Greetings to all. After much contemplation, I have decided to post my experience undergoing limb lengthening.
The reason why I've held back starting this thread was....well actually there are several reasons. Firstly, temporal factors; writing diaries take a lot of one's time which could be very much be spent doing myriad other things. Which is why I have the utmost respect for the veterans like Stripes, RGKey, Sweden etc. who have spent a significant amount of their time recovering to share their experiences with prospective LLers. With this in my mind, readers are kindly reminded not to be demanding; I'm doing this as a way to contribute back to the community, from which I managed to plan my journey and from which I have learnt so much.
Back to temporal factors, since I generally don't have much time (I'm hustling for online jobs currently) I won't be posting much of a diary. I will be answering questions related to my journey. So instead of me telling you A-Z about my journey, the community can ask questions which are relevant to them. I'd rather do this AM(a)A here instead of Reddit as I wouldn't be subjected to criticism from the r/short community.
Secondly, I was apprehensive about writing this diary for fear of derailment by the several "colourful" characters on this forum (i.e. doctor-fanboys, trolls, non-veterans-who-pretend-to-be-experts). Though I am sure that these users are a small minority and should not be representative of the community as a whole.
In this post, I'll be giving bits and pieces of my journey chronologically. It is a time consuming process, but I assure you I will be finishing the story
I will be happy to answer questions for more details, except regarding the identity of my doctor; he would prefer not to have to entertain too many cosmetic limb lengtheners and he is not listed on this forum, hence is why I have titled this thread an Ask Me (almost) Anything
So with all that being said, lets begin with some details
Initial height at night : 176 cm
Age: 24
Lengthening method used:LATN on tibias bilaterally
Day of operation : 29 Dec 2016
Day of frame removal and nailing: 1 March 2017
Height gained: 8.0 cm
Final height: 184 cm
As you can see, I wasn't to short to begin with but undoubtedly I fully understood that being a tall man, you would have many benefits compared to being an average-height or short man especially from a social standpoint.
So where do we begin? I suppose we should start with the research process, which I highly recommend none of you to go through hastily. I was in college during the time I began research in 2013 but I have since graduated. I managed to save close to USD 10,000 at the time. With this in mind, I was certain I could get about USD 5000 more within 3 years to end up with a budget of USD 15000 and thus, be able to do the surgery in 2013.
With that budget, certainly the US and European doctors, as well as internal methods would be all but ruled out. This basically left me to consider India, China and Russia for the surgery, with the prospects of doing and external frames + internal nails being the most likely choice. In short, China= language barriers, India= English-speaking, but was concerned with the quality of care being sub-par, so eventually I settled with Russia as I am a speak Russian and it did seem an it safer than India
I managed to get hold of a reputable doctor through a Russian forum. He was willing to perform LATN for around what was USD 12,000 at the time in Vladivostok, Russia. With that I managed to plan 3-months of lengthening and 3 months after that for consolidation which is where I am now
15th Dec 2016-Arrival Day
Arrived in Vladivostok, called the Doctor as I arrived, who told me the address of the hospital. I hopped into a cab which brought me there. Had my first consultation which lasted just about 30 mins. Discussed about benefits of LON( cheaper, 1 major surgery + 1 minor frame removal surgery, no corrections possible at all) vs LATN (more expensive, 2 major surgeries, correction can be done before nailing) Eventually I settled for LATN and the surgery was scheduled a week later.
20th December- Bad News
I was told the the surgery would have to be postponed to the next week due to certain difficulties in staffing. This put a dent in my planning as I would only have 2 and a half months in Russia for lengthening (my initial goal was 5 cm btw). Nevertheless, I had faith things would be okay
29th December - Day 0: The Big Break(s)
I went to the hospital in the morning as there was thankfully no postponing of the surgery.
Given a room which was decent, it had a a TV, closet and a bed and was clean.
Surgery was in the evening, during which I was given spinal epidural and was put to sleep
Woke up at night, drowsy and dazed. Legs were cold, no pain at all. Just really cold and I wasn't able to move them. But when I touched them they were really warm and they were swelling. I was given a spinal painkiller which relieved some of the pain. Some of the pain...for a while.
Later that night at about 2 am, I woke up. Then I felt it. The pain. It felt like my feet had been hit by a sledgehammer, with insects biting into me. Why weren't the painkillers working??? I called the nurse, who said she could increase the dosage slightly (which didn't work) but for a more potent painkiller I'd have to wait for the Doctor the next morning. She then left, leaving me with a thought still have to this day : What have I done?
Day 1-7: Bedridden
It was just the first 3 days where my leg hurt really, really badly, the latter 2 days being less painful as I had better painkillers than before.
Overall, I spent my days there staring at either my tablet screen or the ceiling; I was bedridden. I peed in through a catheter and (strangely) never went to the toilet for number 2. Probably this was because I hated the food so bad , I only drank soup (more about this in tips)
The doctor taught me how to turn the nuts on the rods for lengthening on the 6th day in hospital. On the next day once the pain had subsided and my condition was stable, I was discharged. I stayed in a wheelchair-friendly apartment building (a rarity in these parts) just next to the hospital. I was told to come for X-rays once every two weeks.
And so it begins......