Oct 21, day 36: I started to feel a little numbness in some areas of my left lower leg. Numbness is one of the symptoms of nerve damage... I probably need to ask for meds for it.
Oct 23, day 38: I had my second x-ray today. Everything looked great. I mentioned the numbness to the doctor. Today I also started to feel pins and needles in my left lower leg when I kept left leg straight. The doctor sent me gabapentin and suggested slow down the lengthening. He said I could keep 1 mm a day, but he had one patient who still had numbness in his lower leg two years after lengthening. Since I’m only at 3.1 cm, I don’t want to slow down to make the whole process longer. I’ll keep 1 mm a day and consider slowing down if the nerve pain gets worse.
Nov 6, day 52: The nerve pain didn’t get worse or better in the last two weeks. I’m not sure if gabapentin works for me, but I didn’t slow down since the nerve pain didn’t get worse and it’s tolerable. Today I had my third x-ray and it looked great. During the appointment I mentioned that I can’t keep my back straight when my legs stay close. The doctor said it’s called duckass... I had duckass since the first day after the surgery. I didn’t know it’s called duckass. I’m not sure if my duckass is getting worse during lengthening but it’s not getting better. I asked the doctor what caused the duckass and he said it’s because my TFL is tight... The funny thing is... I mentioned the duckass problem to my PTs several times during the lengthening process and none of them gave me the correct answer. Some said my hamstrings were tight, some said my IT bands were tight, and some just couldn’t explain it after seeing me so flexible. I can still do 90+ degree hamstring stretch that some PTs can’t even do. My IT bands were not bad either since I couldn’t feel good stretch on my IT band. Today it’s my first time hearing TFL... I know it’s probably weird to see people who are flexible everywhere except TFL, but I’m still disappointed by the Paley PT team. I had appointments with at least 7-8 different PTs from his team, and none of them found that my TFL was tight even after I told them about my duckass... The doctor suggested slow down lengthening at the end of the appointment again. He thinks I won’t hit 8cm based on what he saw today (nerve pain and really tight TFL). I was angry but too tired to say anything. I paid for PT, I had duckass since the first day after the surgery, I let several PTs know about my duckass, and none of them found my tight TFL. My very flexible hamstrings, quads, hip flexors were kept getting stretched, and my really tight TFL was never stretched. Then I was told that I wouldn’t hit 8 cm.
Nov 9, day 55: I felt my duckass was already improved by 50% after stretching my TFL just for 3 days!! My butt and TFL feel tight when I fight duckass, but I’m able to keep my back much more straight! I feel my TFL was probably “dead” and it’s activated now. Besides TFL everything else is still super flexible. The nerve pain is almost gone too. I still have numbness but the area is getting smaller. I will finally hit 5 cm tomorrow wow