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[tx1111]

looked at my X-rays today. Looks like my bone is consolidated on three sides on both legs. However, oddly, there's rarely and bone growth on the left side of my left leg and on the right side of my right leg. There's plenty on the other three sides, though. Very odd. My bone is forming a U shape around the rod. Hopefully it will wrap around fully eventually. But it's been 6.5 months post op, with no signs of vertical growth on those two sides. It's as though the bone just stopped growing there. I guess my only hope is for the bone to grow horizontally and wrap around.



Have you asked your dr if this is normal? If its been 6.5 months shouldnt there be some hint of bone regeneration there?

[Iamready]

I stood on a 5cm book... Didn't make much of a difference in my eyes.

Yeah i'm at nearly 5 cm and while I feel taller, i'm still not satisfied. We'll see when I hit the 10cm mark how I feel.  When I had the cast on, it made me an inch and a half taller because there were special shoes that I had to walk with.  I felt good at that height, but ultimately unless my arms start looking odd I will come back to max out my rods the following year.

[TIBIKE200]

Yeah i'm at nearly 5 cm and while I feel taller, i'm still not satisfied. We'll see when I hit the 10cm mark how I feel.  When I had the cast on, it made me an inch and a half taller because there were special shoes that I had to walk with.  I felt good at that height, but ultimately unless my arms start looking odd I will come back to max out my rods the following year.

I think it depends on your starting height. Also to really see a difference, ask someone to stand near you.. Than put one feet on the book and one on the floor. stand on one feet at a time and you will feel and see the difference. But again, to me those 5-6cm difference is all I need.

[DoingItForMe]

looked at my X-rays today. Looks like my bone is consolidated on three sides on both legs. However, oddly, there's rarely and bone growth on the left side of my left leg and on the right side of my right leg. There's plenty on the other three sides, though. Very odd. My bone is forming a U shape around the rod. Hopefully it will wrap around fully eventually. But it's been 6.5 months post op, with no signs of vertical growth on those two sides. It's as though the bone just stopped growing there. I guess my only hope is for the bone to grow horizontally and wrap around.



Have you asked your dr if this is normal? If its been 6.5 months shouldnt there be some hint of bone regeneration there?

I've looked at x-rays of other people online and yes, it does look like this happens. I just have to wait even longer for the bone to fully heal before I take out the rod. Dr. Paley didn't say anything about it, and told me that I was weight-bearing, so I'm guessing that it's normal.

[Tiger5]

Hey DIFM, this is the first time I posted, but have been reading your diaries, I am curious of your progress sine the last time you made an entry, I am sure others are as well.  Hope to hear from you soon
Thanks
T

[chineseguy]

hi.   how much cm do you recommend for lengthening?

[DoingItForMe]

Hey DIFM, this is the first time I posted, but have been reading your diaries, I am curious of your progress sine the last time you made an entry, I am sure others are as well.  Hope to hear from you soon
Thanks
T

I'd had hope that my pain would be reduced as I rebuilt my strength, and some of it did. I'm at the gym almost every day now for at least an hour. I'm starting to use the exercise bike to regain stamina and strength. My stamina is starting to return to me, and I can walk maybe a mile before getting tired - when before it took only walking down the street to get tired. My heart rate drop down to 140-155 bpm when exercising. Before it was 170 bpm from just walking, which was exhausting. So I'm optimistic about my fitness, because it's starting to return to me, and it seems to be returning pretty quickly.

But aches and pain in my legs are still there. Some days I think that it's because I need to rest my legs. I get sore after working out the rest of my body, and usually the pain goes away after resting 3-4 days. So I tried that with my legs and let it rest - i.e. don't use them. After doing that, it actually made things worse, because leg muscles were tighter and less loose. And I guess they were weaker as well, so it hurt more when I used them. So no more rest days for my legs. That was a bad idea. I think that I just have to keep working out my legs until they're so strong that it no longer hurts to use them. That's my plan right now.

I still walk like a penguin, but less than before. I've also gained weight and am now 165 lbs - when before I was always 150 or under. This is the heaviest I've ever been in my life. I'm not exactly sure how this happened, because I've been exercising quite often. Most likely it's because I've been eating a lot. I'm going to cut carbs out of my diet to try to lose weight again - it worked back in October when I was only 142 lbs without even exercising. I've been eating whatever I wanted the past month, because I was afraid of depriving myself of nutrients for bone healing. But I think this weight is unhealthy.

hi.   how much cm do you recommend for lengthening?

This depends on how much your body can handle the adjustment. But in general, from the diaries I've read and the stories I've heard, 7-8 cm is really the limit, and most likely where you'll cause problems long-term. I would recommend 6 cm or less on the femurs if you want to reduce the risk significantly. But it should really depend on the individual patient. For example, I noticed during my lengthening that I had to take more pain killers than every other patient (except for one other patient who was older than me). So I think age plays a huge factor in this as well.

[TIBIKE200]

Hey man Hope recovery is getting better.
  I wanted to ask you, I read also old forums and I saw that you were supposed to be at the same time as this "Agrios" dude at the Paley's institute. Did you see him?

[Alu]

I'm sure they did but if I remember correctly he was at a different hotel

[Iamready]

The hotel is literally neighbors. Patients travel between hotels to visit each other all the time. 

[chineseguy]

mr DIFM,

do you think if you lenghten less maybe 5 cm, you can recover now? 

Thank you

[DoingItForMe]

Hey man Hope recovery is getting better.
  I wanted to ask you, I read also old forums and I saw that you were supposed to be at the same time as this "Agrios" dude at the Paley's institute. Did you see him?

If he's Asian, then yes, I saw him. But the Asian guy I met was not very talkative in person. So I don't know if it's the same person. But the timeline and height seem to match... so I don't know.

[DoingItForMe]

mr DIFM,

do you think if you lenghten less maybe 5 cm, you can recover now? 

Thank you

Yes. If I stopped at 5 cm, I pretty sure that I would have much less pain than now, and would probably have recovered already. My legs didn't start feeling very tight until after 5 cm. And my legs were still pretty flexible when they were at 5 cm. I think that my leg muscles are tight because they keep trying to go back to the way things were before. So each morning when I wake up, they're tight. But as I use them, they get looser and stop aching.

BUT, it also hurts when I walk. And when I walk for too long, then it gets sore in certain places. Usually it's the top-left part of my femur hurting. It could be because that muscle in that area is weak. I still have pain in that area when I lay on my side and try to raise my legs up like this: http://fitness.makeupandbeauty.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/37.png My right leg also hurts in that area when I do the same exercise but much less painful. So I think it's because my muscle is still very weak. BUT it's weird that my left leg and right leg hurt differently when I work out both my legs at the same amount. So a part of me thinks that something is messed up on my left leg. Maybe a nerve is being pinched by the nails on the rod when I move it into a certain position. I don't know.

So right now it seems like I lose either way. If I don't use my legs, then it aches from tightness of the muscles. If I use them too much, then I get sore in my muscles from overuse. So each day I just have different aches/soreness in my legs depending on what I did earlier in the day or the day before.

[chineseguy]

sorry to askso many things       i also want to be taller


do you regret doing this?     

[DoingItForMe]

sorry to askso many things       i also want to be taller


do you regret doing this?     

That's a question I ask myself everyday. If my pain lasts forever, then I would regret doing this surgery. I thought that my chances of having permanent pain were low because I was doing internal femurs and with Dr. Paley. I see people like Sweden and Crimsontide who did tibias and are having pain and problems. But it seems like it's possible that even doing internal femurs with Dr. Paley can leave you with permanent pain as well. Nobody is safe it seems.

If the pain goes away, then I will not regret it. I don't care if I can't be super good at sports anymore, because I'm getting old anyway, and don't expect to be a top athlete at this age. But if my pain lasts for the rest of my life, then I completely regret doing this surgery. The day that my leg pains finally go away is the day that I'll finally be happy with this surgery.

[Penguinn]

Won't the pain reduce or go after the nails are removed? Does it ever completely go with them still inside?

[TIBIKE200]

It can also be the ileopsoas muscle.. Try doing exercises to stretch it.
 Like the thomas stretch

[YellowSpike]

Sometimes I read things like this, and I'm glad I stopped around 7cm. It's over a year for me, and I still have minor issues:

- Quad/hip flexor tightness (though I've been steadily working on that, and it's getting better). Have been seeing steady improvement even as recent as the last few weeks, so optimistic about these.
- Pain in my left glute medius/hip (due to screw - this will resolve once the screw comes out or I have Dr. G adjust it soon). So, not really worried about this, long-term.
- Occasional right knee pain (but this isn't due to weight-bearing, and it's not a bad pain. It has to due with a contracture I have. PT will likely fix it, but it's only ocassional, not a constant pain).
- Running still not great looking, but I haven't really tried as much as I should have (and it's not great due to remaining tightness).

Aside from these (to me, relatively minor issues, I'm mostly good. I had very bad pain in my left leg that last for quite a while after I stopped lengthening. 8cm is a lot. Maybe it's good that I stopped...

DIFM, hang in there. You will recover from this, but it will just take time. Dr. Guichet has been very candid with me, and true recovery often takes years. ShyShy is really the only one I can think of who seems to have recovered fully lightning fast for a fairly high amount of lengthening (7.5cm). He is very far from the norm. He worked hard, yes, but I think he was also ultra lucky.

[tallerG4u]

Hey DoingItForMe, I'm really considering doing the LL surgery. I've been looking at Dr. R and Dr. M, but my main concern right now is money and time away from work. If you don't mind me asking, how did you pay for the surgery? Did you save and pay in full or did you finance it? And how long did you have to stay by the doctor?

Thanks!

[DoingItForMe]

Hey DoingItForMe, I'm really considering doing the LL surgery. I've been looking at Dr. R and Dr. M, but my main concern right now is money and time away from work. If you don't mind me asking, how did you pay for the surgery? Did you save and pay in full or did you finance it? And how long did you have to stay by the doctor?

Thanks!

I explained this in the first few posts of this diary, but I'll paste it here again: A few years ago, I was just a normal 9-5 office worker and living a normal life. But then I read and followed the advice from this book called Lifehacked, which got me into app coding. A few months after that, I became a self-made millionaire from the apps I made.

[Tiger5]

Hey DIFM, quick question about your lodging during your stay at WPB, you mentioned you stayed at Hilton Homewood Suites, a studio for 70.00 a night. I researched and either I cant find the right rate; can you provide a phone number to that place or a particular office that will be able to help, thank you and wishing you continued recovery, I've been following your posts and they're also quite interesting
T

[DoingItForMe]

Dr. Paley's team negotiates the price for the hotel for you and you have to mention that you're doing surgery with Dr. Paley to get that special rate. I don't know if it's still $70/night now, because I heard from a patient that they were raising prices.

As an update on my progress, I did some experiments to see if it was my weak muscles that were causing the pain or if it's the rods in my legs. I don't know why I didn't do this before. I went to my pool and went through all the ranges of motion while weightless to see if any pain was triggered by simply putting my legs in a certain angle. It turns out that if I move my legs slow enough, then no pain is triggered. But if I exert any force, then my muscles ache. I'm starting to realize that the pain is just from weak muscles from lack of use. So now every day is just leg day for me. I am getting stronger in my legs and it's quite amazing how fast it's recovering. Just a week ago, I couldn't do leg side raises without it hurting or getting tired after only a few. But now I can do over 20 without it getting tired. Although my legs still hurts while just sitting around doing nothing, I'm a bit more optimistic about my recovery, and I'm starting to believe that I could probably be pain free finally with just a few more months of building my muscles back.

Things I still can't do:
- Squatting down without it hurting. Not actually moving, but just staying in the squatting position still hurts in my knees. Possibly because the angle is totally different now so my center of gravity is further back now because of my longer femurs. My knees don't like it.
- Getting up from a squat. I can't do it without using my arms to help.
- Running. I can power walk, but my legs don't feel flexible enough to run yet. Also there was some pain when I landed hard from doing a power walk, so I don't think my bones are strong enough yet to hold the impact of running.
- Doing side leg raises without it hurting eventually - hurts more on the left leg. This is improving, though, after adding more side leg raises to my daily exercises. This is something that the Paley PT team didn't really make me do a lot. So pay attention, folks who are with Paley, do your side leg raises.
- Walking for long distances with my legs feeling really sore afterwards. I walked maybe 3-5 miles a few days ago, and I had to take a whole rest day the day afterwards because of how sore my legs felt. This is improving as well.
- Play sports well. I can't run, so...
- Get up every morning without tightness and pain in my legs. This might be because I'm working out my legs everyday. But I've made almost no progress here lately. My legs are always tight when I don't use them for a while, and it feels sole until I loosen them up again. This is getting annoying, but it's manageable.
- Walking without looking like a penguin. I don't know which muscle is responsible for this, but I still look weird walking.

Things I can do now that I couldn't a month ago:
- Getting up from sitting down. This is easy for me to do now. Little to no pain. I'm pretty happy about this progress, because I was getting tired of having to touch my toilet seat with my hands to get out of my toilet after pooping.
- More than a dozen side leg raises at a time. Just a few weeks ago, I could barely do 10 at a time before the pain became too overwhelming.
- Walking more than a mile. The amount of distance I can walk without the pain becoming overwhelming is increasing.

This is looking good so far.

[ouroboros]

Nice!  Thanks for sharing this info with future LLrs

[Peaceout]

Can you sit on your knees?If so how long?And does it look so weird?Because probably your feet will be in front because of your long femurs.

[DoingItForMe]

Can you sit on your knees?If so how long?And does it look so weird?Because probably your feet will be in front because of your long femurs.

I can, but it hurts, and yes it's weird. My feet are in front of my butt. My butt doesn't touch my feet at all. I sit with my legs crossed instead. Sitting on my knees and squatting both feel painful.

[yagen]

I am very happy with your recovery 

[KrP1]

He always repeats that he is very rich. A true selfmade millionaire. He says that he has made millions of dollars. So here is the question:
How rich are you? Tell us how much money do you have in your bank account.
Be friendly and share with us some of your money. We are LL brothers. Could you pay for my tibias surgery? I want to be taller

[Peaceout]

LOL

[alps]

Be friendly and share with us some of your money. We are LL brothers. Could you pay for my tibias surgery? I want to be taller

How can one say no that? DoingItForMe must be made of stone to say no.

[TIBIKE200]

btw doingitforme, how is your walking? Pain appart, is your gait normal?

[ecb1992]

DoItForOthers