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[volt]

hey all, brand new member here. I’m 21 years old and about 5’6, closer to 5’5 1/2. I have always been just slightly shorter than most of my short friends and that has always really affected my self confidence. I don’t need to be tall or average, but at least within that standard deviation of height would make me feel infinitely better about myself.

Thus, I think I would only want to do surgery to make myself 5’7-5’8. Initially I thought if I’m paying for the surgery I might as well go all out shoot for 5’10 (my dad’s height) but after doing a lot of reading here I’ve learned that there are a lot of long term effects that I would like to avoid as much as possible (arthritis, balance, loss in athletic ability). I know that with any LL at all there are risks and there will be some long term effects no matter what, but how do those problems look when you do say only an inch on the femur and tibia each (which is insanely expensive I know). Would those risks look different than if you did 2 inches on just your tibia?

[..]

The real question here is how come you only feel "slightly shorter" at 5'5.5".

[brondo]

I was wondering the same for 5cm on femurs using strydes.

[volt]

I feel like if you do 2 surgeries to maintain your proportion (your femur:tibia ratio is supposed to be something like 1 to 0. and you only do like an inch on each, then that could eliminate at least some of the balance stuff. I was reading a post from a guy who did 3 inches done on just his tibia and he said that he loses his balance when he turns his body too much, e.g. getting out of the car. with his tibias 3 inches longer than they should be, his biomechanics are without a doubt very warped. I would rather be my current height than 3 inches taller and a walking jenga stack so if i go through with this, i would want the best possible outcome to better than that.

One of the things I’m interested to know is with the potential nerve damage, if that same nerve damage occurred with a 3 inch surgery vs 1 inch surgery, if the extent of the damage would be more mild on the 1 inch. My guess would be yes.

[Hagane]

ok lets try to tackle this one at a time

how do those problems look when you do say only an inch on the femur and tibia each (which is insanely expensive I know). Would those risks look different than if you did 2 inches on just your tibia?

the risks posed in this question is quite simple
1 operation vs 2
by getting two procedures you are essentially increasing your risks perioperatively (during and immediatly post op)
this can include issues with
anaesthetic reaction
bleeding
infection
damage to structures from the procedure
chances of fat embolism

[Hagane]

I feel like if you do 2 surgeries to maintain your proportion (your femur:tibia ratio is supposed to be something like 1 to 0. and you only do like an inch on each, then that could eliminate at least some of the balance stuff.

now on to the proportion part if you are obsessed with proportion ( you really should) and you want to maintain that ratio: then the most you would lengthenwould be 1inch femur for every 0.8 tibia. so in theory could could do 2 inch femur and 1.6 tibia and still be pretty safe.




now the balance stuff: its not caused by the proportion between your femur to tib. its caused by your leg to torso. the reason why is you shifting you center of balance up. you lived most of your life with a lower centre of gravity, and when you grow naturaly your body has time to adapt to it. some people who have massive growth spurts get very awkward cuz there is not enough time to adapt. but that jsut takes time for your brain to get used to the new height.

[Hagane]

finally the nerve damage:
in theory you shouldnt get any permanent nerve damage if youre smart about your lenghtening
these nerve pathologies dont happen suddenly, there are usually a ton of warning signs before you get something like a food drop

that means constant physio. and when you get the signs of impending nerve damage, slow down lengthening, so constant communication with your doc is crucial.

[volt]

can I ask what a food drop is?

also I feel like many people would take the best care of themselves they can during post op, the ones who get nerve damage are the ones who ignore the warning signs?

Also I think I would do 1.2 inch femur 1.0 inch tibia, or maybe 1.5 inch femur 1.2 tibia. wouldn’t want to hit the 2 inch mark on either. Bad scenarios for doing just 1 inch on a bone is a lot less detrimental than going all out and doing 3 inches on a bone, right?

[volt]

also irrelevant to topic, but I measured my wingspan and found out I have short arms for my height, about -2 inches my standing height, so that has further discouraged me from wanting to do too much lengthening to maintain my proportions.

[Hagane]

can I ask what a food drop is?

also I feel like many people would take the best care of themselves they can during post op, the ones who get nerve damage are the ones who ignore the warning signs?

Also I think I would do 1.2 inch femur 1.0 inch tibia, or maybe 1.5 inch femur 1.2 tibia. wouldn’t want to hit the 2 inch mark on either. Bad scenarios for doing just 1 inch on a bone is a lot less detrimental than going all out and doing 3 inches on a bone, right?

sorry mean to say foot drop

most people dont struggle with 2 inches on femurs
you would run into issues if you decided to lengthen both at the same time
however if you spaced your procedures out you wouldnt encounter any reall issues

[Hagane]

in fact the only people that struggeled with 2 inches femur are the ones that did all 4 at the same time

[volt]

in fact the only people that struggeled with 2 inches femur are the ones that did all 4 at the same time

really? why is that? I imagine they are a lot less mobile during the healing and PT process. I know Debiparshad has a joint offer where he does both femur and tibia, with the surgeries being about a month apart. That sounds kind of nice in theory, just getting it all over with in the same time. I read about it being up to a year before people are walking comfortably again, doing that twice sounds terrible. But a necessary evil if what you say is true.

[Samsunny889]

finally the nerve damage:
in theory you shouldnt get any permanent nerve damage if youre smart about your lenghtening
these nerve pathologies dont happen suddenly, there are usually a ton of warning signs before you get something like a food drop

that means constant physio. and when you get the signs of impending nerve damage, slow down lengthening, so constant communication with your doc is crucial.

What r the warning signs for foot drop??

[Hagane]

really? why is that? I imagine they are a lot less mobile during the healing and PT process. I know Debiparshad has a joint offer where he does both femur and tibia, with the surgeries being about a month apart. That sounds kind of nice in theory, just getting it all over with in the same time. I read about it being up to a year before people are walking comfortably again, doing that twice sounds terrible. But a necessary evil if what you say is true.

if you think about it this way: when you do femur only youre stretchign the entire nerve 1mm a day. if you you tibs only its at a rate of 0.75mm a day. now if you do both youre stretching the entire nerve at a rate of 1.75mm a day

[volt]

So theoretically the less you lengthen per day the safer for your nerves?

[Hagane]

So theoretically the less you lengthen per day the safer for your nerves?

pretty much

[Tartar]

So theoretically the less you lengthen per day the safer for your nerves?

You must respect your body, if you feel pain you have to go slower.

[volt]

You must respect your body, if you feel pain you have to go slower.

isn’t pain unavoidable though? how would i know the difference between unavoidable pain and the pain my body is giving me as a sign?

[ghkid2019]

Nerve pain is different. You can tell

[Tartar]

isn’t pain unavoidable though? how would i know the difference between unavoidable pain and the pain my body is giving me as a sign?

Unfortunately it’s a bit controversial because pain perception is quite individual. Actually, every kind of pain is due to nerves, even if in this forum I often read about “Nerve pain” meaning a “stronger pain” only; in the LL pain Is always due to a nerve stretch. When the pain is very strong, maybe even staying still, and it prevents your sleep, probably it’s better to slow down. What I cam suggest is avoid pain killers as much as possible (obv if you can’t sleep take them in the night) cause they get your healing worse and cause pain is always an important index

[volt]

from my research nerve pain is a lot sharper and “stabbing”. in my experience with broken bones, that kind of pain is more of a throbbing kind of pain. And painkillers slow down the healing process? I’ve never heard of that.

[OverrideYourGenetics]

If you use a reputable doctor, and being only 21, you won't have any long-term effect from that short of LL - if you do serious recovery work.

I lengthened 7.5cm quadrilaterally until I had nerve problems (loss of sensation in the left calf), and now 2.25 years later, the sensation is 80% back. Hardly critical to have full sensation there, so it doesn't bother me.

Honestly, 6 months of Covid without gym has had a worse long-term impact on me than LL.

[Tartar]

from my research nerve pain is a lot sharper and “stabbing”. in my experience with broken bones, that kind of pain is more of a throbbing kind of pain. And painkillers slow down the healing process? I’ve never heard of that.

I repeat, it’s a bit a generic term. Btw yes painkillers has been proven to slow down (more or less) the healing. I’ve eard that Guichet doesn’t even want painkillers for their patients (idk how strictly). In addition pain, even if is unpleasant, is an important feedback of your body.

[volt]

If you use a reputable doctor, and being only 21, you won't have any long-term effect from that short of LL - if you do serious recovery work.

I lengthened 7.5cm quadrilaterally until I had nerve problems (loss of sensation in the left calf), and now 2.25 years later, the sensation is 80% back. Hardly critical to have full sensation there, so it doesn't bother me.

Honestly, 6 months of Covid without gym has had a worse long-term impact on me than LL.

I don’t have the money to do it right now, but I would like to do it by the time I am 26 or 27. I’m a college student studying business and creative design and am working to do my best to make as much money as possible right out of school. I’m a little behind because I am a transfer student and currently taking time off of school because my family and I don’t want to pay for zoom university, so 26 might be a bit idealistic but I would love to be able to do LL within 4 years of graduating. Maintaining my femur tibia proportion is kind of important to me so I would like to maybe do another a few years after my first, which I guess would be early 30s or very late 20s.

When you say lengthening quadrilaterally, you mean lengthening femurs and tibias at the same time?

And do you think your LL has made 6 months without gym a lot worse than it would be if you hadn’t done it? Like in terms of how quick atrophy occurs perhaps?

[MakeMeTallAF]

@OverrideYourGenetics

Can you run for longer distances yet my dude or is that still not possible?

[OverrideYourGenetics]

Can you run for longer distances yet

Define long. I was never much of a running; 1 mile in like 8 minutes was my best. On the elliptical I'd run fine for half an hour after LL.

Anyway, the legs don't seem to not the bottleneck; my cardio shape is. Damn Covid and life stuff. Need to fix that and get back to running a mile non-stop again.

[volt]

Define long. I was never much of a running; 1 mile in like 8 minutes was my best. On the elliptical I'd run fine for half an hour after LL.

Anyway, the legs don't seem to not the bottleneck; my cardio shape is. Damn Covid and life stuff. Need to fix that and get back to running a mile non-stop again.

You never run for more than a mile? Because of LL limitations or you just were never into longer distances?

Outside of health and biomechanics effects, I’m also really interested in how exercise and s*xual function are effected. Haven’t heard as much about exercise, but in my head I feel like I might be kind of nervous to do certain leg day exercises like squats. Of course only when a full recovery is made. Also if you aren’t comfortable sharing that is fine, but I’ve heard that some people struggle with certain s*xual positions after LL. has your s*xual function been effected at all?

[MakeMeTallAF]

I thought I remembered you saying on your diary that you were unable to run for more than 2 minutes even a whole year after your procedure. You made it seem as if there was lots of knee pain.

Good to know your legs aren't hindering your running now.

[ghkid2019]

Over Ryde your Jeans Nettic suh