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[Tartar]

With an XR is quite easy to know exactly how much the nail has been distracted, you can see a light shadow. If you ask for an XR standing you can even check if the hip (and so the femurs) are perfect aligned.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

That seems like a problem that Dr. M doesn't have ways to accurately measure the legs. If someone decided to do less than the max length, they would need to make sure their legs are even before consolidatoin. Do you know if you're using ERC1 (the green and yellow buttons) or ERC4 (the purple one with the display)? I've learned that ERC1 is more accurate, but ERC4 has the ability to turn off if the magnets are not properly aligned.

It's the purple one, ERC4 with the display.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

That seems like a problem that Dr. M doesn't have ways to accurately measure the legs. If someone decided to do less than the max length, they would need to make sure their legs are even before consolidatoin. Do you know if you're using ERC1 (the green and yellow buttons) or ERC4 (the purple one with the display)? I've learned that ERC1 is more accurate, but ERC4 has the ability to turn off if the magnets are not properly aligned.

I highly doubt that it's only Dr. M.'s office whose method of measurement from x ray is inaccurate. I would not be surprised if other Drs. also use the same method, which is looking at a picture of a device (say a ball with a certain size) in the picture and then use same length (say diameter of the ball) and then try to measure the distraction parts, etc.   This method is is not accurate. Most likely the resolution is not even 0.2mm, whereas we ideally want the resolution to be 0.01mm; cause our devices do 0.33mm, which implies that we should have a resolution of 0.01mm.   Does any doctor's office have a way to measuring from x ray promising 0.01mm or even 0.05mm accuracy? I doubt that!

[brondo]

I highly doubt that it's only Dr. M.'s office whose method of measurement from x ray is inaccurate. I would not be surprised if other Drs. also use the same method, which is looking at a picture of a device (say a ball with a certain size) in the picture and then use same length (say diameter of the ball) and then try to measure the distraction parts, etc.   This method is is not accurate. Most likely the resolution is not even 0.2mm, whereas we ideally want the resolution to be 0.01mm; cause our devices do 0.33mm, which implies that we should have a resolution of 0.01mm.   Does any doctor's office have a way to measuring from x ray promising 0.01mm or even 0.05mm accuracy? I doubt that!

That's disappointing. I wonder if any other doctor has a different method of measuring. I wanted to ask you if the ERC is set so it automatically turns off or stops if the magnets don't align properly.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

That's disappointing. I wonder if any other doctor has a different method of measuring. I wanted to ask you if the ERC is set so it automatically turns off or stops if the magnets don't align properly.

The answer is NO
Unfortunately, even my ERC, which is supposed to be their cutting edge technology, does not have a two way communication with the magnet in the nail. That means, regardless of whether it is engaged with the nail magnet, it keeps counting time to one minute and measurement to 0.33 "ASSUMING" it is engaged with the magnet. This means in the worst case, you may lengthen 0, and the device would show that as 0.33mm!

[brondo]

The answer is NO
Unfortunately, even my ERC, which is supposed to be their cutting edge technology, does not have a two way communication with the magnet in the nail. That means, regardless of whether it is engaged with the nail magnet, it keeps counting time to one minute and measurement to 0.33 "ASSUMING" it is engaged with the magnet. This means in the worst case, you may lengthen 0, and the device would show that as 0.33mm!

Wow. I think there is a way to configure that, maybe you need a nuvasive rep to handle it. Anyways, I think you'll be okay since you're going for the nail limit anyway. Good luck SNC!

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Wow. I think there is a way to configure that, maybe you need a nuvasive rep to handle it. Anyways, I think you'll be okay since you're going for the nail limit anyway. Good luck SNC!

I am not concerned with my own case, cause as the doctor said, a few extra sessions, when you have already hit 8cm, would not have any negative impact. If you do a lot, it may loosen the rod, but a few should be fine.

I am just not happy with the fact that measurement based on x rays do not have a 0.01 or 0.05mm resolution/accuracy.

[m7liam]

I am not concerned with my own case, cause as the doctor said, a few extra sessions, when you have already hit 8cm, would not have any negative impact. If you do a lot, it may loosen the rod, but a few should be fine.

I am just not happy with the fact that measurement based on x rays do not have a 0.01 or 0.05mm resolution/accuracy.

Did the doctor say if you do a lot, it may loosen the rod? Just trying to understand how that works.

Yes, unfortunately x-rays are +/- 3mm margin of error.

I plan to do a few extra sessions once I hit 8cm as well.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Did the doctor say if you do a lot, it may loosen the rod? Just trying to understand how that works.

Yes, unfortunately x-rays are +/- 3mm margin of error.

I plan to do a few extra sessions once I hit 8cm as well.

Yes, Dr. M. told me that if distraction continues beyond the 8cm max, for too many times, it may loosen the rod. I don't believe he by loosened rod meant that we get shorter! but I think he meant that a loosened rod may create issues during removal. I am not sure. I will ask again.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Thanks for replying SNC,

I would like to hear more about your stretching routine and PT if that's okay. Do you stretch before and after distraction?

Hi brondo bro,
I just realized I never responded to this. I am sorry about that.

I do stretching before and after each distraction. The time gap between my distraction and stretching could be as short as a few minutes, or as long as an hour or so.

I will post a list of my stretching exercises here soon.

[brondo]

Hi brondo bro,
I just realized I never responded to this. I am sorry about that.

I do stretching before and after each distraction. The time gap between my distraction and stretching could be as short as a few minutes, or as long as an hour or so.

I will post a list of my stretching exercises here soon.

Looking forward to it SNC. Thanks!

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 73 (Sat., Oct. 3) - 70.1 mm Taller

 
Today is day 64 since I started distraction. My distraction days included 19 days of 1.33mm daily growth and the remaining 45 days of 0.99 mm daily growth. I have 10 more days to reach the maximum of 8cm. 

The recent 14 days of 1.33mm daily growth, had a dramatic impact on my quad flexibility. I have a hard time improving my quads (especially the left one) in terms of bending knees. There is a chance I could have a long way to being normal; but I hope after the distraction phase is over, I can push myself into making a fast recovery. 

Another very big problem I faced was that since the early days of post-op, I noticed I was losing my ass muscles!! I had an athletic body, and now my body still looks athletic with the exception of my ass which looks rather flat. I look terrible from side and back, cause my ass is gone   I have started doing some stretching exercises to rebuild my ass muscles, but that also seems like a slow process to full recovery.

I take two 300mg Gabapentin pills per days. I don't think I have any nerve pain these days, with the exception of my left tibia which started to develop nerve related numbness during the 14 days of 1.33mm daily distractions. It seems Gabapentin cannot take care of it. But it's not that bad and I hope after the distraction phase is over, I gradually get rid of the tibia numbness.

I eat well, but I somehow have lost weight since the surgery. Unfortunately since my body fat before surgery was very minimal, I must have lost a lot of muscle. Regaining back my weight, would therefore mean rebuilding the lost muscles, which most likely would take months if not longer!

I also take two 50mg Tramadol pill per day to manage the pain. In addition I use hot bathtubs multiple times per day, especially when pain and discomfort seem hard to manage.

I continue to do at least 6 sets of PT exercises per day, typically one sometime before one of the three daily 0.33 distractions and one after.

In addition to walking daily for my normal daily activities, I do a 0.5 mile daily walk focusing on walking as normal as possible. My estimate of overall daily walks overall range from 1 to 2 miles.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions for me. 

[ghkid2019]

Almost 5'11 bois.

Yea ppl tend to lose their áss after LL and takes a while to regain.

These last few days you should order extra takeout lmao get some nice rice and meat. Gotta eat more brotha. Bone formation takes alot of calories. Spend dese last 10 days eating more you'll need it to push thru

You're prolly on world record pace lmao. 19 days of 1.33mm is supa fast

At the next x-ray make sure equal leg lengths dats the important parto. U dun wanna reach 8cm on both then realize u got a 1cm discrepancy or something

Good job bubbba

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Almost 5'11 bois.

Yea ppl tend to lose their áss after LL and takes a while to regain.

It's great to know that it's not uncommon! Thanks ghkid2019 bro! 

These last few days you should order extra takeout lmao get some nice rice and meat. Gotta eat more brotha. Bone formation takes alot of calories. Spend dese last 10 days eating more you'll need it to push thru

Will do! Will do even more after seeing this

You're prolly on world record pace lmao. 19 days of 1.33mm is supa fast

At the next x-ray make sure equal leg lengths dats the important parto. U dun wanna reach 8cm on both then realize u got a 1cm discrepancy or something

Good job bubbba

Good you asked. My right femur is taller than left by 5mm!!!   Therefore Dr. M and I had planned for right to stop at 7.5cm distraction and left to continue towards 8cm.

Since I found that x-ray based measurements in Dr.'s office is not that accurate, I will go back to the same place I used pre-surgery to take accurate measurements. Will do that 5 days before finishing up left at 8cm, when I have to stop distraction on right (to keep it at 7.5cm). The measurement would be an assurance that my femurs would end up being equal

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Hi, SNC.

I greatly appreciate you keeping us updated with your diary. I hope all is well.

Do you plan on uploading some video's of your walk, etc?

Thanks.

Hi Quad Stryde,
Sorry about the delay. 

I would like to upload some videos, but I don't really look good at this point. My butt muscles are mostly gone and I look like a flat ass tall guy walking weird. Hope I get a quick recovery and then show some good results.

[brondo]

Hi SNC,

Did you do any glute exercises or squatting prior to your surgery? Around how many mm or cm would you say your butt muscles turned flat? Thanks.

-brondo

[Arrogance]

Yea ppl tend to lose their áss after LL and takes a while to regain.

That would be a plus for me because I have a really big ass

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Hi SNC,

Did you do any glute exercises or squatting prior to your surgery? Around how many mm or cm would you say your butt muscles turned flat? Thanks.

-brondo

brondo bro, I was unfortunately never a squat fan, but I did a lot of fast walks and swimming.

I do not know how to measure, and compare to before surgery, but my guess is that I have lost a layer as thick as minimum 1cm, but possibly higher from every part of my butt. E.g., on the side, the bones, are almost out !!

[StrydeNailChallenge]

That would be a plus for me because I have a really big ass

I hear girls love big butts  

By the way, one reason I have lost weight, could be the and pain and also opioid pain killers. I read somewhere that pain results in weight loss. Also I have heard that those who are addicted to opioid lose weight.  If these are true, I expect to gain back at least some of my weight during the bone consolidation phase, when pain decreases and I stop using Tramadol (and Gabapentin).

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 74 (Sun., Oct. 4) - 71.1 mm Taller
Day 75 (Mon., Oct. 5) - 72.1 mm Taller

No surprises!  tomorrow I'll have my second outpatient PT day. I expect the PT to say that my quads got stiffer, but my hamstrings either improved, or at least stayed as they were last week. It's been a challenge to try to bend my knees like I could before the 14 days of 1.33mm growth.  I expect things to get even worse by the time I hit 8cm, but I hope I will quickly go back to normal during the consolidation phase.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

I have done quite a few trial and error practices based on which I made several recommendations in my journal here.   I just tried to summarized them for DLL, one of our new CLL'ers.  I am also posting them here, just in case anyone did not check DLL's diary pages:

Recommendation to better manage the post-op days:   


1) Whenever you feel pain, try to do stretching no matter when (even middle of the night).
The best I found is to straighten your legs while sitting on bed and then bend your body towards your knees. The next one that helps me is to lie down on your bed, or sit up a bit with your forearms on your side on the bed, while straightening your leg, then lift one leg at a time, doing two practices: one keeping both legs straight and pulling one as high as possible. The other practice, is to try to bring one close to your chest, even if both legs start to bend.  Another helpful one for me is to have floppies on (which adds about 1.5cm to my height), stand straight on the floor and then bend to try to touch the floor.  Recently instead of keep pushing my hands down to touch the floor in one shot, I have to frequently push and let go many times and each time
getting closer to the ground and usually in about 30 seconds to a minutes, my fingers finally touch the floor.  Ideally every time you have pain you would want to repeat your PT sessions. However some of our folks here suggest that it is a good practice to avoid those exercises that create nerve pain.  I do not know which exercise would give me nerve pain, therefore every time I experience pain and also before and after every distraction session, I try to repeat my PT routine which is about 10 exercises.

2) Use BIOFREEZE Cold Therapy Pain Relief [pack of 3] (Costco, Sam's Club, etc.) and roll it on the painful area with a bit of pressure to not only apply the gel, but also massage your legs with the roller.    This is the best ointment I have been using.

I also got  Capzasin Arthritis Pain Relief, Quick Relief Gel 1.5 oz (42.5 g) [pack of 2] from Amazon.  This has one problem. After the few hours at some point it would make your leg fired up! You'd feel that your legs are on fire    If you try to wash it off your legs, your legs would burn real bad! you better wash them with fairly cold water (and body gel/soap).

I have tried some ointments from European and Asian countries, and since you'd not be able to find them here, I don't mention them. However as I said BIOFREEZE is the best of them, and I would say just having that as an ointment for local pain relief would be sufficient.

3) If you cannot sleep, watch a movie on TV or your computer, while you are set in a nice sleeping position. There is a high chance you'd go to sleep quickly. I typically watch Friends on my computer. I typically fall asleep as early as a couple minutes, and as late as an episode or two later.

4) I put on skiing under pants to get warmed up and also tight jeans and they both somehow help me manage pain! I know it sounds crazy but I think skiing under pants warm up your legs so they act similarly to local pain relief ointments. Tight jeans, most likely put pressure on your legs, and help you forget the pain I guess.

5) Eating/drinking may work like a distraction from pain. I notice that most of the times while eating or drinking and a while after, my pain goes away.

6) Try all sleeping positions including face down, side, face up with a pillow or two under your knee or without any pillows, with or with blankets, etc.   frequently. Body preference may change, so hopefully you would find the optimum sleeping position every night.

I hope these help,
SNC

7) I think cause of the painkillers that I take I feel unusually cold. I'd like to add that I recently have started wearing double clothes at home or outside. It helps me better manage pain and discomfort!   I wear jogger/track pants and then on top wear jeans!  I also wear a t-shirt, and a shirt on top and sometimes a jacket as well when I am in a colder area.

8 ) I recently tried an air and heat massage device! the first time I tried it, I thought I discovered the utopia of free pain I could live in all the way till 8cm! but after I was done with my first try, I felt like my legs were lazy, and rather painful. The second time I tried the air and heat massager, I could not handle it for a long time and I felt like I should not use such devices, as they may make my legs lazy and even more painful!   In any case I thought I share this and let you decide whether you'd wanna try it out and see if it works for you.

9) I recently got the following massage devices and I think they are "sometimes" helpful. 
   A)  Get this one, or something similar to this one and give it a try:
   Tiger Tail The Long One 22" - SS20
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FCGDAE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

   B) Similarly try this one, and if it does not work for you, then return it. Make sure you get this and the one above from a place, where you could return, in case it did not work for you:
   TriggerPoint Foam Massage Ball for Deep-Tissue Massage   
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016L9K7X8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 76 (Tue., Oct. 6) - 73.1 mm Taller


I had planned to take care of 3 clinic related items this morning.

I had asked my physician for a checkup and he had put some blood tests for me in the system. I decided to go early to the clinic and do the tests. I was fasting for the tests.

I then went to pick up the new Tramadol and Gabapentin prescription from the pharmacy in the clinic. There was some complication and they somehow had the Tramadol, but not the Gabapentin in their records. I therefore had to call Dr. M.'s office to have them call the pharmacy once more.

My PT appointment was also today in the same clinic. As I expected my PT found out that my quad flexibility got worse compared to last week. My bending knees were at about 100+ degrees which is terrible. I hope I can quickly improve this after my distraction is over, but at this point, when I to push it while bending knees, the pain starts to be unbearable, so I give up.  The rest was okay. He checked my hamstring flexibility and he was okay with that. He measured my straight knees as at minus 8 degrees.

I then went back to the pharmacy and picked up my Tramadol and Gabapentin.   

Overall I was there at the clinic for about 3 hours. Fasting, feeling cold in the clinic and walking quite a bit, quickly resulted in severe pain and discomfort, but I started to recover while driving back home.

I am on day 65 of the distraction phase. Seven more days and I'd be done at 8cm!

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 77 (Wed., Oct. 7) - 74.1 mm Taller


Taking too many pills (painkillers, vitamins, calcium, etc.) and also having low mobility due to my surgery and the COVID-19 situation, had me worried that my liver and kidney would be under too much work pressure! I had asked my physician for a checkup. The results were surprising. My liver and kidney were as usual very good, but numbers looked even better than before. My vitamin D deficiency I had last year, is now resolved.

All numbers are normal, with the exception of the LDL (bad cholestrol) which is 124. I am not that surprised, cause I eat crazy including having a lot of red meat. I will go back to a more healthy style of eating I always had soon, after consolidation is over; and try to lower my LDL to below 100.

I have been very lucky my pain has been manageable on 5+cm.
I had heard stories about how hard and close to impossible becomes, when you'd go to the 7cm zone!
Now at 7cm, I am surprised how I can fairly easily pass days! I am not sure why my pain is not much higher, but it's most likely thanks to my stretching routine. I never missed on stretching and always too every sessions seriously.

[BelowTheMean]

Really glad to hear that your pain has been manageable over 7cm. Do you know if lengthening quickly and stretching more during consolidation is different than lengthening slowly and starting consolidation more flexible in the long run? I suppose ultimately our bodies should adjust to a certain level of flexibility given the total amount lengthened, regardless of how fast it was lengthened.

You'll be well into consolidation by my surgery date. With your rate of bone growth I suppose you'll consolidate pretty quickly too. I'm surprised to hear that you have a Vit D deficiency given your rate of bone growth. I guess that makes me feel better as well since I'm most likely a bit deficient in Vit D as well (though I will have taken supplements for 2 months by my surgery date.)

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Really glad to hear that your pain has been manageable over 7cm. Do you know if lengthening quickly and stretching more during consolidation is different than lengthening slowly and starting consolidation more flexible in the long run? I suppose ultimately our bodies should adjust to a certain level of flexibility given the total amount lengthened, regardless of how fast it was lengthened.

You'll be well into consolidation by my surgery date. With your rate of bone growth I suppose you'll consolidate pretty quickly too. I'm surprised to hear that you have a Vit D deficiency given your rate of bone growth. I guess that makes me feel better as well since I'm most likely a bit deficient in Vit D as well (though I will have taken supplements for 2 months by my surgery date.)

Thanks BelowTheMean,
I am happy to see you starting surgery asap, cause I believe in doing this surgery during COVID-19 times for all the benefits you'd get.

I avoid the California sun as much as I can! ideally limiting it to less than 5 minutes per day without any sun blocks. In case of sun blocks, I would be okay staying for longer, but I am not a big fan of sun blocks. I therefore make sure I avoid it as much as I can. I think for someone like me, I need daily D supplements. I had a vitamin D deficiency last year (blood test in November 2019). However I started taking supplements since then and at some point, the deficiency must have been resolved, cause now it look like the number is pretty normal.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 78 (Thurs., Oct. - 75.1 mm Taller


Before the surgery started, I told  Dr. M. that I may have a height discrepancy between left and right, with left being shorter.  Dr. M. recommended that I take accurate x-ray measurements. I went to the hospital and took the x-ray. The results showed that my right leg upper knee is 5mm taller than my left. Therefore we had planned to stop distraction for the right, as soon as it hits 75mm.

Today is day 78 post-op and day 69 since distraction started and I will be done with lengthening my right leg. I will continue distraction for my left for 5 more days.  I am curious is anyone else could achieve 7.5cm in 69 days of distraction. If not, then I may have a world record as a fastest CLL'er to reach 7.5cm distraction.

I repeated the accurate x-ray measurement by asking my physician to refer me to a hospital where they do accurate x-ray measurements. The results will be out in 3 days. My plan is to make adjustments to right, if on day 3 I find out that I have to do more distraction for my right leg.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 76 (Tue., Oct. 6) - 73.1 mm Taller


I had planned to take care of 3 clinic related items this morning.

I had asked my physician for a checkup and he had put some blood tests for me in the system. I decided to go early to the clinic and do the tests. I was fasting for the tests.

I then went to pick up the new Tramadol and Gabapentin prescription from the pharmacy in the clinic. There was some complication and they somehow had the Tramadol, but not the Gabapentin in their records. I therefore had to call Dr. M.'s office to have them call the pharmacy once more.

My PT appointment was also today in the same clinic. As I expected my PT found out that my quad flexibility got worse compared to last week. My bending knees were at about 100+ degrees which is terrible. I hope I can quickly improve this after my distraction is over, but at this point, when I to push it while bending knees, the pain starts to be unbearable, so I give up.  The rest was okay. He checked my hamstring flexibility and he was okay with that. He measured my straight knees as at minus 8 degrees.

I then went back to the pharmacy and picked up my Tramadol and Gabapentin.   

Overall I was there at the clinic for about 3 hours. Fasting, feeling cold in the clinic and walking quite a bit, quickly resulted in severe pain and discomfort, but I started to recover while driving back home.

I am on day 65 of the distraction phase. Seven more days and I'd be done at 8cm!

There is a typo here.   I was on day 67 (not day 65) when I was at 73.1mm distraction. Sorry about the typo.

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 79 (Fri., Oct. 9) - 76.1 mm Taller
Day 80 (Sat., Oct. 10) - 77.1 mm Taller

My right leg has graduated from the Stryde Nail Challenge at 7.5cm distraction and now officially in the consolidation phase!

By the time my left is at 8cm, I hope they are closer to being equal in length.

On day 79 (day 70 since distraction started), I started the distraction sessions that would be on left only. I assumed that after the left distraction session is done, and when the device automatically takes it to the right lengthening session, if I turn off the devices, things would be saved properly. Therefore every time I do the distraction, all I plan to do is lengthen my left and then turn off the device, to avoid messing up with the numbers recorded for the right and left.

However on day 80 (day 71 since distraction started), I realized that the numbers are indeed incorrect on the device, as somehow the device my have turned on, asking for the right leg lengthening and I must have used that towards my left on Sat. morning. I had already checked with the company that both right and left are basically the same rotation direction and amount, so it's completely safe to use a distraction session that appears for a certain leg, on the other one! 

I have made an excel sheet for my distraction days and I have recorded all the numbers, therefore inaccurate numbers on the device would not be a problem.

I have three more days for my left to be at 8cm

[StrydeNailChallenge]

Day 81 Post-op (Sun., Oct. 10) - 78.1 mm 80 mm Taller [ magic happens, 8cm Taller on distraction day 72  ]

As I said, my right is already done (max 7.5 cm distraction) and in the consolidation phase!
I expected to be at 78.1 mm distraction on left by the end of the day and to have two more days to be at 8cm.

However this afternoon while i was sitting and doing my second distraction of day, I heard a big sound coming from the left rod area. I thought I made a misheard but when I stood up, the sound was repeated. It felt like a pop or clicking sound.
 
Then tonight while doing the third extraction of the day, around half time, my leg started moving a bit with a sound like the rod has a hard time proceeding. I felt like the rod was trying to lengthen but then would go back to where it was.

None of the sounds resulted any pain. The night time sounds were like something clicks but then gets released and makes my leg jump or move a bit.

I was first concerned that perhaps the rod was broken, but having no pain made me feel good that at least it's not a dangerous situation. My suspicion was that I already hit 8cm and the rod was just trying, but could not lengthen any further. This would match what Dr. M. figured during our last appointment on Sep. 29th; that my left grew faster than right by a few mms.   Also the results of my Thursday x-ray was emailed to me by my physician this afternoon; which showed there was not much difference between right and left. This also confirms that my left grew faster and could catch up by about 5mm that it had been short of whole my life.

I immediately emailed Dr. M. He said it sounds like the rod has reached the end of its lengthening potential [of 8cm]. He also said that If I want to continue distraction for another couple of days, that should be OK and should not have any consequences.

Considering all the evidence, and my own feeling I get while the rod was not proceeding, I believe I have reached the 8cm!   

 I took this challenge with some goals in mind. One milestone was to achieve 8cm and it seems I achieved it. There is a high chance I am the fasted in the world to reach 8cm in 72 days. There is actually a good chance I reached 8cm on Thursday (distraction day 69), cause the x-ray results on that day show that my left and right are almost same height. Since my right was at 7.5 by the end of that day, my left must have been at 8cm by the end of that day. Dr. M. had also observed in late Sept, that my left was ahead of schedule by about 5mm [somehow, I still don't know how the device works exactly].
In any case, I am happy to officially call 8cm as completed by Distraction Day 72
 My next milestone is to go back to the normal (pre-op) condition or something similar [cause my new leg dimensions may define a new normal] in a short time.

I would like to thanks IFS, Movie, ghkid2019, Tartar, BelowTheMean, Sunshine, wannabeidol, readyprecisestryde, bondo, BoneStretching, m7liam, asian and many other brothers and here who have helped me with their advice and support.

I hope to continue my diary and I hope it helps many CLL'ers achieve their goals.

SNC

[Sunshine]

Congratulations Bro!
I'm amazed at your pain management during your journey. You reached your 8cm target relatively easy. Enjoy your new height and new life!

[readyprecisestryde]

Wow...You are beating everyone's record to reach 8cm the fastest and congrats!!!  Thank you and enjoy your new height. Wishing you a quick recovery