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[RGKEY]

any ballerina?

[crimsontide]

wannabe,  do the uppr half rings touch your legs?? They literally grip  mine...

[paco1]

good luck wannabegiants.
are you in your home now, in sweden?

[ChrisIsaak]

Hang in there, man! You're almost there 

[Wannabegiant]

any ballerina?

No, not at all actually  I stretch the calves for a few minutes every day, and also wear the foot holders at all times when laying down. I dont feel any stiffness in the calves and i still have full mobility there, but i can feel the achilles tendon burn (that feeling when you stretch) more than before the surgery when i perform the stretching exercises, so obviously it has been tightened a bit but not enough so that it can affect my movement yet it seems.

[Wannabegiant]

wannabe,  do the uppr half rings touch your legs?? They literally grip  mine...

I must have thinner legs than you then, i think there is slightly less than 1 cm of space between the upper rings and my legs, but they dont touch each other.

[Wannabegiant]

good luck wannabegiants.
are you in your home now, in sweden?

I went home to Sweden 10 days after the surgery. (technically on the 11:th day i took the flight in the morning). I was supposed to stay longer but they said they could make any adjustments needed when i got back and was done lengthening, so i wanted to save money and left earlier. 

[Wannabegiant]

Hang in there, man! You're almost there 

Thank you! 

[RGKEY]

No, not at all actually  I stretch the calves for a few minutes every day, and also wear the foot holders at all times when laying down. I dont feel any stiffness in the calves and i still have full mobility there, but i can feel the achilles tendon burn (that feeling when you stretch) more than before the surgery when i perform the stretching exercises, so obviously it has been tightened a bit but not enough so that it can affect my movement yet it seems.

you are a champ!

[jerry]

Well done WBG!   

[Wannabegiant]

you are a champ!

Thank you man! a lot of the good progress is thanks to your help with the footholder videos  i didnt realize how important they where until i started using them

[Wannabegiant]

Well done WBG!   

Thank you! 

[Wannabegiant]

Update:

Just hit 3 cm today, so now i have about 2 weeks left of lengthening, after that the worst part will be over, feels pretty good. Pain level hasnt changed from what i can notice.

I must admit that this journey has been easier than expected in terms of the physical aspect, but the mental aspect of staying positive after being in isolation for so long is tougher than i thought, its definitely manageable though thanks to great tv-series like Game of Thrones and Supernatural etc.

Since i havent had any real complications or unexpected difficulties i will try to list the negative experiences here to give a more balanced look at my LL journey so far.

1. For most of my Lengthening phase i have been unable to get a good nights sleep, i might get 2 or 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep but after that i always get some discomfort and have to move a little and it takes a while for it to go away, and some minor pain and stiffness also keeps you awake. As a result some days i was up all night and then became really tired during the day (for some reason it was easier to fall asleep during the day, as i have less discomfort in the legs during the day compared to the night)

2. I have lost a lot of muscle in my legs, not so much in my upper body though. Surprisingly, most of the muscle loss happened to the thighs. I expected my calves to experience the greatest muscle loss but the thighs where affected more. I guess the walking style i use with the walker/crutches makes use of the calves more than the thighs or something. I think i can regain all my muscle mass in about 3 months of working out at the gym after i have recovered, assuming i dont lose even more in the time i have left in consolidation phase. In that case i have to work for quite a while until i have the same muscle mass again.

3. The weather here in Sweden is starting to get good, with lots of sun. There are rainy and gray days in between still, but im starting to get a real big urge to get outside my house now..but i cant, and will miss most of the summer. I definitely would recommend any future LL:ers (who intend to lengthen and consolidate at home) from countries with limited summer, to start right after summer has ended so you have a chance to get healthy in time for the next one.

[PrettyTall]

If you want sun  you come to morroco where the sun is everywhere

[Wannabegiant]

If you want sun  you come to morroco where the sun is everywhere

Yeah i know its a beautiful country from seeing pictures and hearing about it from others, one day i hopefully will visit. My goal in life is to travel to as many countries as possible after all. Its great because majority of countries have warmer weather than Sweden, suits me perfectly. For some reason i cannot imagine moving away permanently from Sweden though, maybe i am afraid to move away from my comfort zone or something.

[Wannabegiant]

Small update:

I changed my pin dressing today just to get rid of some of the dry blood that has been stuck for over a month now, felt real good to get rid of it and the pin sites look great, clean and dry.

However i noticed that these external frames actually has 12 pins per leg now. I had previously said it was 11 per leg, but one extra pin was hidden under the set of 4 pins on the upper half ring. I couldnt see it because of the pin dressing covering it, and i just assumed there where 4 pins because i had 4 cotton pieces placed there.

I have to start the visa application this week again..i wonder if i have to go to the embassy myself or if i can send a family member with my passport and their own.. hopefully because even if i go there with car, there are lots of stairs..

[crimsontide]

wbg, i wonder how our scars will look like.... the small pins on the bottom,  socks cover that so who cares, but the 5 or 6 on top....  think it should be ok

[Wannabegiant]

Update:

The last few days i think i have gotten my first problem that i didnt really expect, doesnt seem to be a big deal though.

I have gotten more pain (pincing or like it stings a bit every now and then) at one of the pin sites, specifically the one located at the highest half ring at the inside of the left knee. The pain is not that bad but really uncomfortable and makes it hard to stretch in some positions etc.

It mostly hurts when i bend or straighten the knee, when im laying flat with my legs straightened, it doesnt really hurt at all. when im walking it only hurts a little, and its a bit difficult to fully extend the knee while walking/standing because of this.

I dont think the pain is connected to the lengthening/turning the screws, because the pain never got any worse after i turned and also its only in my left leg. I suspected some kind of infection but many of the normal signs are absent, like i dont have any swollen skin, the skin in the area is normal color, and it doesnt feel warm. Also the pin site itself seems to be dry and clean.

So im not sure if this is a early sign of infection or some kind of nerve or muscle damage, doesnt seem dangerous though, it hasnt gotten worse at least, but we will see if it heals itself or if i need to take antibiotics.

[DREAM]

Have you notified your doctor ? it doesn't sound like an infection to me.

[Wannabegiant]

Have you notified your doctor ? it doesn't sound like an infection to me.

I actually checked again and the pin site was slightly ulcered now (and by that i mean very slight, like the cotton piece had a few dots of yellow and the pin site was still dry but some very small spots of ulcer.

So there might be a small infection even though i lack the other signs. I used antibiotic ointment on the wound and it seems to work, after half an hour it got a bit warmer and started hurting more, then a while after that it stopped hurting, i havent tried walking since i put on the antibiotics but i will try after a while and see if there is progress.

I think its to early to ask the doctor, it doesnt seem to be urgent and my mother is a nurse anyway. im almost done with lengthening too.

[Wannabegiant]

wbg, i wonder how our scars will look like.... the small pins on the bottom,  socks cover that so who cares, but the 5 or 6 on top....  think it should be ok

Yeah for me the scars are no big deal, not that visible and with some leg hair i doubt anyone will notice even in the early phases before it has healed a bit, i will use some creams to improve the scar healing as much as possible though.

[Sludder]

How are you doing?

[Wannabegiant]

How are you doing?

I had some rough days this past week because of the infection, it didnt hurt much while i was laying down, but bending the knee hurt like hell at times and also the bending of the knee became super stiff, like a  rusty cog wheel. My right leg that didnt have infection however had full mobility and no pain, because of this i could manage walking a bit. But i became harder to stretch and sleep and i was afraid of moving my infected leg in fear of a spike in pain levels.

But the wound at the pinsite seems to have healed a lot looking at it today, thanks to the antibiotic ointment i got from the clinic that also stimulates healing tissue. So the stinging pain from the pinsite is mostly gone and im not as stiff as before, i can with some warmup get my left knee straight again while standing.

I only have like 5 days left of lengthening, do that feels good.

[jerry]

Congrats WBG on the almost complete of lengthening.       When are you going back to Moscow again?   How long will it be before removal of the frame?

[Wannabegiant]

Congrats WBG on the almost complete of lengthening.       When are you going back to Moscow again?   How long will it be before removal of the frame?

Thanks man! Im probably going to book a flight at the very start of May, after Walpurgis Night is over. I wont be able to get an accurate estimate of how long i will have the frames until i get an x-ray which they will do at the clinic once i get there. However for 4 cms they said average is 6 months total from operation day to frame removal, so maybe 4 more months... hopefully it will be faster than that though, i will walk way more in consolidation phase to increase the speed of bone healing.

[Wannabegiant]

Update:

I reached 4 cm today according to my spreadsheet.

I have no pain, no ballerina and the infection is gone. However my left leg where i got the infection is still quite stiff and a bit difficult to straigthen the knee, but fortunately i dont need to lengthen anymore so i think this problem will resolve itself pretty soon.

The doctor advised me to lengthen a few mm extra in case their is pin bending, but i chose to skip that, partly because of my left knee problem, and also because i decided that 3 mm is not going to make a difference in how i feel, i feel very happy with my height now when i stand straight and compare myself to my dad who is 180 cm tall, there is barely any difference between us in height, so i must be around 178-179 cm.

My right leg has very good mobility, i can move it very fast and pretty much freely as if the fixator wasnt there. Its awesome, if only my left leg didnt have the knee bend problem, i would probably be able to walk without aid now.

I think a big factor as to why my left knee is having problems bending and straightening now, is because i have some loose piece cartiladge below the knee as a result of Osgood–Schlatter disease which i got when i was about 15 and playing football. This didnt bother me when i was walking and running, only when kneeling and doing sports did it bother me.
 
However i quit football at 18 and since you are not supposed to remove the excess cartilage from this disease until you have stopped growing, i forgot about removing it. Definitely wish i did it before LL. However it will be among the first things i do after i am finished with LL, compared to this it is a very simple procedure.

[crimsontide]

i have the exact same issue as you, i mean exact.... my right leg is great, i can walk ok with walker now, but moving my left leg,  not easy, same issue at exactly same spot,,, idk why, but its very very uncomfortable... if i didnt have this issue,life would be great right now

[Sweden]

That's great man.

When you come back you need to start seeing a doctor who can tell you what to do.

Or did you plan to wait after frame removal?

They can take it off in Sweden you know. For free.

[Wannabegiant]

That's great man.

When you come back you need to start seeing a doctor who can tell you what to do.

Or did you plan to wait after frame removal?

They can take it off in Sweden you know. For free.

Yeah youre right im definitely gonna do that as i get back home, i need to see someone here in Sweden so i can take x-rays and send them to Doctor Bagirov. However im not sure what kind of doctor i should look for, and orthopedic, or a regular house doctor to begin with?

Im still undecided as to where i will remove the frames. It seems the Doctor wants the patients to remove them at the clinic in Moscow, and he told me they wont do it until they know the bones are hard enough. Its very tempting to do it in Sweden however like you said, so i could skip doing this awful Visa business once again..

But im not sure if they want the frames back in Moscow or if the local doctors in Sweden will be qualified to know when it is safe to remove the frames without the risk of the bones subsiding. Bagirov will know this with his experience. Maybe i can keep sending him x-rays and he will tell me, and still let me remove them here in Sweden, that would be optimal.

Btw grattis till att du nått 55% nu! fortsätt på samma sätt så kommer du nog nå nära full återhämtning till sist, kanske 100%, aldrig fel att hoppas. Efter att ha sett dina videos är jag hoppfull för min egen återhämtning 

[Sweden]

Call your house doctor. Be honest and tell him. It's not his job to understand you.
He will make an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. They will take X-rays and some blood samples to see if you're healing up properly.

They are most certainly qualified to know when to remove it. Demand to speak to a specialist.

My house doctor told me that my fracture healed up in 6 weeks so I definitely didn't have a gap as I claimed.
I was tempted to tell him to go back to med school bc he doesn't know   about this, but I just kept silent. I knew better anyway.

I'm going to visit him soon again bc of my X-legs. It's terrible in my opinion.

[Wannabegiant]

Call your house doctor. Be honest and tell him. It's not his job to understand you.
He will make an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. They will take X-rays and some blood samples to see if you're healing up properly.

They are most certainly qualified to know when to remove it. Demand to speak to a specialist.

My house doctor told me that my fracture healed up in 6 weeks so I definitely didn't have a gap as I claimed.
I was tempted to tell him to go back to med school bc he doesn't know s**t about this, but I just kept silent. I knew better anyway.

I'm going to visit him soon again bc of my X-legs. It's terrible in my opinion.

Okey sounds good! il follow your advice as it seems like the smartest and most convenient thing to do 

But so you mean that your house doctor was correct in the end that the fracture was gone? Why did you think there was a gap? (sry it was a long time ago i read your diary so i dont remember these details from there). Btw im confused, are you speaking about another fracture apart from the lengthening gap? because 6 weeks for 7 cms doesnt sound right, you mean some other fracture?