This is scary and exactly the kind of thing I don't want to hear but thank you for posting.
What is the time frame to develop issues? Surely there must be femur patients that can tell if this is common or not.
How are you doing smallguy, what kind of recovery do you feel you will reach percentage wise?
Hey, that's right. This surgery is not like a simple walk in the park. You have to ask yourself whether the pain, time and risk of disability is worth the payoff. For a tall guy, what is the payoff? Even for short people, few I know, would undergo this surgery. The risk is too great to worth the payoff. For me, I was a little bit crazy and wasn't happy with my life. Here is the story.
Two years ago, I was studying for the CPA, which is the equivalent for the master degree for accounting in my country. I wasn't bothered as much for my height even though I was the shortest person in my company. My company was predominately white and the average height was 5'11 and above. But one day, there was this Asian man of 5'6, bald-headed and middle-age who was doing some temp at my company. He was also a CPA. But because we were the only two asians there, he reflected what I would be like in 20 years. I don't want to be like that. Sorry, he was smart and probably make a ton of money. But I don't want to be like that. That's why the next day, I booked a ticket and decided to undergo LL with the cheapest doctor at that time. All my money was borrowed. I was in debt and broke but it was the best decision I made in my life. The confident boost from 3 inches taller from the starting height of 5'6 is tremendous. My only advice is don't borrow money for LL. Being in debt is worst than being short.
3 inches increase for 5'6 man is huge. He went from being short to being average. And it's even greater for a man who is 5'0 who goes from being a midget to being short. But 3 inches for a guy who is 5'11... then what? He's tall and he becomes taller? The payoff is miniscule. And not worth the risk. Some short people would rather die than being short. But you can't say that for tall people? Would a tall guy risk dying to become taller? That's lame.
Okay.. back to the question about recovery. A good analogy is that if you lengthen 8cm, your agility is basically reduced by 50%. You can perform simple exercises to get you back on your feet again. But to reach 100% like pre-LL, you can't do that with just simple running, stairs or walking. You need to push yourself extremely hard. So my answer is Yes. It's doable. But not many people are willing to put the effort to do 300b and above leg presses, jumping ropes, and squats until they literally kill their legs 3-5 times per week for at least 2 hours per day.
Just imagine that your doctor helps you to perform the initial surgery. He will place the rod and appliances in your leg. And he will monitor you through your lengthening phase. But once that is done and over with, you are literally on your own for recovery. Unless you do some intense exercises everyday, chances are, you will have lost a lot of muscle during your lengthening phase. And what you do after that depends on you. Will you go to the gym and work to get back your 50% deficit or muscle lost, or you just sit around and wait for recovery to come back to you? Are you the type of person who stops trying to push your legs when your muscle become sore or are you the type of person who pushes on and on despite the pain and ache?
The thinking should be not what is the optimum lengthen, 4cm or 6.5cm, etc. It should be how much deficit you are willing to take. The more you lengthen, the more deficit you will have. A person who lengthen 8cm will come back with a greater deficit than if he was to lengthen just 5cm. A person who does 10cm but has the willpower to work his legs to death has better odds of recovering 100% than a person who does 5cm but doesn't has the willpower to exercise. Full recovery is achievable if he has the willpower to take back those deficit by working on his legs.
Well for me... I'm not really motivated as my speech. I have recovered 1 year ago. Became the fastest runner and most endurance runner at my gym due to my concentration on cardio exercises. But just recently I realized the benefit of resistant training and have switched to weight lifting instead. No pain. No complications. Life is just normal as hell. Just looking forward to my next femur lengthening.
Author
Topic: Lasting joint problem after LL (Read 8995 times)