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[LLL]

Have anyone of them noticed you having longer legs than you were born with, if they saw you nked?

In addition to this - would you say getting LL is/was worth it at your original height simply to widen your dating pool, that is, being able to attract more (attractive) women?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

In addition to this - would you say getting LL is/was worth it at your original height simply to widen your dating pool, that is, being able to attract more (attractive) women?

LOL, actually no.  Dr. Roger Li and I actually talked about this.  He jokingly told me to just marry a Chinese girl instead of getting LL.  Well, it's no longer a joke because my 5 months in Beijing made me only interested in Chinese girls.  They don't care as much about physical appearance as western women do.  I haven't dated any western girls since LL, although I can tell they'd be more interested in me.

My friend Kelly from Serbia would probably say yes to your question though.  He never had the chance to catch yellow fever like I did.

[LLL]

LOL, actually no.  Dr. Roger Li and I actually talked about this.  He jokingly told me to just marry a Chinese girl instead of getting LL.  Well, it's no longer a joke because my 5 months in Beijing made me only interested in Chinese girls.  They don't care as much about physical appearance as western women do.  I haven't dated any western girls since LL, although I can tell they'd be more interested in me.

My friend Kelly from Serbia would probably say yes to your question though.  He never had the chance to catch yellow fever like I did.

Haha, I see, thanks. I like Asians myself, and I get the feeling it's often mutual. 

I don't mean to get too private with you, but I just wonder if you could answer this last one.. no worries if you won't.

Have anyone of them noticed you having longer legs than you were born with, if they saw you nked?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Nobody has ever said anything about my legs looking weird, in any situation/context.

[An_Apple_A_Day]

Nobody has ever said anything about my legs looking weird, in any situation/context.

Do you find it cheaper buying pants now?

In the UK if you have a slim waist and long legs you can often get decent jeans and dress pants cheaper because these sizes rarely sell so end up in the sales heavily discounted, where as Mr 32"Waist 32"Leg has to pay full price.

This is a part joke.part serious question.  Answer however you see fit.  P.s.  Grow that mustache back.  I liked it.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

No, it's actually gotten more expensive for me as an American. I have to buy the 32x32s and have the waists taken in because the selection of tall/skinny pants is so bad in the US.

I used to buy extra large boys' pants which fit me great.  I kind of miss those days actually.  Those were the ones that didn't sell well and got put on big discounts. 

[Sweden]

I haven't noticed ANY difference in my pants-size yet. I still need to fold them.
My waist is smaller than before and that's bad bc I'm at 17% fat or something now. 9% before.

The only thing I've noticed lately is my calf muscles has grown much bigger so my pants get stuck on them.

[hand_sanitizer]

Hey, i just had my frames removed yesterday. My ankle is sore as F%$k! Did u experience the same thing? I was surprised by this, the nail locking wasn't even half as bad as my ankle, i can't even move them!

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Just one of your ankles or both?  I don't remember ankle pain being worse than the rest of my legs after my frame removal/nail locking surgery.  Maybe ask your doc if anything happened in the OR with the ankle(s).

[hand_sanitizer]

Both of them, the sensation is exactly like letting the feet hang from the frames without support. (Those who did LON knows exactly what i mean) Its not painful but it was very uncomfortable, enough to interrupt my sleep. It feels like my feet are constantly sprained!

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Now that you mention it I think I do remember something like that with the feet/ankles.  The 2nd and 3rd surgeries are definitely more traumatic than you'd expect.  Once the body gets used to something, taking it out causes a reaction, I guess.

[hand_sanitizer]

Hah! thank you for that. I thought i was the only one. It drove me half mad last night. I really hope this gets better by the end of the week

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Yeah, in Beijing they recommended a two week recovery period after frame removal.  I just took it easy and got waited on by the staff there until it was time to leave.

[Blackhawk]

Hey MDOW,

How long was your stay in Beijing from start to finish?

Sorry if you already answered this.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Unlike the vets on old forum , I don't mind talking to new people even if they have old questions.

My airline tickets in and out of there were exactly 5 months apart.

[Disobedient]

2. Rate of lengthening was highly variable.  In the beginning they tell everyone to lengthen .66mm per day, and they wait for x-rays to see how good your bone growth is before telling you to lengthen more or less each day.  My bone growth was excellent so in the end they were telling me to lengthen 1.33mm per day.

if you take look at my x-ray could tell if my bone growing excellent as yours? cuz I really want do more than 1mm per day.. My Dr said that the callus is good but he warning me to increase the number of the turn... although that I feel my body can handle doing 1.5mm in tibia and 2 mm in femur ...

Also I have stupid question... why there is consolidation phase?
 I mean when we start the distraction the bone is start growing right? so the consolidation actually started in the distraction phase..
so suppose there is a guy who is aiming to gain 3cm and he is doing 1mm/day
that will take from him 1 month to reach his goal, and "suppose again" 2 months more to consolidate
so if he did 0.33mm/day wouldn't he will reach 3cm and his bone will be consolidate in the same amount of time I mean 3months !!?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

if you take look at my x-ray could tell if my bone growing excellent as yours? cuz I really want do more than 1mm per day.. My Dr said that the callus is good but he warning me to increase the number of the turn... although that I feel my body can handle doing 1.5mm in tibia and 2 mm in femur ...

Also I have stupid question... why there is consolidation phase?
 I mean when we start the distraction the bone is start growing right? so the consolidation actually started in the distraction phase..
so suppose there is a guy who is aiming to gain 3cm and he is doing 1mm/day
that will take from him 1 month to reach his goal, and "suppose again" 2 months more to consolidate
so if he did 0.33mm/day wouldn't he will reach 3cm and his bone will be consolidate in the same amount of time I mean 3months !!?

Post your latest x-rays here and I'll give you my opinion.

You're right that the bone starts to fill in during the distraction phase, but if you distract too slowly you'll get premature consolidation, and the bone will have to be re-broken if you want to continue lengthening.

[Disobedient]

Post your latest x-rays here and I'll give you my opinion.

You're right that the bone starts to fill in during the distraction phase, but if you distract too slowly you'll get premature consolidation, and the bone will have to be re-broken if you want to continue lengthening.

OK I'll post it tmw ..

hmm..  ok but they could  prevent the reunion by doing 1mm/day tell they reached 1cm.. then they'll start to slower the rate..
what I want to say that most if not all the LL patients take at least 2 months in consolidation phase they could prevent make the consolidation phase as such as long time by slowing the rate.. so what point finishing the distraction earlier and leaving 4 or 5 cm gap between the bones then taking lot of time in consolidation ?
the total time theoretical should be the same but it will make huge different in term of the feel of the pain ... did you get my point?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

One of the reasons is so a fixed internal nail can be put in after distraction, so you're not in fixators for 9 months.  As for people who are doing external only, I think that's a very good question but only Franz on this forum would have the knowledge to answer it.

[Disobedient]

humm ok thanks MDOW

[whysoserious]

Hey mdow, while you are in Beijing. Do many ppl getting complication, etc? Is it minor/ major? Please explain, thx.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Some people did get complications.  The most common one was pinsite infections.  Nobody got a serious infection though; they were always minor and treated with antibiotics.  I think it had something to do with poor diet and lack of sleep weakening peoples' immune systems.  I never got an infection.  I was one of the few patients who was able to get enough sleep, and I always forced myself to eat even if I wasn't hungry.  The only other patient I know who never got a pinsite infection also ate and slept well.

The Ilizarov frame is very adjustible so nobody had any severe alignment problems that the doctors couldn't fix.  One guy ended up with one foot pointed slightly inward; that was the worst case I knew of and it wasn't that bad.

Another patient had such poor bone growth that he had to stop lengthening way short of his goal, I think at 4cm because he was in danger of non-union.  That was most likely genetic though.

Two people I met had issues with their internal nail after the operation.  One of them had his problem discovered by the doctors before he left, so they fixed it (but he had to stay longer than he expected).  The other didn't have any problems until going back home, then had to go back to Beijing to have a correction.

Those are all the complications I can remember out of about 30 people, so they did a pretty good job while I was there.

[whysoserious]

Wow, thanks for your info mdow. 
Im 167cm with 65 kg, 22 yo. How many cm of lengthening so u advise for me?(tibia).

[Medium Drink Of Water]

My advice is don't have a plan in the beginning except just to get taller.  Start lengthening and then decide when it's time to stop.  Some people do great and might even regret not doing more.  Some people can't reach their goals because of too much pain/complications and have to stop.  Some people keep going just to get to their goal when they shouldn't, and then they regret it forever.

Ideally, you don't want to be any of those people.

[whysoserious]

Some people can't reach their goals because of too much pain/complications and have to stop.

Hey mdow, what do you mean by that? Thanks for the reply.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Out of the approximately 30 LL patients I've met, two quit.  One guy had to stop because of poor bone growth.  Another was a wimp who couldn't handle the pain or being away from home, and went crying back home to mommy after less than 2cm.

[whysoserious]

Hi mdow, thanks for the reply. I want to ask you what is ballerina foot? How it is occur? And how it is treated? Thanks again

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Ballerina foot is when your toes point like a ballet dancer because your tendons are shorter than the bone after LL.  Almost everyone gets minor ballerina foot, which is treated by walking and stretching exercises.  Severe ballerina foot is treated with tendon lengthening surgery.

[Taller]

Hey MDOW. I had a few more questions about your LL experience that I felt like stopping by and asking. I think I'll ask them now, before I accumulate too many in my mind :

1. You mentioned that your legs now get more sore after long walks. Does this new soreness usually begin to occur during the walking or strictly afterwards?

2. Despite the soreness, are you still able to walk (and run) as quickly as you could pre-LL if you put forth enough effort? If so, can you maintain your pre-LL speeds for the same duration of time as you could pre-op?

3. How cautious must you be with your legs post-LL and recovery? Are there activities that you know you need to stay away from on account of having undergone LL?

4. Have you developed any psychological barriers that make you afraid of any activities, say running, jumping, skiing, etc? I know that personally, after once sustaining an upper body injury as a kid, whilst skateboarding, I have had a weird psychological block that prevents me from being comfortable or relaxed on a skateboard, even though I fully recovered from my injury and am, physically speaking, perfectly capable of using one again.

5. You mentioned that you do yoga. How was your balance affected by LL?

6. How long did you keep your IM nails in your legs for? How limiting were they to your day to day life? How did you explain to people that you couldn't run or take part in activities that were unsafe to do with the IM nail?

7. Are you still on familiar terms any people at all who knew you prior to LL, and somehow didn't find out about your surgery? If so, do they notice your new height? Do you tell them the truth of use a cover-up story? If its the latter, what is it?

8. Can you elaborate on the nature of your loss of agility (mentioned on page 1) and how it has (or hasn't) affected you?

Thanks so much for your answers. You are such an asset to this site and write very well. I hope you’re having an awesome weekend! Nice profile avatar BTW.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Hey MDOW. I had a few more questions about your LL experience that I felt like stopping by and asking. I think I'll ask them now, before I accumulate too many in my mind :

1. You mentioned that your legs now get more sore after long walks. Does this new soreness usually begin to occur during the walking or strictly afterwards?

2. Despite the soreness, are you still able to walk (and run) as quickly as you could pre-LL if you put forth enough effort? If so, can you maintain your pre-LL speeds for the same duration of time as you could pre-op?

3. How cautious must you be with your legs post-LL and recovery? Are there activities that you know you need to stay away from on account of having undergone LL?

4. Have you developed any psychological barriers that make you afraid of any activities, say running, jumping, skiing, etc? I know that personally, after once sustaining an upper body injury as a kid, whilst skateboarding, I have had a weird psychological block that prevents me from being comfortable or relaxed on a skateboard, even though I fully recovered from my injury and am, physically speaking, perfectly capable of using one again.

5. You mentioned that you do yoga. How was your balance affected by LL?

6. How long did you keep your IM nails in your legs for? How limiting were they to your day to day life? How did you explain to people that you couldn't run or take part in activities that were unsafe to do with the IM nail?

7. Are you still on familiar terms any people at all who knew you prior to LL, and somehow didn't find out about your surgery? If so, do they notice your new height? Do you tell them the truth of use a cover-up story? If its the latter, what is it?

8. Can you elaborate on the nature of your loss of agility (mentioned on page 1) and how it has (or hasn't) affected you?

Thanks so much for your answers. You are such an asset to this site and write very well. I hope you’re having an awesome weekend! Nice profile avatar BTW.

1.  It begins during the walks but goes away pretty quickly, actually.

2.  I'm able to walk as quickly as I could before as long as I take more steps.  My stride was actually shortened because of the tibia lengthening.  Femur lengthening will make your strides longer.  It's all about the ratios.  Running isn't affected since the stride is different.  I can still run quite fast at top speed, but I'm not sure if it's faster or slower as I could before.  I've never timed myself or figured out the MPH I could run either before or after surgery.

3.  I don't need to be cautious about any activities.  The bones are strong and I don't worry about breaking them any more than I would have before LL.

4.  I'm not sure if this was psychological or if there really was a physical component, but for 5 years after surgery I couldn't stand to have a blanket on my feet at night.  The weight of it on my feet bothered me so much.  I bought a blanket support like they had at the hospital and only recently stopped using it.

5.  Balance got quite a bit worse with the longer legs.  Getting taller without getting wider at the base, that's to be expected.  The Warrior 3 pose is especially difficult since you're balancing on one leg while holding up the other one.

6.  The IM nails were in my legs for 13 months after frame removal.  They weren't limiting.  I did weightlifting during the consolidation phase and even used a leg press machine with them in.  It took about a year for the bone to fully consolidate.  I often didn't notice them, and even ran a couple of times with them in.  I never ran marathons or anything like that in the first place, so having to tell people I couldn't do something because of the IM nails never came up.

7.  Yes!  There were a few people whose ears weren't reached by my mother's big mouth about the surgery.  They noticed I was taller and believed me when I told them I grew.  The younger you do the surgery the better, since that'll be a believable explanation.

8.  The loss of agility is really about having longer legs without the bigger muscles that would usually go with legs this long.  I just can't move them around as quickly as I used to be able to.  My kicks are especially slow and laborious.

Haha thanks for all the kind words.  I'm glad to help out potential LLers with all the info I know, so keep the questions coming if you have them.  That's not just directed toward Tall by the way, it's for everyone here.

[Taller]

I noticed your signature now says you did LON. I thought the Guang Ji hospital only offered LATN, or at least gave LATN by default. How come you ended up getting LON? Was this their preferred method when you did your lengthening? Do you see any particular advantage to one method over the other? I have read that multiple LATN patients experience "bone popping", which is when the broken bone somehow pokes against inside of the skin, despite the frame which supposedly holds it in place. I guess LON would prevent this, but would make axial corrections more difficult, if not impossible. What are your thoughts?