less complication and pain, only one bone.

[Sweatpants]

Hey Disobedient,

Conradulations on removing your frames so soon. Almost done 

How much did you lengthen on your tibia? Did you have your ankle angle measured regularly by your pt? Did you have any problems with your ankle stretch, ballerina foot etc?
I am losing my stretch there very quickly, it's getting tighter every day, and I am only on 2cm now, I am going to do much more stretching on my ankles now, but I was wondering if there are some things that you did to prevent ballerina foot?

[Disobedient]

Hi sweatpants

how much you're lengthening per day? ask your doctor maybe you should lengthening less like 0.7mm instead of 1mm..

I lengthened  5.4 cm , and yes I do have ballerina foot, My pt was so stupid he didn't even notice that I have ballerina foot(despite the fact that I asked him several times) ,  I only knew that when one of LL member (machine ) visited me and he noticed immediately..

it seems unless you're standing there is nothing would help you so much

but here is things that I read or been advised to do

1- put your feet in hot water  3 times a day for 30min

read the original post by jungle

{{The best way to avoid the ballerina foot is dont let it happens. If you lengthening too fast, no way you can escape it, maybe with Beijing devices you can, but not Serbia's device, i'm afraid.

However, whatever reason, if ballerina foot happens to you, the method i will show you as the following is the effective way to fix it and  recommended by Professor Mitkovic.

I did a experiment using method hot water mixing with a little salt. This method Professor Mitkovic told me and it work brilliant well if your ankles lost more than 120 degree (compare to 90 perfect square). But that method you need to do least 3 times a day and least 30 minutes in each times and keep doing that least for a week, your heels should able to touch ground, trust me


Below are some picture to show your guys how exactly it can be done... Professor Mitkovic told me.. when your bones, muscles, tendons in hot water more than 30 minutes.. everything become soften. That why, Professor Mitkovic told us, including CBICK.. after you done LL, you should not take hot tub or hot shower more than one hours at least in first 3 or 4 months.. because your new bones will be come really soft in hot water. Of course, if you do... let's say you just having a hot tub about more than an hour.. your bones become soft.. but then your bone will be harden again after one or two more hours.

So, with that concept.. when you have ballerina foot, and you cannot keep bend at 90 degree.. dip in hot water mixing with salt (of course you will not dip the whole legs into hot water if you are wearing devices. Using a bucket and the hot water level just pass your ankles but should not over the pins of device,i will show you on the photo later anway...). your muscles, tendons become soft, BUT REMEMBER YOU MUST DO EXERCISE IMMEDIATELY or while your foot in hot water.. like bending 90 degree.. pressing against a wall .. or standing to press the ankles down....




 Set up- water and salt mixing in the bucket. Get a big bucket as possible because you would have more room to bend your ankles and put both legs in. Water is must hot but should not  too hot to burn your skin,  and water should keep warm as a long as possible. If water cold down than you must put take cold water out and put more hot water in.






Method 1- If you can?t standing
Sitting on wheelchair and put the hot bucket close to your wheelchair. As you see my knees bend forward more than 90 degree




Put some weight on the top your knee to press the ankles down. I used potato bad about 7 kg but you can you other weight (sand bags etc.. ) and not too heavy to hurt your legs




And put two legs at the same time






Method 2 - If you can standing




When you have problem of ballerina foot, when you stand up, no way your heels can touch the ground so you standing by your toes.
In this way as soon as your ankle warm up by hot water, your heels would slowly going down and they would touch ground in 20 minutes. And lean forward if you can. This is really hardcore and very effective than method 1, but only for people who have strong legs while lengthening and able to standing. This picture was taken by myself, looking from the top angle, and there is no way I can take a picture in side view }}

2- My English is bad so I don't know how to say it , let someone to push your feet with his/her fist  for 45min.

3- my dr told me to put my feet against the wall and try to push them so hard till my heel touch the wall and remain like that for 15min.

[Sweatpants]

Thanks a lot!! I will try the hot water exercise, I do some similar stretches, only without water. So now your PT knows about ballerina foot, is he going to stretch you to fix it?

I only lengthen 0.75cm per day, and after I have my femurs done, it's going to be 0.5cm, till I am done with tibias, so it's already relatively low speed of lengthening. I just want to do anything to prevent ballerina foot. Were you wearing your splints a lot during distraction?

[RGKEY]

I hope ur ballerina and knee contraction is not that bad(( other wise you will regret this operation if you don't fix it ASAP!!!
unfortunately hot water and stretching your calf muscles while siting will not help much.
your problem right now is that you can not load all you weight on your legs((((

I can tell you this thou, either your ballerina is not bad at all, like almost nothing, or your physical therapist and especially your doctor are careless AND don't know anything about these problems

For ballerina you must stretch while your knee is completely straight, when you sit and stretch you muscles is much more easier but you are just lying to your muscles. you are not making much progress.

you should have always been wearing a foot holder to make sure your feet are at 90 degrees at all time. Ill take pictures and maybe make a video for you to tell you exactly what you can do since you can not stand or have the ilizarov apparatus to help holding something to your feet.

Im really worry about you, it is ashamed what is happening to you, because Ballerina and knee contractions are the most common and only real serious problems of lengthening.

remember now that you stopped lengthening your muscles will start getting stronger and also they will be harder to stretch back.

if u want, send me a PM and ill send you my Skype so can video chat and I can show you exactly what to do)))

if your feet can not go more than 75 degrees you have a real problem darling(((((( and I hope your knee is also straight.

[BullSurfer]

Diso, where did you get those pics froms? Cool shiny thingymajig. They look comfortable on the legs. The Indian Monorail looks large and heavy.

Btw, you're going to remove the frames but will continue to be in india. Best of luck.

[Sweatpants]

Hey Diso,

Here's an exercise that I do regularly, it might help with ballerina, I do it whenever I am in bed while watching TV. 

[RGKEY]

Hey Diso,

Here's an exercise that I do regularly, it might help with ballerina, I do it whenever I am in bed while watching TV. 

yes but you must sleep with your feet in this position, you must spend hours with your feet in this position not minutes((((( pretty  much your feet must be in this position all day!!! what you can do is use bandages, and make a knot on your tights and another knot with the bandage holding your feet at 90degrees like this picture. and then tight them together. I spend about 12 hours a day with my feet in this position, if im not walking, i eat, rest and sleep with my feet like this, you must do the same.

[BullSurfer]

It works better if you press your foot against the wall or floor.

[RGKEY]

It works better if you press your foot against the wall or floor.

all depends how bad is her ballerina, if is very bad, it wont work. Her muscles(heels) will push her back. but if it is not that bad then it might work.

[RGKEY]

i found something for you, get this, it might help.

http://www.amazon.com/Pc-Plantar-Fasciitis-Relief-System/dp/B00414OLBU/ref=pd_sim_hpc_53?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YX4YQ6EE3F3C3YC3FGY

[BullSurfer]

There's a product for everything these days.

She only got 2 or 3 cm, how can it be so bad? At this rate she won't get far. Im over 5cm in before the problem surfaced. Im in pain but pushing on. I just need a few more mm b4 remove frames.

[Sweatpants]

I ve tried all kinds of splints, but the only ones that really work and keep your feet in 90degrees are the ones that look like boots

Those are mine:

[GROWtalORdieTRYING1]

Im really worry about you, it is ashamed what is happening to you, because Ballerina and knee contractions are the most common and only real serious problems of lengthening.

while this is true, here is a post from a thread on old forum  where I posted a bunch of peer reviewed journal articles for external lengthening (lon).

control

Herzenberg et al. [7] reported follow up ROM of 25 patients with extension contractures after femoral lengthening treated nonoperatively. The mean age of their patients was 20.2 years. Fifteen patients underwent femoral lengthening for atraumatic (congenital or developmental)
and 10 for posttraumatic shortening. The mean femoral lengthening was 6 cm (range, 3–15 cm). ROM decreased from 127 ± 16 to 37 ± 15 after femoral lengthening. All patients underwent daily aggressive physiotherapy. All but one patient achieved 90 knee flexion by 6 months after
frame removal and full recovery was seen during the course of 1 year after frame removal. Patients required very aggressive physical therapy during the course of 1 year to recover ROM of the knee. At final follow up, knee flexion was 122 ± 23.

so as you can see even with no quadroplasty they went from 127 degrees to----- 37 degrees to---------122 degrees
and that was 6 months after frame removal.

its obviously more risky than internal which has 0 complication for knee contracture but I think its not as dangerous as people say. this was the average result for 25 patients. pretty cool when you think about it

reduced knee contracture is expected for external lon but will return. however I have no idea about if you do both femur and tibia together.

[Disobedient]

Hi all

18th - March,  3 days left   


Sweatpants

humm no he didn't seriously Indian PT know NO THING, so I stooped my sessions few months ago.. and right now I'm doing simple stretching exercises, not aggressive one since I really want to avoid any thing could cuz the pain in my pin site, and I do stretching exercise like the one you posted in pic ( sometime with the same pose in pic I tried to lift my leg and hold it for 1 min, I feel  in this way it stretching much more muscles , try it and you'll feel different< Also,  since you still in distraction phase if you felt much pain your tibia let someone to lift/rise your legs for you'll feel much better off course in this case you wont stretch any muscle but believe me you'll feel the pain goes down immediately  >  ) 

about the splints  I got mine like after month from starting lengthening and I wear it like 2-3 h per day not more some time I don't wear it at all, yours looks much better than mine ..
this is mine



Can your splint keep your feet goes beyond 90deg?


Bullsurfer

yes , it looks light comparing to Indian monorails, this is Mitkovic's monorail it was mentioned in the original post of Jungle..


RGKEY

thanks for your concern, right now I'm doing simple stretching exercise I know that won't help a lot, but I really wont to avoid any further pain.. but since I'll get my frame removed soon, I'll start (gradually) standing this will help my ballerina , my feet can reach 85-90 deg I guess, my dr said to not worry a lot about it I will gain my flexibility as soon as I start standing .. maybe he is taking it easy again (Indian mentality doctor, where everything is ok and you don't have to worry) but with 5cm lengthening I'm not suppose to have bad ballerina ..

[RGKEY]

as long you can reach 90 degrees you might ok. Ballerina is not the only problem thou, you might fix that even with surgery, but there are many soft tissues that need to adapt to the new length in order to communicate with each part of your muscles, or you will have strange types of pain hard to get rid off. Read diaries and you will see. I wish you best of luck! can you straighten your knee? please tell me yes))))

[Disobedient]

as long you can reach 90 degrees you might ok. Ballerina is not the only problem thou, you might fix that even with surgery, but there are many soft tissues that need to adapt to the new length in order to communicate with each part of your muscles, or you will have strange types of pain hard to get rid off. Read diaries and you will see. I wish you best of luck! can you straighten your knee? please tell me yes))))

ok, yes)))) 

[Disobedient]

Just arrived from hospital..  and I'm still stuck on those fking frame..
Dr.Rah said the callus is not good enough to remove them!
feel like my body betrayed me, ...
I should be now completing my master, or  even working with all elec ships as an Engineer , not paralyzed  here in India !
but nobody to blame, I did it to myself..

I'll get some rest and I post the x-ray.. get it finally in my flash..

[BullSurfer]

Cheer up girl! I know how you feel, just a little longer is all. Hang in there. 

I have so much pain in my leg, but I'll bite my tongue. I haven't been sleeping well at all. Lost a lot of weight. 

We made the decision, we must stick by it until it's satisfied.

[Leonardo2013]

Diso,

As said before, just a little longer - hang in there! Are supplementing with enough calcium and Vit D?

[Disobedient]

Morning .. 

so as in next post, you can see that callus formation in my femur is so bad..
I don't even expect that I can remove the frame in my femur even after 3 months.. !
I've shouldn't believe Rah when he said I have to wait 6 weeks, cuz that so typical of him.. I should have been realized that by now!
Funny thing that when I asked him this time how long should I wait ? a month? he replied he cant answer that cuz he didn't want me be in between .. really why it takes you so long to say that!!

anyway that's too much complain for morning ..

Bullsurfer

yeah.. we have no other choice but to be patient and waiting with these Indian Butchers


Leo

yup, he prescribed for me too  yesterday  calcitonin-salmon Nasal Spray ...


 

[Disobedient]

Here we go these are my x-ray

[BullSurfer]

The calluses are coming. No worries,  but I'd rather be at home with fast internet, tv and better food while waiting for them to form.

Nasal spray? Lol.

[Disobedient]

The calluses are coming. No worries,  but I'd rather be at home with fast internet, tv and better food while waiting for them to form.

Nasal spray? Lol.

well I wish if I can go home but I can't.. and yes it's nasal spry and usually prescribed for ppl with low bone mass

[RGKEY]

hi Diso, how long you lengthen and how long have you been consolidating?

[Disobedient]

I had the operation 23-Dec
I started distraction  in 12th- October  stopped at mid of Dec
so it has been 6 months already since I did the operation