Hi everyone!
I am a long time lurker on the forum and in recent months I have more and more realized that LL could indeed be a valid option for me. I gotta admit, before that phase, I considered the whole thing crazy, already because of the fact that it seems to really be an option to change something which, for my whole life basically, I thought was not changable. How crazy is that? Behind me are years of me trying to just accept my height, with that 'I can never change it, ever' - and all of a sudden this could be untrue.
Ok, let me just start by introducing myself and telling my background. I am afraid this is gonna be longer but i need to get things off my chest and i need to find answers to many open questions, where you guys and gals maybe can help me. I will highlight and enumerate them to make replying to them easier. Sometimes they are not even phrased as a question, but i will add a
(x) marker.
I am in the age range of 30-40, living in middle europe, south of Germany to be more precise. I want to stay anonymous like many people here but there are certain things i am willing to share. My height is 173 in the evening, in certain countries I dont feel short at all, unfortunately in my home country or similar ones I do indeed. Very often i am the shortest guy in a room.
My sitting height is approximately 87.5, which i think is pretty short for my height (pls correct me if i am wrong?
(1)) - at least I notice that one or two friends of mine who are only slightly taller are way taller sitting. Also other people are bit shorter when sitting though, so i really cant say.
My wingspan on the other hand is 181, so I am a bit torn between "lengthening will mess with my proportions" vs "no problem at all"? Maybe the truth is in the middle?
(2)I have not meassured my legs yet, i am especially interested in measuring my femur and tibias ratio, can anybody maybe point me to an easy tutorial on how measure things properly?
(3)Right now I can only judge visually, and since it is my own body it is difficult to judge. Sometimes I have the feeling that i have quite long tibias, but maybe I am just making this up in my head. It would at least be a good excuse why i always had zero success putting on muscle on my calves hah.
I have the following pictures (not completely nked but still nsfw). One from the front, one from the side, and then the same again with a small "walking step" each:
https://imgur.com/lkP7bX1https://imgur.com/8ujbQHThttps://imgur.com/y4WMZcHhttps://i.imgur.com/LvcOgB9.jpg...maybe you can give me some input on my femur/tibias-ratio, based on just visuals?
(4)Also i think the side view pics show that my torso is rather short compared to the legs?
If you are wondering about the censoring, as said, privacy, also on one of my feet i have a scar i wanted to hide.
Speaking of muscles, i have always been quite into gym related stuff, also running (i always sucked at it), but i was never a pro bodybuilder and these recent years i became more and more lazy, i have to be open about it. I would need to get rid of fat in general but i am also not un-athletic. Anyways, since 4 weeks i started to do as much sports and stretching as possible in case i really want to do the surgery - if not, it still benefits my body and my health to be back at sports etc.
Two things you maybe just read between the lines:
First, i am completely undecided whether i will do this. I have that dream that it could resolve that one big thing that always bothers me, sometimes more in the back of my head, sometimes more present. It's never about girls etc btw. - i have always been fairly successful with the ladies. I don't even consider myself super above average looking in the face or something. Girls just always told me they liked my confidence and my manliness. Long story short, if i would do this surgery, i would only do it for myself.
Second, i do already have a rough time plan, IN CASE i do it. I would want to have the surgery somewhere between July and September, since that would fit best with my work schedule. I can work remotely and also pause for a few weeks, so that isn't really a topic i have questions on. The only question is, since i am still in the researching phase and i havent contacted any Dr. yet, if the chosen one will have time in that time window. What is your experience, how much ahead are people here booking their surgeries? Is half a year enough?
(5)Surgery type: i am leaning towards femur (this could completely change based on your input, if you look at my pics and say "hey, your femurs are too long already" or something). And in that case i want a weight bearing nail.
List of doctors I have considered (including why i am thinking they could be a good choice + open questions on them, since i have not contacted any single one of them, yet)
1) Dr. Betz / Dr. Becker
Germany is a big european country and he seems to be THE doctor for limb lengthening. On the one hand he gives me this vibe of being a hundred times better choice than someone in Turkey etc., on the other hand though there is also a LOT of negative feedback on the forum etc. Although i gotta admit, some people here seems to also through certain words like "butchering" around fairly easily, it is hard to judge tbh. I know my surgery would be with Dr. Becker - he has way less negative feedback, but also way less cases of course. The full weight bearing nail sounds awesome for me, although the stories of some patients having immense pain while clicking also scare me a fair bit.
Another thing that confused me a bit was when one user on the forum had the surgery in February i believe and somewhere around September set his goal to get rid of the crutches by the end of the year. Isn't that a fairly long period of time with crutches, for the fact that it is a weight bearing nail?
(6) Sorry, i am still learning and reading more and more people's diaries. Unfortunately the thread i just referenced is something i cannot find anymore atm.
2) Dr. Köhne
Another doctor in my home country - in this case by far the closest to my home, which i consider to be a big advantage. What worries me is that there are not so many feedbacks floating around online yet, although everything u can find seems positive overall. I am still wondering about the pricing, since he talks about 2 different precise nails on his website (
https://beinverlaengerungszentrum.de/ablauf-kosten-preis-beinverlaengerung/ ) and the prices are only listed on the first precise nail variant, which is only 20kg-weight-bearing. No prices for the 60kg variant on the website as far as i could see.
3) Dr. Giotikas
He is in Greece, that frightens me a bit, thinking about having Doctors speaking my language in my home country and then choosing to fly to Greece and doing it there instead feels weird to me in certain moments - on the other hand i have the feeling that he has way less negative reputation than Dr. Betz for instance.
Two particular things i am worried about:
Some former patients talked about not being able to click the G-Nail themselves, at all. Is this outdated information in the meantime or is this still relevant, does anybody know?
(7)Second, the user V21 mentioned here (
http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=67810.msg268447#msg268447 ) a complication with the nail and that the Dr had to "drill through the knee" - for me this sounds like a horrible complication but user V21 seems to mentioning it as if it's nothing, haha. Does anybody know more about these kinds of complications?
(8 ).
Everything else in user V21's post is very (!) promising though, he speaks of being able to working out very soon afterwards again.. just wow if thats true!
Money is not the biggest (!) issue for me, so weight bearing nail it is. Although I think I cant and/or dont want to afford to going to Dr Paley for instance, since that is yet another new dimension of costs in my eyes.
My lengthening goal would be 7 to 7.5 cm, which is only doable in case of femurs ofc. I would even consider doing quad lengthening in the long run, but only if i need it proportions wise (both aesthetically and/or because of agility) and not because of even more height need.
I want to get as athletic as possible after the lengthening. That could also play a role in maybe indeed getting tibias done somewhere in the further future. I am not a pro athlete, but i would love to continue being 95% agile.
I think that is my summary for now. I am glad to having found this forum which gives me so much knowledge gain on an almost daily basis these recent weeks, thank you all. I am looking forward to your replies and answers!
Greetings from germany
tilli