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[E Z]

Awesome diary. Any updates?

[Michael01]

How are you doing, SLM?

[Michael01]

SLM, can you do your physical therapy in HSS if you want? Do they have AlterG or indoor pool?

[CodyTheDog]

Never had to, which is odd since Paley has his patients wear them. 

Day 80 - I finished my lengthening last night at 5.3cm.  I could have gone on but decided to stop here as I didn't want to do too much in tibia and my tibia/femur ratio is now at a good 80%.  I am obviously pretty tight but fortunately did not develop ballerina foot. I credit this to STRYDE and the ability to weight bear allowing me to stand/walk which helps against it.  My dorisflexion is 10 degrees on my left foot and 5 on my right.  I do have a little knee contracture, hopefully with continued PT I will be able to regain full knee extension soon. 

There is no pain while sitting/laying or just standing but there is while I'm walking, probably due to overuse of legs when they have not consolidated yet.  My walk is not normal as due to that pain, I try to minimize the ROM so my legs don't get lifted off the ground as much as a normal gait.  Anyway I'm walking around with a cane now outside the house, which helps me walk faster than w/o it as it provides balance. 

Hopefully it won't take too long to consolidate, I know tibia healing is slow but should be quicker with STRYDE .  Nothing much between now and the next 4 weeks when I'll get my latest xrays done. I'll post a copy of them when I do.

Thanks, Short Lives Matter!

1. Alot of people are worried about knee pain by going internal tibias. What are your thoughts on this and what did Dr. R say about this?

2. The few weeks, do you need a caretaker to help you go to the bathroom? I'm really worried about someday doing this surgery and slipping / falling when going to the bathroom. I'm considering trying to find a place with holding bars by the toilet to help or maybe sticking to using wipes to clean myself.

3. What is your advice for reducing the risk of injury when going to the bathroom after the caretaker is gone?

For other things I was thinking maybe having a microwave at a height I can reach when standing or sitting at a chair something. Not sure.

[MyEvolution]

Never had to, which is odd since Paley has his patients wear them. 

Day 80 - I finished my lengthening last night at 5.3cm.  I could have gone on but decided to stop here as I didn't want to do too much in tibia and my tibia/femur ratio is now at a good 80%.  I am obviously pretty tight but fortunately did not develop ballerina foot. I credit this to STRYDE and the ability to weight bear allowing me to stand/walk which helps against it.  My dorisflexion is 10 degrees on my left foot and 5 on my right.  I do have a little knee contracture, hopefully with continued PT I will be able to regain full knee extension soon. 

There is no pain while sitting/laying or just standing but there is while I'm walking, probably due to overuse of legs when they have not consolidated yet.  My walk is not normal as due to that pain, I try to minimize the ROM so my legs don't get lifted off the ground as much as a normal gait.  Anyway I'm walking around with a cane now outside the house, which helps me walk faster than w/o it as it provides balance. 

Hopefully it won't take too long to consolidate, I know tibia healing is slow but should be quicker with STRYDE .  Nothing much between now and the next 4 weeks when I'll get my latest xrays done. I'll post a copy of them when I do.

Wow so you managed to hit +5cm whilst not wearing the splints?! That’s really good! Im trying to figure out how important wearing the splints are since im doing tibias rn, almost at week 4. What do u think

[ShortLivesMatter]

Hey all, it's been awhile since my last update. It's a little over 7 months post op now. Life is truly getting back to normal now, almost. My walk is fine, no hip sway, no duck ass, just a tiny bit slower than normal, I can pick up the pace but it takes a little effort.  But it's good enough that nobody notices anything.

Going up the stairs is no problem but I still need to hold onto the railing when going down and even then it is slow and does not look natural. This is due to reduced ankle dorsiflexion from the tibia lengthening.  The ankles are still tight, it's improving but very slowly.

After 2 LLs I am at 5'6 now, still below average but it's not a big deal to me anymore. I am content. Whenever out in public I am no longer conscious about my height, I am finally at peace and that is the greatest thing you can achieve with this surgery. 

@MyEvolution my total tibia lengthening is probably a little over 6cm as I actually lengthened 5.6cm and there's about an additional .5cm that I gained from my bowed legs being straightened during the LL surgery. I was not required to wear splints probably due to Dr. R doing a fascia release to allow me to be more loose. It's similar to an IT band release for femur.  I never showed any symptoms of drop foot. I think you probably have to tough it out and wear them if you are aiming for a lot of tibia lengthening.

@CodyTheDog yeah I had knee pain post surgery and during lengthening when getting up or bending but it's completely gone now. However it still hurts when I kneel on both knees but it's getting better. I think this too will be gone someday.  I never needed a caretaker to go to the bathroom even right after the surgery as I used the walker which really helps in allowing you to get on/off the toilet.  Just have the walker infront of the toilet so you can grab it and push off to get up or sit down, you will be fine.

@Michael01 I never did PT with HSS as I did not live in the area so can't answer your question.

[ShortLivesMatter]

One more thing, the height difference is indeed enormous. Pretty much everyone has noticed the 5inch change, there is no denying or hiding it.  My legs look really long compared to my torso. My arms now look a little bit short. I don't think it's really noticeable unless it is pointed out. 

[Michael01]

It's good to see you are getting better. Please, don't forget to update us when you have full consolidation and when you take the 4 nails out. And about any improvement you may feel.

[Heightmare]

One more thing, the height difference is indeed enormous. Pretty much everyone has noticed the 5inch change, there is no denying or hiding it.  My legs look really long compared to my torso. My arms now look a little bit short. I don't think it's really noticeable unless it is pointed out.

So how has your life improved on a social level since you used to be 5' 1"?
I'm 5' 5" and I do get disrespect by people from time to time.

[ShortLivesMatter]

So how has your life improved on a social level since you used to be 5' 1"?
I'm 5' 5" and I do get disrespect by people from time to time.

Obviously our two cases are different. I think if my original height was 5'5/5'6 I would not be as satisfied with it as I am now after going from 5'1. Even if I wanted more now, there's really nothing else I can do now and even if I could my proportions would really start to get out of whack.  My social life hasn't really changed all that much, I am still the same old me with the same personality.  I do however have received alot of compliments from women about my looks since, which I'm sure the LLs have helped in part. Thankfully I didn't get totally shafted and am decent facially.  I am Asian and most of my friends are Asian so I am now about their height or just a few inches shorter so there is no disrespect there.  The Asian girls are obviously shorter and 5'6 is fine to most of them. 

[Heightmare]

Obviously our two cases are different. I think if my original height was 5'5/5'6 I would not be as satisfied with it as I am now after going from 5'1. Even if I wanted more now, there's really nothing else I can do now and even if I could my proportions would really start to get out of whack.  My social life hasn't really changed all that much, I am still the same old me with the same personality.  I do however have received alot of compliments from women about my looks since, which I'm sure the LLs have helped in part. Thankfully I didn't get totally shafted and am decent facially.  I am Asian and most of my friends are Asian so I am now about their height or just a few inches shorter so there is no disrespect there.  The Asian girls are obviously shorter and 5'6 is fine to most of them.

That's fantastic to hear, it definitely sounds like a great outcome. I'm white so I need to gain about three to four inches to not have my height affect me.
See people?
Being average height isn't so bad.

[CodyTheDog]

I wonder if there are things someone can do to make their arms seem a bit longer (long sleeves/ gloves that are the same color as the sleeves). On the other hand, I wonder if the opposite can be applied to footwear/pants (wearing shoes and shirts that are different color than the pants)

Though in the summer all of this glove/long sleeve stuff would go out the window though.

Eh, nvm should be fine, people won't notice short arms unless they are specifically looking for it I think.

[MyEvolution]

1. I was a very short and small boned guy, very skinny, in my early 30s now.

2. I did femurs in 2017 with Precise as Stryde was not available yet. We used the smallest Precise 8.5mm nail as that one fit better than the next size which was 10.5mm. My femurs could have probably handle the 10.5 nail but that would have required reaming so going with the 8.5 nail was the safer choice. 

3. Yes with precise I could not weight bear until after 4 months so my leg muscles were all deteriorated and weak. With Stryde I started walking unassisted after 3 weeks so my muscles are recovering alot better this time. 

4. There was no knee pain with the femurs as the knee was untouched.  There was knee pain with the tibia after the surgery but it's been getting better and better, almost no pain now but I havn't dare try to stand on my knees, I'm sure that would hurt like hell since my surgery was only recently and I'm still healing. 

5. Sorry I do not know much about external tibia.  I only chose to do internal tibia because of Stryde which allows for comfort and fast recovery.  Even with Stryde you will still get scars.

Day 53 update - at 3.6cm now. I had a checkup this week. My ROM is still ok, dorsiflexion is getting tight at only 10 degrees.  I was instructed to slow down distraction rate to 3 times a day for .6mm total. This is due to my bone growth being a little slow which I was not surprised since I had the same issue when doing femurs.  I will probably stop at 5cm so 3 more weeks of lengthening, that's a good enough length for me for tibia.

If you have questions about insurance please send me a PM and I'll be glad to answer them.

Wow i must say thats amazing
Im at 2.5Cm tibias rn and my left leg is JUST failing 90 degrees and my right leg is maybe like 3 degrees eventho i am litterally no exagguration stretching 10+ times / day for an average of 13 minutes each time. My PT guy has my stretching every hour idk why i am soooo tight :/

[ShortLivesMatter]

Wow i must say thats amazing
Im at 2.5Cm tibias rn and my left leg is JUST failing 90 degrees and my right leg is maybe like 3 degrees eventho i am litterally no exagguration stretching 10+ times / day for an average of 13 minutes each time. My PT guy has my stretching every hour idk why i am soooo tight :/

Hey bro, sorry to hear you are having a tough time with your dorsiflexion. There were 2 things that worked in my favor. One, I am Asian and we naturally have great dorsiflexion due to us swatting all the time. Also my Dr. did a gastrocnemius fascia release to help keep my ankles loose and lessen equinus. It's a minor surgery, ask Paley and get his thoughts on it.

I also bought this incline block to stretch my calves: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C3GMFN5/

[Kenda]

Hey bro, sorry to hear you are having a tough time with your dorsiflexion. There were 2 things that worked in my favor. One, I am Asian and we naturally have great dorsiflexion due to us swatting all the time. Also my Dr. did a gastrocnemius fascia release to help keep my ankles loose and lessen equinus. It's a minor surgery, ask Paley and get his thoughts on it.

I also bought this incline block to stretch my calves: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C3GMFN5/

does paley tell you to do PT at home? or he says you must go to a pt clinic?

[jonejones77]

How about now? Does your leg work normally? Is your calves thicker than before the surgery?

[ShortLivesMatter]

Sup my fellow LLers. Havn't checked up on these forums in quite awhile but just wanted to give a small update. I finally got my stryde nails removed last week after 2 years. Wanted to do that sooner but covid happened so it got delayed.  Really glad I finally got it done as I did have a little bone growth at the middle of the knee from the stryde nail corrosion issue that caused the recall.  It didn't cause any issues most of the time but once in awhile that part of the knee would flare up and be tender and just super painful.  It would be constant pain and would go away after a week or so but I just couldn't do much besides walking whenever that happened.  This growth and pain occurred about a year after lengthening.  So yeah definitely get that Stryde nail out after a year. 

Anyway about the removal itself, it was harder than the femur nail removal as my knee had to be cut open again to pull the nail out. Afterwards I was bed ridden for 3 days before I could really walk around whereas with the femur removal I was up and about after a day. This is because the cut knee is still healing and whenever you move/bend it, it would stretch/tear at the incision site. You didn't have that problem with femur removal at the thigh.  But the lingering tightness at the ankle is now completely gone after the removal. Calves are definitely thicker.  I just hope that the random pain at the bone growth site will never return again which dr. R said shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Let me know if you got any questions. Life is good, it cured my height neurosis and I am finally at peace which is worth all the money, time and pain that I endured.  I am very fortunate that I was able to afford two procedures.  This is worth it 100%,  the cost might seem expensive but if you really want it, you will find a way.

[ask.me]

Thanks for the update @shortlivesmatter.

It's been a while since your last update. Are you still experiencing any pain (1-10)?

[Masteryourlife]

Since it's your 2nd surgery you diary is less detailed but I can feel your satisfaction in achieving this !
Thank you so much for sharing your experience;it is so beautifull to hear that after all you went trough (before and after the surgeries) ,this was all worth it for you .