OK, here is the timeline of how my journey started.
Several years ago, I got to know about LL. At that point it was just a vague idea in my head and I wasn't sure I want to do it. I did a lot of readings about different doctors in the world. I concluded the top 3 in my researches: Dr Rozbruch NY, Shahab Mahboubian in CA, and the Paley Institutes.
End of summer 2021, I decided to have consultancy with Dr. R & Paley. I called both places to setup appt. The thing standing out with Paley's is that the process seemed well organized. They even sent potential patient a couple of research papers. Being an engineer myself, a process with thorough documentation stood out to me.
10/20/2021: I flew to NY to talk to Dr. R. My appt was at 1pm but I waited until 5pm to get to meet him. I was hungry and tired. I was glad to meet him in person and asked him the story about Sam (a pretty famous patient of R who did 8cm femur lengthening at the age of 25). Sam was recovering fine according to R. I think he is over 30yo now. Here I had my x-ray taken.
10/26/2021: Consultancy with Dr. Robbins at the Paley's institutes. I was given a tour of the area where all LL patients were being treated. I also got to talk to a guy who was lengthening his tibias. He did femurs a year before, and came back to do tibias. The institutes look nice and people seemed caring here. I felt that LL procedure has been engineered to be a mature program here. So I made the decision to go to Paley's.
--------------- IMPORTANT : STRETCHING PREPARATION FOR THE BIG SURGERY -------------------------
In my 1st consultant day with Dr. Robbins, he said I'm quite tight, that everybody's tight. He suggested me to do running stretches before surgery. I was doing it at least 30min every day from then until my surgery.
This is an example of my exercise:
https://www.purewow.com/wellness/best-hamstring-stretches. But in each move, I pushed myself to the limit. At the end of the 2mo, I was able to perform these:
1. STANDING TOE TOUCH: my whole palm touched the ground and elbow almost touched the ground also. I.e. I can sniff my knee
6. SEATED HAMSTRING STRETCH: back straight, I can sniff my knee
8. SEATED WIDE-LEG HAMSTRING STRETCH: leaned a lot forward with my elbow touching the ground. I can sniff the floor.
10. LYING HAMSTRING STRETCH WITH BAND: leg on the ground is straight, raising leg formed a >90 degree angle with the other leg.
Just so you get the idea, just push more than the limit visualized in those pictures. My personal story, 2-3 weeks into stretching, my legs hurt a lot especially the hamstrings. I even developed drop-foot symptoms on my left leg, i.e. when I walk, the left foot drops more and even makes noticeable sound with my shoe lace. That went away later as it seemed the foot got used to the new looseness. 1+ mo into stretching, I got a feeling that I torn my left hamstring (like a sound you could hear/feel when you tear a piece of meat). This went together with a dark blue bruise at the back of my left thigh. Was a bit worried so I went to zoomcare to checkup, but it was OK. They advice me to go easy on myself (lol). Then fast forward 2mo into stretching, I was able to perform all those moves at ease. I could even hold each position for 45s instead of 30s. Then I knew that my hamstrings were much loosen.
01/10/2022 when I had pre-surgery talk with Dr. Robbins, he examined me and said that I'm very loose compared to other people.
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Topic: Quadrilateral lengthening - Dr. Paley & Robbins (Read 13491 times)