Day 93
Almost a month since I've written an update - and let's start with the bad.
In my last update I had just stopped taking Tramadol, and instead of having a plan with my doctor where I would take less and less over time - I just decided on my own to stop cold turkey. And I can sincerely say, do not stop taking Tramadol cold turkey! I had basically all the withdrawal symptoms you can have, and it was hard as fk! The worst was over after about two weeks, but those two weeks are some of the toughest two weeks of my life. Luckily I did not experience any pain, but my sleep went from pretty good to awful. The worst nights I would sleep 20 minutes at a time, throughout the whole night! Not only where the days long, but the nights where even longer.
At this time with all the withdrawal symptoms etc I was seriously considering stopping lengthening and calling it quits every day for almost two weeks. I am glad I stuck through though, because I am feeling much much better now! My sleeping isn't good, but is still much improved. I sleep around 1-1,5 hours at a time though the night, but i read that quitting Tramadol cold turkey messed with your sleep for several month after quitting it. So hopefully my sleep will slowly keep improving every night.
Pain has been almost non-existent, just some small pain here and there - not much to complain about. My duckass and wide-legs have improved some, but not enough according to Dr Becker. And also having hip swing in my gait, Dr Becker has to told me to reduced to 12 clicks per day, down from 15. He's also told me to focus more on stretching the hip flexors, and I feel like things have improved in just a few days. Hopefully Things will continue to improve.
I've now reached 7cm and I now stand at 172cm tall, and I feel tall around people who are at my old height now. I have two sisters who are a 166cm and 167cm tall, and there is a clear difference in our height - and knowing I was shorter than them that is such a weird and special feeling. And this is still wide duckass and wide-legs, so in reality I am not actually 172cm yet.
I also had a very funny experience with a female friend who is 169cm tall. I rang her bell, and when she opened the door she just looked up at me shocked, confused and stuttered "eeehh what?? ehhhh what??? ehhh hooww??" And I just replied "let me in and I'll explain". My new height was the first thing she noticed.
I've told most of my family and friends about my surgery, which has been a huge deal for moral support and my state of mind. Everybody has been supportive, even though some have been shocked and some have even said that they think it is outright cool that I've done this. The support has been immensive.
At around 6cm I took X-rays and it all looks tip top, with healthy callus formation.
My moral is up and down from day to day and to be honest I am really looking forward to the day I stop clicking and I can start actual rehabilitation. It's three months since my surgery and it feels like I've been doing this for a while now, and I am kind of sick of stretching and hour+ every single day and not being able to walk normal and just feeling exhausted going shopping for groceries.
Good news is that I am done clicking in 7,5 weeks and in the big picture, that really isn't that long. But for anybody considering going 11cm like me, it really is a loooooong distraction period of almost five months. And there is no way around that five month walking on crutches and not being mobile is a looooong time. So it does require you to be strong as fk mentally, because you will hit the wall like me. And it will require strength to push though that or those walls.
Even though I've had a relatively easy time lengthening and clicking has been a piece of cake (I do both legs in around 60-90 seconds without any pain) this is still by far the hardest thing I've ever done in my life! And I still have 7,5 week of lengthening and I hope I can walk relatively normal 1-3 months post clicking - so still a long time before I am "normal"