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[BilateralDamage]

Hey there, I read through your entire thread and it has answered a lot of questions I would have had for a LL veteran! First off, my brother is the one who had ll surgery performed on him last week, but I am the one who will be taking care of him for the next 3 months. We booked an apartment specifically for this, and have no relatives or friends close by, nice little apartment completely wheelchair accessible.
So far, for the past few days he's been in pain of course, tomorrow his first day of lengthening starts. He went with the precise nail.

Being his personal care taker, would you have any recommendations on any do's and dont's we should take caution of? Anything that will help speed of his recover, and to ensure he recovers completely would be great. Is there anything you would have differently that if you knew you could change you would?

Also, as far as physical therapy goes, we're young guys so we pretty much will be trying to get my brother back to walking by ourselves. Do you have any idea as to how is hould start doing this? Perhaps a physical training routine you could share with me? I found these stretches, hope it's a good start:
http://www.theorthocentermd.com/patient-education/Knee/knee-therapy/

We also ordered a stationary bike for my brother. Thanks so much, and it was great to hear you're doing a lot better and are able to walk after your surgery. I seriously have so much respect for anyone going through this surgery and has gone through it. I personally myself would have never thought about going through the surgery, but the fact that I see everyone have such heart and determination to makes me feel inspired. I'm a huge supporter and advocate now for anyone who has gone through the process and managed to get back to walking. My brother is in a lot of pain already and it's difficult to watch sometimes and not be able to do much. Doing all I can though.

Welcome to the forum!     You're a really awesome brother, damn I wish I had one like you.

[Blackhawk]

Welcome KP!

I haven't read very many posts from someone taking care of a loved one doing LL.

It will be great hearing about LL from your perspective.  I hope you keep posting here.

Good luck with everything!!

[kp35]

Thanks for the support guys, if anything I've noticed everyone on here has been very kind and shows genuine interest/care, I really appreciate it! And I'm glad to be able to share things from my perspective. I've pretty much documented everything for my brother from pictures to interviews on experience with my brother, perhaps I can make a diary with his permission.
My brother has done a lot for me in the past, I feel as though I can never repay him enough even with doing all this I think that it's my job to make sure my brother gets completely better and gets all the help he can for a procedure and process that is life changing for good/worse. I just want to ensure I can do everything in my power to make sure he makes a great recovery. It's definitely been a journey all on my own while trying to look for an apartment and place to stay while my brother was in the hospital, all of which in a foreign city/state.
I'm the younger between us, so I've always just followed my brother around everywhere, but this time it's me who's taken initiative to find a good place and truely make sure the best conditions are met for him to recover. To be quite honest with everyone, I was against the surgery when he first told me about it and we had even argued a few times, as I knew in the end there would still be pain. But even then, my brother decided to go through with it, I can't change his mind so I might as well be there every step of the way.
So far it's been one week since his surgery, he can't walk yet, let a lone even stand with the help of a walker. Tomorrow I'll try to do some stretching when we wake up to ensure his legs don't get too stiff and in the long run develop ballerinas foot. I would think that it's because of the position your leg is in when laying down, perhaps the tendom behind the calf gets used to being in that position all the time that it loses it's flexibility.
Anyway,
I appreciate the warm welcome, I most definitely will post here so I can help out any one in the future who may need tips/are curious to know.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

The advice I have for your brother is to get up in the morning and go to sleep at night, and to eat three meals a day whether he's hungry or not.  Maintaining a normal schedule of sleeping and eating is important.  There's a rhythm to life that can get easily disrupted by LL unless you make an effort to maintain normalcy.

Some of the patients at Guang Ji hospital developed odd sleeping and eating habits that I'm sure weren't conducive to recovery.  I force-fed myself sometimes and took sleeping pills whenever necessary, and I was a lot better off because of it.

[kp35]

Thanks Mdow, I make sure I cook at least 3 square meals, complex carbs only, with plenty of protein (mainly chicken) and vitamin d, c, calcium, fish oil, and a multivitamin. We also take protein, hopefully that helps with the healing process. Thanks for the advice!

[Shortie]

You are the same starting height as me and almost same weight I'm 140 lbs , always been . How long did it take u to recover and walk normal ? Do you have any problems now ? What do you think I should do I wanna gain 3 inches too and I wil be happy with that , I have skinny legs , and 5'9 wingspan , what's the dif between 5'7 and 5'10 I mean do ppl treat you dif now ?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

You are the same starting height as me and almost same weight I'm 140 lbs , always been . How long did it take u to recover and walk normal ? Do you have any problems now ? What do you think I should do I wanna gain 3 inches too and I wil be happy with that , I have skinny legs , and 5'9 wingspan , what's the dif between 5'7 and 5'10 I mean do ppl treat you dif now ?

I had my surgery in June of 2007, and I was walking normally by February 2008, so that took about 7-8 months.  My problems now are that my knees get quite stiff if I don't exercise regularly, and they have a lot of sensitivity when I kneel.

People treat me differently now, but I'm not sure if it's because of my new height or my newfound confidence from being average height.  It's made a world of difference in my own perception of myself, self-confidence, and self-worth.

[Shortie]

I had my surgery in June of 2007, and I was walking normally by February 2008, so that took about 7-8 months.  My problems now are that my knees get quite stiff if I don't exercise regularly, and they have a lot of sensitivity when I kneel.

People treat me differently now, but I'm not sure if it's because of my new height or my newfound confidence from being average height.  It's made a world of difference in my own perception of myself, self-confidence, and self-worth.

thanks a lot do you know what should I do to prevent the knees problem ?  And also can u do any kind of work even if it require u to stand for 12 hours a day ?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe my knee stiffness and sensitivity were caused by the IM nails.

I can stand as long as I need to.  LL didn't affect my endurance for standing.

[Shortie]

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe my knee stiffness and sensitivity were caused by the IM nails.

I can stand as long as I need to.  LL didn't affect my endurance for standing.

well said thank man .

[kneehowguys]

1. You have persistant knee pain up to 4/10 and you still feel it was worth it? How much does it prevent you from enjoying life?

2. I know you posted some pics of the scars but.. can you post more with strong lighting and several angles?

I'm not saying it to knock you down. I'm asking because they look excellent, and if you post more pics and they still look excellent then I will probably do externals then scar revision surgery just like you.

3. Do you think internal femurs would have resulted in significantly less knee pain?

4. Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?

[Disobedient]

 
Hi there


so as I'm gonna have internal plate in femurs after few days, I'm thinking now to have it for tibia too
some doctors said that I need around 1.5 months to remove the fixator from my tibia..

but I'm not sure about that too... forget about china for a min and let's say you're diso, would you have the plate for your tibia too ?

I want to get back to my life, but I want to avoid extra surgery..

[Medium Drink Of Water]

I wouldn't do the extra surgery.  1.5 months isn't a very long time to wait.

[Disobedient]

I'll try to stick to this idea,,
although sometime I think this shouldn't be consider as an extra surgery since I could do it at the same day when I'll operate my femur..

but .. yeah maybe this is better, no more surgery for the tibia ,, thnx MDOW

[onedayillgrow]

So Diso are you not going to lengthen your tibiae then? You're not going for the extra surgery? Which surgery are you not going to go for?

[IwannaBeTaller]

Hi Medium Drink Of Water, great topic. A couple of questions.

1. About the knee issues - do you just experience stiffness and high sensivity when walking, or real pain? Is the "real" pain just when kneeling or squatting, or also when walking normally?
2. Are you worried about any long time issues and problems that might occur when you are older (in your 60s for example) that haven't been uncovered as a result of LL yet?

Thanks!

[Medium Drink Of Water]

1. It's just occasional stiffness while walking.  The sensitivity/pain happens when I kneel on hard surfaces.  Here's a link to a post I made about how bad it hurts.

http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=288.0

2. I don't think any weird problems will start happening to me as a result of LL when I get older.  My legs feel normal and healthy most of the time.

[GeTs]

1. How is the walk during consolidation ? do you look like a slow robot without balance or like an elder who need a bit of support?
2. How long before walking normal after frame removal? By normal i mean like the guy in the video below
3. Is it possible to lengthen in an apartment near the doctor? i mean like a couple of minutes away from him, in case some complications arise so i could reach him within an hour as i don't like the idea of staying in the hospital where i plan to go ( for the first 2 weeks i'll definetely stay in the hospital so the doctor could check my situation and give me the instructions, but no more than that)
4. How much help do you need as time progresses?
5. Did you experience any loss like a couple of mm?
6. Can you give me an idea of the level of pain as time progresses during lengthening and if there's any during consolidation?
7. That's obviously not me, but his body is identical to mine , in terms of proportions as my femurs are way longer than my tibias like in this pic, do you think 5 cm on tibias on this guy will look proportionate? ( the guy in the pic)

[G-Man]

Hmm, if its not you in the pic, why bother hiding the face?
To me this guy look perfectly proportional and still will after 5 cm on tibs.

[IwannaBeTaller]

Medium, were you ever bothered by your proportions at your new height? Have you ever noticed someone at your height having quite bigger arms/hands/feet/torsos than you, and did anyone else ever point it out or do you think someone noticed? Also do you notice your sitting height being quite lower than of people your height?

Your situation now sounds so good, if some knee stiffness is all I had to take for being of average height, I would definitely do it, but I'm also very worried about proportions. We need more reports of fully recovered limb lengtheners, I wonder why they are so scarce.

[GeTs]

I think they tend disappear once they fully recover because they don't need anymore the forum and get on with their life

[Medium Drink Of Water]

1. How is the walk during consolidation ? do you look like a slow robot without balance or like an elder who need a bit of support?
2. How long before walking normal after frame removal? By normal i mean like the guy in the video below
3. Is it possible to lengthen in an apartment near the doctor? i mean like a couple of minutes away from him, in case some complications arise so i could reach him within an hour as i don't like the idea of staying in the hospital where i plan to go ( for the first 2 weeks i'll definetely stay in the hospital so the doctor could check my situation and give me the instructions, but no more than that)
4. How much help do you need as time progresses?
5. Did you experience any loss like a couple of mm?
6. Can you give me an idea of the level of pain as time progresses during lengthening and if there's any during consolidation?
7. That's obviously not me, but his body is identical to mine , in terms of proportions as my femurs are way longer than my tibias like in this pic, do you think 5 cm on tibias on this guy will look proportionate? ( the guy in the pic)

1. In the beginning my walking was really slow and I needed to use a walker for balance.  A walk around the block could take me 2 hours.

2. I was walking normally (but slower) about 3-4 months after frame removal, except for going down stairs.  Stairs are big obstacles for LLers.  I could walk at normal speed like the guy in the video by about 7 months.

3. Yes, many people get apartments near their doctor instead of staying in a hospital the whole time.  I never had to worry about that since the Beijing Institute's fee includes hospitalization for the entire lengthening period.

4. I didn't feel confident in my ability to drive for the first few months, so I needed help with that.  Otherwise, I could do everything for myself as long as I had my walker.

5. No, I didn't lose any height after I finished lengthening.

6. My pain was the worst in the beginning because of all my knee complications, so lengthening for me got easier and less painful toward the end.  That's not typical though.  The consolidation phase isn't painful for anyone as far as I know.

7. I think that guy could do more than 5cm and still look fine.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

Medium, were you ever bothered by your proportions at your new height? Have you ever noticed someone at your height having quite bigger arms/hands/feet/torsos than you, and did anyone else ever point it out or do you think someone noticed? Also do you notice your sitting height being quite lower than of people your height?

Your situation now sounds so good, if some knee stiffness is all I had to take for being of average height, I would definitely do it, but I'm also very worried about proportions. We need more reports of fully recovered limb lengtheners, I wonder why they are so scarce.

I never get bothered by my proportions at my new height.  My sitting height is a bit low for a 5'10 guy, but I just make sure I sit up straight and that's good enough so that it's not a problem.  I don't think anyone has ever noticed anything to be "off" about me, and they certainly haven't said anything.  I think getting LL was one of the best decisions of my life.

[GeTs]

1. In the beginning my walking was really slow and I needed to use a walker for balance.  A walk around the block could take me 2 hours.

2. I was walking normally (but slower) about 3-4 months after frame removal, except for going down stairs.  Stairs are big obstacles for LLers.  I could walk at normal speed like the guy in the video by about 7 months.

3. Yes, many people get apartments near their doctor instead of staying in a hospital the whole time.  I never had to worry about that since the Beijing Institute's fee includes hospitalization for the entire lengthening period.

4. I didn't feel confident in my ability to drive for the first few months, so I needed help with that.  Otherwise, I could do everything for myself as long as I had my walker.

5. No, I didn't lose any height after I finished lengthening.

6. My pain was the worst in the beginning because of all my knee complications, so lengthening for me got easier and less painful toward the end.  That's not typical though.  The consolidation phase isn't painful for anyone as far as I know.

7. I think that guy could do more than 5cm and still look fine.

That's good to hear, cause i have the same proportions as him, 5 cm will make me 183cm at my lowest so that's awesome to hear

[IwannaBeTaller]

That's good to hear, cause i have the same proportions as him, 5 cm will make me 183cm at my lowest so that's awesome to hear

If that means you are now 178 cm tall, don't do it. Your height is already perfectly fine. Go out there and enjoy your life.

[GeTs]

If that means you are now 178 cm tall, don't do it. Your height is already perfectly fine. Go out there and enjoy your life.

you've already answered it for me

[168to175]

Hi,

You said you were in Beijing for 5 months and you gained 7.5cm, did you stay in Beijing for a few months after frame removal?

Could you give a rough, brief timeline of how long you lengthened for, how long after surgery you got your frames removed, how long after frame removal until you could first walk without crutches and how long after frame removal until you could walk normally.

Thanks.

What if you had done the Ilizarov method? now everything would be fine..Right?

[IwannaBeTaller]

Medium, would you be comfortable with posting a full body shot of yours (in clothes) to see what appearance you make?

[Medium Drink Of Water]

No, I've decided I don't want to post any photos of myself online.

[Medium Drink Of Water]

I just noticed if i put my foot up while sitting relaxed in a couch or even at the computer chair,
My Tibia is unproportioned long for my femur like it's a Tibia of a 5'11-6'0 guy.
And the femur of a under average guy. Maybe im seeing to much but putting your foot up is about 5 cm so adding another 2,25 cm on that would make it obvious no?

So i think i might go for femurs instead but that might look messed up when you walk.
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Also what was the mental part of this journey for you,

I mean the day you sat down and made that appointment from home to the doctor for visitation, Too actually being on the flight and then later on at the hospital talking to the doctor saying you want to pay large amount of money to lengthen/f**k up, your legs? How was his reaction on that.

And did you feel anxiety the first 1-5 days of actuall lengthening? Like what to do, and if you should call the doctor with the smallest doubt of pain/panick.

Also lets say 3 months into lengthening what was you thinking about like you must have had the same 10 things pop into your head.

"what are the folks at home gonna think"
"is this worth it"

Stuff like that. Obviously you had a rather easy road compared to alot of the other lengtheners*.

And you was already on good ground at home but generally i want to know what it was to be you at that moment. ty-.

It all happened very quickly.  I made the decision to have LL in a February, and by June my legs were broken and I was in fixators.  Both the doctors I visited (Mitkovic and Xia) had lots of recent experience with foreign LL patients so they didn't think it was a big deal.

The first few days of actual lengthening were easy and problem-free.  Nothing went wrong so I had no cause for concern.  I was just happy to be getting LL at that point.  They didn't make me stand for a while, and that was when I got my first taste of real LL pain.  It felt like I was standing on spikes, and I guess I kind of was.  It wasn't until the end that I started getting paranoid about every little thing, like having one fixator closer to the radiator than the other and the metal expanding unevenly.

The worst time to be me was the 2nd month of my LL when my knee problems were at their worst and nobody could do anything to help me except cortisone injections, which only offered temporary relief and weren't healthy for the knees.  That's when I was thinking that I'd made a terrible mistake and considered stopping lest my knees get any worse.  However, I knew they weren't going to refund my $25,000 so that was my only chance to get LL and I kept going anyway.

3 months into lengthening my knee problems were starting to get a little better, so I was more relieved than worried by then.  I wouldn't be a cripple.  I was mostly concerned about the lousy roommate situation at the hospital at that point.  I was stuck with either Mummy or KF, and neither of them was a good match for me.  I never had doubts about whether LL was worth it or not, nor did I worry about what people would think about LL at home.  Because of my then-untreated mental illness I'd lost my last friend a few years prior to getting LL, so I knew I'd be starting over with a whole new group of people who never knew I used to be 170cm.

Thanks for the questions.  If anyone has any more, please post them and I'll be glad to answer them.  Getting specific questions helps jog my memory about my LL experience 7 years ago.  If I just started writing about it, I don't know if I'd be even half as informative as I am when I'm answering questions.

[PrettyTall]

How much did it take from you life ? a year or more  ?