Topic: Koehne Diary 21/22 | Unilateral Tibia + Femur (Read 18329 times)

Limbfan2020 · « **Reply #31 on:** October 28, 2021, 04:00:16 PM »

Quote from: Siegfried on October 28, 2021, 09:39:12 AM

The only meds I'm taking atm is novamin 3x a day.

No blood thinners or anticoagulants like xarelto?

Siegfried · « **Reply #32 on:** October 28, 2021, 04:47:51 PM »

Quote from: Limbfan2020 on October 28, 2021, 04:00:16 PM

No blood thinners or anticoagulants like xarelto?

i take a thrombosis syringe once daily

indication · « **Reply #33 on:** October 28, 2021, 05:45:21 PM »

Is it more powerful than xarelto or aspirin?

6CMFemurs · « **Reply #34 on:** October 29, 2021, 04:15:22 PM »

Hi Siegfried,

Nice to hear your update. Glad you are able to work from home and pain is manageable! Have you been able to leave the house and see friends/run errands on crutches? Or have you been taking it easy on that?

Siegfried · « **Reply #35 on:** October 30, 2021, 10:03:03 AM »

Quote from: indication on October 28, 2021, 05:45:21 PM

Is it more powerful than xarelto or aspirin?

No idea

Quote from: 6CMFemurs on October 29, 2021, 04:15:22 PM

Hi Siegfried,

Nice to hear your update. Glad you are able to work from home and pain is manageable! Have you been able to leave the house and see friends/run errands on crutches? Or have you been taking it easy on that?

Not really, I’m still on crutches after all. So naturally your life is very restricted. Another reason I don’t want to go out as much, is the fact that I’m generally paranoid of bending the nails. I try to limit my self to my apartment for the next few months and focus on ll and work. My social life is pretty much off the table. Afterall this is not stryde, where movie went partying during distraction.

Siegfried · « **Reply #36 on:** November 02, 2021, 06:26:22 PM »

18 Days Post-OP

0.9 mm lengthened in my left tibia All good so far, just had my second check-up appointment. The doctor seemed happy with how things are going so far.

I will have my left femur surgery in 3 days. I didnt really plan on having two different appointments for both segments. However, it is what is, and I am glad to go get it over with. This procedure involves a lot of patience and provides some valuable life lessons along the way, such as having to take some things step by step and remaining an optimistic perspective on things. It's all manageable in the end, it's just how you're mindset is tuned into it and how you approach it which really makes the difference.

Ive experienced a lot of setbacks regarding the planning and executing of this surgery in the last 2 years, which I have not gone into detail about yet. I plan on making a designated post about it one of these days. Nonetheless, I am very relieved and happy to finally make my dream come to reality.

Thehighest · « **Reply #37 on:** November 02, 2021, 06:47:00 PM »

is the cost 600000 euro per two segments?

Siegfried · « **Reply #38 on:** November 02, 2021, 10:08:46 PM »

Im not discussing prices here sorry

6CMFemurs · « **Reply #39 on:** November 02, 2021, 11:45:14 PM »

Glad to here everything going smoothly. What do you spend most of your days doing? How is it climbing stairs with crutches?

As someone about to do unilateral tibia, I am curious what the one legged life is like in the first few weeks post op!

Siegfried · « **Reply #40 on:** November 03, 2021, 09:35:33 AM »

Quote from: 6CMFemurs on November 02, 2021, 11:45:14 PM

Glad to here everything going smoothly. What do you spend most of your days doing? How is it climbing stairs with crutches?

As someone about to do unilateral tibia, I am curious what the one legged life is like in the first few weeks post op!

Hey man, good luck to you! When is your surgery? After reading numerous diaries over the past few years, I thought it was gonna be worse, especially pain-wise. I pretty much spend most of my time in bed or on my sofa working on my laptop, since I have my own online business. Apart from that I do the usual bedridden activitys, netflix youtube etc.

Stairs are probably the biggest challenge in everyday life, especially over several floors. But youll get the hang of it. In physiotherapie you learn how to leverage your healthy leg to advance yourself up and down the stairs. I recommend always putting one hand on the handrail, while gripping your second crutch with the other hand, in order to have extra security.

Kind of like this guy in this video:

With regard to mobility, unilateral is 100x better than bilateral precise, since you're not restricted to a wheelchair and can use crutches from Day 1.

indication · « **Reply #41 on:** November 03, 2021, 06:05:07 PM »

Quote from: 6CMFemurs on November 02, 2021, 11:45:14 PM

Glad to here everything going smoothly. What do you spend most of your days doing? How is it climbing stairs with crutches?

As someone about to do unilateral tibia, I am curious what the one legged life is like in the first few weeks post op!

Hopefully 6CMFemurs can give us a true comparison of bilateral and unilateral experience since he would have done both!

Siegfried · « **Reply #42 on:** November 06, 2021, 09:20:23 AM »

Day 22: Femur surgery day

After completing my left tibia surgery three weeks ago, I have finally had my left femur surgery yesterday. The surgery went well and the pain is also fine. Due to good pain-painamgent (2x
Oxy / 3x novalgin daily for the first few days) the pain is very manageable. Obviously I will be bedridden for the the first few days, but when the surgery pain subsides after the first week, I should be able to walk normally on crutches again.

Siegfried · « **Reply #43 on:** November 07, 2021, 10:22:31 AM »

My two cents for what it’s worth: femur surgery pain is at least 2x worse than tibia. Tibia was a breeze in comparison.

6CMFemurs · « **Reply #44 on:** November 08, 2021, 04:52:28 PM »

Stay strong man! In a couple weeks the incision site pain goes away for femurs. Around the 3 week mark I felt way way better.

Btw, how far do you have to travel between your home and the surgeon. Do you drive yourself or do you take a train/plane for follow-up appointments?

Siegfried · « **Reply #45 on:** November 11, 2021, 01:24:16 PM »

Day 30 of my ll journey

Thanks man, appreciate it. It's been a rough 4 weeks, to say the least. My tibia pain has been fading out slowly, however my femur pain is still pretty heavy. I've been taking tilidin 2x daily and novalgin 3x daily to medicate it. I hope to get off the Tilidin in 7-10 days time.

I will try to go to physio as soon as my femur pain allows it. At the moment I just try to stretch my lower leg a few times a day, to prevent a drop foot from developing.

Im currently lengthening about 1.7mm daily - 1mm in the femur and 0.7 in the tibia. Ive lengthened about 1.6cm so far.

Quote from: 6CMFemurs on November 08, 2021, 04:52:28 PM

Btw, how far do you have to travel between your home and the surgeon. Do you drive yourself or do you take a train/plane for follow-up appointments?

I take the train each time. It takes me about 5 hours to get there.

Siegfried · « **Reply #46 on:** November 14, 2021, 04:22:17 PM »

Day 33

Pain in femur is slowly fading. Now i can finally get back on track with my physio excercises. Belows a video of 9 days femur post op and about 1 month tibia post op

https://imgur.com/a/0kiGQLo

6CMFemurs · « **Reply #47 on:** November 16, 2021, 06:37:20 PM »

Wow it’s crazy how big a one inch discrepancy looks! Glad you are feeling better. Are you still able to be pretty mobile on crutches?

Siegfried · « **Reply #48 on:** November 17, 2021, 08:45:56 AM »

Yeah the discrepancy seems bigger than it actually is, maybe its the angle. Its not too bad in real life.

karin123 · « **Reply #49 on:** November 19, 2021, 12:43:06 PM »

I remember there were more diaries about Doctor Koehne, seems now you are the only one on the forum...

Siegfried · « **Reply #50 on:** November 19, 2021, 10:06:13 PM »

Precise 2 was off the market since February in Europe that may be why. Apart from that 90% of his surgeries are leg length discreptancy or other medical cases. He is a great guy and I can only warmly recommend him. His prices are very fair as well.

Short update: week 5

- Tibia:2cm
- Femur:1cm

It’s been getting a lot tighter recently, but still not too bad. I have started going to physio therapy.

Last week, Since Covid cases have been getting a lot worse in Germany recently, bavaria, the state where dr.koene is located, has decided to postpone all non-emergency surgeries for an unknown period of time.

In other words, I got very lucky that my femur surgery was not cancelled, otherwise it would have been a big mess and I may have needed to wait 2-3 months to get it.

LegendKiller · « **Reply #51 on:** November 20, 2021, 06:41:30 AM »

Peter Thaller is a good doc, I actually contacted him when I had my ITB-issues and he was very professional and friendly. He told me that he doesn't like cosmetic LL cases that much and that many doctors are just there to make quick money with the patients... I asked him if he would do my Tibias maybe sometime in the future and he said yes it's possible but you have to be really careful and only lengthen a conservative amount especially on tibia otherwise you can be crippled for life. If I were to do Tibias someday I would Def. Go to him because he seems to really care about his patients, a lot of other German doctors don't and that I know for a fact.

Siegfried · « **Reply #52 on:** November 20, 2021, 07:18:43 PM »

Quote from: LegendKiller on November 20, 2021, 06:41:30 AM

Peter Thaller is a good doc, I actually contacted him when I had my ITB-issues and he was very professional and friendly. He told me that he doesn't like cosmetic LL cases that much and that many doctors are just there to make quick money with the patients... I asked him if he would do my Tibias maybe sometime in the future and he said yes it's possible but you have to be really careful and only lengthen a conservative amount especially on tibia otherwise you can be crippled for life. If I were to do Tibias someday I would Def. Go to him because he seems to really care about his patients, a lot of other German doctors don't and that I know for a fact.

I also had a consultation with Peter Thaller and he seemed like a genuinely good guy. As a matter of fact we actually had an oral agreement that he would do my quadrilateral surgery, back when stryde was still available. However he was not very professional after this and let me wait 2 months to receive a price. I then went to koene instead, since I did not have the feeling he was taking me serious.

I agree that Tibias should be done conservatively. I am only doing 3,5cm since I love sports and would not be willing to give up my athleticism for 2-3cm more.

How much are you planning on doing on your tibias?

Thehighest · « **Reply #53 on:** November 21, 2021, 07:31:14 AM »

You did 9 cm but how much in tibia and how much in femur?

Siegfried · « **Reply #54 on:** November 21, 2021, 09:17:13 AM »

My plan is 3,5 in tibias and 5,5 in femur.

Limbfan2020 · « **Reply #55 on:** November 21, 2021, 01:38:08 PM »

@Siegfried

How is your mobility? Can you walk around with crutches or do you spend most of the time in bed? Have you ever used a wheelchair?

Siegfried · « **Reply #56 on:** November 21, 2021, 05:16:49 PM »

My mobility on crutches is good. However, i do spend most of my time in bed or on the sofa, since I work from home and sitting is not recommended.

A wheelchair was never necessary.

The last few nights ive been struggling with restless-leg-syndrom, on my left operated leg. This has definetly made falling asleep and sleeping through much harder.

Thehighest · « **Reply #57 on:** December 01, 2021, 05:20:45 PM »

How Will You deal with 9 cm discrepancy? With special shoes or something like that?

Siegfried · « **Reply #58 on:** December 02, 2021, 12:07:46 PM »

Yeah im currently at 5cm discrepancy right now and I will be getting my orthopedic shoes next week. Hopefully my bone consolidates fast enough, so that I can get the leg done in 2-3 months time.

Masteryourlife · « **Reply #59 on:** December 04, 2021, 04:50:37 AM »

Hey , glad you are doing good !

Can you post any pic of your x-rays ?

6CMFemurs · « **Reply #60 on:** December 12, 2021, 01:22:15 AM »

Hi Siegfried,

How are things going? How is your pain/ mobility at this point? Are you able to do more tasks now?

Siegfried · « **Reply #61 on:** December 12, 2021, 11:41:01 AM »

Day 60

Hey guys, all good here!

Quick update:

left tibia: 3.5cm - full lengthening completed.
left femur: 2.8cm - target length: 5.8cm

Pain levels: 0 - I know it's curious to hear, but I actually haven't had any pain since about 10 days. I also completely stopped taking any pain meds. Perhaps the pain level will rise once, the femur length increases. However, I'm super fine as of now. Sleep is quite normal as well.

Mobility: Well, im still on crutches and that will stay the case the following months, since
a) im doing precise 2
b) im doing one leg at a time

I really wish I had stryde, since im pretty sure I would be able to lead a normal life by now.

Limb Lengthening Forum

Author Topic: Koehne Diary 21/22 | Unilateral Tibia + Femur (Read 18329 times)