About MeLeg lengthening has been something I’ve considered for years (Which is the case for most people). I was actually arranged to have this surgery done last year. I had already purchased my plane ticket, gotten my visa, paid for an (non-refundable) apartment through Airbnb and even scheduled my surgery date but unfortunately, I backed out last minute. In some ways it was actually a good decision for me to wait a year later because I learned so much since the
. Honestly, even now, I’m learning more as I actually undergo leg lengthening.
A little about myself, I’m a 22 year old male from US and I just recently graduated college in May (Had to make sure I was able to walk at graduation lol). So of course I rewarded myself by breaking my legs a couple weeks later. I co-own a landscaping company which is how I can afford to go to school and pay for this surgery. I do well on my own but I think it’s quite obvious that my company doesn’t do well enough that I can go to Paley. I still have graduate school to become a physical therapist but I’ll be taking a gap year to (obviously) undergo cosmetic leg lengthening. I’m 165 - 166 centimeters (5’5) short but have worn uncomfortable 2 inch lifts since high school. My wingspan is conservatively 170cm. I’m very athletic and my reason for this surgery is because I’m insecure about my height. I have no issues with women at all, I know I haven’t lived out that many years, but I’ve always been in some type of relationship for the most part. So for readers who are considering leg lengthening solely for women, I would recommend improving yourself in other ways first before concluding to leg lengthening.
Wearing lifts was my way of coping with my insecurity. Being at roughly 5’7 - 5’8 with lifts on was good enough for me. However, there’s so many instances where lifts would be a huge inconvenience. Such as taking really long walks for an entire day or having to reveal my true height when shoes have to come off in places such as the beach. And it doesn’t help that I live 5 minutes away from the shore lol. I have several other personal reasons but everyone has their own reasons to why they want or believe that they need this surgery. Whether a persons reasons are justifiable to undergo this surgery or not is so subjective that it’s such an abstract topic that I’d rather avoid.
Traveling Tips to St. PetersburgLuckily, traveling and visiting foreign countries is something I’m already familiar with. Not many Russians in my experience speak English so you will definitely need a translator, have an offline application on your phone if you don’t plan on getting a SIM card.
The prepaid phone services are so cheap and having a working phone is extremely helpful that I’d recommend just getting it. Don’t forget that your phone needs to be unlocked. The phone service I use here is Beeline and I pay 650 Rubles per month (~$11USD) for 32GB. There’s other plans with minutes and SMS but those were useless to me.
The phone plan I use:
https://imgur.com/a/V3g8QWkExamples of other phone plans:
https://imgur.com/a/yiStm0TIf you’re not from Europe, make sure you bring a universal power adapter, this is the one I’m currently using:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075JFPC42/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_IFljBbX9SRRBWHere is the website where I got my 3 year multiple entry visa. You’re only allowed to stay for 6 months max in one visit with this visa. It cost me roughly $500. It was very easy and took about a month for them to send back my passport with my visa:
http://www.russia-travel.comWhen you get to Russia, you have 7 business days to register your visa. If you stay at a hotel or the hospital, they’ll do this for you. But if you stay at an apartment where the owner may not be willing to register you at the post office or police station, like in my situation, you can go to this hotel that offers registration services (They charge 1500 Rubles for one month which is about $25 USD):
Piterskaya Hotel
Address: Liteinyi lane, 63
Phone: +7 (911) 266-3268/ +7 (951) 673-8980
E-mail: reg@v-piter.com
One of the reasons why having a phone with internet was so useful was that I could use Uber. You set your pick-up location and destination and you’re done! No communication issues in trying to explain where you want to go. The Uber rides here were very cheap, here’s a few rides I took (Uber doesn’t save the distance or duration of the ride):
-Ride from apartment to St George hospital, one of the hospitals Dr. Kulesh works at (~$3 USD):
https://imgur.com/a/ZBDIJYQ-Apartment to St Elizabeth municipal clinic where I am currently staying and had my surgery (~$3 USD):
https://imgur.com/a/9Y0ciWW-Apartment to Piterskaya Hotel where I registered my visa (~$5 USD):
https://imgur.com/a/BJPnqnhGetting money over here is also a bit difficult. What I did was have one of my friends send me my money through Western Union. But it’s not that simple, the first time we tried, Western Union took my money and we received a tracking number that said pending, which was strange because the site said it would be ready to pick up within minutes and they already have my money. It was just stuck like this for the entire day and we just gave up that day cause they kept my friend on hold for half an hour:
https://imgur.com/a/gmVAo6WWe make another call the next day and turns out we have to call Western Union first so they can verify the transfer which was so odd because they took my money before telling me this. They said they do this because there’s a lot of fraud, especially in Russia. They were making sure that the person my friend was sending the money to (me), was actually me. So if you are going to use Western Union to receive money, call this number before you attempt to transfer money (This number is for US customers):
1-800-325-6000
Consultation with Dr. Kulesh & Dr. SolominI had my initial consultation at Vreden institute. Dr. Nikita, one of Dr. Kulesh’s assistants first took my X-Rays here:
https://imgur.com/a/Fg2pNF7Afterwards, I met with Dr. Kulesh who accessed my x-rays and biomechanics with this program on his computer. He explained the surgery to me and whether or not LON or LATN was even possible. He measured my bone lengths, measured my medullary cavity, measured all these angles regarding my biomechanics and then adjusted my X-Rays to see how my biomechanics would be if I added 7cm on my femur. A couple minutes later, Dr. Solomin comes in. We discuss what I wanted to do and how much I want to lengthen. They were suggesting against doing both femurs at the same time but I insisted. They definitely aren’t here just to make money. They answered all my questions, and gave me a few days to make a decision. They weren’t trying to push me to do the surgery at all. They gave me the details I needed to know and left me to decide for myself. If anything, they actually had me thinking twice if I actually wanted to go through this. Dr. Solomin seemed shocked when I said 7cm on the femurs and said that it was a lot. They suggest up to 10% of the original bone length. But that going over 20% would be way too much. The length of my femurs (measured by the x-rays) were 43cm, so by numbers a 7cm increase for me would be between 16%-17%.
Each person is different and these numbers are just based off of previous cases. One patient may do well lengthening 20% while another patient might have have trouble even doing 10%. I prefer not to look at us like were machines or computers because everyone will have a different experience, especially with this surgery. My goal is to lengthen 7cm but I plan to stop distraction as soon as my body tells me to.
At the end of this consultation, I chose to go with external lengthening or lengthening and then nailing. I still have not decided which of the two. I won’t have to decide until after lengthening. But I personally preferred LATN over LON because with LATN, you can get better alignment during the correction period, the nail will be longer and more stable, and complications are generally easier to fix without the nail in the bone.
The SurgeryI arrived at the St. Elizabeth municipal hospital and was immediately taken to my room. It was the day before my surgery and I had an electrocardiogram and several blood tests done. My anesthesiologist came in the afternoon and explained to me how she was going to put me under general anesthesia and how I had to curl into a ball for her to see my spine. She then said I had to stop eating and drinking at 10:00pm and left.
Here are some pictures of the room:
https://imgur.com/a/yJI3sXAhttps://imgur.com/a/IbzyTTehttps://imgur.com/a/oIHcmM2The next day, I shave my legs for the first time and wait on my sofa thinking about the worse that could happen. I was mainly concerned with going under a coma because of the general anesthesia. This would be my first surgery ever. I know I was being over dramatic but I was extremely nervous.
The nurses came at around 9am, told me to undress, and had me lay down on a stretcher then covered me with a blanket. I can still remember being wheeled into the operating room. From my bedroom, going down the hall, up the elevator. I was really comfy wrapped in the blanket, just enjoying the ride and at that point my mind was somewhere else. My mind was blank, I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t nervous. I accepted reality.
In the operating room, there were- if I recall correctly, three connected rooms in which surgeons can operate in. In between each room was a window. To my left I saw a woman who was completely still. To my right there was a man, I couldn’t see him completely through the window, but people were going in and out of that operating room so I assumed his room was being prepped for surgery as well. There were about 5 nurses around me preparing the room, hooking me up to things. Every few minutes the blood pressure monitor would go on, that was really the only thing that was uncomfortable for me so far. I was still just laying there relaxed, probably for around half an hour. Soon, I saw Dr. Kulesh, Dr. Solomin, Dr. Nikita, and Dr. Roma walk in. I was so glad to see familiar faces, not long after though, my anesthesiologist put me under and the last thing I saw was having the catheter put inside me. This was actually one of my bigger fears but at that last second before I was out, the drugs had already kicked in and I didn’t feel a thing.
The next thing I know, I was awake with frames on my femurs in the operating room. I woke up smiling, I was just happy I was alive lol. Getting wheeled back to my room was a completely different feeling than getting wheeled to the operating room. I was excited and really looking forward to gaining the height. I looked forward to when I no longer had to wear my lifts or worry about taking my shoes off at the beach.
Test of PatienceI felt no pain after the surgery, but of course that’s because I’m still on anesthesia. I was hooked on to this machine for about 5 days which would administer the anesthesia at the rate the anesthesiologist sets it to. Every time it would run out, the pain would get worse over time. The pain at its worst was maybe an 8/10, but that only happened for about an hour or two because my anesthesiologist was busy that day and the nurses aren’t allowed to dispense it. For the most part however, the pain was sitting at 1/10.
Here’s the machine that was administering the anesthesia:
https://imgur.com/a/d5TsBh7Sleeping straight through the night was (and still is) a bit difficult because I would wake up extremely uncomfortable and would have to reposition my legs. It’s not so much because of pain but the discomfort. After I got off the anesthesia, the pain stayed at a 1/10. At night, it wouldn’t go anywhere above 4/10.
Here are my frames:
https://imgur.com/a/h2jjEQaHere’s the upper part of the frames:
https://imgur.com/a/SARqfFcMy catheter was removed around the same time. I was glad that there was finally nothing sticking inside me. I graduated from the catheter to peeing in a plastic container. Dropping a deuce was a different story though. I knew I wasn’t going to use that damn bed pan. The nurses said I had to if I couldn’t get to the bathroom so I did everything in my power to learn how to walk (using my walker). It was difficult to walk at first, but eventually I got the hang of it. I’ve been wearing the frames for about a month now and it’s still hard to walk but I’m happy as long as I don’t have to take a on my bed.
I think the hardest part of this is just sitting around all day and doing nothing. I wake up, eat, stretch all day, turn the nuts on my rods, sleep, and then do it all over again. I watch movies and/or shows but I have to use my phone’s internet since there’s no WiFi here at the municipal clinic. It’s no big deal for me though since it’s so cheap but- just a heads up for anyone who planned on WiFi being available to you here.
The food isn’t all that enjoyable either. I email Dr. Kulesh things I want/need from the store and he has one of his assistants buy the food/items for me. The meals at the hospital usually has some kind of potato in it (Potato soup, mashed potatoes, chopped potato, etc). Then there’s also other types of soup, oatmeal-like breakfasts, sometimes rice, and then the famous macaroni and hot dog dinners. Most meals come with bread and you get breakfast (9:30AM), lunch (2:30PM), and dinner (6:30PM). Haha, I’ve been here for way too long.
https://imgur.com/a/BF8lrRihttps://imgur.com/a/H9CdH1Thttps://imgur.com/a/Atq2bpOJust to give you an idea on cost of food (If you stay at an apartment you can actually use this site to have them deliver you your groceries):
https://www.okeydostavka.ru/spb2There’s a lot of time to fill while you’re here. So make sure you have something that will keep you occupied. I really wanted to stay productive while I was here, so I’m studying to take my test to become ACSM certified in exercise physiology. I dreaded the first few days I was here. But now days just go by really fast, I feel like my concept of time has really changed. Being stuck here makes you appreciate simple things that you wouldn’t have thought of before. Like simply walking outside to get fresh air or being able to have decent conversations with someone. It gets lonely sometimes because Dr. Kulesh and Dr. Solomin are really the only people that visit who know enough English to actually have a conversation with.
Distraction & ScheduleI started distracting on May 25, exactly a week after I got the initial surgery. I distracted 1mm per day for 20 days and today is my third day lengthening 1.5mm per day. So at the end of today, I would have lengthened 24.5mm (2.45cm) on paper. Ever since I got off the anesthesia about 5 days after the surgery I haven’t had the need to take any painkillers, so I’m hoping it stays that way.
X-Rays 9 Days After Distraction:
https://imgur.com/a/YdNlzqOX-Rays 20 Days After Distraction:
https://imgur.com/a/CtojCLLAfter initial surgery, I was getting shots under my skin every night near my stomach, I was told it was blood thinners. After about a week, I went from that to taking Pradaxa once a day.
I get bandages changed 3 times a week, X-Rays about every 10 days and have physical training 1-2 times a week with a trainer. I stretch all day (every day) and train on my own when I’m not with the trainer.
PriceThese are prices most relevant to me right now. You can contact Dr. Kulesh if you want a much more detailed document regarding prices. It’s extremely detailed and has everything you need to know on it when it comes to money.
Dr. Kulesh’s e-mail is: kulesh_pavel@mail.ru
As I mentioned earlier, my 3 year multiple entry visa (6 months stay max in one trip) cost roughly $500 USD
One way plane ticket cost about $350 USD
Consultation plus X-Rays with long films: 6.000 Rubles (~$95 USD)
To install frames: 166.000 Rubles (~$2630 USD)
Price for a single room per day at the municipal clinic: 4.400 Rubles (~$70 USD)
Each bandage change by doctor: 1.500 Rubles (~$24 USD)
Each 30 minute session with the trainer: 1.500 Rubles (~$24 USD)
X-Rays with 4-short films: 3.000 Rubles (~$48 USD)
Installation, calculation, and removal of reduction modules for corrections: 27.000 Rubles (~$430 USD)
If I decide to go the LATN route, removal of the frames and installation of Russian nails cost: 126.000 Rubles (~$2000 USD)
A Little Taste of St. Petersburghttps://imgur.com/a/rbkNGEMhttps://imgur.com/a/Gt3d5n0https://imgur.com/a/l1kZFRwhttps://imgur.com/a/O9PM3UvAnyway, this is my experience so far. I’ll do my best to keep my diary updated and try to respond to everyone, please don’t take it personally if I don’t get to you.
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Topic: Bilateral Femur Lengthening with Dr. Kulesh & Dr. Solomin (Read 9524 times)