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[paco1]

Hi classical,
Finally you made your surgery with doctor Lee, good luck. I think he is a very good option. I am planning my surgery with doctor salameh in september, but a lot of times i think to do LON with doctor Lee i Korea, but i have fear to get knee pain by the nail, and i think for my goal 5,5 cm, is better only external.
cheers paco.

[Classical]

@Peco: Hey, how's it going! Congrats on doing your lengthening in Sep!! Dr. salameh sounds great. I'm sure he will do an excellent job with you I understand your concern with knee pain. But honestly  Dr Lee is so experienced and skilled, of all the patients I spoke to that did surgery with him, nobody has had any trouble with knee pain from him. Speaking from my own experience, my knees feel great so far, I am currently 1.5 months post op. I have of course pain from stretching the muscle, tendons, pin sites, etc... But my knee has been just as strong as pre-op, and no pain at all!

Ever since I followed Dr Lee's instruction and dressed my pin sites very tight, my holes from stretching at the pin sites have magically closed! Woo, he really knows his stuff

Yesterday I went to see Dr. Lee, and I am now officially 2.5cm, hooray!!! It's amazing how every two weeks, I get to grow 1cm, that's a lot! While waiting outside his office, I saw 5 or 6 patients that either are doing lengthening or did lengthening with him. The ones that did lengthening with him are coming back to get their rods removed. Man, they look good! Honestly, I can't tell at all that they did lengthening. All of them have excellent recovery! After talking with them, everybody was super happy with their results. I am so glad that I made the right choice to do my lengthening with Dr lee! He is truly the master of limb lengthening!!

One thing that bothered me from my appointment, Dr Lee said my callus formation was OK, but not good enough for him. He wants optimal callus formation, since in a long run, my consolidation would be faster, and as a whole, it shortens the process.  He suggested for me to turn only 0.5 per day, but I really didn't want to as I have such limited time to lengthen, if I don't turn 0.75 per day, I won't even reach 5cm when I leave... Oh gosh, he already gave me stem cell therapy during my first surgery. I can't imagine if I didn't have the therapy... I guess genetically my bone growth is very poor. What should I do to get better callus formations???

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Are you doing lots of weightbearing?  That's the natural way to stimulate callus formation.

[paco1]

Hi classical, congratulations.
what is your lengthening goal?
Then you are in a hotel with your mother, near the hotel.
You have to pay the price for removal nail now or when the removal nail is made.
I am in doubt between doctor salameh and donghoolee.
cheers, paco

[GeTs]

How old are u?

[Moubgf]

Medium drink,

Do you think you could have lengthened 8 cm. I am thinking about doing that. Originally it was 7,5 cm but now im thinking 8cm. What you think about that

[ShortyMcShort]

How long do you intend on staying in South Korea for?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Medium drink,

Do you think you could have lengthened 8 cm. I am thinking about doing that. Originally it was 7,5 cm but now im thinking 8cm. What you think about that

I think I could've done 10cm if I'd wanted to.  I wasn't having problems toward the end; all my problems happened in the first half of my lengthening.  I went with 7.5cm because it's 3 inches and, being an American, I think about height in feet and inches.  Also because I was running out of time and didn't want to pay extra money to change my flight.

[Moubgf]

I think I could've done 10cm if I'd wanted to.  I wasn't having problems toward the end; all my problems happened in the first half of my lengthening.  I went with 7.5cm because it's 3 inches and, being an American, I think about height in feet and inches.  Also because I was running out of time and didn't want to pay extra money to change my flight.

I just noticed if i put my foot up while sitting relaxed in a couch or even at the computer chair,
My Tibia is unproportioned long for my femur like it's a Tibia of a 5'11-6'0 guy.
And the femur of a under average guy. Maybe im seeing to much but putting your foot up is about 5 cm so adding another 2,25 cm on that would make it obvious no?

So i think i might go for femurs instead but that might look messed up when you walk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also what was the mental part of this journey for you,

I mean the day you sat down and made that appointment from home to the doctor for visitation, Too actually being on the flight and then later on at the hospital talking to the doctor saying you want to pay large amount of money to lengthen/fk up, your legs? How was his reaction on that.

And did you feel anxiety the first 1-5 days of actuall lengthening? Like what to do, and if you should call the doctor with the smallest doubt of pain/panick.

Also lets say 3 months into lengthening what was you thinking about like you must have had the same 10 things pop into your head.

"what are the folks at home gonna think"
"is this worth it"

Stuff like that. Obviously you had a rather easy road compared to alot of the other lengtheners*.

And you was already on good ground at home but generally i want to know what it was to be you at that moment. ty-.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

I answered your questions here so we wouldn't be hijacking Classical's diary.

http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=99.msg12979#msg12979

[Classical]

Hey Medium and Slim, no problem at all! Feel free to discuss anything related to LL in my dairy, you are more than welcome

Are you doing lots of weightbearing?  That's the natural way to stimulate callus formation.

Thank you Medium for the excellent suggestion! To be honest, I have been a bit of those lazy example and didn't weight bearing much. Whenever I stand, my tibia would get purple, and I feel a million needles poking me legs, very painful. However, as you and Dr Lee both have suggested, I am going to suck it up, and weight bearing as much as possible now. In fact, I just stood six times, 4 mins each time yesterday. That's 24 mins in total, a huge improvement compare to my usual 6 mins per day, haha.

Hi classical, congratulations.
what is your lengthening goal?
Then you are in a hotel with your mother, near the hotel.
You have to pay the price for removal nail now or when the removal nail is made.
I am in doubt between doctor salameh and donghoolee.
cheers, paco

Peco, I am renting an apartment near the hospital. It's a lot cheaper to rent apartment than stay in the hotel. I am not paying for the nail removal now. According to Dr Lee, the nail removal will be two years after I leave this time. I have never met Dr Salameh, while I believe he is excellent, I am in no place to make any comments. However, with Dr Lee, I have experienced everything first hand. After seeing what he has done for me and for many of his other patients, I can confidently say that you will be worrying free if you choose to go with Dr Lee. So far, of the 10 patients that I met and spoke to, nobody has had even slight complication, and in average, his patients go back to normal life a lot faster than the average time frame I read from other doctor. I know there were two incidents earlier with the Precise2 nail not lengthening. However, that was the nail malfunction, not his fault. The two patients wrote in their dairies that they were upset and disappointed at the result,however, they think Dr Lee is a world first class surgeon, on par with Dr Paley, Betz, and Guichet. That, I cannot agree with them more.

 

How old are u?

I just turned 36. Haha, definitely senior citizen here

How long do you intend on staying in South Korea for?

I did my surgery on May 26th. I am intending to leave on Sep 20th. I told Dr Lee that by the time I leave, I have to be able to use a crutch and walk, so that I can get on and off the plane, also use the bathroom. He estimated to remove my fixture around last week of Aug or first week of Sep. he is usually very conservative and careful with what he says. I trust this estimation.

[Classical]

Yesterday, I had an emergency visit to Dr Lee. I had an allergic reaction to the surgical glue that was used to close my incision sites. Lots of red bumps and blisters started spreading out from the incisions, it was extremely itchy.  This all happened duing the weekends, and there was no pharmacy that's open. I swear if I had to wait for one more day, I would have scratched my skin bloody!  Dr Lee said it's Contact Dermatitis. He prescribed me oral Antihistamin and hydrocortisone lotion. It has only been two days, the itchiness is already much better, and the rash seems a bit drier.

The second unfortunate thing: contrast to ballerina foot, my right foot is stuck in the 90 degree position, and unable to relax anymore. I have been reading all the horror stories on dairies about ballerina foot. Sweden being as determined and strong as he is, was struggling and got depressed for more than a year from ballerina foot. Everybody is stressing on the importance of  wearing the foot holding shoes 24/7 to prevent ballerina foot. Of course, my eyes lit up when Dr Lee handed me a pair of those right after my surgery, and naturally I followed his instruction to the millimeter. I might be behind in everything else, but I was sure proud of my ability to wear those shoes. I was wearing them to sleep, to the bathroom, to do excercises... these shoes became a part of my disabled body. Until one day, I realized I can no longer take one of them off. As soon as I took the shoe off, this tendon close to my big toe starts to get extremely painful. I can no longer relax my foot, let along bend it the other way. The only position that doesn't hurt is when it's 90 degree from my tebia. When I explained this to Dr Lee, and begged for a shot of steroids, Dr Lee explained that my tendon is not inflamed, therefore the steroids won't help. Basically if one doesn't wear foot holding shoes, they will get ballerina foot, however, people like me that wear them all the time, our tendon will sometimes reset itself to the positions of the shoes, therefore can no longer go without it. He assured me it will resolve by itself later. I don't know how it will, but I am sure in a lot of pain right now, and am very worried for my LL future.

[KiloKAHN]

Unfortunate that you've had both those issues at once. Thankfully the itchiness is going away. As for the sandal straps, every so often I'll take off the straps, hold on to both of them, and move my foot up and down for a bit before reattaching them. The physios here said to also lie on my back and stretch my feet down and up for ten seconds each direction for sets of ten. They said to do that every four hours. So far I haven't had any problems and I think it's because of those exercises. Then again maybe it's because I'm not as far along in distraction. Hope your issue resolves itself, regardless.

[crimsontide]

classical, yes, i was aware of this'


basically,    for most of us, there's no getting around some kind of complication.... you don't wear shoes, ballerina... you wear shoes, you can get other issues..... there is no foolproof way to do this... but both issues seem to resolve themselves.... i'm sure even in the worst case scenario, there's a minor surgery to fix your issue, just as there is with ballerina

lengthening is hard

[Medium Drink Of Water]

That's scary about not being able to move your foot.  How much have you lengthened by now?  Have you tried not wearing the sandals for a period of time (say a few days) and seeing if the issue resolves itself?

[Classical]

Thank Kilo, Crimson and Medium for your kind suggestion and genuine concern! The great thing about this forum is that I get such amazing spiritual support from people that are knowledgable about LL, and sincerely care about everybody that is going through this hard process.

Good news! I went to Dr Lee for an emergency visit as my ankle was getting worse. After I showed Dr Lee my right ankle and foot he got so worried, and said if my situation continue to get worse, I would have to stop lengthening. He checked my foot, and pressed my leg muscle. When he was pressing this one section of the muscle that resides close to my right knee, I yelled out a loud "ouch". Apparently this muscle and tendon that hurts my foot and big toe is one big connected tissue. My muscle was very inflamed which pulled up the end tendon, and caused the immobility and extreme pain around my ankle and foot. He than injected me a dose of cortisone, and Tada!I was immediately able to take off the shoe and relax my foot, the pain is gone!! These days I am doing a lot of stretching to regain the ROM on this ankle. It's only been two days, but I can already see clear improvement. So all of these pain and issues I had with my right ankle was actually not due to the repositioning of my tendon, but rather a section of badly inflamed and cramped muscle.

Also, the allergy rash is getting much better. It's no longer itchy. I believe in a week also the rash should disappear completely.

Life is back to peace with my two evil enemies gone! I am praying that it will be smooth sailing from now on

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Ahhh cortisone.  An LLer's best friend.  That was the one thing that helped with my inflamed knees.

[Classical]

Ahhh cortisone.  An LLer's best friend.  That was the one thing that helped with my inflamed knees.

Haha, medium, you are right!! Actually you know what's funny is that while I was having pain in my foot and ankle, I kept thinking about your knees, and how you got better immediately after the cortisone injection. Secretly, I was hoping my ankle would be just as lucky as your knees, and get a quick relieve. At first when I requested the cortisone injection into my tendons, Dr Lee rejected my request in fear of tendon rapture. It was not until the second week when he found out the cramp of my muscle he decided to inject me with cortisone

I must say that one thing I am very happy throughout my lengthening process is that fact I chose Dr Lee to do my surgery. Over and over again, Dr Lee has proven to be extremely caring, skiLL Forumul, knowledgeable, professional. Also I want to mention about his assistant Ms Han. From the very beginning, before I even met Dr Lee, she was answering all my questions, making arrangements for me. After I decided to have surgery from Dr Lee, she was helping me with finding a place to stay. After I arrived here, due to the language barrier, she has been my personal translator for everything. She also is ordering take outs for me, finding me a wheelchair company, looking for care takers when I needed one. She even offered to stay with me in my apartment the first day when the care taker came to make sure things are OK. Whenever I encounter any trouble, she is always the first person I ask for help, and without fail, she always resolves the situation for me with a smile

[ShortyMcShort]

Good that you are feeling much better, do you have any knee pains or discomforts? You said a while back that it was ok, how is it now?

[Classical]

Good that you are feeling much better, do you have any knee pains or discomforts? You said a while back that it was ok, how is it now?

Thanks for asking! I'm at 4cm now, no knee pain, no ballerina foot. Everything is fine (knock on the wood)

[Moubgf]

How is the pain when standing/moving leg.

[Classical]

How is the pain when standing/moving leg.

Standing and walking is almost pain free for me now. I get some tight feeling if I stand for a long time, but that's it. Right after surgery, I got quite a bit of pain standing and walking, but as the time goes, the pain got less and less. I think each individual reacts differently from pain. I know another patient of Dr Lee walks and stands all day long without pain 2 weeks post op.

[Moubgf]

Generally are they the skinny person you know with tibias the size of a tennis ball. Fragile people. compared to more stocky/manlier men who do this surgery. So maybe it's best to get as skinny as possible while still training legs.

[mediocre]

Hey Classical. Glad pain is better now.

Do you have info on 2 Precice Dr Lee patients having problems? Are they okay now?

[Classical]

Generally are they the skinny person you know with tibias the size of a tennis ball. Fragile people. compared to more stocky/manlier men who do this surgery. So maybe it's best to get as skinny as possible while still training legs.

Haha, maybe you are right I think in general Asian have smaller bone structure. Being an Asian female myself, I can definitely testify for that.

Hey Classical. Glad pain is better now.

Do you have info on 2 Precice Dr Lee patients having problems? Are they okay now?

Thank you!  Although I have seen a few patients that are doing internal when I go for my check ups, I haven't spoken to any.  However according to another of his lengthening patient that I speak to regularly, there is a Korean lengthening forum called the 'Cafe', and all of Dr Lee's Korean patients go on and post dairies and discuss lengthening. He said he hasn't heard anybody complaining or writing about Precise nail complications. In fact when I told him what happened to Woverine, he was shocked. That's all I know.

[ShortyMcShort]

Why was he shocked? He already knew about it at the time didn't he?
Anyway, do you know how much he currently charges for Precice 2?

[Classical]

Why was he shocked? He already knew about it at the time didn't he?
Anyway, do you know how much he currently charges for Precice 2?

Oh I meant my friend whom is a currently patient of Dr Lee was shocked to hear the story.
I think for precise 2, it's about $70,000 with seven days of hospital staying.

[ShortyMcShort]

Ahh sorry my bad, I see your point now after re-reading your comment 

So as of now how many cms are you still going for?
I really wish Dr Lee would finish setting up his guesthouse soon for international patients, would help alot especially for the ones who are going solo like myself
But it probably wont be settled for another year or so? 

[Classical]

Lengthening after 4cm is definitely harder. After a long period of almost pain free days, my bone started to hurt occasionally, especially when I stand. It's still not bad, I am not taking pain meds. But I fully expect it to get worse as I lengthen approach 5cm.

@ShortyMcShort:At this point, I am still shooting for 5cm. Actually, my soft tissue is doing quite well, if i had more time to stay in Korea, I would be able to do more. Unfortunately, my time is quite limited as I have to get back to work soon. As for the guest house, yes, I would say maybe in a year also. In fact, I am very tempted to talk to Dr Lee and ask him of the possibilities for him to have his own private practice in the future.  That way, the price would drop significantly, and everything can be catered towards lengthening patients. Another thing, according to my friend who is also lengthening with Dr Lee that there is rumor that Dr Lee is in the process of making his own internal nail collaborating with a Swiss company. Let's see

I had an X-ray yesterday. After viewing my X-ray, Dr Lee informed me that my fibula is not growing well. Despite the fact I had stem cell therapy, my mom is cooking for me everyday, and I am taking all the necessary supplements, weight bearing all the time, I can't believe my bone still refuses to grow! This makes me believe that good bone growth is largely dependent on genetic genes.

Another thing that upset me is I found out I had lost half of my lengthening due to pin bend. For two weeks, I was turning 0.5mm/day, I only grew 4mm totally on my right leg.  I always thought that pin bend usually happens in the beginning of lengthening stage. Once the pin bends to a certainly degree with enough tension, pin bend stops. I have not had pin bend for more than a month, I can't believe it happened again.

LL is definitely a roller coaster ride. I just hope I can keep my spirit high and always be positive as this is the only way to keep me on the right track.

[Wannabegiant]

Hang in there classical, You had some bad luck so far but you are handling it well with your positive attitude, i found it very hard to avoid depression during my lengthening phase, despite that everything went well and as expected for me.

I think you can only say for sure that the pin wont bend anymore is when you are done with the lengthening phase, some fixators have stronger pins than others though, but they all bend more or less before you are done lengthening. But i dont think your pins should be able to bend more than they already have, you should ask the doctor though to make sure since you have restricted time.

[Moubgf]

Lengthening after 4cm is definitely harder. After a long period of almost pain free days, my bone started to hurt occasionally, especially when I stand. It's still not bad, I am not taking pain meds. But I fully expect it to get worse as I lengthen approach 5cm.

@ShortyMcShort:At this point, I am still shooting for 5cm. Actually, my soft tissue is doing quite well, if i had more time to stay in Korea, I would be able to do more. Unfortunately, my time is quite limited as I have to get back to work soon. As for the guest house, yes, I would say maybe in a year also. In fact, I am very tempted to talk to Dr Lee and ask him of the possibilities for him to have his own private practice in the future.  That way, the price would drop significantly, and everything can be catered towards lengthening patients. Another thing, according to my friend who is also lengthening with Dr Lee that there is rumor that Dr Lee is in the process of making his own internal nail collaborating with a Swiss company. Let's see

I had an X-ray yesterday. After viewing my X-ray, Dr Lee informed me that my fibula is not growing well. Despite the fact I had stem cell therapy, my mom is cooking for me everyday, and I am taking all the necessary supplements, weight bearing all the time, I can't believe my bone still refuses to grow! This makes me believe that good bone growth is largely dependent on genetic genes.

Another thing that upset me is I found out I had lost half of my lengthening due to pin bend. For two weeks, I was turning 0.5mm/day, I only grew 4mm totally on my right leg.  I always thought that pin bend usually happens in the beginning of lengthening stage. Once the pin bends to a certainly degree with enough tension, pin bend stops. I have not had pin bend for more than a month, I can't believe it happened again.

LL is definitely a roller coaster ride. I just hope I can keep my spirit high and always be positive as this is the only way to keep me on the right track.

Just want to drop in that blood flow is a humungous improvement in bone growt. and being so sedentary you can eat all the vitamins and food you want your body is not using it.