Hello,
I'm a 21 year old male living in Canada, who has been considering LL for some time now.
Ever since I was young, I had always been the smallest guy out of all of my friends. It was never something that bothered me growing up because I had always made up for it with other qualities. As I came closer to graduating high school, it started to become something that was noticeable as every guy in my grade was at least 4+ inches taller than me.
I began wearing boots and lifts before I went away to university, at 165CM natural height, this would bring me to 175CM. I wore this everywhere I went, and since I had lived in a dormitory - I never needed to take my boots off, so everyone has always assumed that I was the height I was walking around as.
My experiences in High school and university have been great - I have always been one of the popular guys, and I have never really had much problems getting girls. I'm short but I've been lucky enough to have at least been given good looks.
Recently, I decided I was going to stop wearing the boots and start wearing regular shoes - especially because I had spent the past two summers wearing pants and boots rather than shorts and summer shoes.
I hadn't anticipated how differently things were going to be for me..
While walking by a building outside one day, I looked at my reflection and was instantly met with a turning feeling in my stomach. I looked so small and far less attractive than how I had always perceived myself. I haven't seen myself at a regular height, in almost two years.
On top of that all of my friends started to notice that I was considerably shorter, and suddenly the way I felt people treated me had changed.
Now I don't know if this is just myself psyching myself out and believing that people look at me differently just because of what I see now. Either way, I haven't been able to shake the insecurity and social anxiety ever since.
I've always thought that I was meant to be taller and that my size didn't match my personality.
What has made all of this worse, is that I am the same height as my girlfriend.
My girlfriend is a very beautiful girl, she's a ballerina and every single guy that meets her falls in love with her. It's a joke among her group of friends that she has "something" about her that hypnotizes people.
I'm obviously very proud to have her but it's very difficult to deal with when guys at the bar who are much larger than I are always pushing me out of the way to talk to her. (This was never much of a problem when i was 175CM)
I hate being the same height as her and even though she constantly reassures me that she doesn't care about my height and that she even likes it, I know she's just saying that to make me feel better. I know we would both be much happier if I was at least 3 inches taller than her.
I have talked to my mother about getting this surgery in the past and she had always said that as long as it didn't exceed $25,000 she would allow me to get it.
I have done an excessive amount of research, read through countless diaries and talked to various doctors (as I know everyone here has.)
I want to get the surgery done sometime this year. My girlfriend and I are both leaving the university we attend now to return to our hometown (for separate reasons.) My biggest concern is recovery time. My goal would be 7.5CM tibial lengthening.
I have spoken briefly with Dr. Mitkovic although he lives up to his infamous reputation of barely responding and I have also being speaking to Dr. Bagirov about LON on the tibias.
I know this is a question that has been asked over and over again, but will I be able to recover in 9 months with LON if I lengthen 7.5. What I am asking specifically is, will I be able to walk around normally and return to a regular life?
Thank you.