Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[vincentfreeman]

Hi all - long time lurker, I remember this forum from many years ago when I decided I wanted to do LL and now finally in a financial and work position to be able to!

I am looking to do Femurs with Betz, ideally this year given it will be much harder for me to take a few months off next year but they have no availability until March 2023.  They have put me in on a waiting list but I am just wondering if there any 2022 patients that would be open to swapping dates or how common it is that availability opens up.

[thankscience]

Have you considered booking with Giotikas or Guichet instead?

[vincentfreeman]

Preference is to be able to head back and finish lengthening at home rather than stay in Athens for 2-3 months, but I would consider Giotikas. I am hoping some Betz patient cancels/delays for this year, or I can convince someone to swap because that works a lot better.

[lessthanavg8300]

You're going from 5'7 to 6'1 in one lengthening process?  Plan on a lot longer than 2-3 months.  2months of lengthening is like 5CM (2 inches).  You dont run at 1mm per day after 3CM is hit.  That said, I have LL in early January with Betz.  If you end up going around that time let me know, maybe well be buddies.

[vincentfreeman]

Yes I understand it won't be 2-3 months (typo). Regardless preference for betz is so I finish lengthening at home, go back to work which will be 90% working from home etc.

Also it will definitely not be in one lengthening process - going to do ~8-10cm femurs and then 6 months+ later 5-7 cm tibias (been stretching religiously for the last year, so my flexibility is quite good)

[lessthanavg8300]

My fault, it actually says right there that you are doing both femurs and tibias.  Glanced over that.  Makes sense on the work note.  Thats good you've been stretching (I'm doing the same).

[vincentfreeman]

It actually didn't haha I just added it to my summary after your comment to make it clearer.

Interesting re: the stretches, I have read lots of different opinions on this, to me it seems logical flexibility would help to some extent in terms of recovery. Regardless even a minor boost in recovery is worthwhile.

How long ago did you call to get January slot?

I am optimistic a slot will open up for late this year or Jan, seemed like a fair few number of patients delay/cancel, so I am hoping someone decides to push it out. It would be frustrating to wait till March - feeling kind of stupid for not contacting them earlier this year now.

[lessthanavg8300]

Oh gotchya, I was like how did I miss that haha.  Yeah I took that stretching part out of my comment just because I didnt want to be responsible for you like not stretching enough and being crippled or something lol.  But yeah they did say that.  I got a Jan cancellation actually about a couple weeks ago.  You have a good shot at a cancellation and earlier date, maybe even december.  I think the rate is quite high.  Its a terrifying surgery, people get cold feet for obvious reasons.

[vincentfreeman]

Yeah the lady on the phone implied there was a decent chance something would open up so I am hoping it will. I really want to lock in dates so I can plan flights, accommodation etc. and make plans for work but we will see how it plays out. In an ideal world something would open for like October/Nov lol. I would have contacted them earlier, but I was waiting to receive a small windfall that gave me the funds to pay for it, and didn't want to book until I actually had the funds comfortably

They should have an option to offer to pay another patient to delay their date and swap lmao

[lessthanavg8300]

Im surprised you want to get into this right as the holidays roll in.  I specifically avoided this and chose Jan because thats when family time is over.  Honestly I would just put yourself down for a date and then tell them you have a strong preference for the soonest available drop-out and you'll probably get something you're happy with.  They had 2 drop-outs come up for me; one was too early for me to take.

[vincentfreeman]

Fingers crossed 

Apparently I am on the waiting list now, so will see how that plays out. For me it's more about work than family time as I can skip that this year, but Oct - Dec is the best time for me to be able to take 4 weeks off completely then operate at like 50% performance for a few months as we are currently in a massive transition phase. By Jan work will start to pickup again and I will need to be around at least on some level.

[lessthanavg8300]

Hoping you get something.  Makes sense on the work note.  Just dont create expectations that cant be attained because you will panic half way through.  I cant imagine showing up to an office walking like I have a stick in my ass for all to see.  If I were doing this surgery and I had savings I would honestly just resign and enter the work force 6 months later.  You would get a fresh start with new colleagues as well.  Theres always employment opportunities.  Easier said than done though and I'm biased because I'm pretty well off and work for myself.

[vincentfreeman]

I own like a large portion of the company so I can't resign haha. I have told everyone I am having a leg operation (kinda alluded to bow leg/knee problems) and will be on crutches for many months so won't be any surprises. I am more concerned about my brain being too addled to actually have any output, but if I can function well enough to manage other people/delegate it won't be an issue. No one is really going to ask too many questions tbh or complain if I underperform for a little bit as I have been working 80+ hours a week for the last year and a half here now.

[vincentfreeman]

Hoping you get something.  Makes sense on the work note.  Just dont create expectations that cant be attained because you will panic half way through.  I cant imagine showing up to an office walking like I have a stick in my ass for all to see.  If I were doing this surgery and I had savings I would honestly just resign and enter the work force 6 months later.  You would get a fresh start with new colleagues as well.  Theres always employment opportunities.  Easier said than done though and I'm biased because I'm pretty well off and work for myself.

^ btw this is good advice and when I was in my early 20s that was my LL plan. Basically start over completely, now it's just not an option.

[lessthanavg8300]

Got it, yeah so its unavoidable.  Honestly kind of a relief to just put it out there. 

For me theres going to be this underlying anxiety this whole time which will be annoying.  I don't know if it can even be hidden in the end.  Half of me thinks Im going to show up 2 inches taller around my direct family and immediately get called out.  Theres not a lot of feedback from people on here on how the perception was after because folks dont seem to stick around on this board after.


If people end up knowing I got LL after I'm going to be disappointed I didnt just really go for it and get to like 5'10+ though.

On concentration though I have heard its pretty tough through the lengthening phase and it takes about a week after stopping to get full cognitive ability back.

[vincentfreeman]

I honestly think it doesn't make sense to not simply lengthen to whatever your desire height is. I understanding not wanting to lengthen too much to increase recovery outcome, but other people's reactions are so brief and minimal. No one really knows LL is a thing, no one really considers it too hard. Your answers/excuses don't have to make sense. You can say you corrected your posture, corrected bow leg etc.

 Reality is if you look healthy and you look better, family won't press too hard as long as you have some semblance of an explanation if they even bring it up. It's 50/50 whether anyone will even say anything. You will be shocked at how unobservant the vast majority of people are. I had shoes made with custom lifts years ago that add about 2.5 inches to height, and no one said anything except one comment that I looked like I had lost a lot of weight/looked slimmer. Within the parameters of safety, how your family reacts will be more about your dynamic with them so if they are going to notice at 2 inches they are going to notice at 3 or 4. Just say while you were studying interstate you thought it would be a good opportunity to correct bow leg so you wore the brace and it added a bit of height.

I think the only downside to people knowing is cosmetic operations generally are viewed negatively/as seen as frivolous so you want to have some non-cosmetic BS reason there is a slight change. But don't limit your LL just because you think an extra inch is the difference between no one saying anything at all and interrogating you about it because it won't be.