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[Kanye Western]

How’s your recovery going now mr Oz?

[OzBoy39]

It’s going through ups and downs.
I’m at my second week post lengthening and this is what I feel

-less stiffness for sure especially on my knees
-I am regaining motion in many ways. I can crawl pretty easily. It’s easier to go from a laying position to a standing position
-my sleep is good now.

- I feel my duckass is slowly receding.

That’s where the good things end. For the bad things:

-my quads and adductors hurt badly. This goes hand in hand with my physical activity. Every time I go to Physio I get so sore the days after that I basically have to stop every movement I’m doing. I’m considering dropping Physio to once a week or dropping it completely as I was doing I much more activity before between cycling, strength and hydrotherapy. Now I can’t do any.

-energy levels are way off still compared to where they were before.

-I’m still dependent on tramadol.

When my legs don’t hurt, I can walk without crutches in the house and small distances outside (gone from the car to the post office and back). But I look like a penguin

To be honest I’m not happy and I’m also a bit frustrated with the progress. I thought stopping the lengthening would have an almost immediate effect on everything but as of now, I’m still very much in pain. Tomorrow I’ll go get my final X-rays (final as in at final length).

All good things in life require patience. And patience we shall have then

Sorry for the rant everyone. I just needed to vent today

[Limbfan2020]

Stay strong brother!!!

At which length have you noticed an exponentially increase in pain/complications?

[OzBoy39]

Thanks. I will for sure.

At 3cm started nerve pain that lasted until about 7cm
At 6cm I noticed that I started to be really tight and if I forget to stretch one day I get very very stiff.

After 7cm I had a combination of stiffness, restlessness, pains of various type which made me want to stop every 2 or 3 days.

So I’d say the journey from 6 to 8 was the most problematic

[Will955]

I can understand your frustration, mate. At the tail end of such a demanding procedure you must really long for some relief at this point.

Remember it will always get better with time, there is no exception. So just keep your head up. Your past and future self is proud of you right now. You're doing great.

How is the comradery with the other patients at Athens BJR? And how would you rate the nurses and stretching practitioners?

[OzBoy39]

Thanks Will. Appreciated. Your words and the words of many other members here have been of great help throughout the journey.

Moment s gone now. Back on track. We re still in the fourth innings and the game isn’t finished yet.
Let’s push through to the end.

Btw, my final X-rays here https://imgur.com/a/0jCnXoo
0.5mm discrepancy. I guess my lengthening isn’t quite over yet.

About eh comradely. It was good. In some way it was great but it really depends who you find there. I was lucky to find my group of 2-3 people that I bonded with and hung out with. I know now the guys over there have bonded even further and started organising lots of activities so yeah, I think that’s great.

Nurses and physio there too I found them to be competent and caring. Never have I felt unsupported or not taken care of. I guess my only argument would be about the focus of the physio sessions. All stretching and no strengthening. I would have liked a mix of the two.

But overall I think is a great team of people they’ve got going on there.

[eztic123]

Hi Ozboy,

What was the process like contacting Dr. Giotikas for you? Do you have to go for an in-person consultation before the surgery? And how long did it take from time of consultation to surgery date?

Thank you

[OzBoy39]

The process is straight forward. If you go to their website you can either book a free 15 mins consultation or a 45 mins or 1 hour paid one.

I did the free one first… and then the paid one next. He explained the ins and outs and I have asked all the relevant questions. Given my background of no health problems and relatively healthy living, the Dr did not require me to do an in person consultation.

Nor did I do any X-ray prior to going to Greece.

I had initially booked the surgery for November 2022 with 6 months in advance.
Then circumstances changed and I had the opportunity to anticipate as much as possible, so I reached out to them again and asked when was the soonest I could do the surgery. At the time this was like 5 weeks away.

Waiting time I believe is highly dependent on their workload so it may vary.

[Hrist]

Hello, how are you doing? Are u happy with the result?

[Growth.journey]

Congrats on finishing OZboy!

We finished at same length - 8.2cm. But I finished in NYE so very fresh.

I’m sure now you are consolidating you will get better exponentially so good luck for rest and enjoy the fruition.

Sorry your wife told your friends. Personally I would die of embarrassment I haven’t told a single person.

[OzBoy39]

Hi Growth Journey,
Yes man, congratulations to you too. We made it. I feel great about the new height (although I’m still technically below average). How about you?

I’m at the beginning of Consolidation week 4. 132 days post op.

I wouldn’t say I’m getting exponentially better overall. In some areas I do, in some others I’m improving slowly (frustrating).

Specifically, I feel that the tightness and the flexibility of my legs have improved greatly. I can touch my legs and feel that all the major muscle groups are starting to feel softer. This is also confirmed by the fact that it’s easier to seat in a chair that presses against your hammies like sitting in the car.

I can now lay completely flat with both my legs extended and touching each other and that feels comfortable too. I can actually cross them over and that feels good.

I’m also regaining, albeit slowly, flexibility on my quads. My goal there is to be able to sit on my heels (mind you I was able to do a hero pose before surgery… so sitting on my heels is still so way off pre surgery levels).

What is instead going very slow (although the doctor told me that probably my expectations are off) is the walking (unaided) and strength regain. My glutee and hips are very weak and I see very little improvements day by day.

My quads hurt at each step I take unaided. When I go to PT , they work me out hard and the soreness from it stays for about 4 days. Now that I had a break from it during new year’s eve, today (5th day after last session) I walked unaided the entire morning even though it hurt me a lot and im afraid tomorrow I’ll be sore again.

But anyway, today I managed to walk unaided In the house to make breakfast and do some work things, then I went  outside to grab a coffee where I probably did about 100 mt unaided and last I spent the rest of the morning chasing after the little one. Then I took a nap and when I woke up I was really sore(still am now).

I believe it is improving week by week but I’m finding it really hard to gauge whether I should push harder or back off and let the muscles rest.

Doctor is telling me to take it easy and mostly use crutches still.
PT is asking me to push harder and try to walk without crutches as much as possible.

I just don’t understand if this sharp pain I feel on my quads and adductor is normal or not.
My walking gait unaided is absolutely terrible, but if I concentrate and in my head decide to bear the pain I can improve it for a few steps.

I will push harder in the next few weeks and see what that does.

Last on the negative is that I can still feel that my bone is far from consolidating. How? Well I still need to be careful when I do rotating motions as I can feel my leg twisting still. I haven’t had any more accidental clicks yet (I’m not even trying to ) but I believe if I wanted to click it’d still be easy.
That adds  a bit of a mental barrier when doing movements in bed , or getting in and out of a car.

Back on some positives
My walking with crutches is really good and it gets better every week. But also the crutches are getting more and more frustrating to use as time goes by and I resume my usual life activities.

I also noticed that when I do the treadmill at the gym (using my hands to support part of my wait (I’m recreating the Alter-G system manually lol) I can walk very very well). So hopefully this is too just a matter of time and excercise.

Another part which has been very positive is that I’ve gone off tramadol completely and I’m past the withdrawal period which was quite horrible to be honest.

I’m still taking lyrica regularly because one of the consequences of trying to walk unaided and putting weight on my leg (in this case my right leg) is that it inflames it to the point that I get a mild nerve pain after.

My last point is a reflection of one subtle but important realisation and mental change that this whole process has generated. The appreciation of health. “Mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body). This surgery is kind of humbling in some sense, it teaches us the value of discipline, time, patience, health. A healthy body wants to do 100 things. A sick one wants but one (this too a citation from one philosopher… can’t remember who).

 (In some way, I feel like I am and I will be a better person getting out of this and not only because of the increased height, but also and especially because of what this process (the struggles) has taught me)

And to quote a friend who’s not on this forum but that did Gnail in Greece at my same time and recovered much faster and better than myself….”I finally feel I’m an adult among people”

I second that feeling 100%

[eztic123]

Do you think your slow recovery with walking is consistent among other patients. Generally, do you feel as if Dr. G is a good doctor given he's on e of the few ones that actually offer a weight bearing nail? Also, is there no way to lock the clicking mechanism after your desired lengthening?

[OzBoy39]

Well, I don’t really think the doctor has much to do with my recovery to be honest.
I’ve seen and I am in contact with an number of patients who had Gnail and we are all different. Many are better than me. 

I think all has started going south for me when I strained my quad right after surgery. That has really took a hit on my PT and excercises whilst I was there.

No, there is no way to lock the nail but it isn’t a big deal. I just mentioned it as “one of the observations “

[SpeedDialer]

deleted post

[Will955]

Well, I don’t really think the doctor has much to do with my recovery to be honest.
I’ve seen and I am in contact with an number of patients who had Gnail and we are all different. Many are better than me. 

I think all has started going south for me when I strained my quad right after surgery. That has really took a hit on my PT and excercises whilst I was there.

No, there is no way to lock the nail but it isn’t a big deal. I just mentioned it as “one of the observations “

Hey, mate. Your recovery going any better?

The package included 4 PT sessions per week at 'Athens BJR', if not mistaken? Were you able to buy 3 additional PT sessions a week if you wanted to?(So you could have one each day)

Also, how is the new height treating you? Any interesting or funny thing you've experienced that you want to share ?

Right now it looks like I'll be able to do this in 2025. I have some saving to do first. But all is going well.

Thanks for an inspiring journal

[OzBoy39]

Hi Will,
Recovery is progressing well albeit slowly. I’m looking forward to a new round of X-rays next week to see how the consolidation of the bones is going.

I can feel something changing in the way my legs feel at every step. My head telling me that the bone is taking over in weight bearing my body. It feels a little painful each step, but a good type of pain (hard to put in words). Regaining some side strength (abduction) but still not walking much unaided.

In regards to PT in Athens, I don’t think you can purchase more sessions at the same clinic on the 3 days off. Maybe you could hire an external PT to come to your hotel but ..:I personally don’t think you need to as you can do plenty of excercises and stretches by yourself on those days… and also don’t forget that you’re gonna need at least 1 day off per week to let your legs rest.

My new height is great. I love comparing myself to my wife and joke her about how small a midget she is now in comparison to me. She hates it!!! Guess we’re not gonna have $3X anytime soon.

I definitely feel more comfortable in social situations, but let’s not forget that I’m still going out with crutches so I haven’t fully experienced the gains. Those are for the months to come.

Good on you. 2025 is still a long way away. Hopefully by then, some new weight bearing nail with better features will come out and the surgeons and PT clinics would have further refined the process.

It’s exciting to live in an age where this type of body modification is possible. We should feel lucky in a way! (Although I guess we could also feel unlucky for the short stature we were born with… ah whatever. Let’s look at the glass half full)

[lessthanavg8300]

"when I do rotating motions as I can feel my leg twisting still"

This is what I fear the most in my lengthening.  Im nervous it will be a long time into consolidation until this stops.  Because theres really no way to walk normally until this gets resolved.

How is your status with this today?

[OzBoy39]

That’s definitely one of the things that I feel changing as in getting less and less pronounced.
But as I had mentioned, I remember how weird it used to feel the first few weeks. After that, you sort of don’t even notice it anymore. Not sure why is that. I can just tell you that after a while I stoped thinking about it until you mentioned it a few days ago

[lessthanavg8300]

That’s definitely one of the things that I feel changing as in getting less and less pronounced.
But as I had mentioned, I remember how weird it used to feel the first few weeks. After that, you sort of don’t even notice it anymore. Not sure why is that. I can just tell you that after a while I stoped thinking about it until you mentioned it a few days ago

Good to know it tampers down. Yeah its the pinwheel effect and also there just being some horizontal plane movement.  Like if you sway your body standing from one side to the other theres definitely a bit of play between your bones and the nail.  Even though its very little, you body needs a rock solid foundation to really be able to walk normally.

Once your consolidation nears completion I bet your gait gets a whole lot better.

[SpeedDialer]

Deleted

[OzBoy39]

5 Months Post Op. 7 weeks into consolidation

These below are my X-rays from yesterday

https://imgur.com/a/kkpudaP

Kinda slow but it has definitely progressed from last month.
I need to eat more that's for sure.
I'll try to follow a fellow LL friend and load up on calories and proteins. See if that gives me a boost.

Now, regardless of the bone consolidation which I believe to be a factor in my recovery, below is a summary of the main traits as of today:

- walking unaided improved as in the Trendelenburg gait is improving as I do more excercises aimed at regaining muscles in the glute area. I'll try to take a video later and post it here too.

-Ive had a massive improvement in my sleep pattern being able to go almost one week with uninterrupted sleep throughout each night.

- Agility and stiffness are improving too. Slowly but steadily.

- Proximal screw irritating my hips seems to have very slightly improved. I can raise my leg at about 90 deg and it doesn't catch very often.

- Energy levels are going up as well. Not much but I'd say I feel I am at 50% my pre-op levels.

- Physio is still hard. I'm still unable to really do one pegged excercises or squatting of any sort so that limits greatly the things we can do.

A few bad points to notice:

- my consolidation is definitely slower than usual. Maybe it is the age. Maybe it is just me. But the doctor didn't seem concerned last time.around. any advise to speed it up is welcome.

- I keep overdoing and getting injured in my muscles. Sunday I've been out all day. I probably walked on and off crutches for about 2 or 3km... In the evening I got out of the car and felt an incredible 8/10 pain on my right knee and quad. I honestly thought I had broken the distal.screws.as it was so intense.
Then got the x-ray, checked in with physio and realised I "simply" both overstretched and overexcercised my right quad. Whatever... I'm getting used to it， but a very annoying thing is that this episode brought back.some nerve pain in my shin.

Overall things are improving, but way slower than I had anticipated. This is a problem in regards to work. I hate being seen always with crutches. Too many questions (and lies from my end).

Dating and S&X life... No, joking. I'm not after that but im sure I've regained your attention now.

Not much more. Focus on this 5th month post op will be on speeding up consolidation through nutrition and exercise.

[GlobalBlue]

Hi OzBoy, thank you for the great level of detail you are providing. It's unbelievably helpful. Few questions that I wanted to ask at this point of your journey:

1. Would you still advise to your slightly younger self to go through with the LL? Since dating is not your priority and all, did you get enough satisfaction from other aspects of life that makes it totally worth it?

2. You might have answered it, but at what point were you able to start getting by inside your house or office at least somewhat unaided? Would it be possible to say arrive to work on crutches and then get around with occasional (<10m) walks to the restroom and such?

3. Looking back, would you advise to shorten the lengthening to avoid some of the recovery complications? I read somewhere on this forum that 6cm seems to be the optimum. I completely get the pros and cons here, give me all 15cm if possible, but it looks like the last 2cm cost dearly. What is your personal opinion on this?

Thank you for your responses!

[OzBoy39]

Hi OzBoy, thank you for the great level of detail you are providing. It's unbelievably helpful. Few questions that I wanted to ask at this point of your journey:

1. Would you still advise to your slightly younger self to go through with the LL? Since dating is not your priority and all, did you get enough satisfaction from other aspects of life that makes it totally worth it?

2. You might have answered it, but at what point were you able to start getting by inside your house or office at least somewhat unaided? Would it be possible to say arrive to work on crutches and then get around with occasional (<10m) walks to the restroom and such?

3. Looking back, would you advise to shorten the lengthening to avoid some of the recovery complications? I read somewhere on this forum that 6cm seems to be the optimum. I completely get the pros and cons here, give me all 15cm if possible, but it looks like the last 2cm cost dearly. What is your personal opinion on this?

Thank you for your responses!

Hi GlobalBlue,

Thanks for the kind words.

1- YES 100% and I would advise to do it as early as possible. Aside from dating, it’s all the other interactions (work and social). To quote a friend of mine who underwent LL, I now feel like I am an adult among other adults. Before, at 164cm, the very first thing that stands out about you is your height…. And then you have to work extra hard to highlight your other qualities. Right now… I feel absolutely comfortable and amazing around people.

2- me personally I started taking steps (<10mt or so) in the house in my last couple of cm (the hardest ones). I think it’s possible to do wat you say, but it does depend a lot on whether you encounter any complication along the journey. You can read many people here walking unaided just a few weeks post op.

3-it’s hard to answer this right now. If in the next few months/year I’ll recover to a level that allows me decent  athletic abilities than starting at my height I think I had sort of no choice if I wanted to have a meaningful impact on my height

[informationispower]

How much did you lengthen in the end ozboy? I kinda missed that post

[OzBoy39]

8.2cm

[GlobalBlue]

Before, at 164cm, the very first thing that stands out about you is your height…. And then you have to work extra hard to highlight your other qualities.

This hits so close that it hurts 

The other way around is also true. During the COVID there was a lot of remote working and many of the people had met the first time after having a considerable time spent interacting online. It's always a big and almost palpable surprise surprise for both sides. In my place of work, it's like they notoriously have all the tall people gathered up in here, or maybe the avg height is just going up. It's especially terrible when occasional almost everyone is at 6"+, it really does look and feels ridiculous at that point.

[SpeedDialer]

This hits so close that it hurts 

The other way around is also true. During the COVID there was a lot of remote working and many of the people had met the first time after having a considerable time spent interacting online. It's always a big and almost palpable surprise surprise for both sides. In my place of work, it's like they notoriously have all the tall people gathered up in here, or maybe the avg height is just going up. It's especially terrible when occasional almost everyone is at 6"+, it really does look and feels ridiculous at that point.

100%

[Will955]

Hey, OzBoy. Thanks for answering my questions above.

We indeed are grateful that you share this experience in such detail.


Hope your recovery is going good, bro.

[OzBoy39]

Thank you Will. Appreciated!
Recovery is …. progressing!

Im starting to walk almost all day around the office unassisted. It’s a kind of an effort but im so sick of the constant ticking sound of the crutches against a hard floor.

Fingers crossed my bone healing speeds up too.

[OzBoy39]

7 months Post op. 3 months into consolidation

Recovery is slow and tedious. But the new height, new wardrobe and social interactions are great and I couldn't be happier. For the first time in my life, last week I went and spent a few hundred dollars on new jeans, joggers and everything..

Size W30,L30 fits great... Maybe a touch too short. Size W30L32 fits so good too (perhaps a touch too long). But that feels so good. Buying shoes without having to worry about how they'll feel with lifts... I can't even begin to tell you how good that is.

I am crutch free every day. But I walk badly. I limp and sway and the improvements in that area are so slow. My hip flexors are really hard to release. I also have problems in the office sitting. I get super sore after 30 mins sitting... So I use o standing desk... But then I get sore standing ...so yeah. Overall not an ideal situation.

Mind you though, I recently changed job so I'm stuck in the office for about 8 to 10 hours a day... Plus another one in the car and I'm barely doing any stretching... So yeah, all things considered, the progress I'm getting isn't bad.

I'm averaging between 3000 and 4000 steps daily and above 5000 on weekends. After which, I get super sore but still able to be at work without crutches.

My consolidation is slow (it has always been since the first X-ray) but it is happening indeed. I'm just still afraid of doing many lateral rotational movements to avoid doing any damage to the bone.

Given my progress I would estimate to be back to a normal walking gait in another 6.months or so. Perhaps even longer. But it's ok... As long as I can function normally on a daily basis.

I'm going to PT twice a week and we're progressing with weights every week. Nothing close to normal adult levels but it's good to restart deadlifting and half squatting.

The new bio mechanics of my body feels so weird though. And right now... I'm so far away from any sort of agility excercises. I can barely kick a ball.

But again, assuming the progress isn't hindered by some complication, things should only improve from here and at the end I would have not only gained height, but a huge amount of self control, patience and discipline. Mental discipline which will serve me well in the future.

I'll take some videos of my walking soon and post it here so to show what is my walking level right now.

[Will955]

7 months Post op. 3 months into consolidation

Recovery is slow and tedious. But the new height, new wardrobe and social interactions are great and I couldn't be happier. For the first time in my life, last week I went and spent a few hundred dollars on new jeans, joggers and everything..

Size W30,L30 fits great... Maybe a touch too short. Size W30L32 fits so good too (perhaps a touch too long). But that feels so good. Buying shoes without having to worry about how they'll feel with lifts... I can't even begin to tell you how good that is.

I am crutch free every day. But I walk badly. I limp and sway and the improvements in that area are so slow. My hip flexors are really hard to release. I also have problems in the office sitting. I get super sore after 30 mins sitting... So I use o standing desk... But then I get sore standing ...so yeah. Overall not an ideal situation.

Mind you though, I recently changed job so I'm stuck in the office for about 8 to 10 hours a day... Plus another one in the car and I'm barely doing any stretching... So yeah, all things considered, the progress I'm getting isn't bad.

I'm averaging between 3000 and 4000 steps daily and above 5000 on weekends. After which, I get super sore but still able to be at work without crutches.

My consolidation is slow (it has always been since the first X-ray) but it is happening indeed. I'm just still afraid of doing many lateral rotational movements to avoid doing any damage to the bone.

Given my progress I would estimate to be back to a normal walking gait in another 6.months or so. Perhaps even longer. But it's ok... As long as I can function normally on a daily basis.

I'm going to PT twice a week and we're progressing with weights every week. Nothing close to normal adult levels but it's good to restart deadlifting and half squatting.

The new bio mechanics of my body feels so weird though. And right now... I'm so far away from any sort of agility excercises. I can barely kick a ball.

But again, assuming the progress isn't hindered by some complication, things should only improve from here and at the end I would have not only gained height, but a huge amount of self control, patience and discipline. Mental discipline which will serve me well in the future.

I'll take some videos of my walking soon and post it here so to show what is my walking level right now.

Good to hear of your success, man. I can't imagine the feeling growing that much at adult age. Must feel fantastic(besides the temporary complications  )

I keep coming back to this forum solely for your journal at this point. Cheers bro