Hey guys, this is going to be my conclusion post for long term recovery. Some of you message me but I am limited to two replies per day so I don’t always get back.
Long term, even if you stretch, your flexibility is reduced a lot. I was somewhat flexible before the surgery, and now I have the flexibility of a normal average person. This wouldn’t matter for normal life, but I don’t believe that it’s possible to play competitive sports after this. Another thing is losing some explosiveness. If you’re just playing with friends that is different; if you’re playing serious you will be disadvantaged and more likely to injury due to the lower flexibility. Maybe if you do x>6, but definitely not 8. Maybe the exception is if you were doing LL at average height, but the shorter you are the less soft tissue you are beginning with. That being said, I don’t regret doing 8, as every cm helped me mentally. If I knew I was going to do Tibias in the future, I probably would have considered doing 7cm. Everyone is different, but I feel like this is generally true for a common majority.
Next point, pain and stiffness. For those doing internals, they don’t have as much to worry about. I think from the pins, I have slight soreness/discomfort/stiffness in my left hip when I lay out it for a while (like napping). Initially I just thought it was screws/hardware, but even after I had it removed it didn’t fully go away. It’s only on my left hip, but it’s not a big deal.
Now, if you are active day to day, you don’t have to worry about getting super tight. However, now that I’m not active because I’m doing my Tibias, I’m getting tight in areas unrelated. Like my hips are getting tight, because I’m not moving or stretching them as much, and they are trying to shrink back to their original length. PT has now started stretching my hips too. After doing femurs, you’ll have times when you wake up and feel tight, so it might because a habit to wake up and touch your toes to stretch for a minute every morning. You want to make sure to maintain flexibility because tightness causes back pain and reduced comfort. If you have tight hips, sleeping on your stomach or with one leg raised becomes uncomfortable because of this. I’m not sure about the long term effects, but aside from the occasional morning tightness/stiffness I feel fine. I sleep very comfortably, but I feel I slept more comfortably with the shorter legs lol.
Next, my proportions came out good. My long femurs match my upper body good but my tibias looked somewhat short in comparison. This is only nked. With shorts and especially pants / jeans on they look good and I actually enjoy having the longer legs. If you’re a quad patient then you might be concerned about the arm portion for some people, but my proportions came out good once I put some muscle back on my femurs. When you finish distraction they’ll look very long because of the atrophy, but a few months later with mass it won’t look bad at all. As a quad patient, I still look completely normal but this is also because I wear slightly baggy sweaters ( I always have, it’s been my style since grade school). Completely nked and almost 5’ taller, my proportions look a little different than the average person but look within a completely normal range in the mirror.
With clothes on they look unnoticeable and fully normal.
Dont be like some of these people who obsess over proportions.
Lastly, I am able to sprint and jog but nowhere near my high school days ( I used to run track and wrestle). Even before surgery I wasn’t near it because I became a lazy adult. The difference is that I had the potential to reach that again, while after surgery I would not physically be able to. After consolidation I just tried to recover well enough to blend in with the average person. I don’t think it’s a good idea to do strenuous workouts and exercise after this surgery, because you’re already changing your biomechanics and stretching soft tissue, so I feel like it’s extra wear and tear. I don’t max out the lower body, only moderate weights. I noticed also I am still more flexible than almost every chubby/overweight person I have ever encountered and some of average weight Americans. After 8cm on femur I was able to touch my toes (this came with a lot of PT during distraction of course) but I have friends who fall short of this who’ve never done LL.
If anyone wants to read my tibia thread it is below. I won’t be updating this diary anymorehttp://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=86388.0I will update the tibia thread until I am done distracting (about a month more) and then once more when I do nail removal. After that I won’t be active the forums, and will disappear again like when I finished femurs. It has been a crazy experience for me. This all started as a half serious idea when I discovered the forum/surgery, and now here I am, a quad patient. I’ve only written my two threads to contribute it as a resource for anyone crazy enough to go through with this. I have ensured my second diary is more short and simple however, haha.
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Topic: LON Femur 7.5cm with halil buldu may 13th, 2021 God-Willing (Read 54034 times)