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[Thegosis]

I'm a current patient from overseas in Beijing. My operation to put on the fixators was 27 November this year. That was day one. On day nine I commenced lengthening at .667mm per day and I have missed one day due to illness. At the weekend I was sent to the parent hospital for investigations due to my persistent diahorrhea, and I had vomiting a couple of nights before. I have a strong persistent cough and voice hoarseness. I walk slowly with a frame so that I was able to go across from my bed and into the bathroom yesterday.

Dr Peng Aimin was my operating surgeon. I have not seen Dr Xia or Dr Li except where there are pictured and listed on the staff directory. The international liaison Dr Wang Bei (Ronne) has a line of contact to Dr Xia.

There is another foreign patient here who has finished lengthening: a female who goes home to Europe later this month. I'm not sure there is a male, but two males are coming soon: an American, an Australian. Other patients come from at times far parts of China and they are correcting abnormalities of leg length and range of motion. Small kids, middle aged and between.

I'm waiting upon receiving protein isolate supplementation, glucosamine, calcium supplementation and the other things which consolidate the growth and expansion of new bone tissue, nerves and musculature.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Thanks for coming here and starting this diary.  I've been eager to hear what's been going on in Beijing since I was last there.

[Arche]

Hey I'm really looking forward to your diary bro! Congratulations on having the courage to go under the knife, it will really pay off. May I ask if you paid the standard 24,000 Euro for surgery and accommodations? Also how hard is it to communicate with nurses, doctors, fellow patients? Do enough people speak English besides Ronnie? I know I'm full of questions, but do you mind if you take pictures of your frames?

Many thanks!

[KiloKAHN]

What sort of food were you eating before you experienced illness? When I was last in Beijing with a group of students a few people got stomach troubles after a few days of the food there. We were told that a lot of people get digestive problems due to not being used to the way food is prepared there. Apparently this is especially true in India as well. Hope you get better. It will be cool to see your progress in the coming months.

[Doflamingo]

I wish you a speedy recovery !

[Muse]

All the best for recovery, remember to stay positive. Look forward to your updates.

[Thegosis]

Ronne is a permanent staff member and fluent in English. The closest person to you will be a maid and they will have no ability to communicate outside their own language. Dr Zhao is the one who has seen me most frequently since the operation and I have not had the need to employ translations to Chinese with him. The elder nurse is also able to ask questions in English. I'm able to bring up wifi access to use translate.google.com for English-to-Chinese, and fanyi.baidu.com can operate the other way.

The price is the advertised $EUR24000 and I was also quoted $US33000

I feel recovered from what had me squirting diahorrea, but I will still be taken to the parent hospital tomorrow for a followup investigation. Somehow cold temperament and uninspiring food worked together to hold up my progress and cost me some extra.

For patients, next week will see a couple less locals who are willing to say some things in English and a couple of foreigners that are yet to undergo surgery.

[Carter]

Thanks for starting the diary and look forward to it, since there's not been a diary of Beijing China for some time..

How is your pain level and what are your impression of the medical care so far?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Good to hear Dr. Zhao is still there.  He started when I was there and nobody was keen on listening to his advice, instead wanting to get Dr. Peng's opinion on everything.  He was a cool guy though and now he's got 6 years' experience.

Some people got sick there while others didn't and I don't really know why.  I guess different people just react to that environment differently.

[Disobedient]

Hi

thanks for staring the diary.. it will be great if you could post  sm pic

hope everything goes well in your in your investigation tmw 

[Thegosis]

The apparatus is fixated with four penetrations at the rear of the heel, four just above the ankle, one into the lower shin and another in line with that an inch below the knee. There are four more at the same level as the top shin penetration

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Interesting.  I had the 4 penetrations (actually from 2 pins, one penetration when it goes in and one when it comes out the other side) above the ankle and below the knee.  And the 4 half-pins in the heel.  But nothing like the single penetrations into the lower shin and an inch below the knee.

I know they changed their osteotomy method so people would have faster bone growth, but I wonder why they added 2 more half-pins.

[Taller]

Ni hao Thegosis. I hope all is going well with your lengthening! Did the Beijing doctors affix each of your cut fibula bones to their corresponding tibia in one place or two? Are both the tops and bottoms of your fibulas nailed or surgically attached to the tibia?

How do you like the Guang Ji hospital so far? Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us, and best of luck with your procedure!

[Thegosis]

I don't know the answer to this question about the fibulae. There is another foreign patient coming next week Christmas Eve which is the day that the only other foreigner leaves. Two others will come in the new year.

Just this afternoon I demonstrated the frames to visiting specialists from Japan and Korea and Dr Zhao has removed the stitches in my shins. I saw Dr Xia for the first time. Another local doctor has come by who speaks to me in English. All the x-rays have shown unproblematic progress, but I am still hooked up each morning to an IV to combat digestive infection and persistent cough. I can remain standing unsupported and walk with a frame, but not take steps that put all of my weight on one leg.

January is the coldest month and this month is the second coldest. 5pm and -4 Celcius outside.

[Thegosis]

The international contact for this place is Dr Wang Bei (Ronne): leglengthening@aliyun.com
+86 13621226277 (office)
+86 1083685806 (mobile)

[Thegosis]

Tonight's canteen dinner

[NMG]

Hey Thegosis, how's everything going? how much have you lengthened and how much have you got left to go? Are you feeling better now?

It's really good to see a current diary from Beijing. Since there have been so many Beijing diaries on old forum  in the past I can understand that there might not be a point in documenting every little thing which has already been documented in the previous diaries but I think what some people are wondering is if everything in the hospital is still the same as it was back a few years ago when we had all those diaries on old forum . Before your diary I was wondering if they still offered cosmetic LL in Beijing due to the fact that there were no new diaries and they hospital did not respond to Sysop's email requesting updates on their pricing.

So basically my questions are; is everything in Beijing the same as it was before 2012 or are they discouraging foreign patients from getting LL?,why aren't there other foreign patients at the hospital? And Do you have any idea roughly how many foreign patients get LL a year?

Thanks for your diary and I wish you a complication-free journey.

[Thegosis]

As of 15 February I'm back home doing my last two months of lengthening. I go back to Beijing via Kuala Lumpur on 15 April and around 15 March will be sending back an x-ray. Just before I departed Beijing the doc (Dr Zhao) informed me that my growth was 4.5cm based upon x-rays of the day before which revealed no complications.

By early February, thanks to a lot of monitoring and medication (including IV drips) I saw off first the respiratory infection and then the diahorrea.

There are three foreign LL patients (two male, one female) currently at the hospital and I think there may be a couple more as well by the time you read this. There have been between two and five foreign patients on deck, including myself, over the time since I arrived there except for on Christmas Eve when I was the only one for several hours.

According to Ronne just before I left, they are going to be taking less foreign LL patients this year because of their anticipated influx of local patients. That is just for space considerations.

It is a little odd if someone is emailing to leglengthening@aliyun.com and not getting acknowledgement or reply. I have used that address on a daily basis to correspond with Ronne. She was absent for a period of seven days starting from 31 January which corresponded with the Chinese New Year.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Thanks for the update.  Why did you leave?

[Thegosis]

I wouldn't have left at all if it wasn't the rule of the Australian Government which stops payment of social welfare benefits to those who've been outside of the country for more than six weeks, extended temporarily in some medical circumstances. Once that came into play on about 4 February I could apply for a further extension which always takes them around 4 weeks to decide, but would be backdated, or moot the issue by returning onshore. There's also the sheer tedium of not achieving anything, day upon day and week upon week, other than 4 turns of the frame dials which is a daily advance of .667mm The other advantages of being at home are:

* less tedium but still inching along there at .667 without a complication
* eating better
* being with family and pets. Staying at my home rather than a hospital
* facebook, bbc.co.uk and youtube are not blocked here, as they are in China
* daily temperature here is minimum 22 Celcius, whereas in Beijing it's still low single digits. Snow was covering the ground on the day I left
* removing the environmental factors which disposed me to respiratory infection and diahorrea while I was at the Hospital
* now if I want or need an abnormally long period for postlengthening rehabilitation under medical supervision in Beijing there's no risk of it costing me extra

It's atypical for a patient to request to do it this way, but the doc has excused my absence through to April. I'll be returning there 16 April, expecting to undergo investigative xray same day or very soon after. I had to undertake a course of antibiotics and herbal medication (called Sanqi Shangyao Pian, aiding healing of periostium bruising) as prophylaxis of the risks of travelling with legs unelevated for so long on the airline flight and airport transfers. The ideal and recommended posture of the legs for lengthening is to have them level and stretched out ahead with no bending at the knee. So having 24 hours with my feet on the ground and knees bent was trying and constantly distracting as far as the degrees of pain around the pin sites, but I will be doing it again on my return journey. Not looking forward to that. It felt so good as soon as I was able to have my legs raised and straight out level again in the wheelchair designed for that purpose which I have brought with me (cost covered by the inclusive surgical and rehabilitation treatment fee).

[Thegosis]

I'm still here at home and still lengthening at .667mm/day, as I have every day from December 4th (5th?) except for one. I'm going to keep doing so up to 16 April which is my arrival back in Beijing. Then I'll listen to what Doc has to say. There's only the two male foreign patients in Beijing now. The last height measurement I've had was 177cm lying along the floor, so I would be less than that standing but maybe more than that when this is all finished.

Beijing has seen my March x-rays which are aOK with true alignment.

One complication is apparent. My go a mottled purple colour when I stand or let them dangle to the ground. Sonogram doppler examination determined the absence of any blood clot in my legs as a cause.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Thanks for the update.  I was wondering what was going on with your legs.

Yikes! I hope that blood clotting issue isn't as serious as it sounds to me.

[ShortyMcShort]

So you did 10cms on tibias?

[anonymous]

How do you explain the external fixators when you try to get through airport security?

[Thegosis]

It's Sunday night Australian Eastern Standard time. Tuesday morning about 11am I depart and arrive Beijing airport at 1:05am on Wednesday.

I've just measured myself standing as 178.3  My feet were flat on the ground but my heels were 6-8cm out from the base of the wall
Clearly this is more than 10cm extension from my start of 167 which boggles my mind because I stuck to what I've been told many times is .667mm daily, and I can't see how there's been enough days since December 4 to get up that high. 130 days * .667 =  less than 9cm; not 11.5 or so 

Clearly the doc will direct me to cease lengthening once I've had my xray on Wednesday. Then there will 20 days of passive consolidation until the operation to remove these leg frames. After that will be 20 days recommended (14 days minimum) of postoperative observation of the limb function. Maybe early June or very end of May is when I can return home for the task of final recuperation: consolidation without the frames over several months.

I do wonder if any leg length discrepancy will be found that requires finetuning. I don't sense it.

Somehow I neglected to specify that my FEET were the body part experiencing bad circulation symptoms. Well that's alleviated at least some. They still go a deeper colour, with mottled appearance, than the rest of my leg when I stand. I take slow steps in the walking frame.

Two foreign patients remain in Beijing. The first has stopped his lengthening at 6.5cm to go back to college in Canada and would be flying homewards in just two weeks time. The other, an American who started at 5'3 during January, must be nearing to his goal of 9cm. Him being left all alone during June may be a possibility due to the lack of urgency to recruit other foreign patients. Their hands are full as it is with the number of local patients they are dealing with from the many regions of China that have a genuine need for skeletal correction and extension.

There is a very good promotional video which shows what they have done to alleviate various patients (child and adult) of their ambulatory problems. I've seen it playing on a wallmounted plasma screen but it's not on the internet - which would be a good idea. The extra $ foreign elective patients pay really isn't for the financial benefit of the directors and senior medics of that place: it funds the expansion of the accommodation and treatment facilities which serve genuinely disabled people and their supporting family members who may come from distant provinces. See, I had one of the rooms with a complete view of the internal car park and I didn't count any BMWs.

They really need a pet cat or feral cat or pet something there because it's beneficial to those who may stay and work there, and for the animal itself. I've been told they used to years before but they don't now. There were cats who would come inside and pace down the corridors and enter peoples' rooms. Every hospital and nursing home anywhere should have at least one pet animal.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Are you sure Xia/Li/Peng/Wang aren't making bank off the foreigners?  I saw a Lexus and other expensive cars parked out front when I was there.  Maybe the decline in business has forced them to cut back.

Congratulations on gaining more height than you thought you would.  It was always the opposite back in 2007 with pin bending and muscle resistance.  Have you had an x-ray taken to have the gap measured just to be sure?

[Thegosis]

"How do I explain the external fixators going through airport security?"

Do I need to? All I need to do is show them and they will handwand for metal detection rather than wheel me through the whole body scanner. Someone concluding that it may be my attempt to introduce a weapon onto a commercial aircraft would be extremely perverse (Headline: 'Kuala Lumpur customs officials insensitive to wheelchair passenger'), and in any case I have very specific treatment letters from the hospital.

If the question is what explanation do I give as to what they are doing on my legs the answer is that the dialturning action has extended the bone and everything else around it by several inches since December last year in a process of stretching and remodelling. I say this from behind so as to be able to catch them when they faint.

If they ask why, it goes like this:

 "Have you ever heard the description 'tall, dark and handsome'?"

 "Sure, yes. Many times."

 "Ever noticed what's always first??"

 

[Thegosis]

Are you sure Xia/Li/Peng/Wang aren't making bank off the foreigners?  I saw a Lexus and other expensive cars parked out front when I was there.  Maybe the decline in business has forced them to cut back.

Congratulations on gaining more height than you thought you would.  It was always the opposite back in 2007 with pin bending and muscle resistance.  Have you had an x-ray taken to have the gap measured just to be sure?

You may see all manner of models in the public car park adjoining the main street from which visitors come and go, but from those accorded the privilege to park offstreet in the interior courtyard (which would be senior medical staff, wouldn't you think?) right under the nose of their own workstations and offices it looks more like a little above average than millionaire's row.

Also it occurs to me that when you spend your days trying to find ways for people from ordinary, even peasant, financial backgrounds not to have to live with the consequences of curved spines and legs and knees splayed out at up to 180 degrees for what remains of their lives, then that doesn't dispose you to becoming a moneygrubber.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Nobody parked in the interior courtyard in 2007, so I can't comment on who parks there and who parks in front today.

Everyone thought they were greedy back in 2007 though.  C12 even made Ronne cry after he berated her about overcharging him.

[Thegosis]

Yes there's a carpark of about a dozen spaces in the interior courtyard. Its for selected employees and service vehicles as well as anyone with a good enough reason (eg. transporting a nonambulatory patient). A large part of my life so far this year and the end of last has been peeking out that window at what comes and goes while I wait for the next opportunity to spin the dial.

Whoever C12 was, they sound like the   of the Month, considering no-one is withheld from what the costs are and what is and is not covered in advance of them hopping on a plane to Beijing.

Should anyone have the right to act all shocked and offended when they discover they're up to $hell out more than the equivalent Chinese taxpayer? I say no, even if they could be so naive. Why else do so many people take out travellers health insurance other than that your Medicare card loses its magical property once your flight has cleared the runway (duh!) and foreigners always have to pay their full way in a foreign health system: here in Australia + anywhere else I've ever been or heard of.

[Thegosis]

Can anyone tell me who is actually winning the Syrian Civil War these days? That thing was in an unresolved state when I first went over to Beijing, then while I was there the second Geneva talks led to only limited improvements. Now I'm going back with it seeming no closer to an end. Depresses me.   The sadness of it.