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[CCMidwest]

As long as you don't look like a t-rex (lol), it doesn't matter if she commented on that. Her commenting that doesn't even necessarily mean that it's negative in her opinion.

I have received some comments about my legs/arms/body/hands/face/whatever as well ranging from negative to noticeable or positive. A lot of them I had sex with, no matter if it was negative or positive. So just relax 

This. So much this.

Women talk. That's what they do. Most of it is just testing to see if you are secure with yourself. Its not even concious on their part, usually.

[Cheez]

This. So much this.

Women talk. That's what they do. Most of it is just testing to see if you are secure with yourself. Its not even concious on their part, usually.

+1

[DoingItForMe]

Just guessing, but I doubt she said it because your legs are too long, probably the femur ratio. I say this because I have Asians in my family (I'm white, so by marriage to cousins and such) and generally they are shorter guys. But the two that are taller (5'9?) have long legs compared to white men.

Also, I grew up in a mostly black and Asian area, and the tall Asians had long legs, especially the Koreans. Not sure what flavor of Asian you are, but there is my anecdotal evidence for the day.

My family members are Philippino and Japanese.

Also, great advice on your recent update. Having Asians in my family I know they can be treated poorly sometimes by society, I've seen it.

I've read that calcium and vitamin d are more readily absorbed by the body if you take them while consuming fats at the same time, so the example was to take them while eating a couple of scrambled eggs, hope that helps.

Thanks. The calcium/vit d bottle also says to take it with meals, so I've been doing just that.

As long as you don't look like a t-rex (lol), it doesn't matter if she commented on that. Her commenting that doesn't even necessarily mean that it's negative in her opinion.

I have received some comments about my legs/arms/body/hands/face/whatever as well ranging from negative to noticeable or positive. A lot of them I had sex with, no matter if it was negative or positive. So just relax 

It was a negative comment. But I'm not going to let it bother me. At this point, there's nothing I can do about it except do tibia lengthening to fix the ratio. But like I said before, I don't recommend this surgery. And even with the option of tibia lengthening and plenty of free time/money to do it, I'm not going to do it. I'm certainly not going to do it just because a girl said that I look weird. I'm pretty satisfied with who I am now and I'm sticking to that. I ain't going to let anyone convince me otherwise. And I hope you guys can figure out how to be satisfied/comfortable with your physical looks without this surgery.

You will still recover! I've read it takes longer than a year for a near-full/full recovery. Hopefully those aches and pains aren't permanent.

There was a period of time around April when my legs weren't in pain anymore. So I doubt that the pain is permanent. It was the time that I stopped using the exogen machine, did leg workouts every other day, stopped taking calcium/vit d supplements, and walked more often. I suspect that one of these are the culprit for the pain that returned to my inner thigh. Fortunately I can report that the pain in my left TFL (the head of the femur) has been gone for months now.

[alps]

did you get your vit D levels measured? even with taking supplements, levels might not jump up back to normal right away.

[Cheez]

@DIFM
I think with LL you achieved that peace of mind, that most of the people on this forum are after.
So congratulations on that.

But, and that's the point, I think you wouldn't be able to have this relaxed attitude if you haven't done LL in the first place.

As somebody who is still affected by this you can try to tell yourself all the time that this won't bother you, but in the end, when you have one of these heightism situations, you will crave that peace of mind that you achieved, DIFM.

[Jessie Believer]

Hey DIFM!

How much Vit D and calcium did your doctor recommend you to take? I'm in my consolidating phase and mine didn't recommend a specific amount.

Thanks.

JB

[DoingItForMe]

@DIFM
I think with LL you achieved that peace of mind, that most of the people on this forum are after.
So congratulations on that.

But, and that's the point, I think you wouldn't be able to have this relaxed attitude if you haven't done LL in the first place.

As somebody who is still affected by this you can try to tell yourself all the time that this won't bother you, but in the end, when you have one of these heightism situations, you will crave that peace of mind that you achieved, DIFM.

I get where you're coming from. I was in that position right before I got LL, too. But, I lived a pretty great life prior to LL and it would have continued to be great even without LL. I knew about LL two years before I got the surgery, and in those two years, I put my height and LL in the back of my mind. I was able to do it before I stopped thinking about height and all of its disadvantages. For example, I'm an Asian immigrant with an Asian accent living in a mostly white town. People made fun of me for my race and accent all my life. And as you may or may not know, white girls don't really date asian guys. So it was extra hard for me to find a girlfriend. But you don't see me cursing everyday that I'm Asian. You don't see me trying to bleach my skin to look white. At some point, you just learn to live with it and forget that you're different. You learn to be comfortable living in your own skin, sort of speak.

A few people called me brave for doing this surgery. But I think the brave ones are the ones who don't do the surgery and can live their life fully and happily without letting heightism push you into breaking your legs and wasting time/money. People often ask me here on the forum why I did it then. I didn't let other people's opinions bother me that much, but I was my own harshest critic. I'm a perfectionist, an overachiever, a person who won't settle for mediocre. And that was also my flaw, because it drove me to do this painful surgery since I wasn't happy with the way I looked. After the surgery, I'm more relaxed and lenient towards myself. I'm more accepting of the fact that I can't be a "perfect" man. This was the revelation that came too late. I could spiral back down the rabbit hole again and focus on my disproportions and lack of athleticism. But I'm done. My level of happiness stayed the same before and after LL. The difference is that I lost a year of my life and lost 100k+. I should have accepted who I was sooner and before the surgery. So while I understand the mental torment you go through, I'm also offering you a solution that doesn't require all this sacrifice. Make peace with yourself and avoid the negative people. I think you'll be much happier. This is probably something you won't understand until you get the surgery and go through all the torture. It certainly didn't click for me until after the surgery. But perhaps for some of you, you'll understand what I'm saying and realize that I just saved you from making a huge mistake.

Just remember that the grass always looks greener on the other side. But once you get there, you'll realize it's all the same.

Hey DIFM!

How much Vit D and calcium did your doctor recommend you to take? I'm in my consolidating phase and mine didn't recommend a specific amount.

Thanks.

JB

I'm taking 250-400% the daily recommended amount of Vitamin D and around 120-200% the calcium depending on how much milk I drink for the day or how much sun exposure I have. This wasn't something the doctor recommended. But it's a little more than what the Silica supplements he recommended offered. I wouldn't overdo it with the vitamins/calcium, though, because too much of it can be bad for you, too - such as developing kidney stones.

did you get your vit D levels measured? even with taking supplements, levels might not jump up back to normal right away.

No, I haven't.

[CCMidwest]

https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/blog/why-does-the-vitamin-d-council-recommend-5000-iuday/

The vitamin d council says 5,000 iu per day. I've been taking 50,000 iu a week for over a decade with no troubles. You can overdose on vitamin d, but the endocrine association says that up to 70,000 iu a week is safe.

If you're taking 400% the daily government recommendation, you're probably still low. Hope that helps.

[DoingItForMe]

https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/blog/why-does-the-vitamin-d-council-recommend-5000-iuday/

The vitamin d council says 5,000 iu per day. I've been taking 50,000 iu a week for over a decade with no troubles. You can overdose on vitamin d, but the endocrine association says that up to 70,000 iu a week is safe.

If you're taking 400% the daily government recommendation, you're probably still low. Hope that helps.

You should know the difference between Vitamin D3 and Vitamin D2. The 50,000 iu per week that the doctor prescribes is Vitamin D2 (I'm sure of it, because my doctor gave me the same thing), which is the synthetic Vitamin D and is not as efficient as Vitamin D3. I'm taking Vitamin D3 supplements at 1,000 iu per day and also eating fish and drinking milk everyday (both have Vitamin D3). Here's a link, but you can use google to find out more: http://saveourbones.com/the-huge-difference-between-vitamins-d3-and-d2-and-why-you-should-never-take-d2/

[Hulk]

Great journal! its been a pleasure following page by page, very inspiring and packed with information. I wish you recovery soon, sorry to hear the long delay your experiencing. Thanks for sharing your time to explain your story, keep it up!

[Peaceout]

Hi DIFM,
Speaking of proportions,what do you think about your arms?How they look when you wear a t-shirt or when you get nked?Did anyone said something about them?Did you ever get uncomfortable when you look at the mirror because of your arms?
I care more about arms proportions than legs.You can hide legs with clothes but its not like that with arms.Especially when wearing t-shirts..
I remember you said that you are now over your winspan.(5cm)That is also my goal.

[CCMidwest]

You should know the difference between Vitamin D3 and Vitamin D2. The 50,000 iu per week that the doctor prescribes is Vitamin D2 (I'm sure of it, because my doctor gave me the same thing), which is the synthetic Vitamin D and is not as efficient as Vitamin D3. I'm taking Vitamin D3 supplements at 1,000 iu per day and also eating fish and drinking milk everyday (both have Vitamin D3). Here's a link, but you can use google to find out more: http://saveourbones.com/the-huge-difference-between-vitamins-d3-and-d2-and-why-you-should-never-take-d2/

Hey DIFM,

It's hard to tell "tone" with written word, so I'll explain that I am not trying to argue with you here. Just trying to be helpful is all...

I take D3. I buy "Simply Right" brand from Sam's Club. They are 5,000 IU of D3 per pill. (D3 Cholecalciferol)

I take 2 pills per day, Monday through Friday. Total of 50,000 IU per week. This was recommended to me by a doctor I had gone to for erectile problems a few years back. (I also had total testosterone tested, estradiol levels tested, and free testosterone levels tested)

I can feel the effects of this much D3, but could not feel the effects at the level you listed that you are taking. It does take a few weeks to notice though.

It has made a huge (heh) positive difference in the quality of my erections, and my mood in general.

A guy I lift with takes testosterone injections for low T due to abusing anabolic steroids, and takes 70,000 IU's of D3 per week, which supposedly is the max safe limit, but I cannot find a source for that online. (I didn't look very hard though)

It was also recommended to me to take 100mg of Zinc, and 200mg of an amino acid called L-Theanine by this same doctor.

Between these 3 supplements, my wife has a hard time keeping up with me!

[TIBIKE200]

My take on what you are going through DIFM.

 You are absolutely right. One can have a wonderful life at any given height. But the problem is not really based on reality but it is inside the mind... What I mean is that through introspection (I am talking months of it not a day or two), I got to the sad and tragic conclusion that it doesnt matter how good I am with women, how successful I am at school/work or in my social circles, this height BDD is completely indipendent of anything. There isnt any real life logical base as to why your height disturbes you... It's just there.
  Now that the clouds of this height BDD are gone, you can finally witness how good your life was and is still is and will continue to be.
For me, just the removal of this toxic fog is more than worth it in order to do the surgery.
 
You should embrace and be happy that you finally "cured" yourself of this BDD (even if by extremes measures).

[LLCaptain]

What I mean is that through introspection (I am talking months of it not a day or two), I got to the sad and tragic conclusion that it doesnt matter how good I am with women, how successful I am at school/work or in my social circles, this height BDD is completely indipendent of anything. There isnt any real life logical base as to why your height disturbes you... It's just there.

You make little sense and I think you have almost no credibility.

Months ago you spent all your time promoting an Italian doc and trying to justify doing external tibs. You did a complete 180 and potentially slandered the doc, then came back because you couldn't forget about LL.

Our mind is shaped by millions of interactions with others and ourselves. How can you say BDD has no "real life logical base" and that "its just there"?

I think that you are probably not very good with women, is still student and have not even entered the professional world. No wonder you're depressed?

[Penguinn]

There isnt any real life logical base as to why your height disturbes you...

It's not that abnormal to worry about something bad even when your situation's good.
1) It's in our nature to worry. People don't usually feel completely at peace and that everything is ok without second guesses every now and then
2) Just cause everything's good now doesn't mean it always will be. Fixing a problem(assuming it is) justifies itself.

[TIBIKE200]

You make little sense and I think you have almost no credibility.

Months ago you spent all your time promoting an Italian doc and trying to justify doing external tibs. You did a complete 180 and potentially slandered the doc, then came back because you couldn't forget about LL.

Our mind is shaped by millions of interactions with others and ourselves. How can you say BDD has no "real life logical base" and that "its just there"?

I think that you are probably not very good with women, is still student and have not even entered the professional world. No wonder you're depressed?

1) My credibility in your eyes it your own personal issue (Which is not important since you are already post LL)

2) I still believe Catagni is the best option (or one of the best) when it comes to external tibias

3) I still beleive that external tibias are much safer than femurs

4) I never slandered the doc. I was scared off by a false account created by a family friend situated in north america.

5) I have had success with women just like every average man.. Some men had it better others had it worse.

6) I am still a student because med school is long

BDD has nothing to do with logic or real life you know... It is a mental problem that I suffer from, you suffer/suffered from and basically every man and woman here suffer from.

But if it makes you feel good about yourself, I will say that I am a depressed forever alone kind of guy so you will be happy

[CCMidwest]

It's not that abnormal to worry about something bad even when your situation's good.
1) It's in our nature to worry. People don't usually feel completely at peace and that everything is ok without second guesses every now and then
2) Just cause everything's good now doesn't mean it always will be. Fixing a problem(assuming it is) justifies itself.

I agree with this. However, judging by your prior posts, you don't have BDD. (wanting to be 5'5 in your country is rational)

Lord knows this forum is long overdue for a rational discussion on BDD, but I hardly think DIFM's diary is the place for it.

Anyway, BDD is a full blown mental disorder, a mental illness, and a very dangerous one at that. If anyone here even suspects they have BDD, they need to get to a mental health professional ASAP.

BDD has absolutely no basis in reality. Being worried about height is *NOT* BDD. Wanting to do LL to increase your dating pool or the respect from your peers is *NOT* BDD.

Discounting your entire worth as a human being based off your height *IS* BDD.

You can be unhappy with height, and the social implications that has for you, and not have BDD. That is rational.

BDD is the result of cognitive distortions about how YOU feel about YOURSELF. It's the over-generalized, black & white, polarized and obsessive thinking that distinguishes BDD, the mental illness, from just being unhappy with your height.

It is not based on how society treats you based off height or any other external factor.

[Penguinn]

^+1

[CCMidwest]

^+1

Thanks Penguinn, but I suspect my post will be ignored by the forum at large.

Again, if anyone reading this suspects they have BDD, GET HELP.

This is the exact reason I have decided against LL for myself. I have full BDD, and am not in a rational state of mind. If I was more in the state of mind you are Penguinn, or Deads or Alu for example, and still felt like LL was something I wanted to do, then I might do it.

There are benefits to being taller.

But I'm not in that state of mind, I'm mentally ill. And I will NOT risk everything I have worked so hard for in my life and make that decision while feeling this way.

[DoingItForMe]

Hi DIFM,
Speaking of proportions,what do you think about your arms?How they look when you wear a t-shirt or when you get nked?Did anyone said something about them?Did you ever get uncomfortable when you look at the mirror because of your arms?
I care more about arms proportions than legs.You can hide legs with clothes but its not like that with arms.Especially when wearing t-shirts..
I remember you said that you are now over your winspan.(5cm)That is also my goal.

Since my wingspan is 170cm to begin with, I don't look disproportional in that regard. I also have the average hand size of 7.25 inches (18.5 cm). I don't think being 5 cm over your wingspan is that noticeable. But I do have thick, muscular arms, so my arms look "short" because of it. Nobody has ever commented that I had short arms, though. I think most people understand that thick, muscular arms just look short, but are actually okay length. If your ape index (height to wingspan difference) is more than 3 inches, you might get away with it if you had skinny arms. For example, my arms are longer than my female friend's arm, but her arm looks longer because they're skinnier.

Hey DIFM,

It's hard to tell "tone" with written word, so I'll explain that I am not trying to argue with you here. Just trying to be helpful is all...

I take D3. I buy "Simply Right" brand from Sam's Club. They are 5,000 IU of D3 per pill. (D3 Cholecalciferol)

I take 2 pills per day, Monday through Friday. Total of 50,000 IU per week. This was recommended to me by a doctor I had gone to for erectile problems a few years back. (I also had total testosterone tested, estradiol levels tested, and free testosterone levels tested)

I can feel the effects of this much D3, but could not feel the effects at the level you listed that you are taking. It does take a few weeks to notice though.

It has made a huge (heh) positive difference in the quality of my erections, and my mood in general.

A guy I lift with takes testosterone injections for low T due to abusing anabolic steroids, and takes 70,000 IU's of D3 per week, which supposedly is the max safe limit, but I cannot find a source for that online. (I didn't look very hard though)

It was also recommended to me to take 100mg of Zinc, and 200mg of an amino acid called L-Theanine by this same doctor.

Between these 3 supplements, my wife has a hard time keeping up with me!

I'm not arguing with you either. I'm also trying to be helpful. I thought you meant you took one pill of 50,000 IU Vitamin D per week. That's what my doctor prescribed me when I was deficient. They only sell 50,000 IU pills in prescription form, so that's why I thought you were talking about Vitamin D2. But your post made me want to take more Vitamin D3, so I'm going to double my daily supplemental intake.

Thanks Penguinn, but I suspect my post will be ignored by the forum at large.

Again, if anyone reading this suspects they have BDD, GET HELP.

This is the exact reason I have decided against LL for myself. I have full BDD, and am not in a rational state of mind. If I was more in the state of mind you are Penguinn, or Deads or Alu for example, and still felt like LL was something I wanted to do, then I might do it.

There are benefits to being taller.

But I'm not in that state of mind, I'm mentally ill. And I will NOT risk everything I have worked so hard for in my life and make that decision while feeling this way.

That's a very rational thought. I advise anyone who's thinking about doing LL to only do it when happy and not depressed. Don't do the surgery while depressed, because you'll just become even more depressed. I wouldn't even suggest doing it to get girls. Because if you suck at getting girls at 5'5", you'll still suck at it at 5'8". Prove to yourself that you can get a girl first, and don't ever do this surgery for someone else. Nobody's opinion of you is worth sacrificing this much for. Especially if that opinion is for an uncontrollable physical trait of yours.

[Alu]

Hey DIFM,

Thanks for the response!
 
I think if anything you shouldn't worry much about.

Here take a look at this guy at 3:40 mark. It's pretty obvious he has longer femurs than normal. So if you look anything remotely close to that, I wouldn't worry to much.

[DoingItForMe]

So I got a reply back from the girl who commented that I looked disproportional. It's my femur to tibia ratio, and it's only noticeable when I'm nked. When I'm not nked, nobody else has commented that I was disproportional. Instead, it's mostly positive comments about my height. It's weird when you get positive comments about your height when you spent your entire life getting negative comments about it. You can see why tall people have such a easier life compared to a short person. But, nobody really changed their attitudes towards me. I'm just no longer the butt end of short jokes. My friends all still treat me the same.

In terms of recovery
Annoyingly, my legs still get pain from standing for long periods of time. If I stand for an hour or two, my legs has aches and pains in specific spots - mainly where the pins holding up my nails are. I don't have pain anymore from just sitting around doing nothing like I used to have. But standing for more than 2 hours is torture at this point. Hopefully this will change when my legs get stronger and I remove the rods.

It's still hard to get up from a squatting position. It's not a fluid simple motion. I actually have to put effort into getting up from a squat.


Update on LL & sex positions
More practice is definitely what was needed. The mistakes I made before was that I tried doing the same angles and positions that I was used to, but the mechanics of sex are slightly different now. So the difference between pre-LL and post-LL (for femurs) are like this:
1) Doggy style is much easier now. Now that my femurs are much longer than the girl's, I can enter from a higher angle and hit the G spot easier. This was not possible when I had shorter femurs.
2) I can't fold my legs during missionary position anymore unless the girl is on a ramp or pillows. So with longer femurs and less flexibility, it's harder for me to fold and split my legs to get to a low angle. Before LL, I was able to do it. Now the girl has to be on a ramp for me to do it. And if we don't use props, then I have to straighten my legs to get low enough.
3) For a while, I couldn't do the pronebone position. Pronebone was the position I had to do when I had shorter femurs, because my femurs weren't long enough to do doggy style effectively. Now the opposite happened and pronebone is harder to do because my femurs are longer and I can't get in a lower angle even if I straightened my legs. That's because the pronebone position required you to bend your legs further back than just 180 degrees. Now that my flexibility has improved, I'm able to do pronebone again without getting soft from the pain from being overstretched.

After relearning how to have great sex again, sex is great again. I'm able to avoid putting my legs in weird positions, and therefore avoid feeling pain in my legs during sex. Without the awkwardness and pain, I don't get soft again, and my sex drive is back to what it was before LL.

[ortholengthening]

after your 8 cm, it seems to me that it really took 1 year for you to feel fairly normal and well in your day to day activities.

good to know in terms of expectations

[OregonMade]

Its nothing close to torture.  I was tied up to a car battery once and questioned for 3 hours and I am a limb lengthening veteran.  Limb lengthening is not nearly as bad. 

Day 5:
Discharge day. Since they discharged me on a weekend, they actually made me pay $35 to hire a wheelchair-accessible taxi to bring me to the hospital. The Paley team messed up there and never reimbursed me for that. Turns out that there's actually a $5-8 roundtrip wheelchair-accessible taxi, and the hospital screwed me over by hiring the more expensive $35 one that was only one-way. They also tried to get me to buy the drugs from Garden Drugs Inc, which deliver to the hospital, but Garden Drugs Inc wanted $600+ for all drugs because my insurance wasn't accepted by them. I went with Walgreens instead, which also delivers to the hospital, and ended up paying only $300-400 for all drugs. Again, I suspect that the hospital gets some kind of cut for hiring the more expensive companies for the same services. I suggest not falling for their tricks.

Week 1 in the hotel (starting on the 5th day after surgery):
The hotel is not bad. $70 a night. Pots and induction stove suck. They barely get hot and are all warped. I don't suggest doing much cooking with it. Breakfast and dinner taste like food you get at a cheap buffet. They gave me stomachaches, because my stomach is sensitive to cheap foods.

In terms of pain, week 1 was the worst. Day 1 after discharge was the first and only time I experienced level 10 pain. They said level 10 pain is when you cry involuntarily. That's the only time I ever did. And the feeling is like if someone shot your parents in front of you and made you watch them die. Now imagine that emotional pain as a physical pain in your legs, and that's what it feels like. It's like if someone cut your leg open and decided to pull your wound apart with his salty, sweaty hands.

I realized why I was experiencing this pain. It's because it was first day off toradol and percocet, and I was going cold turkey with pain meds. The only pain med is Oxycodone, which I found out only lasts 1-2 hours and only kicks in after an hour. And you can only take 2 pills (10 mg) every 4 hours, so you have 2-3 hours of suffering. Since this is the closest time to my surgery without much pain meds, this was the first time I experience level 10 pain. First the first few days in hospital, I thought every patient who complained about pain was a wuss, because I didn't have much pain. I expecting pain levels like child-birthing pains, and never got to that level in the hospital.

Once I got to this level 10 pain, I finally realized what everyone was talking about. Yes, this was the most pain I ever felt in my life. This is probably what it feels like to be tortured.

[DoingItForMe]

Its nothing close to torture.  I was tied up to a car battery once and questioned for 3 hours and I am a limb lengthening veteran.  Limb lengthening is not nearly as bad.

Dang. Sorry to hear that you got tortured. But you're one of the lucky ones then in terms of LL pain. But just because you didn't feel as much pain during LL doesn't mean that other people didn't. Perhaps you had better pain meds than I did. Perhaps your body adjusted to the new height better. Perhaps you were younger than me when you got the surgery and was more elastic. Perhaps you had more or less leg muscles than me.

But you're right. I've been shot by a taser before, and the taser was more painful. But LL is a different kind of pain. It's a pain that doesn't just abruptly end when the batteries run out. With a taser, it's very sharp pains. But it ends. With LL, the pain doesn't end. It might not be as intense, but it's drawn out. That's what I meant when I compared it to torture. I'm talking about how long and drawn out the pain is, and how little you can do to stop it if you don't have pain meds.

[Moubgf]

Its nothing close to torture.  I was tied up to a car battery once and questioned for 3 hours and I am a limb lengthening veteran.  Limb lengthening is not nearly as bad.

Maybe you have a high treshhold for pain?. I think you do. Mine is low from inactivity and it sucks

[DoingItForMe]

If anyone's on the Exogen 4000 machine, I found out the original battery lasts up to around 150-200 uses. Mine stopped working at around 190 on both Exogen 4000 devices I bought on eBay. But, instead of buying a new one, I found out that you could just easily replace the battery for $40 or so from an online website. Several sites sell it. Just look up Exogen 4000 battery and it should look like 4 AA batteries wrapped together with a connector attached. The device just has two screws behind the sticker in the back. And the battery easily detaches and reattaches. There seems to be no limit on the uses, since I'm already at around 300 uses on one of my devices. You know you're low on batteries when the device turns out but every 2 seconds, the device makes a loud beep followed by a warning ! sign.

[mrmayor]

DIFM, how are you doing now?  I've read a lot of your posts and on my way to FL for an attempt at the same.  Tell us all how you're faring. 

Thanks

[Peaceout]

Hey DIFM,how are you?

[LLuser1]

I would like to know how this guy is doing too..

[DoingItForMe]

DIFM, how are you doing now?  I've read a lot of your posts and on my way to FL for an attempt at the same.  Tell us all how you're faring. 

Thanks

I've been living a pretty normal life lately - as in, how it was prior to LL. Some updates: I never really worked out my legs regularly prior to LL, so I was curious as to what would happened if I stopped. So it turns out that if I stop working out my legs, then the pain in my legs return. The same areas hurt again: inner thigh, TFL, glutes. I also noticed that my walking gait stopped looking normal, and I was starting to do the penguin walk again. So... I suspect that for the rest of my life, I'm going to have to work out my legs if I don't want leg pain and a weird gait. I want to know if any LL veterans stopped working out their legs and can still walk normally.

Other than that, things are pretty normal. There were times when I wondered why I did LL, and wondered if I'm regretting it. It usually happens when I start feeling pain in my legs again. But then I look through some of my old videos/pics of myself and notice how short I was. So while I'm not getting the happiness of being tall, I'm not feeling sad for being short again. I just feel normal. When I see the pictures, I cringe at how short I looked back then. And then I'm reminded again about how crappy I felt being short. It wasn't everyday that I felt that way. But it just creeps up on you like a chronic illness. And now I'm cured of that illness, because I don't really think about being short at all anymore. It's a bit easier to shop for clothes for myself now, because I look good in them. Back then I used to have to worry about how tall the outfit would make me look. Now I don't.

I still haven't gotten an x-ray since May. I'm going to get one in October. A part of me is too scared to know whether my bone fully healed or not. If it didn't, I'm going to need to get a bone graft. That's why I've been delaying myself from getting an x-ray. That's my main concern right now, besides getting the rods removed. In the meantime, I've been living a pretty normal life. I can walk and bike 10 miles in a row.

One more thing: I also noticed that it's hard to walk with my legs close together. I don't remember that being an issue prior to LL. Could be because my biomechanics are different now and the angles of my legs are different. Not sure. Can you guys walk with your legs close together - like rubbing your feet together as you're walking? When I do it, the outside of my thighs start hurting.