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[Purushrottam]

Puru, you're a programmer, right? I'm surprised you didn't know that PNG files don't have interesting metadata, let alone about your computer. You could even take a screenshot of the X-rays and paste it at https://imgur.com or https://snag.gy, without any metadata possibly being leaked.

(Not sure if the image you posted earlier was of the X-ray; I only saw the link now and the image appears to have been deleted.)

I'm considering going public about my surgery. Yes, it may polarize people, but as our friend Dr. Seuss says, "those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter". I don't care if some randoms on reddit are anti-CLL. I've told all my friends about my intention to have leg extension surgery and 95% were supportive (asked questions, offered to visit etc.) Those who weren't supportive wouldn't be good friends anyway, right? HIPAA protects you from having to tell your boss, but I told my boss anyway and he was supportive too. Re. women - you'll want to tell your gf at some point. If she has a problem with that - huge red flag. So not a reason either.

I'm being anonymous for now by default, and because everyone here has been anonymous. However, it's not clear to me why I wouldn't want to go public. Give me some reasons against being public about CLL.

Puru, you said you've faked confidence during interviews. You want real confidence? Own it. Tell people you took matters into your own hands, 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒇𝒇, and worked hard to become a taller man. Confidence comes from accomplishments. Every challenge we face, successful or not, is building our confidence. We only get one life. This is it. This is you.

Those who can't understand are showing a lack of empathy, and can sod off. Your drive to get the money and the courage to go through with surgery, show much more about your character than how long your legs happened to be in the genetic lottery.

Hello fivefive,

  I am indeed a programmer. Unfortunately I didn't know the specifics about file formats what metadata they store.

Going public about LL is not a problem for some people. However my personal choice is to not go public about it. Either choice is good. I'm afraid we have differing opinions on this. Once the scars are gone, its not that obvious that someone had LL.

I agree with everything you've said, fivefive, but the thing about being public about CLL is how public you intend to make it, and how famous you are. If it's just to the people in your life, I don't see a problem. Like you said, everyone who can't at least show empathy can beat it. The main problem is that beating your genetics and becoming taller sadly isn't an easy process yet, and more sadly, there are a bunch of money hungry, bad doctors willing to perform CLL. If a famous person went public with CLL, there's bound to be a bunch of youngsters butchering themselves with doctors like those. If people could only do CLL with Paley, I would see much less of a problem with anyone famous going public about it. The bad cases that would happen would be mostly ascribable to the bad luck and few bad cases that are inherent to life and the medical world, rather than general malpractice, incompetence, and negligence. I'd still have a small problem with it, but it'd be lessened a lot.

One century from now it'll be easy to increase your height and beat your genetics without much problem, although it'll still be costly. By then, I'd hope some of the people, including the famous ones, going through the easier CLL processes won't be shy about it. Creating a world where people can beat their genetics and be judged mostly by their character, rather than their looks, just seems a superior option than not.

You are right I suppose. I'm not sure how to respond to that.

To be fair, not every programmer knows everything about a computer. For instance, many programmers don't know how to make a website even though they can make full-blown applications. And if you want to stay anonymous, doxxing is a reality and it's something you want to avoid. Better safe than sorry.

About anonymity, it's case by case. We're all different after all: some don't use social media, some lurk, some post food photos, some post selfies, some share every thought. We share personal information in varying degrees, and they're all fine.

I've told a couple people about my CLL plans, but I don't plan to go public. Don't ask, don't tell, but I won't deny. I mean, it's impossible growing at my age anyway!

True. I know very little about how operating systems work (something I'm working to fix with all the free time I have ).

My specific expertise is in AI (Machine Learning). Our field is so vast and diverse that people in one specific discipline of computing may not know much about other disciplines (ie. a web developer may not necessarily know much about OS implementations).

You are right that one can never be too careful with regards to doxxing. Even posting on this forum puts you at risk. Its a balance between informing other potential LL-ers about the experiences and staying anonymous.

---
Update coming in a few minutes.

[Purushrottam]

Update

This is about 4.5 months post op (Surgery was Sept 26th 2017) and 2.25 months post lengthening (stopped lengthening December 1st 2017).

My gait is normal. I no longer sway when I walk. However, when I get up from sitting down for a while, I sway for a bit. I am able to walk at least 1 mile (on uneven terrain) without swaying (keeping proper gait).

I can now also go up and down the stairs normally (without having to hold on to the railing).

I lift weights occasionally (I carry up to 10 lbs at a time. I can probably carry more but I don't want to risk it). However, my most effective workout is just walking. Right now, just doing 1 mile of walking is enough to tire me out (muscles get sore).

I will ask if I can lift heavier weights/jog on my next X-ray (last week of February).

I went to another party and several people (who used to be my height) definitely commented that I look taller. So I suppose people do notice. I just brushed it off. Oh well. The big test will be when I see my friends who I have known for a long time. I still avoided them while I was recovering.

On the job front, I'm still looking. The process is very slow. I'm in the second/third round of interviewing for most of the companies that I was interviewing for in the last update. I have a few job offers but they are for backup.

[MirinHeight]

Update

This is about 4.5 months post op (Surgery was Sept 26th 2017) and 2.25 months post lengthening (stopped lengthening December 1st 2017).

My gait is normal. I no longer sway when I walk. However, when I get up from sitting down for a while, I sway for a bit. I am able to walk at least 1 mile (on uneven terrain) without swaying (keeping proper gait).

I can now also go up and down the stairs normally (without having to hold on to the railing).

I lift weights occasionally (I carry up to 10 lbs at a time. I can probably carry more but I don't want to risk it). However, my most effective workout is just walking. Right now, just doing 1 mile of walking is enough to tire me out (muscles get sore).

I will ask if I can lift heavier weights/jog on my next X-ray (last week of February).

I went to another party and several people (who used to be my height) definitely commented that I look taller. So I suppose people do notice. I just brushed it off. Oh well. The big test will be when I see my friends who I have known for a long time. I still avoided them while I was recovering.

On the job front, I'm still looking. The process is very slow. I'm in the second/third round of interviewing for most of the companies that I was interviewing for in the last update. I have a few job offers but they are for backup.

thats an amazing recovery bro!

[ShortLivesMatter]

Congrats on recovering so quickly! Any tips on fixing your gait? I recently had LL done as well and am starting to walk and my gait is pretty bad, my hips sway alot. Is it just a matter of walking as much as possible, did you do any stretches to fix the hip sway?

[Android]

Awesome update, glad you're recovering so well. Your friends are in for some confusing moments. Good luck on your interviews!

Congrats on recovering so quickly! Any tips on fixing your gait? I recently had LL done as well and am starting to walk and my gait is pretty bad, my hips sway alot. Is it just a matter of walking as much as possible, did you do any stretches to fix the hip sway?

Not Puru, but I'd try these exercises.

[OverrideYourGenetics]

I am finishing up my last week of therapy. They are teaching me to use crutches up and down the stairs.

Puru, that post I quoted above was 2.5 months in. You were walking with crutches during lengthening, right? Just not up and down the stairs.

[Purushrottam]

thats an amazing recovery bro!

Thanks man! I'm blessed in that sense. The others are recovering decently as well.

Congrats on recovering so quickly! Any tips on fixing your gait? I recently had LL done as well and am starting to walk and my gait is pretty bad, my hips sway alot. Is it just a matter of walking as much as possible, did you do any stretches to fix the hip sway?

Thanks, SLM. How's your recovery? I've found that walking a lot is the most useful, along with the regular stretching. I don't know what specific stretches will fix that. I'm just touching my toes to the fingers. I'm going to try the stretching on Androids video.

Awesome update, glad you're recovering so well. Your friends are in for some confusing moments. Good luck on your interviews!

Not Puru, but I'd try these exercises.

Thanks Android! They'll be confused tomorrow. Thanks for the link as well. I'll try those.

Puru, that post I quoted above was 2.5 months in. You were walking with crutches during lengthening, right? Just not up and down the stairs.

Correct. I started using crutches pretty late. I think it was during week 8.

[CaptainAmerica]

What made you decide to do 8cm all at once? I heard it gets pretty painful after 5-6cm, like unbearably painful. Is that true? To hear that you're up and walking just a few months later is a big surprise, congratulations on the recovery!:)

[Purushrottam]

What made you decide to do 8cm all at once? I heard it gets pretty painful after 5-6cm, like unbearably painful. Is that true? To hear that you're up and walking just a few months later is a big surprise, congratulations on the recovery!:)

I stopped at 6.5 cm not 8 cm. My goal was about 6cm. Anything more was a bonus. It started getting really painful after 5cm.

This may be why my recovery is relatively fast.

[Purushrottam]

Update:

Not too much of a change. My flexibility is still very low compared to DoingItForMe (My heels are nowhere close to my butt when I do a standing knee bend). I still can't touch the floor with my fingertips when I bend down with legs straight. I'm getting much better in this regard, but very slowly. By comparison, my bone healing was phenomenal. I'm getting an X-Ray on Wednesday. I'm going to send it to Dr. Paley and ask if I can start jogging now.

As far as strength goes, I'm doing very well. At a slow (2 mph) pace, I can walk 1.3 miles w.o getting tired. Today at the gym I biked for 20 minutes and walked for 10 minutes at 3 mph. That got me sweating (120 heart rate).

I've started lifting weights as well. My arm and shoulder strength is much higher than before LL due to using the walker/crutches. I'm not sure how much weight I can carry so I do all my weightlifting in 10/5 lb increments (ie if I want to bench 135 lbs, instead of putting 2 45 lb plates on each side I put 4 10 lb plates and 1 5 lb plate on each side). It looks ridiculous but oh well.

I'm working out heavily now to try to get to my pre LL level of fitness (8.5 minute mile nonstop, 6 minute mile in 1 minute increments when doing HIIT, run 12 mph for at least 30 seconds, run 3 miles in under 30 minutes, squat 160 ish, deadlift 160 ish, and do 90 jump squats in 3 sets).

I met up with some of my old friends. They all said that I looked a lot skinnier. This is despite going from a situation where they were all taller than me to now where only one of them is 2" taller than me. They didn't think my gait was off despite us walking around the bar area for a long time (I didnt keep track of how much I walked but I didn't feel tired at all). I was walking/climbing stairs at the same pace as they were.

Still unemployed :/ Thankfully I have plenty of runway.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. My scars are slowly fading away. Yay !

[myloginacct]

Update:

Not too much of a change. My flexibility is still very low compared to DoingItForMe (My heels are nowhere close to my butt when I do a standing knee bend). I still can't touch the floor with my fingertips when I bend down with legs straight. I'm getting much better in this regard, but very slowly. By comparison, my bone healing was phenomenal. I'm getting an X-Ray on Wednesday. I'm going to send it to Dr. Paley and ask if I can start jogging now.

As far as strength goes, I'm doing very well. At a slow (2 mph) pace, I can walk 1.3 miles w.o getting tired. Today at the gym I biked for 20 minutes and walked for 10 minutes at 3 mph. That got me sweating (120 heart rate).

I've started lifting weights as well. My arm and shoulder strength is much higher than before LL due to using the walker/crutches. I'm not sure how much weight I can carry so I do all my weightlifting in 10/5 lb increments (ie if I want to bench 135 lbs, instead of putting 2 45 lb plates on each side I put 4 10 lb plates and 1 5 lb plate on each side). It looks ridiculous but oh well.

I'm working out heavily now to try to get to my pre LL level of fitness (8.5 minute mile nonstop, 6 minute mile in 1 minute increments when doing HIIT, run 12 mph for at least 30 seconds, run 3 miles in under 30 minutes, squat 160 ish, deadlift 160 ish, and do 90 jump squats in 3 sets).

I met up with some of my old friends. They all said that I looked a lot skinnier. This is despite going from a situation where they were all taller than me to now where only one of them is 2" taller than me. They didn't think my gait was off despite us walking around the bar area for a long time (I didnt keep track of how much I walked but I didn't feel tired at all). I was walking/climbing stairs at the same pace as they were.

Still unemployed :/ Thankfully I have plenty of runway.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. My scars are slowly fading away. Yay !

Great to hear about the bone healing.

Do you feel pain anywhere when going down/upstairs at your friends' pace?

Cheers, Puru.

[Purushrottam]

Great to hear about the bone healing.

Do you feel pain anywhere when going down/upstairs at your friends' pace?

Cheers, Puru.

Thanks! I don't feel any pain going up/down the stairs. It is a bit awkward though. My walking however, is completely painless and normal (for about a mile).

I was planning on getting an X Ray today to see if I could go jogging. However I was sick today so I didn't go. I have interviews for the rest of the week so I won't get my next X rays until next week.

[Purushrottam]

Just emailed Paley my latest X-Rays (3 months post lengthening). I can job/squat/deadlift/play sports now.

[Android]

Congrats Puru, a new chapter has begun!

[Body Builder]

Good job and well done for your fast consolidation.
The hard part is now gone.

[LAGrowin]

Congratulations Puru. Very happy to hear of your progress to this new stage.  Enjoy it !

[Purushrottam]

Thanks a lot guys!

My flexibility is still a bit low compared to the other patients but much better than before. I'm going to go jogging on a nearby track after lunch. Let's see how it goes!

[LAGrowin]

Thanks a lot guys!

My flexibility is still a bit low compared to the other patients but much better than before. I'm going to go jogging on a nearby track after lunch. Let's see how it goes!

Good to hear Puru,  just take it slow and little by little with the running shock to the legs as to avoid any issues, better safe.

Please do keep us posted.   Thank you for taking the time.   Cheers!

[Purushrottam]

Good to hear Puru,  just take it slow and little by little with the running shock to the legs as to avoid any issues, better safe.

Please do keep us posted.   Thank you for taking the time.   Cheers!

Slow and steady is the way to go. I just jogged for 40 seconds, paused for a bit and then jogged for 20 seconds. That was enough to make my legs sore. My jogging gait wasn't too bad. It felt weird because the biomechanics are a bit different now. Walking however feels completely normal.

[Honore]

Only 5 months since operation and already jogging.. what a great outcome, unbelievable! Paley is worth every cent.. Can you please upload some before and after pics?

[Honore]

Sorry, forget the last question, forgot we asked that before

[Purushrottam]

Sorry, forget the last question, forgot we asked that before

No problem!

[OverrideYourGenetics]

Just emailed Paley my latest X-Rays (3 months post lengthening). I can job/squat/deadlift/play sports now.

How much can you squat compared to before? 160lbs is now, right? And is that 1RM, or 5x5 or... ?

My 1RM squat is 320lb pre-LL but that seems like a heck of a weight to squat with consolidated legs and frankly I'm afraid to squat more than say 100lbs (once!) until maybe after the rods are out.

Did Paley say anything about squatting ability?

[LAGrowin]

How much can you squat compared to before? 160lbs is now, right? And is that 1RM, or 5x5 or... ?

My 1RM squat is 320lb pre-LL but that seems like a heck of a weight to squat with consolidated legs and frankly I'm afraid to squat more than say 100lbs (once!) until maybe after the rods are out.

Did Paley say anything about squatting ability?

Hi fivefive,  I'd like to hear from Puru as well,  how has your muscle recovery been post lengthening?  my legs looked liked twigs only 3 weeks post surgery and would like to get some muscle back asap once I'm cleared to weigh bear  (still about 2.5 months away roughly).

Thanks.  Hope you're continuing to recover well.

[Purushrottam]

How much can you squat compared to before? 160lbs is now, right? And is that 1RM, or 5x5 or... ?

My 1RM squat is 320lb pre-LL but that seems like a heck of a weight to squat with consolidated legs and frankly I'm afraid to squat more than say 100lbs (once!) until maybe after the rods are out.

Did Paley say anything about squatting ability?

Uhm. My squat is negative right now. I can not do a body weight squat w.o an assist. Prior to LL, I was able to squat 5 sets with 5 reps of 160. I just asked if I could squat, I didn't ask about the weight because thats pretty far off. I don't have the strenght for even a body weight squat. In my next X-Ray I will ask about weight limitations.

This is the workout I'm doing right now:

Bike for 10 minutes (machine) at 15 resistance at around 8 mph. (Heart rate is 130 ish, so its not like a light workout that it would be for non LLers).

Walk on treadmill for 10 minutes at .5 incline at 3.0 mph. This no longer tires me out. I might increase the incline or walk for longer.

Follow the Day 1-5 pattern on this:
https://www.mensfitness.com/training/build-muscle/get-jacked-x-men-style-like-hugh-jackman

My bench press is still not pre LL but I can improve quickly because theres no weight limit. Right now, I'm setting the max at 135 lbs for week 1.
For the squat, and front squat (day 2), Im doing just body weight squats (with assists). I was able to do the leg press machine  (day 2, 4 x 10) with weights set to 80 lbs before feeling strain. I was able to do 3 x 12 with 270 lbs prior to LL (450 lbs max).

I haven't done Day 5 (more leg exercises like Deadlift) yet.

I only jogged once (2 days ago) for 1 minute (this is not part of my workout yet). My legs were a bit sore after and I didn't get a chance to jog yesterday. I'll jog today to see if theres any improvements. I can do a few jumping jacks now and then. My explosiveness is the same as before (but I can only do a few before tiring out). This is not part of my workout.

My end goal (to get to my pre LL fitness):

• Sustain 12 mph on a treadmill for 1 minute.
• Run 10 mph for 6 minutes in 1-2 minute bursts
• Run 1 mile in 8:xx minutes
• Squat 5 x 5 160 lbs
• Do 90 Jumpsquats (3 x 30)
• Deadlift (I forget my exact pre LL number) 160 lbs
• Be able to kick my foot up to my head level (for boxing)

Hi fivefive,  I'd like to hear from Puru as well,  how has your muscle recovery been post lengthening?  my legs looked liked twigs only 3 weeks post surgery and would like to get some muscle back asap once I'm cleared to weigh bear  (still about 2.5 months away roughly).

Thanks.  Hope you're continuing to recover well.

My muscle recovery has been relatively quick. After lengthening, I was still on a wheelchair/crutches. At that time my legs bones were healing not not weight bearing. So I did very little leg strengthening exercises at the time (just stretching and crutch walking).

Once I was clear to walk w.o crutches (I think that was Jan 24), I had a bit of a sway for a few weeks. At that time, I spent 20-30 minutes a day walking with 1 crutch.

Even when my sway was gone, walking for .33 miles was tiring. Today I'm going to try walking for a longer period of time.

Once you start working your leg muscles out, the strength seems to come back fairly quickly. I am still not able to do a body weight squat but my core definitely feels stronger than the last time when I did the squats. I'll keep this diary updated whenever I do leg day.

[/list]

[LAGrowin]

Awesome update Puru.  Thank you.

Very helpful for what I'm hoping to go after in terms of post lengthening recovery. I certainly don't want to walk around on these twigs too long. Muscle atrophy is totally unavoidable. 

Very happy for you. Hopefully you'll be back to your pre LL self in no time!

[Purushrottam]

Awesome update Puru.  Thank you.

Very helpful for what I'm hoping to go after in terms of post lengthening recovery. I certainly don't want to walk around on these twigs too long. Muscle atrophy is totally unavoidable. 

Very happy for you. Hopefully you'll be back to your pre LL self in no time!

No problem! Thanks!

Update:

I just jogged again today. I pushed myself a bit harder vs before. Last time, I jogged for 1:08 minutes (0.069 miles). Today I jogged for 1:43 minutes (0.12 miles) before my legs started hurting (I was out of breath too).

It may not seem like much of a difference, but I was able to jog about 50% longer and 15% faster than a few days ago.

Hopefully if I keep at it, I can see improvement in my jogging. My walking has improved quite a bit in the last month.

I'm going to try jogging in 1 minute bursts (with 1 minute breaks).

[OverrideYourGenetics]

Very helpful for what I'm hoping to go after in terms of post lengthening recovery. I certainly don't want to walk around on these twigs too long. Muscle atrophy is totally unavoidable.

I wonder two things:

1. What if Paley being conservative (see my Paley vs. Guichet recover post) gets misinterpreted as "Don't stress your legs too much", but actually you could very well do safe exercise like stationary bike training to maintain your leg muscles - Guichet patients are advise to do some stationary biking right after the surgery. Maybe that's extreme, but if I feel safe, I plan to bike every day for at least 10 minutes at a low rpm (50) in week one, then increase progressively.

2. What if many patients haven't been serious about caloric supplementation, and they've lost a lot of weight post-op, including muscle mass? See my thread Best diet for recovery post-CLL.

[Purushrottam]

I wonder two things:

1. What if Paley being conservative (see my Paley vs. Guichet recover post) gets misinterpreted as "Don't stress your legs too much", but actually you could very well do safe exercise like stationary bike training to maintain your leg muscles - Guichet patients are advise to do some stationary biking right after the surgery. Maybe that's extreme, but if I feel safe, I plan to bike every day for at least 10 minutes at a low rpm (50) in week one, then increase progressively.

2. What if many patients haven't been serious about caloric supplementation, and they've lost a lot of weight post-op, including muscle mass? See my thread Best diet for recovery post-CLL.

1. Paley is conservative in terms of safety and nail breakage, as he should be. During lengthening with Paley, you still end up biking 10 minutes per day every day that you have physical therapy.

2. Maybe. Thats always an issue with medical research. Test subjects don't always maintain a consistent diet/exercise regimen. A lot of behavior (that might impact the outcome of the experiment) is unreported.

[Purushrottam]

Small Update:

I jogged for 3 minutes yesterday (on a treadmill, in 1 minute bursts, 2.0 incline, 4.0 mph).

I'm holding off on doing deadlifts until I get my leg flexibility back (touch floor with fingers while standing up, touch toes while sitting down, etc).

[Purushrottam]

Small Update

I walked for 3 miles at a pace same as what my walking pace was prior to LL. I wasn't tired at all. I cut my walk short because I had a job interview. My goal is 5 miles then I'll know for sure that my walking is at pre LL level.

Thats one small thing that I can get off my checklist.

Now I'm going to focus on getting my jogging pace back to pre LL.