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[cheekycabs]

I'm doing external tibia ilizarov full.

In all honesty I didn't suffer too much heightism before the surgery, I was okay with being short, I had other skills to get me through life and figured this would be another tool to help me in my life.

I've had complications, but it is so true how mentally draining this procedure is. Days stack upon days where you have less and less energy to go out and train your body. The motivation just gets flushed in the toilet.

[Mw1245]

I understand u. With time it will get better

[takura]

Dude I would be worried about preconsolidation especially because you have also not had great communication with your doctor. Is there really no way you get care from another doctor inside or outside your country?

Quick question how does one determine callous formation?

[4cms]

Down here with doctor sarin, The Surgical Assistant comes every 4-5 days to check and/or clean the patients wounds. He did it with me without fail every 4-5 days around where the small HLN pump inserted into my hip/top of femurs.
He does NOT use plain water and soap.

[takura]

Down here with doctor sarin, The Surgical Assistant comes every 4-5 days to check and/or clean the patients wounds. He did it with me without fail every 4-5 days around where the small HLN pump inserted into my hip/top of femurs.
He does NOT use plain water and soap.

wHAT DOEs he use instead?

[4cms]

Dont know to be honest, he brings it with him from the hospital every time he comes. I ll ask him.

[cheekycabs]

I’m so sorry to hear this. I guess my motivation will be to come back to my country and start going out and enjoying life and meeting a partner.

Today I went out with a friend to a fun fair. It was wonderful. My friend used to work with me. He worked with me for years. I told him of my intentions to do the operation and he was not surprised and told me to go for it.

He said he always noticed my huge lack of confidence at work and how I always held myself back and he could see how unhappy I usually was. It was wonderful to hear that he sees it and understands. He said he may even visit me there if he can.

Please keep positive. Time flies.

Have you had visitors??

I plan to catch up on reading about topics I’m interested in while going through all this next year. Assuming I will be in the right frame of mind to do so that is. I may be being naive and this procedure is so hard that I may not even have the strength and/motivation to read.

I’m wondering whether I would even be able to do a long distance PA course if I take my laptop.

May I ask is your concentration ok or do you find it’s not so good??

Yes I think you'll be able to do a PA job freelance without issue. Any kind of work on a laptop should be easy, since you'll be on it plenty. My concentration is fine, but the massive swings in mood/pain/motivation is draining. Just from this week, thursday was a complete writeoff due to ankles being swollen, friday was great and I walked and met friends in the city but my painkillers wore out on the way home and it was a painful struggle to get to sleep, saturday I had crazy tightness/pain in my knees maybe from walking a lot the day before and sleeping was brutal. But I took some painkillers last night and maybe it's the effects carrying over but this morning I feel amazing and will walk a lot again today.

And the days spent at home are very hit and miss. If the pain is high I'll just stay and bed with no PT or exercise or stretching, but some days I'll crank out a lot of working out and staying active.

Ugh. Just need something to keep my mood/motivation up, because once it's down you don't want to do anything. I wouldn't call it depression, but I definitely understand the feeling.

[cheekycabs]

Down here with doctor sarin, The Surgical Assistant comes every 4-5 days to check and/or clean the patients wounds. He did it with me without fail every 4-5 days around where the small HLN pump inserted into my hip/top of femurs.
He does NOT use plain water and soap.

Inserted? As in, injection? This is the first I've heard of it, could you elaborate?

I use NaCl saline water if I'm cleaning the wounds, and I put some sudocrem or klobest, both very light ointments for wound treatment with very little medication in them. Aside from that, changing gauze and a bit of drying. I have zero idea if the pin points are infected, but I sure do get pain in some of them. The main screw in my tibia gets a sharp pain when walking, and 1 or 2 in my knees also get painful in bending certain positions.

[4cms]

Inserted? As in, injection? This is the first I've heard of it, could you elaborate?

I use NaCl saline water if I'm cleaning the wounds, and I put some sudocrem or klobest, both very light ointments for wound treatment with very little medication in them. Aside from that, changing gauze and a bit of drying. I have zero idea if the pin points are infected, but I sure do get pain in some of them. The main screw in my tibia gets a sharp pain when walking, and 1 or 2 in my knees also get painful in bending certain positions.

No no you're misunderatanding me im talking about the HLN pump that is inserted into my hip. ......its nothing to do with the cleaning done by the Surgical assistant.

Saline water and bedtadine would be ok to use. I will say leaving the wound dry for periods of 4-5 days is fine. I had build ups of scab tissue around my pin sites and its perfectly normal, its the bodies way of trying to close the wound. The doctor alone or nurse has the ability to tell you if its infected.
Also give it time to try dont do it everyday.

[takura]

Yes I think you'll be able to do a PA job freelance without issue. Any kind of work on a laptop should be easy, since you'll be on it plenty. My concentration is fine, but the massive swings in mood/pain/motivation is draining. Just from this week, thursday was a complete writeoff due to ankles being swollen, friday was great and I walked and met friends in the city but my painkillers wore out on the way home and it was a painful struggle to get to sleep, saturday I had crazy tightness/pain in my knees maybe from walking a lot the day before and sleeping was brutal. But I took some painkillers last night and maybe it's the effects carrying over but this morning I feel amazing and will walk a lot again today.

And the days spent at home are very hit and miss. If the pain is high I'll just stay and bed with no PT or exercise or stretching, but some days I'll crank out a lot of working out and staying active.

Ugh. Just need something to keep my mood/motivation up, because once it's down you don't want to do anything. I wouldn't call it depression, but I definitely understand the feeling.

Since moving to America to study I faced this feeling everyday. My community college doesn't have jack and the area around it isn't safe so I stay far away and have spent almost my entire 8 months alone at home and going to school, only other time going out for groceries

It actually drove me crazy in the first 4 months now I with a lot of bouts of crying, but now Im completely numb to happiness and sadness. I sometimes get out of words if even the store cashier talks to me

Im going to be doing LL next year too and come back and stay at home (cuz Im broke) and it sounds like more and more dreadful waiting .. I was considering doing it with a doctor and then going to the guesthouse where I get to meet people in similar shoes and we would get a positive atmosphere but lmao! money > all that

Keep strong boy! you are 75% done so thee light at the end of the tunnel is coming soon.

[cheekycabs]

I understand where you’re coming from. I consider the idea of a clinic more and more as I go along. Thinking I’d get better support from my doctor (post home care doctors don’t have to care since they’re an email/text away) and of course meeting others in the same shoes. Home care is REALLY tough doing it by yourself, you will absolutely need a nurse or someone to take care of you, even just so you don’t go insane by yourself. Of course this is the cheaper option but 80% of this surgery and recovery is mental game. Pain, mood, feeling affects all of your progress, and how easy you get past the days. Tough to weigh out, really.

I’m doing great again today, big walk in the city with friends and now back home now working out. Like I said, ups and down are how the days go after surgery.

[cheekycabs]

I think you’re right. I had a terrible habit of picking at my scabs, and now I’ve put them all under a heap of gauze and tensor bands, so I cannot pick. lol and behold, pain is really gone. Aalso the tensors help immensely!

Pretty good day/week and am starting to see the upside.

[4cms]

Back when i was doing tibias external, when i saw that scab building up i thought it was infection too, look if its green or yellowish and the surrounding skin is red then yes its infected but if its just normal brown looking scab building up around thats normal. Im still not an expert a doctor nurse still knows better than me.

[cheekycabs]

Well it’s all packed under wraps of gauze and tensors so no I really have no idea.. seemingly problems occur every time I change or clean my gauzes and I’m considering keeping them on for a 2 week period while it dries, but I’m not entirely sure. Just every time I change it, it rips all of the firmed scabs off and I start again from scratch, and strangely enough pain and tightness kick in a day later.

[4cms]

To be honest we used to leave them open, not covered the moisture somehow makes it look worse, The dryer the better. When i done external we litrally left them as it and tended to them when needed.

[AR]

I will not motivate u , I will warn u , u will regret being inactive. u will suffer the  ty ballerina feet and knee bending for some good time and u will not enjoy the height u gain because u will not be able to stand straight to measure it .

[takura]

Are you going to stay here for consolidation as well?

How long are you planning to stay in AZJ

[cheekycabs]

I will not motivate u , I will warn u , u will regret being inactive. u will suffer the  ty ballerina feet and knee bending for some good time and u will not enjoy the height u gain because u will not be able to stand straight to measure it .

Very fair comment. I'm not being inactive fully. Every second day I climb up/down 3 flights of stairs, walk 400m, and on my second day I do leg lifts sitting and lying down, and weight train. My knee ROM is about 80% but it's not fully straight unless I really force it, but I'm trying.

You are absolutely right about ballerina. Can I ask if you got a lot of pain in your ankles after walking? Mine seem to swell every time, making it hurt to lengthen. Can I ask how you fought ballerina?

Are you going to stay here for consolidation as well?

How long are you planning to stay in AZJ

I live here, so as long as it takes. No issues with time.

[Sanity]

yea thts wat il suggest too. let the body take over let it control the place. dont interfere often. let the crust form and leave it you will not have problems. I asked my doctor and he told me the same thing. You should ask your's.

[AR]

Not very painful after walking but when i walk unaided i feel some pain in my ankles specially the left one, stretching helps to reduce the pain alot , pain goes away with time , and life gets better after lengthening and correction if both are done slowly.

For ballerina I lengthened only 4 cms so i was shock how i got this bad ballerina, standing and walking are the most helpful things to me , walking with crutches not walker will enhance the ballerina quickly, Now I'm about 6 months in the frames and didn't restore my full ankle flexibility, i don't have ballerina any more and i put my heels confidently on the ground while walking but i need more dorsiflexion to stand straight and going down stairs. I believe that after removing the frames i will restore more flexibility.

[cheekycabs]

New x rays. I believe 4cm but getting measured.

[cheekycabs]

A bit confused. I’ve done about 150 turns which calculates to about 4cm but my doctor is saying I’m at 5cm. Apparently I’ve been turning more than I needed to, which is why it was extra painful...  also one of my legs is shorter, so I’m going to even it out.

[cheekycabs]

This is the kind of cluster fk I am dealing with. Dr. Bagirov came in, did some calculations and said I am at 5cm. I have done 150 turns at that works out to about 4cm. He also said I have one leg shorter than the other. So this doctor just leaves and my original doctor Babel comes. Does some calculations and apparently I’m at 6cm and my legs are fine. No real from answers but to lengthen my left leg a little bit more... no real amount, just more.

I’m losing my fkn mind with the doctors here. No one knows.

[cool]

It's really hard to believe your doctors are so negligent to you. It's crazy.

on the bright side, your bones look solid and your recovery should be close if you stop now.

[Sanity]

If u've done ~5cm then how much more do you think u can handle safely without dealing with ballerina and other problems.

[cheekycabs]

It’s hard to say, right now I do t have issues with bf but some turns have an immediate effect, it could happen any time. I’m pretty confident I’ll either stop at 172 or 173 and then consolidate, I’ve had enough of these frames for now.

[cheekycabs]

I’ve measured myself since the doctor can’t even tell me either: how tall I am, or how much I’ve lengthened.

I am currently 171.5, but unsure of how even my legs are. Trying to measure inseams.

[Sanity]

It’s hard to say, right now I do t have issues with bf but some turns have an immediate effect, it could happen any time. I’m pretty confident I’ll either stop at 172 or 173 and then consolidate, I’ve had enough of these frames for now.

that wise. 6-7 cm is good and safe choice. Also it is harder without the nails but it is much safer in the long run. How is your walking ?

[cheekycabs]

Walking is still tough, can’t do it without painkillers but slowly getting better.

So, I’ve tried to measure my legs to see if they’re even. I don’t know if any other way to check if they are the same, if anyone can recommend advice, I am all ears. It seems like they are the same. But also, the laptop I placed isn’t even.

[doomsday]

your pin sites look terrible, they should be covered.

[cheekycabs]

The pin sites are fine, no pain and they’ve scabbed well with no infection. The cream I use “sudacream” helps lots with scabbing, but it makes everything look dried out and dirty. Hard to get off even with a shower.