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[Descreteuser]

how are you seeing other doctors in serbia?

I'll try take a photo for you later and see it to u in a private message

[Descreteuser]

how are you seeing other doctors in serbia?

Speaking to another doctor on this site

[microman]

on this site, oh okay you said 'im going to have my doctor visit me' which implies in person.

yeah a picture would be good, at least i can know the risks involved with mitkovic.

[Descreteuser]

Yeah dr mitkovic is coming to see me next week

[microman]

at what point during lengthening did this occur?

If this does occur, can you still lengthen?

[Descreteuser]

Varies from patient to patient.. Mine began at about 2.5 to 3cm..

[microman]

Oh jeez, so this is a common occurrence?

well anyway I have stairs in my home so I would like to know what my mobility will be like when I go home during consolidation, will i be able to walk up a flight of stairs, or will i have to remain downstairs for about 2 months at which point I will be able to walk a little better and so go upstairs.

[Descreteuser]

getting uop and downstairs is extremely dangerous.. youd have to sit down and work your way up or down.. its doable but it would be very annoying

[microman]

ah of course i never thought of that.

so say in the first month of consolodation, i return home and just sit on the first step, then drag myself up a step, its 15 steps in total, i will only be doing this once, I just need to get upstairs to my room whese my bathroom is also very close as well.

[Descreteuser]

Yeah just think of it as a workout.. Remember u can still use your legs to push urself up.. The devices are 50% weight bearing

[microman]

lol yeah so it is safe then? I was worried dragging my legs up the stairs may cause an issue with the device.

but no I will only do this once to get upstairs, I wont be doing that a lot for exercise or anything.

is the ilazarov weight bearing, and does weight bearing genernally mean you can walk around with it on.

[KrP1]

fk man! that osteotomy looks really bad, you did well not going for more than 4cm , if you have gone for more i think that your tibia should end with a big misalignament

[greatheight]

fk man! that osteotomy looks really bad, you did well not going for more than 4cm , if you have gone for more i think that your tibia should end with a big misalignament

Not so bad. I've seen worse

[microman]

is it a problem  with the device , or with the doctor.

I think i may have to go with another device due to fear of a complication that is similar to this.

[Morgenst.]

This really makes me re consider this Dr. Simply because I've had such a thing happen to another one of my bones when I broke it and the bump bothers me to this day. Plus at his price I wouldn't expect this to be a common occurrence either

[Medium Drink Of Water]

I think it's a problem with the device rather than the doctor.  Monorails aren't as good at preventing/fixing misalignments.

[microman]

would this problem not happen with dr barinov?

sorry for the newbie questions, I just had no idea this stuff could happen, it really sholud be posted somewhere under 'complications' that you can have bump in knees with this device.

[maximize]

Sorry to anyone who's done it already but no one should be getting monorails at all in this day/age. The design of these devices makes no sense as they allow minimal control over angulation/alignment. Anyone getting a monorail is putting themselves at risk for misalignment.

[maximize]

my evidence is your leg

it looks really bad, to be honest. your  osteotomy  looks bad, and your bone is bending outward

that's not normal. if you think all will be okay, that's your choice. I don't know what else to say. It wouldn't  be acceptable to me.

Agreed. The same problem has happened to bluebarbie as a result of her monorail lengthening - major misalignment of the proximal and distal bone fragments.

OP, I'm going to give you the same advice I gave to her. She hasn't taken the advice and I am certain she will live to regret it. Hopefully for your sake you are smarter.

Get the monorail exchanged for a proper external frame like a hexapod or TSF which will allow realignment of your bones before they fully consolidate. If you don't, I can promise you that you will be "recovering" for the rest of your life. People that leave these surgeries with major misalignments do not do well in the long term.

Both of your tibias have become grossly misaligned. It is probably still fixable now but it won't be for long.

[microman]

christ lord, thankfully I found out about this now.

i am now crossing serbia off my list, i hope you get well Descreteuser.

looks like it's barinov or dhawan for me, but so little is known of dhawan.

[maximize]

Personally I have a hard time considering any surgeon who offers monorails reputable. Why on earth would you offer a patient monorails, where you have pretty much no capacity to control the alignment, when you can just as easily use a hexapod or TSF? Yes, with a full external frame you have more pin sites. But at least you can keep the alignment straight. That should be the number one priority for all leg lengthening cases. Who cares if you have fewer pins with a monorail but end up deformed by it?

I think you should look more at the devices the surgeon offers and their track record with those devices than just what country they are from.

[microman]

ye i just said serbia as a shorthand, seems a lot of people here do that, what i meant is i will cross mitkovik off my list.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Agreed. The same problem has happened to bluebarbie as a result of her monorail lengthening - major misalignment of the proximal and distal bone fragments.

OP, I'm going to give you the same advice I gave to her. She hasn't taken the advice and I am certain she will live to regret it. Hopefully for your sake you are smarter.

Get the monorail exchanged for a proper external frame like a hexapod or TSF which will allow realignment of your bones before they fully consolidate. If you don't, I can promise you that you will be "recovering" for the rest of your life. People that leave these surgeries with major misalignments do not do well in the long term.

Both of your tibias have become grossly misaligned. It is probably still fixable now but it won't be for long.

Bluebarbie will be fine.  She's getting LATN, so the misalignment can be corrected on the operating table during her nailing surgery.

[maximize]

Bluebarbie will be fine.  She's getting LATN, so the misalignment can be corrected on the operating table during her nailing surgery.

There's a chance they'll get it close enough to straight during the nailing process that she won't be disabled. But "fixing" the alignment during nailing is a poor idea. When you fix alignment with TSF/Hexapod you can control the exact position gradually down to the mm. No such precision exists during realignment when nailing.

Monorails are a bad idea all around. Whether nailing after or not.

[Descreteuser]

you guys are pretty much saying ill be disabled if my leg stays like this.. this forum shows that people on here done know what they are talking about.. your saying you need to get another frame put on.. god ive heard it all.. previous patient before me had worse mis alignments then me and he got them corrected here.. he is walking completely normal. hes even doing light jogging and its only 10 months post op.. he said his flexibility is better than it was before the surgery.. you guys are throwing false information out there saying that if u have mis alignments with this device that your are going to be crippled.. dont say things that you dont know about.. people on this site think they know alot more than they do.. i agree that this device isnt good for alignments but dont say that someone will be deformed or disabled from it.. BECAUSE ITS NOT TRUE.. i can already stand up completely straight.. my walking is improving daily.. i might have the bump on my left leg pushed in just for aesthetics sake.. it seems as tho people have done a bit of reading and now think they are doctors..

[maximize]

you guys are pretty much saying ill be disabled if my leg stays like this.. this forum shows that people on here done know what they are talking about.. your saying you need to get another frame put on.. god ive heard it all.. previous patient before me had worse mis alignments then me and he got them corrected here..

I'm curious how they correct the misalignment with a monorail device. As I understand it monorails only function along one axis (hence the name "mono") and thus cannot correct misalignments in 3 dimensions (as you have).

i might have the bump on my left leg pushed in just for aesthetics sake.. it seems as tho people have done a bit of reading and now think they are doctors..

I don't think the aesthetics of the bump are what you should be concerned about. It's that the bump is there because the two bone fragments have become misaligned. If your surgeons have some way of accurately fixing this without a 3 dimensional frame like the TSF/Hexapod, I would sincerely love to hear about it.

[crimsontide]

it's  not the aesthetics

i can tell you from experience. my left leg is not aligned at all,its bad.  getting it fixed very soon. only been a few months  and im in no pain, because i purposely hardly walk

but the forward bending, which i have, will definitely impacxt your walking. you will just not be able tyo walk normally, it will feel like an effort. the more you walk,  the worse it will be

 you have 2 options, nailing or or a frame. either one is much better than your current situation

ive heard some say the tsf is better than ailing, but im not sure. rozbruch thinks  nailing is as effective, paley too. catagni does not

either way,  both options will fix you, and youll be much better off than your current situation.

That malalignment will take a toll. ive been doing nothing because of my left leg.   theres no way you 'll be okay walking, especially in a few years.

i would  not accept my dr telling me its okay, when it is not normal.

and mitkovic has had complaints before on the old forum.. this is not the first time,  he  got off the boards because of complaints. i know this may surprise some people that think of him as being perfect

just look at mdow's story.  it's  not about mitkovic's surgical technique, but still, the guy stopped responding, and mdow was in serbia! 

I agree with maximize, and others that  discourage monorails..  you can always get leg corrected after surgery, but its a pain in the ass, and more money

youll be fine if you eventually get it corrected, but I wouldn't  accept that alignment.

i dont get the fascination wth monorails, the only positive  i hear is that they are cosmetically better, but i dont even think thats true. the scars from monorails can be gnarly, and they are still  big metal devices protruding from your leg. it's not as if they arent noticeable

don't be mad at us because we are saying things you dont wanna hear. the bone is not aligned. if it becomes aligned, then great. I would not count it though

[Corto]

Thank You for posting your experience Descreteuser given Im possibly going to do same thing in 2016 with aim of 5-7cm.

Information was that by sometime in 2016 reasonably priced rental apartments were going to be available close to the hospital specifically for LL patients. Do you have any info on this?  In any case there are very nice furnished apartments in central Nis for 180-300 Euros per month. Your hotel accomodation is a bit overpriced for my budget.

What type of visa if any do you have? EU citizens I believe do not need a visa to enter and stay 3 months beyond which permission can be extended once or twice more for another 3-6 months. Permission to stay up to 1 year I believe can be given provided you supply evidence of surgery, doctor etc.

Did you take out any health insurance? The Serbian Embassy websites say this is necessary not sure it applies to folks who already have a doctor ie Mr Mitkovic.

Have you managed to find long pants which fit over the monorails?

Have previously had Ilizarov fixators free of charge in a western public hospital to correct genu varum ie bow legs. 4 months with huge heavy clunky Ilizarovs was more than enough. I was given the option of keeping them on for lengthening free of charge but declined. They were just too impractical to wear for long periods. Couldnt wait to get them off which is why Im going with monorails this time.

Re Ilizarov or similar versus Monorail comparison. Im no expert. Can only say Ilizarovs I had were very solid and stable but totally impractical. Was forever banging them together while walking. Sleeping was uncomfortable given legs were in metal cages. Ive seen  pics of various Ilizarov external variations including some which only extend halfway round the leg. Perhaps these are more practical than full blown Ilizarovs. Dont know why and when these slimmed down Ilizarovs are used can only say the full blown traditional Ilizarovs were totally impractical for me. 

Ill finish by saying the pain in my legs for several hours immediately post op Ilizarov surgery was the worst Ive ever experienced. Pain meds had no effect at all. IT FELT LIKE MY BONES WERE BEING CRUSHED IN A VICE. Was finally given large dose of sedative to put me to sleep to stop my complaining. Thankfully woke up with much less pain several hours later. Dont know if this is normal or not. Im not a big reader of this or old forums just browse occasionally for anything relevant to my own situation which is why I posted here. Sorry if I hijacked the post.

Re Mitkovic, Serbia etc. Surgeon speaks fluent English which is a plus in my book. Has worked in western hospitals another plus. Serbia has produced the likes of Nicola Tesla who was Thomas Edisons equal it has been argued. All countries have pluses and minuses. Having had Ilizarov surgery free of charge in a large public hospital in an advanced western country I can say it wasnt all pluses. Nursing care for my 9 days in a private room was minimal basically just taking vital signs. Noone ever bothered to ask me in 9 days if I wanted a wash or to brush my teeth for example. Surgeon came in very occasionally to see me.  Again sorry to have hijacked thread. Good Luck will be reading.   

[Corto]

Re comments that Mitkovic monorail is no good for correcting misalignments I just noticed his website with supporting pics says its used to correct various angular deformities such as varus valgus etc.

[Descreteuser]

he has a device which attaches to the other device which pushes the pins down to correct the alignments..im getting one put on tomorrow.. im taking a break for a while from the site as it causes me too much unecessary stress.. i will be back on once im recovered and in better spirits.. wish everyone all the best with their journeys.. ill probably be back on in a few months for an update.. good luck to everyone. peace

[maximize]

Hi Descreteuser,

Sorry if I have sounded too negative on the monorail and your misalignment. It's difficult sometimes posting on a forum like this. You have to try to balance telling what you think to be true with the fact that people going through this surgery are very vulnerable, and that none of us really know what the future will hold for anyone.

It is true there is some capacity for a monorail to realign this misalignment. But monorails by their nature of being one dimensional and only having a few pinsites into the bone are not exactly ideal for this. I sincerely hope your surgeon is able to realign it adequately. What I would suggest to you is that if you are continuing with his work, do not be satisfied with it until it is perfectly aligned.

Almost all of the people who end up with chronic problems from leg lengthening get them due to misalignments that weren't fixed before consolidation. A large percent of those tend to be from monorail users. The remaining large proportion tend to be people who had their frames off too early or their internal nails bend.

Getting the alignment fixed is crucial to your future health. However that is done, just do your best to make sure it does get done. I hope you will have the best outcome possible. I'm sure we all on the forum do. I hope you will please continue to share your progress here. We all benefit from it. Try to understand that we are just concerned.