Hi everyone, I have been on this forum since 2017 as LLprime2, later on threw the account away by renaming it into llendpoint (for all of you who want proof of history) and changing the pw into something random and deleting my email address to not come back again.
I continued as LLprime3 in order to provide useful content until my journey is actually finished.
I did my first LON Femur surgery in 2020 with Dr. Halil Buldu. See link below.
http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=68666.0This year I want to finish this whole thing by doing LON Tibias with Fatih Arslanoglu with the intent to fix my bowed legs as well.
If I went to this doctor the first time, I would have been much better off, read to understand why.
Day 1I arrived in Istanbul, and was brought to the hotel (could choose between two). Nothing major happened on day 1.
Day 2Was brought to the hospital, got a foot to hip x-ray while standing and got other checks done.
(When I did LON Femurs I did not get such a full leg x-ray)
I met two of the 3 surgeons who later operated and we discussed my situation in their team office.
I think most of you, even I who looked into it, have or had no clue.
There are many ways to have "bow legs":
- Actually curved bones
- Only curved Femurs or curved Tibias
- Bad angled but straight bones near the knee and therefore being out of the mechanical axis.
Sample shows difference between normal and bow legged:
https://ibb.co/FWSt0xrMy case:
https://ibb.co/1TCMk0SI never understood why I had bow legs while looking at my x-ray. Both bones looked straight.
In my case I had slightly bad angled Tibias and even worse Femurs. Most of the bow legged effect came from the femurs before doing LON Femurs.
After completing LON Femurs the mechanical axis got even worse because the angle was worsened:
https://ibb.co/SPx8YJqSo I had finished LON Femurs in 2020 and my main problem (bad mechanical axis in the femurs, which I found out to be the main cause of my bow legs before this upcoming LON Tibias surgery) was not fixed while it could have been.
So we decided to do it like this:
Do LON Tibias as usual, fixing the angle on the Tibias on the frame removal surgery, and lock it. During the same surgery, breaking my femurs again, change the angle, using new nails, and lock it. (New nails will cost what they cost, but what can I do. Doctors can not and should not re-use old stuff)
Back to the hotel.
Day 3: Surgery and hospital experience
Back to the hospital.
After waking up, this was going on:
- My knees did not hurt at all, I did not have to breath like a dying person as if my legs had been shattered, like after LON Femurs surgery.
- I had all the other usual pains and discomforts.
- Had to wait 4h !! before I was allowed to drink water, was wriggling like a dying worm during the last 45min. It was more than 21h since I last drank water. It was horrible.
- My feet were swelling for the next few days.
- I was gettig a bit hot, the ventilation system had a certain problem. The valves to control the cooling water were closed, therefore it could only heat up my room, so I turned it off.
- The traffic noise could be clearly heard 24/7.
This was the worst aspect of the hospital stay. It's bad. I brought ear plugs with me for the hotel, but I ended up only using them in the hospital.
- My catheter was not functioning properly. My bladder was full, and when I peed it went all on the bed. Took 3 attempts for nurses to realises I wasn't just complaining about the sensation of the catheter that makes you feel like you had to pee. I showed them that my piss bypassed the catheter and went on the bed. They took it out, and I got a nice bottle that did the job.
- Doctors came in, showing me the x-ray, saying that the surgery went really smooth. My knee bending barely reached 90° though. It's all okay today (day 7). It was just painful to bend my legs. LON Tibias does not affect bending.
Day 4 - A service technician came to open the cooling water valves, now the ventilation was only able to cool the room down, but not heat it... (The valves need to be set on automatic to regulate)
- Got a little fever during night
- Went to the toilet for the first time. Staying or walking was very painful, no joke.
Day 5- My left hand where the medical interface for the IV-lines was inserted began to hurt and swell. They removed it and used the spot on the other side of the elbow. Should have done it like that from the beginning.
Other than that 95% of the nurses are skilled, came quickly, some always smiled, were in general very friendly and helpful, and could speak basic english. The nurse experience was positive.
- Trying to sleep was hard, it was always loud, sometimes too bright, earplugs felt uncomfortable, wearing an eye mask is annoying too, and having slight fever on top of it just makes it impossible to fall asleep.
- Ended up sleeping on my belly, it worked
Day 6- Got high fever, it was fixed in 4h, bed was all wet from the sweat, and my clothes too that I just put on right before the fever. Everything was changed into new dry ones.
- Traffic noise was horrible as always, everytime around 6 PM it sounds like GTA during a massive police hunt, no joke.
Day 7: Back to the hotel
- Bandages were changed, went back to the hotel
- At night I had a light fever, only took one pain killer, no other meds
Day 8: Medicine
- Getting up hurt so much on the legs, but I got a wheelchair, crutches, and a walker right when I came back to the hotel the day before. The wheelchair saved my live. I could move around without feeling like dying.
- Got myself loads of water from the market through the reception, 12L of water in 500ml bottles for 60 Lira in total, that's basically free.
- Medicine: Right now I'm taking
- a blood thinner called Ecopirin Pro (acetylsalicylic acid)
Not sure if using this Aspirin kinda thing is a proper blood thinner method. I will try to skip some and walk more. According to a doctor I met at home it's not the right medicine. But the alternative, an actual anti-thrombosis injection has just its own possible side-effects.
- something against swelling called rantudil (acemetacin)
- something to fight off infections called cipro (ciprofloxacin)
- and one pain killer called dolorex (diclofenac sodium)
All of those once per day. They gave me another pain killer type and anti-infection medicine, but I ignore those.
My goal is to not use any of them if possible, but I need to get my body in the condition for that to be okay.
- Physiotherapist comes daily for exercises, and every 2nd day she changes bandages.
- Was sleeping for 7h straight, no toilet in between, even slept on my back as a belly sleeper, nice.
Day 9- The First step after getting up hurts the most. I simply stopped ignoring the pain and went normally with crutches, and all of a sudden the pain dropped a lot.
- My body temperature has failry stabilized after taking all necessary medicines at least once.
- Physiotherapist came by for physio and changing bandages, Murat came by as well.
I asked him through which methods of advertising they get their patients from. It's mixed right now. They will focus more on SEO. I mentioned that I could write a diary, maybe. He didn't respond to it since it was more like loud self-talk on my side. Guys he, is not hungry or desperate for promoting LL or getting the word out at any cost as some of you think. He changed the doc for a reason. He wants to promote LL with good conscience.
I write this diary on my own accord, in anticipation of a good result and because of the impression I got from day 2.