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[doomsday]

I'm too lazy for a diary but my posts should give a  clear idea how risky LL can be.

[Body Builder]

I don't think that pics are important. Only x rays are as there we can see much about how successful the LL was.
With pics you only see proportions but this is something subjective most of the times but with x rays you can see the bone alignment, the callus formation, the pin condition and generally everyrhing that is really significant in LL.

[doomsday]

my lower leg look freakishly  long after 4 cm. I will post a photo soon. 

[Penguinn]

It's beyond me how people believe x rays can be faked, but a real life picture that could actually be photoshopped is enough proof.

I'll put this up to a vote: all those in favour of me removing my diary, speak up. I gain nothing from this, I have no problem taking it down. The real sufferers are future patients.

[Penguinn]

Any former femur vets who started doing squats and any leg work when their gait was almost 100%, as in, walking wasn't as strong as before but you worked out anyway? How did it affect you?

[LLSouthAmerica]

Any former femur vets who started doing squats and any leg work when their gait was almost 100%, as in, walking wasn't as strong as before but you worked out anyway? How did it affect you?

I am almost 5 months post op, and Dr. Guichet has allowed me to do everything. I didn't specifically ask if I could go to the gym but I did last week. Did 4 sets of 15 reps of leg extension, and leg curl plus what I always do at the gym 30 min bike, 30 min elliptical and 30 min fast walking. What happened is that in the leg extension machine a bit of my femur was outside the seat and made me feel uncomfortable. I used the second lowest weight and after the last set it started hurting a little (muscular pain). So I stopped. I will wait 6 months post op for a more serious training!

Also when I do side kicks (opening legs) in my left leg I feel slight pain as if I'm feeling the  top of the nail against my bone and soft tissues, has it ever happened to you?

[Penguinn]

Also when I do side kicks (opening legs) in my left leg I feel slight pain as if I'm feeling the  top of the nail against my bone and soft tissues, has it ever happened to you?

What do you mean by side kicks? Raising the leg sideways? Yeah, a slight pinching type sensation but no pain. I haven't done any serious workouts, just physio on the bed and walking.

[Penguinn]

Minor update: My gait is now normal, at least to someone that doesn't know anything. I can walk the street and all without anyone noticing. I don't feel perfect in the left leg, although it appears 99%. I feel like 90%, but it gets better every week. I don't worry or bother about it anymore. Gait only becomes off if I'm carrying some weight or I'm tired. Gait is never an issue on even ground, but I still feel a tiny bit conscious about walking on the street(google "Indian roads" and you'll know why).

I stopped physio/1hr a day walking a month ago cause I didn't feel like I needed it anymore. The only thing keeping me from normalcy is that I can't climb stairs with my left leg. Consolidate faster you c*nt. lol

[LLSouthAmerica]

Be very careful when going outside, especially in places with many people. They might bump into you and make you lose your balance (that actually happened to me a few times the first time I went outside).

Also do you sit down and up normally? or do you help yourself with your hands? Do you feel normal? Even if I can do everything as before the surgery, I still feel a weird sensation around my knee... is it stiffness, the change in biomechanics? I don't know, but I don't feel like before.

[Penguinn]

Be very careful when going outside, especially in places with many people. They might bump into you and make you lose your balance (that actually happened to me a few times the first time I went outside).

Also do you sit down and up normally? or do you help yourself with your hands? Do you feel normal? Even if I can do everything as before the surgery, I still feel a weird sensation around my knee... is it stiffness, the change in biomechanics? I don't know, but I don't feel like before.

If the chair is medium height, I get up without hands. Otherwise with. I know exactly what you mean about the sensation, I have it on the left and not on the right. It's tight or weak hamstrings causing stiffness, I think. I feel it at the back of the knee where the hamstring connects to the calf muscle. It'll go away with time. A month ago my left knee bent very little while walking and now it's almost normal.

Ps: I tried climbing stairs with both legs like a normal person and turns out I can climb with the left, but it doesn't feel right. As in I won't get hurt on the first step but if I kept at it, I probably would. Giving it more time.

[EndGame]

Any former femur vets who started doing squats and any leg work when their gait was almost 100%, as in, walking wasn't as strong as before but you worked out anyway? How did it affect you?

Squats put you at greatest risk. Better to start with the leg machine for extensions and curls. Something about the leg being at a 90 degree angle, unsupported, and carrying load makes it more likely to cause injury. For example, when I had my rods removed, Paley said 6 weeks till cleared for anything and everything, but till then no running, jumping or squats, but walking, biking, leg machine for extensions and curls fine. However, I'm not suggesting you should do any leg workouts at the gym yet and trust your doctor to tell you when you can safely begin doing that. I believe more blood flow and exercise will help you consolidate and recover faster. I encourage you to walk more. Best wishes.

[alps]

updates? Are you back to full normalcy now?

[Penguinn]

Walking completely normal and climbing stairs normally with the right and almost-normally with the left. Improvement is constant and I'm happy. Nobody can look at my walking and find anything wrong.

The X-rays are good, but one side of the left is still not how it should be consolidation wise, so I might opt for one of those stimulant injections after waiting a while. That's for jogging/running though and I'm not even sure intervention will be needed. Not too concerned about that, I can wait it out.

I don't update my diary because I don't have anything new to say lol. Hard part's over. Very busy with life. I must say, LL still seems very weird and surreal to me even though I did it. I considered doing a summary of my diary because no newbies will be arsed to read the entire thing, but I'll do it once the nails come out sometime in a year.

Edit: Ooh, before I forget. I was walking normally by the end of August too, but I caught a really high fever(103) that made all my body muscles weak and you can guess which ones were affected the most. So for the next 2 weeks I was basically a month back in recovery time, thankfully I made it back to normalcy quick. It stole about 3 weeks of my time. I can't imagine what would've happened if I had a fever back in my crucial recovery stages. Take care, folks.

[Purushrottam]

Hi Penguinn, I hope everything is going ok. I was following your diary since last you started. Thank you very much for keeping it updated.

 I'm scheduled for LL with Paley on Sept 26 this year.

[Mtall]

Walking completely normal and climbing stairs normally with the right and almost-normally with the left. Improvement is constant and I'm happy. Nobody can look at my walking and find anything wrong.

The X-rays are good, but one side of the left is still not how it should be consolidation wise, so I might opt for one of those stimulant injections after waiting a while. That's for jogging/running though and I'm not even sure intervention will be needed. Not too concerned about that, I can wait it out.

I don't update my diary because I don't have anything new to say lol. Hard part's over. Very busy with life. I must say, LL still seems very weird and surreal to me even though I did it. I considered doing a summary of my diary because no newbies will be arsed to read the entire thing, but I'll do it once the nails come out sometime in a year.

Hey man, I'm glad you made it. It's taken about a year, but God's listened to all our prayers that you get out of it in one piece and 7.5 cms taller.
I come to your diary every now and then, and I'm glad its ending this way.
As for me, loose ends still need to be tied up before I do the surgery, but the plan's very much still on. I just hope costs don't suddenly jump before I pay the deposit, lol.

And, if I may ask a question now: how many days/weeks post op do you think your mind/body (both) would allow you to start studying (like for a competitive exam). As in, I'm thinking its a good idea to use my time productively instead of sitting in bed all day in between PT sessions, so I was wondering: is it possible to study during the lengthening phase or are you just so exhausted that you would be better off not making commitments to yourself?

[Penguinn]

Hey man, I'm glad you made it. It's taken about a year, but God's listened to all our prayers that you get out of it in one piece and 7.5 cms taller.
I come to your diary every now and then, and I'm glad its ending this way.
As for me, loose ends still need to be tied up before I do the surgery, but the plan's very much still on. I just hope costs don't suddenly jump before I pay the deposit, lol.

And, if I may ask a question now: how many days/weeks post op do you think your mind/body (both) would allow you to start studying (like for a competitive exam). As in, I'm thinking its a good idea to use my time productively instead of sitting in bed all day in between PT sessions, so I was wondering: is it possible to study during the lengthening phase or are you just so exhausted that you would be better off not making commitments to yourself?

Thanks, I never doubted the happy ending, the time it took was just longer than I wanted. Well I won't say happy ending before I'm running.

Depends, how important is this exam to you? With the kind of pain I had, if I really cared about the exam, I could've started studying 4 days post op. But if you're like me you'll feel too lethargic and jaded to study because you'll be constantly thinking about LL. It's super hard to focus on long term goals when your short term goals, especially health are on the line. In theory, a few days/one week post op if your pain is like mine.

[Mtall]

Wait a minute. I don't believe this question didn't come into my mind till now, but:

After LL, are most of your hours spent lying down, or can you sit up if you want to? Like on a couch, not on the bed.
Can you sit at a study table with a comfortable chair?

Because I won't be able to study even ABC if I'm lying down...

How do you divide post-op life into "bedridden" and "able to sit up"?

[The Dreamer]

To Mtall's question i'm going to add this,asking you if you are able to sleep on your stomach

[Penguinn]

Sitting up on your bed is easy. I was sitting up the entire day. That has to do with your back more than your legs. Even though your legs can bend at 90 degrees a few days post-op, doesn't mean you'll be able to keep them that way for a long time. So no, sitting on a couch wouldn't have been too comfortable for me, but your experience may be different. I had an awesome square shaped cushion that made sitting up on the bed a breeze.

tl;dr You can sit up on a bed because your legs are straight but not on a couch (for long) because your knees are bent

You can lie on your stomach for an hour or 2. The turning will be uncomfortable especially before your stitches are removed. Whenever I lied on my stomach, I eventually turned over onto my back.

[419]

About me:
I'm an 18 year old male. I'm looking to go from 5'2 to 5'5 in India which is kinda equivalent to going 5'4/5'5 to 5'7/5'8 in the US, a pretty great gain if I can manage all 7.5cms. I'm also going to get to be home throughout the procedure with my family since I'm from Mumbai, around half an hour away from where I'll be operated.

Surgery/doctor:
Doing Precice 2 nails in my femurs with Dr. Mangal Parihar. My surgery's on 20th September, about 12 days to go. I will be the Dr's first Precice 2 patient(slightly unnerving); however he says it won't matter. The total cost for those wondering is around $42,000 or 28 Lakhs(nails + surgery, not counting hotel stay or travel).
I've had 2 consultations with him thus far and will have another to get the exact surgery protocol.
He's not too big on pre-op PT but I've nonetheless been stretching and working out.
(Special thanks to Kilo for bringing the Dr's name to light with his experience and helping me out tons.)

These are the tests I've to do: http://imgur.com/a/tId5F

So far I'm really not scared, just excited. I guess the last week before their surgery is where people start sh*tting bricks. Fasting before my blood test and woke up at 3am out of hunger, couldn't sleep so decided to start this.
Feel free to ask me anything.

Penguin, can you plz advise on the total aproximate cost of internals with Parihar (including food, accomodation etc. I mean all starting from surgery to the day you can walk), also can you plz advise on the approx timeline of lengthening, consolidation, walking etc? I would be doing the surgery in next 1 year, possibly earlier and Parihar is a target doctor for me. thanks a lot

[419]

I am almost 5 months post op, and Dr. Guichet has allowed me to do everything. I didn't specifically ask if I could go to the gym but I did last week. Did 4 sets of 15 reps of leg extension, and leg curl plus what I always do at the gym 30 min bike, 30 min elliptical and 30 min fast walking. What happened is that in the leg extension machine a bit of my femur was outside the seat and made me feel uncomfortable. I used the second lowest weight and after the last set it started hurting a little (muscular pain). So I stopped. I will wait 6 months post op for a more serious training!

Also when I do side kicks (opening legs) in my left leg I feel slight pain as if I'm feeling the  top of the nail against my bone and soft tissues, has it ever happened to you?

Hei LLsouth america, great to know you are doing great. It seems Guichet patients walk/recover earlier then other doctors', can you comment on how , anything special? ALso, can you plz advise how much you spent on total ? thanks.

[Mtall]

Penguinn,
This might be the right time to ask you this, since you're at the end of your journey and now you can look back and thoughtfully answer.
I thought of asking you this via PM, but then I thought it would be good for everyone to know the answer:
In the beginning of your diary, you said that you had the funds to go to Dr. Paley, but you didn't want to let your dad spend that much. So you went to Dr. Parihar.

Looking back at your LL journey now, is there ANYTHING that would have gone better if you had gone to Dr. Paley instead? Is there anything that would have been done better, said better or anything that would have made your journey shorter, quicker or in any way superior?

[Penguinn]

I did a light trot today. Not a jog, just that trot people do while trying to cover 5-6 steps really quickly. Nothing broke/tore/ripped/squeaked so that's nice, but I'm going to stop messing around until at least a couple more weeks pass.

Penguinn,
This might be the right time to ask you this, since you're at the end of your journey and now you can look back and thoughtfully answer.
I thought of asking you this via PM, but then I thought it would be good for everyone to know the answer:
In the beginning of your diary, you said that you had the funds to go to Dr. Paley, but you didn't want to let your dad spend that much. So you went to Dr. Parihar.

Looking back at your LL journey now, is there ANYTHING that would have gone better if you had gone to Dr. Paley instead? Is there anything that would have been done better, said better or anything that would have made your journey shorter, quicker or in any way superior?

I can't stay. The #1 problem I had was slow consolidation which seems like it'd have happened regardless of the doctor. Plus, at times I was lazy with the weight bearing.

Parihar takes it slow and careful. Would Paley have made me walk(aided) right away/sooner? Would that have sped up my recovery or broken my bone? I have absolutely no way of knowing that.

[LLSouthAmerica]

Hei LLsouth america, great to know you are doing great. It seems Guichet patients walk/recover earlier then other doctors', can you comment on how , anything special? ALso, can you plz advise how much you spent on total ? thanks.

Ask me on my diary, this is Penguinn's.

[Mtall]

Plus, at times I was lazy with the weight bearing.

Yeah, so tell me something...why exactly were you lazy with the weight bearing? Is it physically taxing? Is it painful?

[Penguinn]

Yeah, so tell me something...why exactly were you lazy with the weight bearing? Is it physically taxing? Is it painful?

LL puts you in a place where days/weeks just blend into each other and you feel like a corpse. You're not mobile and don't feel like yourself. Life is slow. Improvement is slow at first (but then speeds up in the later months of recovery) so the motivation is low too. It is physically taxing, yeah, but I could've done better. Plus at that point, college and stuff was far away so I thought I'd just let it happen. Then commitments came nearer and callus was slow, so I realized I had to make sh*t happen and worked harder.

[Penguinn]

Update

So despite being able to walk relatively normally a few months ago, my left leg hadn't consolidated on all sides. About a month ago I went for a CT scan because Dr. P wanted to analyze my bones carefully from all angles. He's analyzed it thoroughly and believes no intervention (like bone marrow injections to stimulate the remaining callus) is necessary. Yay!

My gait is 100%. Only time my gait is 90%, that too only in the left leg, is the first 2 seconds after I get up after sitting for a long time. I can jog. I've only jogged in my house(I don't think I was supposed to), and it's not 100%, so giving it more time. I probably won't try full on sprinting for another few months just to be safe. I think my left leg may have filled up the gap on its own, because it's hard to believe I'm walking this well and able to trot/jog with some bone missing. I'll get an x-ray soon- haven't had one in a long time.

Reason I haven't gotten checked in a long time or I don't come here much is because I'm just busy with life and feel pretty normal. Function is pretty normal, like climbing stairs, wearing shoes standing up, picking up something I've dropped. I've even sumo wrestled a scrawny friend(with my not-back-to-full-strength legs as anchors) and won, there is no hope for him.

Problems I still have:
My ass is kinda deflated I miss my old plump posterior. Even the ladies loved it lol. It's gonna take forever, isn't it?
My thigh muscles (quads, hammies) are still not 100% so I don't squat and stuff. But they're improving and at a very comfortable place.
I can't jog properly or run, but that can wait.

I'm not going to post any media but if anyone cares, I can make a timeline of my LL with problems and their solutions for potential patients to go through quickly. Or maybe I should wait till I can run before calling it a success story?

[Smallindianman]

Hey penguinn what do you think after more than 1 year of surgery was it worth it? Does it make you feel happier than before? And how does it feel to be 3 inches taller does't it feel weird?

[Penguinn]

200% worth it.

[Penguinn]

I just want to update and say that I ran from one wall of my house to another (very small distance and not a full sprint, but definitely more than a jog) and I felt fine. Mum saw the run and said I looked like a normal person. I'm still going to wait a few months before jogging and sprinting because it's simply not worth the risk right now. Parihar hasn't given me permission to run so I feel kind of guilty too haha. I'll probably start gyming and treadmilling and build up my quads/hammies before running full steam.

I'll also probably get an x-ray soon, haven't taken one in 3 months. Thanks to people who've been rooting for me, it's meant a lot. Once I start jogging, which will probably be several months from now because I'm being careful, I'll write a summary of the diary. Also sorry for not being the most active mod, life is great but keeps me really busy, I'll try to do better.

[Purushrottam]

I just want to update and say that I ran from one wall of my house to another (very small distance and not a full sprint, but definitely more than a jog) and I felt fine. Mum saw the run and said I looked like a normal person. I'm still going to wait a few months before jogging and sprinting because it's simply not worth the risk right now. Parihar hasn't given me permission to run so I feel kind of guilty too haha. I'll probably start gyming and treadmilling and build up my quads/hammies before running full steam.

I'll also probably get an x-ray soon, haven't taken one in 3 months. Thanks to people who've been rooting for me, it's meant a lot. Once I start jogging, which will probably be several months from now because I'm being careful, I'll write a summary of the diary. Also sorry for not being the most active mod, life is great but keeps me really busy, I'll try to do better.

Congratulations Penguinn! At the same time,  please don't take any risks without letting the doctor on.

I just wanted to say your diary was one of the ones that convinced me to take the leap. I did my surgery almost exactly a year after you. All the best!