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[Antonio]

A forum user has sent me a private email. I wish to say that I do not wish to correspond by email, but only via the forum (public record). However, as the user posts some interesting questions, I will answer them here.

>>Hi Antonio
I hope you are doing well.
Im 40 years old and I'm about to do the same process as you did: 2 stage lengthening.
Can I ask you some questions?

1) what did you tell to the people in your work? What's it stressful being questioned?
2) how did you balance the gap between your legs? Elevator shoes on one leg and what on the longer leg?
3) did the process/pain impacted your performance at work?

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me

Best<<

Hi, thank you for your questions.

1). I told them I had an accident with the motorbike. In Spain it is quite common, and as I was not going to be able to ride for a while, I had it serviced and kept in the garage. It's a beautiful classic off-road Bultaco. As I did not take the baja (unpaid leave), I did not have to give any evidence. I was back to work one week after the operation. I also waived the annual check-up by the company medic. Everybody was very suppoortive when they saw me with crutches (opening doors, carrying my stuff, driving me around). Although that may be them suk up! Anyway, I enjoyed the attention and could use it to deflect from my pains. When people wanted details, I would begin talking about terms in a very technical manner about the bone, ligaments and tendons and the operation and their faces would kind of glaze over. So prepare your story! When I travelled and the metal detector would sound, I told everyone that I had a metal rod in my knee for support. Wearing the heels was more problematic, but I said it was to relieve the stress on my injured leg. Over time, they don't notice the growth in height (or maybe they are just too afraid of me to say so!) and now they think I just have great posture and work out more.

2). Yep, elevator shoes on the shorter leg. Normal shoes on the longer leg. You can use an add on heel (internal) and/or external one. The orthopedist can make a new larger external heel for your shoe.

3). Not really. That's one of the benefits of having one good leg. I could get around to make site visits and meetings on the crutches, and everyone was so impressed by my dexterity and determination. I must admit though that being in Barcelona helped. When I had my screw loose and saw it in the X-ray, Dr. M scheduled the operation the same week.

All the best in your journey. Happy to answer any and all questions.

Antonio

[U only live once]

Hi Antonio,

I am from Latin America and i have enjoyed reading your LL journey. I hope I can get my surgery in August still deciding one stage or two stage. Definitely two stage seem to me the way to go as you can continue with your normal life with little difficulties and only taking a couple of weeks off; however, coming from far away won't make it easy to go to Spain and then again after 6 months. So Antonio from your experience as Monegal's patient;
first, Would you recommend Monegal?
second, as you mentioned in your blog you had a screw loose that led to a surgery, do you think for a patient that comes from far away that incident could be avoidable?
third, how did you find your experience of being lengthening your leg on your own, is it something really easy that anyone can do?
Fourth and last,  just out of curiosity as you were growing in one leg and started to use an insole in your other shoe to compensate, did you require to change the insole per every centimeter you grew taller? how did that work out?

thanks Antonio for mi boring questions and have a nice day!!       

[Antonio]

Hi UOL1 (man, I like your username!),

Congrats on taking the first step in this life-changing journey! I am very very happy I did it, although I am sure as you have read from other diaries here (Unicorn, DIFM, Yellowspike etc) you know it is not a piece of cake. May I ask how tall you are now? I think LL has helped me in 3 different ways:
1. My self-image. Before I used to look at my body and curse my parents for giving me such short legs. Now I look at my longish legs and body and I am so happy. And it shows when I approach women how comfortable I am now in my skin.
2. My confidence. As I said before, my confidence is now sky high. Going from average woman's height to 3 inches above is incredible. I have received so many flirtations and outright come-ons that I still can't quite believe it. I started dating a Danish woman a few months ago (she's about 5'6") and I can honestly say that at my previous height she would not have even looked at me. And now next week we are going to Naples and the Amalfi coast to celebrate!
3. My internal struggles. I feel that I have finally accepted myself for who I am and feel there's no need to be like someone else. I have overcome my genetic destiny. I may have been born with genes for naturally short height, but I have genes for artificial height (determination, mental strength, physical awareness of my body)

On to your questions. Would I recommend Monegal? For me, undoubtedly. I would place my life in his hands (and so I have, being under the knife with him 4 times now). He gets a bad rap in this forum but if you do your own proper research you will come to some rather different conclusions. I'm actually happy now that there are trolls who bash and lie about Monegal - they act as a kind of first filter. If you can believe someone on the Internet without any credentials or proof and not do your own research, then I think you do not deserve LL. And really sometimes I feel sorry for the kind of BS that Monegal has to put up with his prospective patients.

For you, I understand you are worried about being so far away from Spain. In this case, I recommend you contact a specialist in your home country to ask him if he can correct the screws should they come loose. I don't know how easy it would be for you to fly back here, I know that one patient of his from Canada has to fly back here to get the loose screw corrected. From what I've seen, screws coming loose are quite common, although no one seems to know why exactly it happens. In my case it was because I put weight at an angle on my operated leg. I also did a lot of walking and climbing stairs when I was on crutches. I think it could have been avoided if I had been careful, in fact this is what I did with my second leg and the screws are still firmly in place.

Is lengthening on your own easy to do? For me, yes, it was ridiculously easy. I only really experienced pain and tension at night, then I started to take more Tramadol and Orfidal to sleep and it was manageable. Because I always had one strong leg at any one time, I could go anywhere (I drove my car), fly, even swim in a a shallow pool. Just had to bring my crutches. Of course I was slower and had to adapt to how to cook, do laundry, get things etc, but it's not that difficult.

Insoles. I bought two insoles at 1 cm and 0,5 cm. After lenghtening 2 cm on on eleg, I had an external sole fitted on one shoe of 2 cm, then later 4 cm, then 5 cm. So adjustments were made at every 0,5 cm. I admit the external soles were very ugly-looking but I told people it was necessary for my recovery from the accident.

Good luck to you, and have a nice day

[U only live once]

Hi Antonio,   

thanks a lot for your time and effort put in here to write this answer. I am sure we all have a story to tell and unfortunately the world we live in today judges from the outside. If you ever meet me, you will know that I hell need this surgery ! I know about this surgery for way too long however I have been always afraid of doing it and some of the top notch doctors seemed too cold not to mention the rediculous prices they charged so I always thought fk it! But then this guy Dr. Monegal came along with more acceptable prices and a friendly personality and thought to myself after 10 years : well now I am in! 

Hopefully I can have this surgery done in August  and finally make up for those wasted years! until recently I was so confident that I wanted to do one-stage limb lengthening because I come from far away but what scares me is that I may not able to cope with the stress of being in a wheelchair for two or three months . So two-stage is more likely as I will be able to still kick around after two weeks. I will follow your advice and get myself a doctor back home that  could back me up should something go wrong (loose screw).  thanks Antonio for sharing your experience with me and I am glad your life has changed for better!!!         

And one more thing I am so glad to hear you are scoring better with the ladies ! Danish girls are just smoking hot!! 

[helloworld]

Hi UOL1 (man, I like your username!),

Congrats on taking the first step in this life-changing journey! I am very very happy I did it, although I am sure as you have read from other diaries here (Unicorn, DIFM, Yellowspike etc) you know it is not a piece of cake. May I ask how tall you are now? I think LL has helped me in 3 different ways:
1. My self-image. Before I used to look at my body and curse my parents for giving me such short legs. Now I look at my longish legs and body and I am so happy. And it shows when I approach women how comfortable I am now in my skin.
2. My confidence. As I said before, my confidence is now sky high. Going from average woman's height to 3 inches above is incredible. I have received so many flirtations and outright come-ons that I still can't quite believe it. I started dating a Danish woman a few months ago (she's about 5'6") and I can honestly say that at my previous height she would not have even looked at me. And now next week we are going to Naples and the Amalfi coast to celebrate!
3. My internal struggles. I feel that I have finally accepted myself for who I am and feel there's no need to be like someone else. I have overcome my genetic destiny. I may have been born with genes for naturally short height, but I have genes for artificial height (determination, mental strength, physical awareness of my body)

On to your questions. Would I recommend Monegal? For me, undoubtedly. I would place my life in his hands (and so I have, being under the knife with him 4 times now). He gets a bad rap in this forum but if you do your own proper research you will come to some rather different conclusions. I'm actually happy now that there are trolls who bash and lie about Monegal - they act as a kind of first filter. If you can believe someone on the Internet without any credentials or proof and not do your own research, then I think you do not deserve LL. And really sometimes I feel sorry for the kind of BS that Monegal has to put up with his prospective patients.

For you, I understand you are worried about being so far away from Spain. In this case, I recommend you contact a specialist in your home country to ask him if he can correct the screws should they come loose. I don't know how easy it would be for you to fly back here, I know that one patient of his from Canada has to fly back here to get the loose screw corrected. From what I've seen, screws coming loose are quite common, although no one seems to know why exactly it happens. In my case it was because I put weight at an angle on my operated leg. I also did a lot of walking and climbing stairs when I was on crutches. I think it could have been avoided if I had been careful, in fact this is what I did with my second leg and the screws are still firmly in place.

Is lengthening on your own easy to do? For me, yes, it was ridiculously easy. I only really experienced pain and tension at night, then I started to take more Tramadol and Orfidal to sleep and it was manageable. Because I always had one strong leg at any one time, I could go anywhere (I drove my car), fly, even swim in a a shallow pool. Just had to bring my crutches. Of course I was slower and had to adapt to how to cook, do laundry, get things etc, but it's not that difficult.

Insoles. I bought two insoles at 1 cm and 0,5 cm. After lenghtening 2 cm on on eleg, I had an external sole fitted on one shoe of 2 cm, then later 4 cm, then 5 cm. So adjustments were made at every 0,5 cm. I admit the external soles were very ugly-looking but I told people it was necessary for my recovery from the accident.

Good luck to you, and have a nice day

If you are going to Naples, be careful. I arrived today, and after literally less than 25 minutes in town, my wallet had been stolen! :-(

[U only live once]

Noted!

[Antonio]

Update June 2017

X-rays: Right leg: http://imgur.com/lkkkBMj

Consolidation is complete. Rod and device removal planned for 4th July.

Left leg: http://imgur.com/rFfEtMa

Consolidation has improved a lot since 3 months ago. Bone bridge is forming slowly but surely.

No pains at all since January, flexibility is as good as pre-op (only got to 180 degrees from 170 degrees in the last month on the left leg). Started jogging again. Full squats butt to heel no problem.

Dr. Monegal has told me that Fitbone has appointed him as an official Fitbone Instructor, which means that he will start to train surgeons in the use of Fitbone soon, and as a result he has been invited to present at a Limb Lengthening worldwide conference next year. He's thinking of doing a controlled study of antegrade vs. retrograde insertion.

@helloworld: sorry about your wallet! hey it happened to me on Las Ramblas Barcelona, and I'm a local! By the way, Naples and the Amalfi coast was just amazing. So beautiful and so happy my legs had no problems climbing the 400 or so steps up and down to Positano beach

@OUL1: We had such a good time, the Danish girl and me. Swimming in the sea, enjoying the great pasta, making sweet love morning and night ... best holiday ever.

[ouroboros]

Hey Antonio, congratulations for having a successful journey! Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself.

Now that you have the rod's removed, can you give an update of what it feels like to walk around, exercise, etc., thanks.

[Datum]

His rods haven't been removed. None Monegal cosmetic patient had rods removed yet.

[U only live once]

If you are going to Naples, be careful. I arrived today, and after literally less than 25 minutes in town, my wallet had been stolen! :-(

Hi Hello World, 

Is there anything else I should know from Spain. If you don't mind me asking when you got to Barcelona and you were getting ready for the surgery, what did u bring with you to clínica diagonal? Thanks !

[Antonio]

Hey Antonio, congratulations for having a successful journey! Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself.

Now that you have the rod's removed, can you give an update of what it feels like to walk around, exercise, etc., thanks.

Hey Ouro, sorry for the late reply - I've been very busy with work and my summer holidays. My new height is especially enjoyable when I travel as I see strangers and feel so much being "checked out" by attractive women. Certainly gives a boost to the ego, although my Danish girlfriend was not too happy lol.

I had my right rod (only right, my left femur has still not consolidated 100%) removed on 5th July (i.e. 6 weeks ago). Checked in to C. Diagonal at 12 noon and went into OR at 2 pm. Discharged and back to my room at 7 pm. Slept very fitfully with a lot of pain. Despite the pain and being heavily bandaged, I went back to work the very next day on crutches. My colleagues said it was as if I had come back from a war lol.

I decided to remove my right rod then as the pulse receiver and cable was starting to give me pain. That's one of the drawbacks of the Fitbone device, the receiver and cable are loose under the skin and if the cable breaks, as had happened on my left leg, the pain can be so unbearable as to prevent walking. But the turning of the rod itself for the lengthening was painless.

I must say I was surprised with how long it took to recover from the operation. To this day I have a slight pain in my fascia muscle from the knee to the middle of the outside of the thigh when I wake up and when I try to run. It feels like muscle soreness after a heavy workout. It was not until three weeks after that I regained 100% ROM in the knee as well as no lingering pain in my ankle and knee from the operation.

I've started again with squats and plyometric jumps. My strength and flexibility are back to 100%, but because of the muscle pain, I won't start running again till it is completely gone. Walking long distances is painless and completely normal.

How about you? When is your operation?

Regards,

Antonio

[Antonio]

Hi Hello World, 

Is there anything else I should know from Spain. If you don't mind me asking when you got to Barcelona and you were getting ready for the surgery, what did u bring with you to clínica diagonal? Thanks !

UOL1, good luck on your upcoming surgery!

[helloworld]

Hi Hello World, 

Is there anything else I should know from Spain. If you don't mind me asking when you got to Barcelona and you were getting ready for the surgery, what did u bring with you to clínica diagonal? Thanks !

Sorry! I missed the question, as it was in the diary of "Antonio".
I did not bring anything special, just the usual stuff for travelling.
I made sure I was prepared for working from the bed, by bringing two laptops and brough proteins and supplements.

[U only live once]

UOL1, good luck on your upcoming surgery!

Thanks Antonio! Your diary has been a huge help in making my mind to take this step.

[Four Inch]

I decided to remove my right rod then as the pulse receiver and cable was starting to give me pain. That's one of the drawbacks of the Fitbone device, the receiver and cable are loose under the skin and if the cable breaks, as had happened on my left leg, the pain can be so unbearable as to prevent walking. But the turning of the rod itself for the lengthening was painless.

I must say I was surprised with how long it took to recover from the operation. To this day I have a slight pain in my fascia muscle from the knee to the middle of the outside of the thigh when I wake up and when I try to run. It feels like muscle soreness after a heavy workout. It was not until three weeks after that I regained 100% ROM in the knee as well as no lingering pain in my ankle and knee from the operation.

I've started again with squats and plyometric jumps. My strength and flexibility are back to 100%, but because of the muscle pain, I won't start running again till it is completely gone. Walking long distances is painless and completely normal.

Hi Antonio,

I had the cable only removed from my 1st leg and had surgery for my second leg a little over two weeks ago.  Just from the surgery required for removing cable, I was not able to put weight on my 1st leg for well over a week. I was very surprised, I was not expecting that.

I was just curious as to why you have the rod removed and not just and cable? Also, how long did it take before you were able to walk again after having the rod removed?

Thanks!

[Antonio]

Hi Antonio,

I had the cable only removed from my 1st leg and had surgery for my second leg a little over two weeks ago.  Just from the surgery required for removing cable, I was not able to put weight on my 1st leg for well over a week. I was very surprised, I was not expecting that.

I was just curious as to why you have the rod removed and not just and cable? Also, how long did it take before you were able to walk again after having the rod removed?

Thanks!

Hi 4in, congrats on your journey so far!

Why did I have the right rod removed? I don't like foreign objects in my body lol. Seriously, I always knew I wanted to remove my rods as soon as the femur was consolidated, as the longer it stays the more the muscle fibres tighten around the screws and the harder it is to remove in the future. Plus I hate the metal detectors going off everytime I fly. Taking the rod out as the same time as the cable means I skip one operation. I am a firm believer in gradualism and letting the body adapt slowly to change, so doing two rod removals at once would mean significantly more hospitalization and recovery time.

I was able to walk with crutches one day after the operation and without crutches but limping three days after. But I didn't feel up to 95% back to normal until 3-4 weeks after, when most of the pains had gone and I recovered full ROM in my knee.

Good luck amigo!

[Four Inch]

Thank you Antonio,

Great information that I certainly need to consider.

[Antonio]

To the moderators: Would it be possible to remove all the Monegal opinion posts onto a single thread in Other information and leave the factual info for the Doctor entry? Organizationally, it would help matters. Thank you

[Zeo]

To the moderators: Would it be possible to remove all the Monegal opinion posts onto a single thread in Other information and leave the factual info for the Doctor entry? Organizationally, it would help matters. Thank you

No we need to have as much threads relating to the Great Leader Dr. Monegal as possible so he may spread his joy and blessings to all !!

[U only live once]

To the moderators: Would it be possible to remove all the Monegal opinion posts onto a single thread in Other information and leave the factual info for the Doctor entry? Organizationally, it would help matters. Thank you

Good idea!

[myloginacct]

How's your consolidation now?

[Honore]

dear Antonio,

Your real life foto's look great.. if i didn't know about ur LL i would not have noticed anything.

I have a couple of questions, forgive me if you have answered them before:

- I am hoping to do LL next year at an age of 49/50. Would that be a problem?
- What was the deal with bone spur?
- I see that you started doiing squats only 3 months after stopping lengthening... so the weight is held by the nail and not the bone? Is this correct?
- on may 20 17 you wrote: '..being under the knife with him 4 times now)..'... why 4 times? Isn't 3 times?
- What were the total costs? Was the loose screw an extra payment?

Thx in advance

[InferiorityComplex]

I think he took 1 rod out and kept having the other one inside. In regards of squats, Im trying as we speak after 4 months 2 weeks and feels better everyday. I bicycle around normally, walking not 100 % but can walk etc. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me as i want to contribute.

[Antonio]

How's your consolidation now?

Consolidation on left leg is complete. X-rays from yesterday: http://hpics.li/4fb9bc6

[Antonio]

dear Antonio,

Your real life foto's look great.. if i didn't know about ur LL i would not have noticed anything.

I have a couple of questions, forgive me if you have answered them before:

- I am hoping to do LL next year at an age of 49/50. Would that be a problem?
- What was the deal with bone spur?
- I see that you started doiing squats only 3 months after stopping lengthening... so the weight is held by the nail and not the bone? Is this correct?
- on may 20 17 you wrote: '..being under the knife with him 4 times now)..'... why 4 times? Isn't 3 times?
- What were the total costs? Was the loose screw an extra payment?

Thx in advance

You are observant and attentive to detail ... I like that. Just from that alone, I know you will do your research before doing LL.

Your age. It depends .... how fit are you? Are you "young" for your age? I believe that age is merely a number. A couple of weeks ago, some friends set me up on a blind date without me knowing in advance. When my date arrived she told me I looked like I was 35, or about 10 years younger. I've always been active, muscular, run 5k in 30 minutes, swim 2k in 25, never smoked, drink alcohol moderately, you get the idea.... nowadays there are lab tests where they take your blood sample, skin sample, CO2 etc and they tell you your biological age. It is the basis of some nature vs nurture experiments. Maybe you can do such a test

The bone spur was to test a hypothesis by my doctor that having a greater surface area of the bone wouold encourage consolidation. It seemed to have worked, or at the least it did not cause any bad effects.

Squats. It depends on how low you go on the squat. At the beginning of the motion, when the weight is over your centre of gravity, all the weight is on the nail. The lower you go the more the force is at an angle to the nail and so the callus is taking the stress. This stress is is what encourages bone consolidation. Also of course your leg muscles are contracting to resist the weight.

4 operations. Yes, again very well observed. I had an outpatient operation to remove the left sensor and cable as it had broken but I didn't post it as it was the time of the Monegal "storm trolls" and I didn't feel like it.

My total costs to date are 38,5k euros, broken down as follows: 18,5k for each implant surgery + 5 days hospitalization, and 1,5k for right rod removal. My doctor didn't charge me anything for the loose screw fixing.

[Honore]

Thanks for the compliment Antonio.. I will definitely do my research before LL... As most "normal" people/doctors will  tell you not to do it because of the risks(and they are actually right) I have no other choice than minimize the risk by choosing the optimum treatment.

I am almost 49 years but look like 39. I am in good physical health, stopped smoking 8 years ago and work-out several times a week.. So, just like you, I have that working for me.

38,5k eur seems a reasonable price compared to others. But at 165/167 cm I want to lengthen a minimum of 10cm... So I think doing femur and tibia(5cm each).. I reckon I need at least double the amount of euro's.

Monegal seems the only doc to promote the Two stage LL.. do other docs fail to see the risks?

I love your quote.."I have overcome my genetic destiny"... that could have come from my mouth...

[myloginacct]

Thanks for the compliment Antonio.. I will definitely do my research before LL... As most "normal" people/doctors will  tell you not to do it because of the risks(and they are actually right) I have no other choice than minimize the risk by choosing the optimum treatment.

I am almost 49 years but look like 39. I am in good physical health, stopped smoking 8 years ago and work-out several times a week.. So, just like you, I have that working for me.

38,5k eur seems a reasonable price compared to others. But at 165/167 cm I want to lengthen a minimum of 10cm... So I think doing femur and tibia(5cm each).. I reckon I need at least double the amount of euro's.

Monegal seems the only doc to promote the Two stage LL.. do other docs fail to see the risks?

I love your quote.."I have overcome my genetic destiny"... that could have come from my mouth...

Man, be careful to not get greedy. You should do one segment first and see how you feel afterwards, with that new height and all. It'll be better for your health and your pocket.

Also, be very mindful of your age when choosing a LL method.

[U only live once]

Hi Antonio,

So you just remove the antenna but the nail is still inside ?   

When are you planning to remove the road?

[Antonio]

Thanks for the compliment Antonio.. I will definitely do my research before LL... As most "normal" people/doctors will  tell you not to do it because of the risks(and they are actually right) I have no other choice than minimize the risk by choosing the optimum treatment.

I am almost 49 years but look like 39. I am in good physical health, stopped smoking 8 years ago and work-out several times a week.. So, just like you, I have that working for me.

38,5k eur seems a reasonable price compared to others. But at 165/167 cm I want to lengthen a minimum of 10cm... So I think doing femur and tibia(5cm each).. I reckon I need at least double the amount of euro's.

Monegal seems the only doc to promote the Two stage LL.. do other docs fail to see the risks?

I love your quote.."I have overcome my genetic destiny"... that could have come from my mouth...

The benefits of two-stage LL vs. one-stage bilateral are:
1. Significant reduction in risk of fat embolism. Nobody knows exactly why it happens, it can happen during surgery or even a few days after, but it has been shown to be correlated with fracture of long limbs and major injuries. So doing one limb at a time allows for the body to adapt and reduces the risk by more than half (I read somewhere that it was in the order of 3% for limbs but I can't find the source anymore. However this is the incidence, the actual mortality rate is much lower in the order of 5%. So the risk of a fatal fat embolism is about 0,15%)
2. Mobility while lengthening. It is much easier to move around on one good leg and crutches than on a wheel chair.
3. Walking on the fractured leg, if done within safe limits, can aid in bone consolidation.
4. Pain (especially the psychological perception of it) during lengthening is halved.

The disadvantages are:
1. Two operations ie double the risk of cardiac arrest due to anaesthesia (in the order of 0,02%), can be mitigated slightly by using epidural instead of GA
2. Longer time to complete lengthening on both legs
3. Importance of equaling the amount lengthened between legs, but easily achieved with safe amounts of lengthening and doing PT

The choice is yours ...

[Antonio]

Hi Antonio,

So you just remove the antenna but the nail is still inside ?   

When are you planning to remove the road?

In early 2018

[Antonio]

Man, be careful to not get greedy. You should do one segment first and see how you feel afterwards, with that new height and all. It'll be better for your health and your pocket.

Also, be very mindful of your age when choosing a LL method.

I agree. You should do one segment first instead of doing cross-lateral