I thought you could get pin bending from standing with the frames on during lengthening phase, not actually lose height. And if you got pin bending the leg wouldnt actually have been lengthened so you turn more to fix that, but you dont really lose height, or am i missing something?
Also im not sure how to measure myself in those x-rays, i mean I suppose to be accurate you need to stand up and measure vertically, but are the scans in scale 1:1? I hope i can trust the doctor that i actually lengthened the right ammount when im done..
and ballerina foot wont be much of a problem for me as im lengthening 4 cms only.
I hope we are on the same page. Yes, your leg is lengthened. If you distract say, 7cm, then your leg is technically longer by 7cm because the gap where the bone is broken is widen by 7cm. Some people would say that would not be an accurate reflection of your height because you are not standing up. But I'm not going into that sort of detail. I say give or take 7cm.
Because the pin and the frame are not perfect, it won't be able to bear your full weight. When the patient has say, 7cm, and he stands up, his full weight compresses down on the metal frame that holds the tibias together and bending the pin. And when the pin bends, it compresses down on the gap. Thus, the patient loses the 7cm. That's my idea. And I have witness many patients who have lost height (or the gap) this way.
Why this gap is so important? Because your gain is only millimeters per day. Sometime you have stay for 4 months for 8cm if you're lucky. And every day when you wear the metal frame, it's a living hell. The pin constantly cuts through your flesh. You feel all sort of pain. And it's highly comfortable to sleep with. The pain of external LL is the worst. Patients fail to achieve their desirable gain, not because of surgical complications... Most of the time, you can wait out your complications. For example, if you have nerve issue like Asoka or lack of callus, you can wait out until your nerve comes back or your callus is better formed... but patient fail because they cannot bear the pain. So my idea is to lengthen asap and achieve your desirable height. That's what you come there for in the first place. Then once the frame is removed, then you can focus on your recovery.
I know a lot of guys who have never experienced LL will disagree with me on this one. They would say, long term recovery is just as equally important as height gain. If you rush you risk damaging your soft tissue, etc But if every day of your life has been a living hell for the past 4 months, the pin is cutting through your flesh and giving you constant pain... and you already paid a fortune for this surgery, then I say it's okay to try to get your goal achieved quickly and get this over with.
This was my experience in India.
There is no accurate way to measure your gap using the Indian x-ray. I usually minus 5mm just in case. The x-ray at Sarin's hospital is more high tech. He uses that one to determine how much the patient has gained. That was the one that I and Sweden were used to determine how much we gained. I don't know how Sangari's patient or other doctors measure their patient.
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Topic: Height Shrunk After LL Surgery (Read 20427 times)