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[Android]

Glad to hear that things have calmed down for you, fallen. Good thing you're relatively close to your doctor, definitely a short flight; being in the same time zone even helps.

Great news that both legs are acting fine now. Amazing how a few weeks can turn things around, body and mind!

Can't really think of improvements for the progress spreadsheet, except perhaps having a few visual milestones to keep you motivated. Every X days, every X cm, or a visually pleasing number (e.g. 170 cm) would work.

[Honore]

Very inspiring, thanks for your time. I wish you a good recovery.. Has your fathers opinion on the procedure changed much?

[myloginacct]

That's all for today folks, feel free to ask me any questions and I'll try to be more active here going forward!

Can you describe it in a little more detail how sleeping was this time around, and how did it compare to the other previous instances you had more trouble with it? What difference Ambien made too?

Also if your sleep has followed a certain pattern of difficulty, or if it felt more like ups and downs so far, in your opinion.

[fallen774]

Can you describe it in a little more detail how sleeping was this time around, and how did it compare to the other previous instances you had more trouble with it? What difference Ambien made too?

Also if your sleep has followed a certain pattern of difficulty, or if it felt more like ups and downs so far, in your opinion.

I've always had insomnia, even before the surgery, mainly during times when I was stressed out. My poor sleep after the surgery was not only attributed to the pain level but also to my mind not being able to shut down, due to the stress that comes with this process.
The difference from my sleep before and after surgery is simply that before, it would be difficult to shut down my mind due to overthinking about random things and getting anxious about the next day. After the surgery, it would be difficult to shut down my mind due to overthinking about the pain/discomfort that I was feeling and getting anxious about the consequences of my surgery.
Ambien works the same in all the instances. Half an hour after taking it, your mind slowly begins to fade away. Thoughts get more "soft", make way less sense, as if you were dreaming awake. The more you force yourself to stay awake, the less things will make sense. And then when you finally put your head on the pillow and shut your eyes, sleeping is fairly easy. It comes in seconds.
Last night was definitely the best night ever, I was able to sleep for 6 hours straight, without waking up. Usually Ambien lasts 3 hours on my body, so I guess I'm just getting used to this.
Sleep is really tough during the first 3 weeks. Be ready. At least for me, it was really hard staying in the same position for more than 2 hours. Things will get easier with time. Just have patience and endurance and everything will work out and will be worth it in the end.

[fallen774]

Very inspiring, thanks for your time. I wish you a good recovery.. Has your fathers opinion on the procedure changed much?

Yes, he's changed a lot. He met Dr. Mahboubian and was impressed by the whole medical infrastructure around this surgery. He has a friend that really hates being short and when he got back to Brazil after helping me here for 3 weeks, he told his friend about this procedure. I think he's becoming an advocate for it now, but he still asks me to stop on +-5cm, just to be safe. My mom, on the other hand, is still here helping me physically and is the one motivating me to keep going. She really wants me to achieve my goal :-)
In the end, I'll stop whenever one of the following happens: the pain is simply unbearable OR I'm getting disproportional OR I've reached the technical maximum of 8cm.

[fallen774]

Glad to hear that things have calmed down for you, fallen. Good thing you're relatively close to your doctor, definitely a short flight; being in the same time zone even helps.

Great news that both legs are acting fine now. Amazing how a few weeks can turn things around, body and mind!

Can't really think of improvements for the progress spreadsheet, except perhaps having a few visual milestones to keep you motivated. Every X days, every X cm, or a visually pleasing number (e.g. 170 cm) would work.

Thanks, that's a really nice idea! I'll include it in the spreadsheet

[myloginacct]

Yes, he's changed a lot. He met Dr. Mahboubian and was impressed by the whole medical infrastructure around this surgery. He has a friend that really hates being short and when he got back to Brazil after helping me here for 3 weeks, he told his friend about this procedure. I think he's becoming an advocate for it now, but he still asks me to stop on +-5cm, just to be safe. My mom, on the other hand, is still here helping me physically and is the one motivating me to keep going. She really wants me to achieve my goal :-)
In the end, I'll stop whenever one of the following happens: the pain is simply unbearable OR I'm getting disproportional OR I've reached the technical maximum of 8cm.

Such a pragmatic approach.

Stay positive, I feel you'll nail it - wherever your goal ends up at!

[OverrideYourGenetics]

I am noticing that most cases of extreme pain seem to be with femurs. anyone else?

Same here, while doing quadrilateral. Femur pain has been worse 90% of the time, except of course in the three weeks from the tibias surgery to the femurs surgery when there was no femur pain.

The worst pain I've ever felt was also after the femurs surgery, when I was crying in pain, holding the nurse's hand, waiting for morphine to kick in (it didn't really work; Dilaudid did).

My initial idea is that I'd be able to update this thread every day. Now, I see that's highly unlikely. The downsides of this surgery are not only physical but also psychological. I had 0 energy or motivation to do things. Sometimes I'd catch myself just staring at the wall and waiting for time to pass. Yes, it varies from person to person, but I really got into this emotional limbo. I would even get lazy about turning on the TV. I just didn't want to do anything.

I felt exactly the same lack of motivation since after the first surgery. While before the surgery I'd be on my laptop 10+ hours a day, now days would pass without even opening its lid. No interest in checking the news, my portfolio, email or anything really. Fellow Paley patient Purushrottam reported more or less the same:

I actually didn't write that often when I was actually lengthening. The lack of sleep totally depresses you. You don't feel motivated to do anything... even physical therapy. You have to push thru. Its not really a physical thing. The majority of the process is mental (fighting your mental inerti[a]).

[minari]

Same here, while doing quadrilateral. Femur pain has been worse 90% of the time, except of course in the three weeks from the tibias surgery to the femurs surgery when there was no femur pain.

The worst pain I've ever felt was also after the femurs surgery, when I was crying in pain, holding the nurse's hand, waiting for morphine to kick in (it didn't really work; Dilaudid did).

I felt exactly the same lack of motivation since after the first surgery. While before the surgery I'd be on my laptop 10+ hours a day, now days would pass without even opening its lid. No interest in checking the news, my portfolio, email or anything really. Fellow Paley patient Purushrottam reported more or less the same:

Wow, I didn’t know that there was such a significant difference. Did you have major pain spikes for the tibias or was it mainly continuous pain? If you could only choose to lengthen one or the other would you choose tibias due to the less pain (even if it meant lengthening less for tibias)? Thanks by the way, your input has been incredibly helpful.

[Android]

Definitely a pattern, I remember reading this from badwolf's diary:

Dr. Kulesh has told me with amusement on several occasions that most patients come for lengthening making bold claims about all the productive things they'll do during the lengthening/consolidation process and always end up just becoming couch potatoes, watching TV, and browsing the internet.

[OverrideYourGenetics]

Wow, I didn’t know that there was such a significant difference. Did you have major pain spikes for the tibias or was it mainly continuous pain? If you could only choose to lengthen one or the other would you choose tibias due to the less pain (even if it meant lengthening less for tibias)? Thanks by the way, your input has been incredibly helpful.

Actually, it turns out I might have under-remembered my pain during the first two weeks post tibia. (The brain has a tendency to do that.) My girlfriend said I was in terrible pain every day after tibias, for the first 2.5 weeks. The pain was rather continuous, and worse at night. I would toss and turn, unable to sleep. During week 3 though I was able to sleep for up to 5 hours.

If I could lengthen only one segment, I would choose the femurs but with STRYDE. Only with STRYDE. It's a game changer that I missed by a month or two.

[Bosnian2018]

Hi. Can you tell me what you budgeted? What Is the cost of surgery? Insurance pay for meds? Other costs like do you need a helper ? Staying at home or elsewhere?

[fallen774]

Hey guys,

It has been almost a month since my last update. Lots of health problems happened but I won't disclosure it here since it was caused by a mistake that I made, and it's irrelevant to the LL procedure.

I'm 14 days away from reaching the max of 8cm. I had nerve damage on my lower left leg and now I can't feel my left shin skin area anymore. I'm going to start on Gabapentin this week to help with occasional nerve pain and tingling.

My bones were consolidating quite fast and Dr. Mahboubian saw my last set of X-Rays and called me to say that he thinks I consolidated, but he proposed that I did 4 times a day for 1 week and notice any increased tightness. I'm also using a stadiometer. After 4 days, I can already feel the difference both in terms of tightness and height increase, so my bones haven't consolidated and I'll keep on doing it.

My legs are tight but I'm still able to straighten them. Does anyone know the point at which most people can't straighten them anymore? Hopefully I won't experience this.

As soon as I stop the procedure I'll share the spreadsheet with my daily metrics. You'll notice that there are two gaps in which I didn't do it for 3 days, and that was because of the medical problem I had, but again, unrelated to the surgery.

Can anyone link me to some X-Rays image of the bones fully consolidated, and also the bones after the rod removal?

Thank you! Feel free to ask any questions.

[fallen774]

Hi. Can you tell me what you budgeted? What Is the cost of surgery? Insurance pay for meds? Other costs like do you need a helper ? Staying at home or elsewhere?

Just sent you a PM answering these questions. I don't see people commenting about prices in public so I'm just following the pattern

[OverrideYourGenetics]

I'm 14 days away from reaching the max of 8cm. I had nerve damage on my lower left leg and now I can't feel my left shin skin area anymore. I'm going to start on Gabapentin this week to help with occasional nerve pain and tingling.

That's great and fast progress, congrats! I also can't feel really left shin skin area. Dr. Paley said it might surprisingly be caused by Xarelto, and I could switch to aspirin if it bothered me (it doesn't that much yet). Starting Gabapentin now seems a bit strange. I've started to taper it down as soon as I stopped lengthening 5 days ago.

My legs are tight but I'm still able to straighten them. Does anyone know the point at which most people can't straighten them anymore? Hopefully I won't experience this.

It's great that you're still able to straighten the knees at almost 8cm of extra length. Did you do anything special to achieve this, such as wearing knee braces?

Optimistic1 can no longer straighten his, but he did quadrilateral.

[fallen774]

That's great and fast progress, congrats! I also can't feel really left shin skin area. Dr. Paley said it might surprisingly be caused by Xarelto, and I could switch to aspirin if it bothered me (it doesn't that much yet). Starting Gabapentin now seems a bit strange. I've started to taper it down as soon as I stopped lengthening 5 days ago.

It's great that you're still able to straighten the knees at almost 8cm of extra length. Did you do anything special to achieve this, such as wearing knee braces?

Optimistic1 can no longer straighten his, but he did quadrilateral.

I'd be so happy if it was because of the Xarelto, but Dr. M only prescribes it for 21 days and I was off it when the numbness started. Why is starting Gabapentin now weird? Did you have nerve pains before, when you started taking them? During my first ~4cm it was mostly muscle/bone pain, but after that I started feeling lots of tingling and burning on my left leg. That's why I'm starting it late, and hopefully it will make a difference. Do you know if the effect is immediate or you have to wait a few days/weeks?

As to straightening my legs, I don't know if I'm doing anything special, but I can tell how my days look like. I've been avoiding the wheelchair since 3 weeks after the surgery and I use the walker for mostly everything. I stand up every 40 minutes and walk a little bit. I do an easy exercise lots of times per day in which I hold on to the walker with both hands, I straighten one leg back and I keep the other leg bent. Don't know if you can visualize it but I'll try to find a picture of this movement. I've also been doing PT 5 times per week (sometimes 6, on a Saturday). Yeah, I think that's it. I'm sorry to hear Optimistic1 can't straighten is legs, but he will be able to, right? The way I read it, it seemed that you meant that he would no longer be able to straighten it forever. Hopefully I got this wrong.

How have you been feeling by the way? Let's catch up soon!

[fallen774]

Alright guys, I thought it thoroughly and I think it's ok for me to disclosure what happened, and it hopefully will help someone to not do the same.

On May 14th, Monday, I went back to work. I thought I was prepared for the social anxiety, for dealing with people looking at me, but I actually wasn't. I wasn't much productive on my first few days back at work, but my whole team (which is essentially a suborganization within a company in the software engineering world) was extremely supportive. The FMLA could give me a medical leave of up to 16 weeks, but it was a personal decision to take 6 weeks. Actually, the initial idea was to take only 2 weeks of leave, work 2 weeks from home and then go back to work. But if you guys read my posts, you know that there were a couple complications along the way. My plan to go back to the Bay Area by the end of April went downhill when I realized my right leg was still in a lot of pain and swollen, and I felt safer being closer to the doctor.

Although some days I'd wake up in a better mood, I tried to get work done but I guess my seratonin levels were very low. The first month of the surgery just drains your whole energy. Or, at least, it drained mine. So, I went back to work and I couldn't produce much, but I felt VERY guilty that an elective surgery would impact my performance. I felt bad for being unproductive to my team and to my coworkers. I know it was all in my head. I talked to my manager and she was extremely complacent with the situation. They would even tell me that I could work from home a couple of days in the week. But despite all this, I still felt guilty. So what I did? I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist and got ADHD medication. Those pills are used by teenagers and adults with ADHD and I felt I could benefit from that since my attention span was f*cked up after 1 month and a half away. Not only that, I also got prescribed Xanax (Alprazolam), as a short-term solution for my anxiety. Apart from that, I was also taking opioids. If you know something about psychotropic medications interaction, you can already guess the sh*t I've done.

Let's go: my productivity became GREAT. I was able to focus and code and give insights on meetings. I felt like super-man during the day, lol. So by Friday, May 25th, I was completing 2 weeks back to work and I was feeling great. My nerve pains (which I've been having since the beginning of May) were unnoticeable. I couldn't stop talking. I felt happy about the smallest things. But none of this was natural. I was actually completely disturbed and couldn't even notice. By Sunday, May 27th, I had a mental breakdown. My anxiety was so high that I could feel my chest burning cold. I took an opioid and a Xanax, and then went to the pool. Trust me, this is the first time in my life I'm dealing with such medications and I was COMPLETELY ignorant of their side effects and interactions. I'm not saying I was innocent and I can take all the blame on what happened, but what I'm trying to say is that I didn't do anything on purpose, I was completely disturbed and trying to get better. When I got to the pool, I started feeling I was going to faint. I remember closing my eyes involuntarily and waking up seconds later, several times per minute. It was non-stop. I went up again and drank a bunch of water, and told my mom that I was afraid that I would close my eyes and not wake up again. That was honestly the feeling that I was having and the words I used.

Night came, I did the procedure and went to sleep, nothing major happened so far. At 4AM on Monday, May 28th (Memorial Day), I woke up with the same feeling that I would close my eyes and not wake up anymore. And what I did next was the most stupid thing someone can ever do, and I'm completely aware of the sh*tty thing I did. I went for yet another opioid and Xanax, and went back to sleep. Both pills depress your respiratory system. When you mix them together, the toxic threshold lowers down closely to the therapeutic dosage. While I slept, my respiratory system stopped working. I closed my eyes and didn't wake up. I aspirated during sleep. Prior to having a cardiac arrest, I made a very weird noise with my mouth at around 6:30AM. I know that because my mom told me -- she heard it from across the apartment and came to check on me. When she found me, I was pale, with colorless lips, drooling and not breathing. She started pushing me and screaming at me to wake up but I was completely out, unconscious, no pulse. She doesn't know English, she doesn't have a SIM Card here and she didn't know or have a way to call 911, so she went to the balcony and started screaming for help. I was very, very, very lucky. I had a neighbor who happened to be a nurse and was swimming in the pool (AT 6:30AM!!!), and she heard my mom's call for help (and she was also screaming the apartment number). She came running to help me, along with a guy that turns out works at the same Company as I do, and she started doing CPR on me. She did it for about 3 minutes until my pulse came back, but I was still unconscious. By the time the firemen, police and ambulance arrived, everybody thought I'd go in vegetative state. 8 minutes without oxygen in your brain is enough for you to have irreversible brain damage. They put me in the cot and took me to the ambulance. About five minutes away from the hospital, I regained consciousness. So, on my timeline perception, last thing I remembered was going to sleep, and then waking up aching in pain in the ambulance. A bunch of people asking me if I tried to commit suicide -- no, I didn't. I went to the emergency room and more doctors came and asked me the same thing. I wasn't able to answer with words because I was 100% dependent on the breathing machine, my lungs were full of liquid. I was feeling so much pain on my legs, and I was at some hospital I hadn't been before and had to explain them the surgery I had on my legs. They did a ultrasound on me and found one blood clot in each leg, the one on the right leg being larger.

Some doctors said that the reason for my respiratory system to have failed during my sleep is that some pieces of the blood clot might've gotten loose and went to my lungs, causing pulmonary embolism. Some other doctors think that it was because of those medications interactions. In any case, I was hospitalized for 3 days. For the first 26 hours or so, I couldn't drink or eat a single thing. I was just on saline and antibiotics. It was a nightmare, I never thought I'd say this but it was way worse than the thing that happened on my 5th day post-op when I went to the emergency thinking I'd lose my right leg.

As soon as my mom told my dad about that, he bought a ticket all the way from Brazil and arrived here 1 day after this whole thing. He helped me a lot too. At the same time, I was feeling so guilty, once again. This time, for f*cking up things and causing that much trauma to my parents. I know my mom saved me and I can't even imagine the trauma she experienced, finding me like that, screaming for help, going to the hospital without knowing if I made it there dead or alive. Being interrogated in a foreign language if her son tried suicide, and at the same time crying and worrying if I was gone for good (they wouldn't let her come with me in the ambulance).
I don't want to talk much about that week but I received a visit from coworkers and friends, and I wouldn't have the guts to tell it was because I f*cked up, because I was relying on pills to be able to go through this hard process and at the same time keep my productivity at work very high, while keeping my anxiety away. Completely selfish and stupid and I'll take sometime to forgive myself for that.

As a follow-up, I'm taking blood thinner (Xarelto) again, but now on a way higher dosage (30mg for 15 days, 20mg for 75 days). I also stopped taking the medications I was taking. The doctors at the hospital were really good and understood my whole situation. The only thing I felt bad for (that is, if I can actually feel bad about anything) is that I asked my doctors confidentiality regarding the LL. One of the doctors assured me that it was completely confidential and nobody would know about this. Next thing I know is hearing a couple of people (some nurses and nurse assistants) saying: "he was taking Norco, but it's reasonable, he went through limb lengthening, it must be very painful". I know this is nothing important and I won't even complain, just keep in mind that some people might not take your confidentiality request seriously. I know it was a hospital, but as far as I know, only the doctor needed to know about this, because he/she is the one prescribing the treatment.

Anyways, today has been more than 2 weeks since all of this. I'm getting better. This is the first time that I'm openly talking about this. I'm trying hard to overcome and forget what happened. I know I was that close to not coming back, or coming back with irreversible sequels, but somehow I got a second chance, and I really have to make it count. Some of you might judge me for keeping doing the procedure even after this, and I won't blame you. Sometimes I catch myself doing the same, wondering if I'm crazy for doing that. Makes you think about priorities, right? But I'm rational. I know that the procedure is fairly safe, and the only correlation one can make with what happened is that if I hadn't done the surgery, I wouldn't be taking the pills. Period. But I did the surgery and I could handle the medications initially, until I went back to work and started pressuring myself, which caused this mental break down. I caused this to myself and I know how to learn from my mistakes, and nothing like this will ever happen again. So that's why I will keep doing it. I've been through a lot and I overcame every obstacle. This was like the boss-obstacle lol, I can't imagine things going more wrong.

And I can at least take a few positive things from this. If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't know about the blood clots and wouldn't be treating them. I wouldn't have the help of my dad that was necessary despite this episode; I'm on the final stage of the procedure and was really a nerve wreck. I wouldn't know how dangerous these medications are, and I could do it again in the future, but without anyone around to save me. Things could go terribly wrong but they turned out fine, no sequels, apart from the memories that will take some time to go away. Finally, I'm feeling great. I'm not taking any pills and my productivity is high again. I'm feeling happy and motivated. I wouldn't be able to write that much if I wasn't. I'm excited about the upcoming weeks, about the consolidation phase. I'm looking forward to returning my life back to normal, about going back to the gym, going out with friends, going out on dates. I'm confident that things will only get better from now on.

[doomsday]

Dude your priorities are totally messed up! Seriously!

If you work in IT you can have 20 jobs in your life time, move across countries and continents. But you only have ONE life!(or maybe two ) I never told my parents about doing LL. I knew at the time that I'm mentally and physically strong enough to cope. During LL I didn't work, just chilling, turning screws(externals) and watching comedies to keep good mood. I got valium to sleep better but my doc said only one pill before bed and I would rather   myself then take more than that. People that do LL need to man up and stop relying on meds when it comes to mental strength. 
Half of US is totally addicted to that sh!t. Be very careful if your mood depends on  drugs. It usually means you got to makes some changes.

[fallen774]

Dude your priorities are totally messed up! Seriously!

If you work in IT you can have 20 jobs in your life time, move across countries and continents. But you only have ONE life!(or maybe two ) I never told my parents about doing LL. I knew at the time that I'm mentally and physically strong enough to cope. During LL I didn't work, just chilling, turning screws(externals) and watching comedies to keep good mood. I got valium to sleep better but my doc said only one pill before bed and I would rather   myself then take more than that. People that do LL need to man up and stop relying on meds when it comes to mental strength. 
Half of US is totally addicted to that sh!t. Be very careful if your mood depends on  drugs. It usually means you got to makes some changes.

Thanks man, I appreciate the feedback. Indeed I should have thought about this more carefully when I was planning this whole thing. Should have asked for 3-4 months medical leave which I had the right to, but didn't do it because I thought it would impact my ratings.

But just to give more context, it's not as if I was born in a golden crib with pre-assigned opportunities; I dedicated years of my life to have the opportunity of living in this country and working in the Sillicon Valley. Yes, I have always wanted to do LL, but I failed to put my job in second plan and always thought that if I had to choose between doing the procedure or my work, I'd choose my work.
If you go to Brazil and look at how IT people are compensated there, maybe you'll understand that it's not as simple as "if you work in IT you can have multiple jobs and go to many different countries". I even have a friend with BA in Computer Science at Berkeley and he's been looking for jobs for the past few months in the Sillicon Valley (the place of the startups) with no luck. It's not as simple as being in IT; I don't think we should despise the personal effort it takes.
But you are right in the sense that if I went to work and didn't feel I was productive, I should have made a decision as to whether stop the procedure or ask for more days off. I shouldn't follow the meds path and I don't recommend it to anyone. I didn't get addicted to them but I had a pretty serious interaction.

Enforcing my point, the only reason I disclosured this is that I'm completely aware of the bad choices I made and maybe help someone, even if just 1 person, to not do the same. Thankfully nothing happened to me but it was close. As you said, only one life. Gotta make it worth it.

[Purushrottam]

Oh my god I had an emotional roller coaster reading this. Please please PLEASE don't take multiple risks at once. Different drugs interacting with each other can have an unexpected impact on your body. Do not do anything drastic (regarding other medication) without consulting your LL doctor. Dude you almost died... I totally empathize with you not wanting to lose your job. I used to work as a software dev in Sil. Valley as well. I loved my job and my team. Leaving them was sad for all of us. But rest assured, with your skillset you can find another opportunity. It took me a lot longer than I wanted. In the process I drained a part of my 401k. But please don't play around with your life.

All the best to you on your recovery! Please keep us updated.

[Android]

That was a hard read, fallen. Even harder to recollect and distill it for us I'm sure, thanks for sharing. Your health and safety comes first no matter what, if not for you do it for your parents. Hindsight 20/20!

[fallen774]

Oh my god I had an emotional roller coaster reading this. Please please PLEASE don't take multiple risks at once. Different drugs interacting with each other can have an unexpected impact on your body. Do not do anything drastic (regarding other medication) without consulting your LL doctor. Dude you almost died... I totally empathize with you not wanting to lose your job. I used to work as a software dev in Sil. Valley as well. I loved my job and my team. Leaving them was sad for all of us. But rest assured, with your skillset you can find another opportunity. It took me a lot longer than I wanted. In the process I drained a part of my 401k. But please don't play around with your life.

All the best to you on your recovery! Please keep us updated.

Hey, so glad to hear from you, you were one of my inspirations to go through this. Yes, I won't be taking any risks from now on. And let me emphasize this, I wasn't taking any risks for most part of the lengthening. I was down to 1-2 Norcos a day, Vitamin D and Calcium, only. I made those mistakes from around May 17th to the day of the accident, May 29th, so for 12 days I was dumb as f*ck risking my health blindly to try to be more productive. At the end, it did the opposite, as I ended up missing a week of work because of that. If you asked me then if I thought something like this could happen, I'd say "of course not". I didn't know at all and didn't even think it was something that important to ask the LL doctor. I was honest with the psychiatrist regarding the medication I was taking (opioids) and I only heard a "be careful with these medications". She didn't emphasize on the danger of interactions so I didn't even bother asking someone else or looking it online. But I regret this so much now...

Anyways, I'm less than 2 weeks away from stopping lengthening and I made a promise to my parents that I wouldn't take any medication from that day on. I'm not taking any anxiolytic, or ADHD medication, or opioids. It's the least I could do for me and for them. Even Tylenol, it's the only exception we agreed on but at most 2 a day, but I'm not taking any. So I'm dealing with pain and it's increasing as I reach the end, but I can handle it. I feel like I was born again and I have more energy than ever. I'm really grateful to be alive and I won't mess up by any chance. And regarding jobs, I guess you're right, but in my case I'm here on H-1B. My green card is arriving by the end of the year. H-1B is linked to your company and if you leave it, you have 1 month at most to find a new job and now it's not the best timing to do job hunt. But honestly, it was all in my head. My company is being EXTREMELY supportive and with all the benefits I have, I don't want to leave it. The health insurance I have was provided by the company and it paid half of the surgery cost, which is a lot. I really want to stay here, at least for a couple more years.

Thanks for the message and hope you're doing great!

EDIT: correcting myself, I'm waiting for Dr. Mahboubian's Gabapentin prescription to arrive, and I'll actually be taking it for the nerve pains, but he said it's safe.

[fallen774]

That was a hard read, fallen. Even harder to recollect and distill it for us I'm sure, thanks for sharing. Your health and safety comes first no matter what, if not for you do it for your parents. Hindsight 20/20!

Yeah man, it was pretty tough to talk about it in the beginning. I was having trouble to sleep because I couldn't stop thinking that "I shouldn't be here", "how could I be so lucky?", "how could I be so stupid?". I didn't want to know what happened prior to arriving at the hospital at first, but then when my mom told me, and then when I met the two people that helped (the nurse who did CPR and the guy who helped put me on the floor), I was shocked. NEVER thought something like this was going to happen to me. But now, ~16 days later, I'm feeling more comfortable to talk about it. It wasn't easy writing it down but I'm glad I did, maybe it'll help raise awareness on the evils of pharma. I'm just glad I got away with it.

Hope you're doing fine!

[Great321]

This was indeed not easy to read. I really feel sorry for your mother...

I'm happy that you're doing better now!

[fokid]

i am glad you are doing better now!

is it possible to have blood clots in your legs this long after the operation? i thought they were a problem only immediately following the surgery...

[fallen774]

i am glad you are doing better now!

is it possible to have blood clots in your legs this long after the operation? i thought they were a problem only immediately following the surgery...

Hey fokid,

If you look at one of my first posts after the surgery, around my 5th day, I went to the emergency room with so much pain that I felt I was going to lose my leg. My right leg was extremely swollen, its perimeter outgrew the left one by many centimeters, and I had big dark bruises all over my hamstrings going down to my lower leg. I think that was the first sign that something was off. We are almost sure now that that's when I should have started the treatment. My right leg has been swollen for the entire process. Every PT that sees my hamstrings notice instantly how it's different from the left leg. Of course, not that different now, from a front perspective they look the same, but the back of the leg (which is where the femoral vein goes through) always showed a clear signal of having a DVT.
Problem was: the technician that did ultrasound on me most likely missed it. Or, the DVT was on its initial stages. In any case, Dr. Mahboubian didn't think it was a problem and told us not to worry, because the ultrasound didn't show anything. I honestly think I should had followed up and done another set of ultrasounds, like a week later. I say this because my right leg was always more swollen than the left from the entire process, something wasn't right. I trust Dr. M and respect him but maybe he overlooked this based on probabilities -- my age, my ultrasound result, his own numbers of how many of his patients had this, which should be very low. When only looking at those variables I think it's very easy to assume I didn't have anything serious. But sometimes fk the numbers, right? I had the symptoms, all of them, I can check all items on every checklist of "Symptoms of DVT". And eventually I was diagnosed with it. And add the fact that I was doing PT 5 times a day. I was moving a lot. Exercising a lot. But I wasn't on blood thinner. I don't see how it could have happened here, after I came back to the Bay Area. I'm pretty sure it developed during my first week after surgery and it was overlooked.

[concernedmom]

I am very surprised that the doctor did not prescribe blood thinner with this type of surgery. With orthopedic surgeries this is a must. It is scary. Good luck. Also, there are genetic markers that can tell if you are prone to this type of cloths.

[short2tall]

   Hey fallen, it was indeed tough to read this again, and in even more detail this time. I can imagine how frightened your parents must have been. They are such nice people, you're so fortunate to have them there supporting you (not to mention it saved your life). So glad you're back on track and doing well now. Just keep stretching as much as possible and that will help alleviate the need for Norco, especially at night time. I think it's great that you shared this with everyone to raise awareness about the possible dangers of medication.

[fokid]

I am very surprised that the doctor did not prescribe blood thinner with this type of surgery. With orthopedic surgeries this is a must. It is scary. Good luck. Also, there are genetic markers that can tell if you are prone to this type of cloths.

even dr. parihar doesn't prescribe them i think.

blood thinners can increase risk of compartment syndrome apparently. https://www.allinahealth.org/mdex/ND2190G.HTM

[fallen774]

I am very surprised that the doctor did not prescribe blood thinner with this type of surgery. With orthopedic surgeries this is a must. It is scary. Good luck. Also, there are genetic markers that can tell if you are prone to this type of cloths.

He actually prescribes Xarelto (blood thinner) for 21 days pos-op. The problem is that blood thinners doesn't make the blood clots go away, it only helps preventing new ones from forming. What makes it go away is your own body, that will slowly absorb it, and exercising the legs, which will increase the blood flow. And I don't know if the dosage was enough (10mg, 1x a day). For the first 15 days after I was actually diagnosed with DVT, I was put on Xarelto 30mg. Then, for the next couple months, I'll be taking 20mg.

Thanks for the well wishes! Hopefully from now on, things will slowly get better.

BTW: these are my legs a few days after the surgery: https://i.imgur.com/QFDOV4z.jpg. This was actually an improvement. Try to imagine that whole right hamstring and calves completely filled with a much darker color. That's how my right leg was pos-op. So definitely something went wrong there, which probably caused the complications I had :/

[OverrideYourGenetics]

Wow. Talk about traumatizing Thanks for sharing, and yeah, enjoy that "born again" feeling! Life-changing moment indeed.

And regarding jobs, I guess you're right, but in my case I'm here on H-1B. My green card is arriving by the end of the year. H-1B is linked to your company and if you leave it, you have 1 month at most to find a new job and now it's not the best timing to do job hunt.

Actually, 180 days after you get your H-1B, it's no longer tied to the company that brought you to the US. I was without a job for about half a year before I got my green card and everything was fine. Look up "AC21 portability" and "I-485 adjustment of status" for details.

He actually prescribes Xarelto (blood thinner) for 21 days pos-op.

Dr. Paley prescribes Xarelto 10mg for the entire duration of the lengthening + consolidation. I will have been on it for about 5 months, every day.

BTW: these are my legs a few days after the surgery: https://i.imgur.com/QFDOV4z.jpg. This was actually an improvement. Try to imagine that whole right hamstring and calves completely filled with a much darker color. That's how my right leg was pos-op. So definitely something went wrong there, which probably caused the complications I had :/

I wouldn't say that large bruises necessarily means something went wrong. Here are my thighs after the tibias surgery: