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[Auron]

Age: between 20 and 30 y/o
Height: 171~172cm
Goal: between 5 and 6cm added lenght to my femurs.

I met Dr. Monegal mid October and we had a short and simple conversation. After seeing my X-rays he told me it shouldn't be a problem to lenghten 6cms as my tibia/femur ratio would allow so confortably.

So yesterday I had my first surgery, it all went smooth and it only took 1 and half hours. Today I started to bend my knee 95º using the same machine Yagen used.  I will start walking with crutches tomorrow. I've had no pain at all so far but I still have the catheter on my back.

I'm staying in MIC Sant Jordi after I leave the hospital and planned to do all this alone until my mom decided to tag along. And we were both living in different countries! xd

About the people you will meet if you come over here, they are all very nice. So far I've no complaints.

As you can see I've just started my journey so I don't have much to say. Feel free to ask me anything though.

[onemorefoot]

Why just 5-6 cm?? Are you planning a second round?

[Auron]

Why just 5-6 cm?? Are you planning a second round?

For 3 reasons.

1- Pushing it beyond 6cms may increase the chance of complications.
2- The femur/tibia ratio shouldn't be too affected if I aim to lenghten max 6cm
3- My wingspan is about the same lenght as my height so I don't want my arms to look too short compared to my height.

[YourSpaceBoyfriend]

5'10 is a really good height.

Good luck buddy, hope everything will go just fine.

[yagen]

My best wishes!!!! 

[Auron]

Thank you boyfriend, I hope you can start your journey asap as well.

Thanks Yagen, I'm following yout footsteps :p

I've just woken up for my 3rd day, yay!

[Auron]

The first 2 x-rays after surgery. The gap you see is 3mm, created during the surgery. So far so good 

[dade]

Where are you from?

[Auron]

Where are you from?

Somewhere in europe :p I can tell you that I communicate with most of the nurses in spanish as I am not that bad it xd As for Dr. Monegal we speak in french, english, spanish...

[Wahnsinn]

What is your ability to move around right now? Are you going to go back home and lengthen there?

And BTW, if I can ask - how much did this one stage procedure cost you (just procedure and hospital stay) ?

Thanks and keeping my fingers crossed!

[dade]

Thank you Auron, can i ask you a questione?

where you'll be these months? how much it will cost?

[Auron]

@ dade & Wahnsinn

Surgery + hospital stay = 18900€ for a 2 stages procedure. That is how much I paid so far for my 1st surgery and will pay again in February for my 2nd surgery. Which means that a 2 stages procedure should cost you, in total, 37800€ ( 2x surgeries + 2x hostpital stays)

For bilateral aka 1 stage procedure you pay a total of 36000€. It's cheaper by 1800€ and it should be obvious why ( Less medication, less PT sessions, shorter hospital stay, etc).


Once I move out from the hospital I plan to stay in MIC Sant Jordi for 1 month and after that I will decide if I stay another month in MIC or if I finish the lengthning at home. In fact, I've already paid for 1 month in MIC but I'm not entirely happy with the amount I've paid. I paid 1710€ for a double room appartment when it should be 1470€, I was told. I still have to clarify this situation.

I had my surgery 6 days ago and the pain is now minimal. I'm still in hospital and I move around in crutches but I'vent been outside yet. I shower by myself and I usually ask my mom to dress me from the waist down. I did dress myself entirely once but its too tiring since I can't bend my leg past 100 degrees, only when I'm doing the PT session I go beyond 100 degrees. I said that the pain is minimal but I've to be careful when moving my operated leg, side way movements can be really painful, I've a broken leg after all. Since I've one good leg I can do pretty much anything I need to do but I can't pick stuff from the floor, I just can't bend the operated leg that much yet.

If there is something else that you need a detailed report let me know :p I hope I answered what you asked for.

[applesandoranges]

Nice to see a diary with Monegal. Is the cheaper price the only reason you chose Monegal and the Fitbone nail or are there more or other reasons? thanks

[Auron]

Nice to see a diary with Monegal. Is the cheaper price the only reason you chose Monegal and the Fitbone nail or are there more or other reasons? thanks

Price did play a role. However, there're other factors. As doctors I'd only consider Monegal, Paley or Guichet since Betz diaries didn't convince me and I lack information on the other doctors.

I ruled out Paley because I couldn't afford him and is too far away. I didn't even attempt a consultation with Guichet because I couldn't afford him as well (though it would be close) and his nail is somewhat outdated. I picked Monegal because the latest diaries of his patients were very encouraging and, despite people thinking other wise, I think that a 2 stages procedure is much better then a 1 stage procedure. I had a consultation with him and he seemed very confident in his abilities and the outcome of the surgery. I had immediately an idea of what to expect.

So yeah, I felt that I could trust him and made my choice 

[onemorefoot]

Can I ask you sitting height?

[Auron]

Can I ask you sitting height?

Between 91 and 92cm.

[onemorefoot]

I dont know if you are 172 in the morning or afternoon, but 177 is a good height, not tall but average.

[Auron]

I dont know if you are 172 in the morning or afternoon, but 177 is a good height, not tall but average.

172 around lunch time. Of course I'd like to be even taller but we got to know our limits and that's as far as I can go. Once I hit my goal I will let everyone know my level of satisfaction.

[dade]

Thank you very much Auron

[applesandoranges]

Question: after your treatment is done, and you remove the nail, does the bone remain hollow or does bone regrow inside the bone where the nail was? thanks

[Auron]

Question: after your treatment is done, and you remove the nail, does the bone remain hollow or does bone regrow inside the bone where the nail was? thanks

That is something that I'vent thought about but I can ask the doctor and let you know. Imo, the bone should remain hollow and I'm almost certain that it will.

[Auron]

I left the hospital yesterday. I had such a good relationship with the nurses there that I had a bit of mixed feelings when leaving.

I reside at MIC now and will do for at least 1 month. If I like it here I will stay longer. I walked in crutches for about 1h and a half while shopping and Claudio kinda scolded me for doing so LOL. Apparently, walking is key for my recovery but not for such a long period. I'vent taken any painkillers for 30 hours (now that I mention it, I haven't taken any medication at all during that period) and I might just stay away from them for the time being.

Although Claudio told me I'm doing very good I will still take his PT sessions 3 days a week for 1 month. It feels great at the end of each session.

What else... I've got a ball to play with in my appartment!

[Auron]

2 weeks post op.

That's right! My surgery was 2 weeks ago so I decided to throw in an update.
I am at 1cm and lentghning 0,81mm per day. Pain has been minimal except for last night, I had to take a tramadol for the first time. I suspect that the reason why I had so much pain is because I pushed myself too hard when stretching during the day. Also, my swelling is still very noticeable and I shouldn't have tryed to bend my knee so much during the exercises. However, it did pay off as my bending seems to have improved from yesterday to today. As they say, "no pain, no gain".

Every day I walk a bit, I go to gym twice, I do stretching exercises and I also rest, ofc. Btw, I ice my leg every time I come from the gym and at the end of any exercise. I am able to put much more weight in my leg but I avoid to do so.

As you can see nothing out of the ordinary has happened so far so I don't have much to say, thankfully. I think that the next step is to remove the stitches  from my leg.

[helloworld]

We should do some workouts and stretching in the gym together!
It is more fun and more motivational, especially that we are probably at a similar stage of the rehab process.
Btw, I am at room 302.

[helloworld]

I got the same reasoning as Auron:
from the people that had less than ideal recoveries, everyone went beyond 6 cm.
So I also want to do just 5.5 cm.

[notimportant]

5.5 cm is reasonable I agree

[Auron]

We should do some workouts and stretching in the gym together!
It is more fun and more motivational, especially that we are probably at a similar stage of the rehab process.
Btw, I am at room 302.

We totally should!

I am at room 4.6. I will ring your doorbell at around 4pm so we can go to the gym and do some training, what do you think?

[onemorefoot]

Will you use special shoes for the discrepancy??? Can those shoes damage the spine??

[fivesix]

What has your pain been like?

[Auron]

I'm using insoles with different heights, shoe lifters work as well. Special shoes is another option. It shouldn't damage the spine, at least mine is pretty good so far.

Recently I've been having this pain in the right side of the kneecap, but only when I move my leg side ways. I talked to the doctor and we thought it could be the tip of the screw initially but then we figured out that the pain was coming from where the femur meets the tibia. So it turns out that to prevent this pain I should try to land always with my heel first then the rest of the foot and I wasn't doing so because my extension isnt as good as before the surgery. The pain seems to be fading away slowly each day. I don't feel any need to take painkillers during the day and lately I always take a tramadol 50gm before I go to bed. So yeah, unless I take my medicine at night the pain gets annoying.

[Auron]

1 month post op

So it has been 1 month since I was operated. I just had my last set of X-rays which I will be posting tomorrow and it shows a gap of 2,37cm. I went to the clinic with 2 more patients and the doctor was quite satisfied with the results of all of the X-rays.

The pain has been annoying at times but you can fight it with medication, ice or hot showers. 2 days ago, after doing my last set of clicks for the day I actually felt real pain for the first time and thought " Oh, so this is what they call lengthening pain ". I took a tramadol and it didn't do a thing. I was stuck with pain during most of the night. The next day, yesterday,  I decided to take a break from clicking and it did the trick, the pain went down to 0/10. Today I'm feeling great again, pain wise. Keep in mind that I didn't prepare at all physically for this surgery. I used to practice sports in a daily basis and did not care at all about flexibility. Well, let me tell you that you should not follow my example because I can tell that some of the pain I feel is due to the lack of flexibility.

I will update the amount of money I've spent so far so you can estimate the costs (food escluded).

Surgery for 1 leg + hospital stay: 18900€
1 month stay at MIC Sant Jordi: 1710€ (Double room)
Medication that I bought after quitting the hospital: 62€
(Nolotil, Paracetamol, Tramadol 50mg, Clexane 40mg)
X-rays from 1 month post: 60€
Insoles from Amazon: 8€
I've bought some shirts from decathlon online, 2,5€ each but I'm not including it. I've also bought some economy books so I can learn the spanish terms while keeping myself entertained.

Total: 20740€

That's it so far