Update into the fine details. 11/02/2021
I understand that this is going to be a very long post but I feel like all the future patients out there should know every little detail because I know if you are anything like me, you will want to know every single detail.
Let me begin with flexibility, muscle stretching, ect. When you reach 4cm(and this could be different for everyone but it was the 4cm mark for me) you will feel the tightness in your hamstrings with the main stretching pain coming from underneath the knee itself. This is particularly noticeable when you lay as straight as a plank on the bed.
Second would be near the buttocks area but it is minor compared to the knee area. This nagging pain is only noticeable for me while I do my stretching exercises so it is best to pop a pain killer before stretching, wait for it to kick in and then proceed with your physiotherapy which is what I am doing at the moment. This problem does not occur while I sleep at night mainly because I put 2 thin pieces of clothing underneath my knees (right knee mostly) for support. This escalates my knee by no more than 2cm off the bed. Be careful not to get too used to pillows, ect like some others do because then physio becomes even more painful when the leg is used to being in a bent position so much. Trust me it will benefit you in the long run. This is the advice I receive from former successful LL patients who have done LON femurs.
The stretching determines for me how my body is handling the lengthening. The more i train and the more and intense stretching I do, the pain always decreases further. When I walk with support the only pain I feel is from my right knee side pinsite which i guess is only natural since well its a road in your bloody leg. Other than that I have no pains.
The nerve pain is very rare and happens about 4 times a day lasting no more than a minute at most at this point in time. This has been like this since 3cm.
In total since commencing lengthening I have taken 1 week worth of breaks. 6 of those days as because on two occasions I decided to increase the lengthening to 1.25mm since my bone healing was perfect which was not as comfortable as 1mm, so before going back i decided to give my legs a little break, only seemed logical at the time, on the plus side it reduced the pain significantly.
I hate morning time the most simply because your legs will feel like a wooden plank. The feeling of being very stiff stops you from reaching your full ROM potential in the morning which is not a very motivating start for the day to see that your ROM is not so good at the beginning of the day.
Now here is the situation with walking and mobility. Frederico is also lengthening with us, very mobile and was an inspiration for me before I started because I seen all the guys progress on instagram which made rest me assured a little. Everyone will be able to be mobile, the reason I do not do the same is because I am a very paranoid person in general, and extremely cautious so my mind wont allow it but I can assure you my body and legs are well able.
Onto nutrition, I eat a crap load of dairy and drink 2-2.5 Litres of Kepir (a milk based yogurt drink) every single day. I take the vitamin supplements everyday too which I think I posted a picture about. My breakfast is fresh fruit from the local market. 2 oranges, strawberries, kiwi, banana and apples and of course Pomegranate. Make pomegranate your best friend it is the best source of vitamins you could possibly have. It mainly helps any kind of inflammation you might have, I eat 2 of them per day. Lunch could be anything, I usually make an egg and avocado sandwich. Dinner, pasta, chicken and beans. Once every month I buy pizza but only once a month. As you can see diet wise, it is costing me a good amount of money but at least I am getting all the good stuff in my system which helps the recovery a lot.
I get up 7 times a day for 15 minutes each as walking exercise. If I am going to the park then it is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. I train my leg muscles a lot and especially the glutes doing all the bed exercises I was given by my physiotherapist. Walking is vital for the recovery, it is easy to get lazy.
Sleeping which is a big part of getting stronger, especially for the PT is something I think most people struggle with at the very beginning, I did anyway which which made my experience worse especially since I am a side sleeper and I could never sleep on my back. I do not take pain meds before I sleep, I simply do a 10 minute walk around my apartment and put on a movie on the telly as a distraction. I get about 6 hours sleep every night. I sleep at about 3am and wake up 3 hours later due to my leg feeling a little bit numb so I c\kind of do a little stretch here and there in the bed and go back to sleep. 3 more hours after that and I feel refreshed. Pre LL I never liked sleeping past 7 hours anyway so my sleep has improved lately. Hopefully it stays this way.
I will write anything else I can think of but for now I think I got it all down.
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Topic: Diary - LON Femurs Dr Halil Buldu (Read 29224 times)