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[canterk]

SuchLL I hope that in a few days or weeks you get flexible enough to resume lengthening. You are very near your original goal, so I say keep working hard on regaining flexibility !

[SuchLL]

SuchLL I hope that in a few days or weeks you get flexible enough to resume lengthening. You are very near your original goal, so I say keep working hard on regaining flexibility !

Thanks for your encouragement! I’m actually feeling like giving up. My right calf is swelling and bruising for some reasons. I did ultrasound and it’s not blood clots. The swelling is slowing getting better but it hurts like hell to stretch right leg. I only stretched once yesterday because it’s just too painful. I’ll take oxy before stretch next time to see if it helps.

[TakingAction]

Thanks for your encouragement! I’m actually feeling like giving up. My right calf is swelling and bruising for some reasons. I did ultrasound and it’s not blood clots. The swelling is slowing getting better but it hurts like hell to stretch right leg. I only stretched once yesterday because it’s just too painful. I’ll take oxy before stretch next time to see if it helps.

That seems concerning. Did you have swelling near the end of your femur lengthening process a year ago? Did the swelling start after you pause using ERC? If yes, that seems strange because I thought pausing the ERC should eliminate or reduce the symptoms, not trigger the new symptom.

[SuchLL]

That seems concerning. Did you have swelling near the end of your femur lengthening process a year ago? Did the swelling start after you pause using ERC? If yes, that seems strange because I thought pausing the ERC should eliminate or reduce the symptoms, not trigger the new symptom.

Dr Robbins checked my leg 4 days ago. He wasn’t concerned about swelling and bruising but still sent me to check blood clots. I did stretch very hard everyday, maybe I stretched too hard which caused the swelling and bruising? It started 5 days after I stoped lengthening. Right now I resumed lengthening the right leg for that 2 mm discrepancy and it didn’t make the swelling worse though.

[TakingAction]

Dr Robbins checked my leg 4 days ago. He wasn’t concerned about swelling and bruising but still sent me to check blood clots. I did stretch very hard everyday, maybe I stretched too hard which caused the swelling and bruising? It started 5 days after I stoped lengthening. Right now I resumed lengthening the right leg for that 2 mm discrepancy and it didn’t make the swelling worse though.

Not sure if it's caused by stretching too hard because a friend of mine doesn't stretch much but still got swelling on his feet after he reached near 3 inches. Thankfully the ultrasound result is fine for him too. Did you have swelling near the end of your femur lengthening process a year ago?

[SuchLL]

Not sure if it's caused by stretching too hard because a friend of mine doesn't stretch much but still got swelling on his feet after he reached near 3 inches. Thankfully the ultrasound result is fine for him too. Did you have swelling near the end of your femur lengthening process a year ago?

No it didn’t happen last year. I just took oxy and stretched the calf muscles and I cried out because of too much pain lol. Oxy didn’t help at all it’s just too painful. It’s the first time I cried out during lengthening… I’m really missing stryde nails. I would be a lot easier to stretch with weight bearing nails.

[SuchLL]

Jan 21, 2022. Consolidation day 5:
I changed the title to “consolidation”. I confirmed I stopped lengthening today. Left leg 5.7 cm and right leg 5.9 cm.

Today I saw Dr Robbins to see if I can resume lengthening. It seemed he didn’t care about my flexibility and many things he said this time were completely different from what he said last week. Last week he said if I stopped lengthening, it would just take about 3 months to fully consolidate. He now said my tibia bones weren’t regenerating well and it may take 5 months and I may even need additional surgery if I keep lengthening to increase that gap. I didn’t even take new xrays today, so his evaluation was based on the same xray last week. At first I thought he just wanted to make it sound more serious so I would just stop or something. However later I heard the same thing from Dr Paley himself. Dr Robbins did mention Dr Paley got angry with him letting patients go above 5 cm on tibias. I’m wondering if that affected Dr Robbins’s evaluation this time. My nails were slightly bending inwards starting a few weeks ago. I don’t know the degree of bending but I can only tell it’s bending by placing a ruler next to my xrays. I never mentioned it because I wasn’t concerned about it. Dr Robbins wasn’t concerned about it either. He just mentioned the nails might bend more if I continue lengthening. I would still gain extra height, just not as much as it would if the nails were perfectly straight. It doesn’t sound serious right? However today I heard from Dr Paley that I couldn’t keep lengthening otherwise I may need additional surgery to straighten my tibias… He also told me to stop lengthening because I already got tight one time which was not a good sign. That probably explained why Dr Robbins didn’t really care about my flexibility this time.

I have no complaints about stopping lengthening. I just feel it’s funny that they didn’t tell me all these two weeks ago. I would not want to keep lengthening if they told me all these earlier. I would not even add 2 mm to my right leg.

Since I didn’t take xrays today, Dr Robbins told me to come back in 2 weeks to make sure I get good xrays to adjust discrepancy again. By that time my left leg will be 4 weeks into consolidation. Dr Robbins was trying to catch a flight today so I didn’t get chance to ask him more questions.
 I will email Dr Paley to see if it’s safe to wait for two weeks to take xrays since I’m regenerating good amount of fibula bones and I’m worried about not being able to shorten the left leg in two weeks if there’s still discrepancy. I had 8-9 mm discrepancy from femur lengthening (it was only 4-5 before any surgeries). I just hope the discrepancy didn’t get worse after tibia lengthening.

I’m not very satisfied with Paley’s institute this time because of the things I mentioned earlier, but I’m glad at least I made it to 5.7-5.9 cm safely. Now I wish Paley himself could do more followups. At first I thought it didn’t really matter because Dr Robbins would report any serious issues to Paley. However Dr Robbins may have different evaluations than Dr Paley. We want to listen to Dr Paley because it’s Paley’s institute after all.

Weekend is coming and I can finally go to Disneyland and universal studios since I’m done with lengthening!! It’s been a while since I went there last time. It’s exciting to think I’m finally done and I’m 5 10 now. I can’t wait to stand and feel the new height. It’s just the average height in US but I went to the average from only 5’4.5. I will keep updating this diary but less frequently. I hope my femur and tibia diaries are helpful for you!!

[ask.me]

I’m surprised by how often I hear some doctor from the Paley Institute missed this and that. Anyway, 5’10” is a big deal! Congrats on making it to the end 🍾. Hope you have a swift recovery.

[BelowTheMean]

Congrats on finishing your second lengthening! Time really flies by quickly.

[init1alove]

Hi SuchLL, sorry to hear your tibias are not regenerating very well. Could you share us some xrays to see what it looks like?

[silverlining]

Hi SuchLL, did you take standing X-rays or a supine X-rays?

[SuchLL]

Hi SuchLL, sorry to hear your tibias are not regenerating very well. Could you share us some xrays to see what it looks like?

I didn’t take pictures of my recent xrays. It’s not a concern since I’ve already stopped lengthening. It may just take longer time to fully consolidate unfortunately.

[SuchLL]

Hi SuchLL, did you take standing X-rays or a supine X-rays?

The last and second last xrays I took were standing xrays.

[SuchLL]

Congrats on finishing your second lengthening! Time really flies by quickly.

Thanks! I hope your lengthening goes well!

[SuchLL]

I’m surprised by how often I hear some doctor from the Paley Institute missed this and that. Anyway, 5’10” is a big deal! Congrats on making it to the end 🍾. Hope you have a swift recovery.

Unfortunately Paley is too busy and other doctors are not as experienced as him. Thanks for sending me congratulations!

[silverlining]

You shouldn't worry about the bending. Precise nails are made of titanium so they have a certain degrees of elasticity built in them. When you took the X-rays standing, your body weight caused the nails to bend slightly. I bet if you were to take supine X-rays, the nails would have been straight.

[SuchLL]

You shouldn't worry about the bending. Precise nails are made of titanium so they have a certain degrees of elasticity built in them. When you took the X-rays standing, your body weight caused the nails to bend slightly. I bet if you were to take supine X-rays, the nails would have been straight.

I couldn’t really tell they were bend unless they put a ruler or drew a straight line next to the nails, but thanks for letting me know!