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[Kobe24]

Hello Everyone

I been following this forum for a while but haven’t posted or made an account because I wanted to be as discrete and anonymous as possible.

I recently had the tibia/fibula procedure with precise. ( The version before stryde) where it’s not full weight bearing
I didn’t have much complications or pain/concerns until recently a week ago or so probably right before getting to 5cm.

Currently I’m around 6cm and I’m aiming for the full 8cm. ( Please don’t tell me 8cm is dangerous or risky it is  because I read multiple diaries where they done 8cm and even more.) So I know it’s doable but will take extra dedication to reach.

After I got closer to the 5cm mark I started getting like a burning sensation on my left shin when straightening out my leg which I believe is nerve pain that caused me to stay in bed most of the day and walk less.
So I developed ballerina foot and it got worse drastically and rapidly. I went from having my full heel on the ground to it being lifted a good 3cm or so (I’m not exactly sure how much just an estimate) In a week. Also my knee extension became horrible and I think it’s what’s causing me to have bad ballerina because when I stand or walk my knees are bent and not straight. Honestly I’m worried about these conditions but at the same time I know after I’m done lengthening it’ll be a-lot easier to stretch and get back to normal. I only need about 3 more weeks to get to 8cm but it’s getting bad to the point where I spend most of my day in bed. In these 3 weeks I know my ballerina will get worse and my knee extension would get worse but after I’m done distraction and my soft tissue gets to catch up I’ll be going very hard walking and stretching everyday to resolve these issues. Right now no matter how much stretching I do it feels like I’m doing nothing and I can’t get up and walk much due to the shin pain/nerve pain. (Which is normal in what I read in previous diaries)

I want to know how much ballerina is considered too much? Can anyone tell me of a person on this forum who got really bad ballerina and was able to fix it after distraction? And how much ballerina is considered too far to be fixed ?

[KiloKAHN]

Just because something has been done before, it doesn't mean it's a good idea. If you already have 3 cm of ballerina it's going to get a heck of a lot worse if you still continue to push for that extra 2 cm. You should stop distracting and start working on trying to fix that ballerina with stretches. Coincidentally, my surgeon described a situation regarding a prior patient of his from long ago that sounds similar to your scenario:

http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=2783.msg43784#msg43784

"The general experience, and my own experience has been that after 5 cms, people start having trouble with more pain, difficulty to exercise their muscles, and start developing deformities such as equinus (ballerina) and flexion of the knee. Muscles can stretch to a point (like a rubber band), but beyond that point they loose their elasticity (and become like a rope). Initially muscle stretch keeps pace with the increase in length of the bone, beyond 5 cms the muscles are not stretching enough to keep pace with the bone lengthening. They then pull on whatever bone/joint they are attached to and cause deformities which are very difficult to stretch out with physio, and require surgery.

One of the earliest patients that I treated (for cosmetic lengthening), was distracting at home, away from Mumbai, under the care of his local orthopaedic surgeon. He had been told very clearly that only 6 cms is appropriate. He was hell bent on 8 cm. He continued lengthening without informing me or the local surgeon (who was supposed to do the followup). He developed severe equinus, which did not resolve despite two years of physio. He finally accepted my advice and agreed for a surgical correction (percutaneous TA release). As a consequence of the equinus, he could not bear weight properly, which in turn created problems in the bone healing. He was fine ultimately, but went thru 2 years of hell, unnecessarily, in my opinion. After that experience, all patients are required to stay in Mumbai for the lengthening period."

[Sibirskiy]

As a person who's actually done 8.0 cm on tibias in short I say go ahead. Provided your surgeon is reputable and you're willing to go through the long recovery to reach back to 100% (think years, not months).

What complications did I sustain? Ballerina feet, foot drop, complete numbness of my front shin and feet and bad muscle wasting, all on both sides. All improved with months of physical therapy and Vitamin B12 supplements AFTER the lengthening process

Its better ending this process having reached your goal then ending it with regret and lingering thoughts of "if only I did more" etc etc

[Body Builder]

Anything more than 15 degrees of bf is too much.
Start stretching as much as you can and lessen your lengthening rate at 0,75-0,66 till the end. After 5 cm premature consolidation is not usual.

8cm are too much on tibias, still they are possible but if your condition doesn't get better you shouldn't go over 6.5-7cm because you risk longterm complications.

[Astronomy]

Since you've had issues on the length of 6cm,how dare you lengthen tibias up to 8cm??
And I haven't seen 'multiple' diaries documenting 8cm tibia lengthening...That's beyond craziness.
You can do more researches into Dr.Paley's researches into the lengthening amount.The data there shows lengthening tibia by 5cm is the normal limit of ppl and over 5cm ppl will prolly have issues such as ballerina foot,nerve pain and so on.

[taller2023]

Hey you asian, Chinese or korean?  I know 2 chinese guy do tibias and get 8cm with Stryde with no BF, shin knee pain yea.

[SuchLL]

I scheduled tibia with Dr Paley in Oct 2021. They said they never had someone undergoing tibia lengthening experience numbness in the shin, and it’s only occurring during femoral lengthening. But there’re already two people mentioning numbness in the shin under this topic... Interesting...