Limb Lengthening Forum

Limb Lengthening Surgery => Limb Lengthening Discussions => Topic started by: mission on July 01, 2014, 08:59:47 PM

Title: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: mission on July 01, 2014, 08:59:47 PM
Hi Folks
can someone help with these questions
1) will my knee extension go back to normal once distraction ends and how long will it take.
2) Can someone tell me if blood thinning medication is required all through distraction or only first few weeks after surgery?

Thanks
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: BilateralDamage on July 01, 2014, 09:32:23 PM
1) You should have perfect knee extension throughout lengthening. Focus on doing more PT.

2) Blood thinners required throughout entire distraction.

Who are you lengthening with?
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: Medium Drink Of Water on July 01, 2014, 09:46:13 PM
1. It depends how bad it is and how hard you work.

2. What's this about blood thinners?  I never took any blood thinning medication during my LL.
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: mission on July 02, 2014, 07:59:51 PM
yes it seems some doctors say to take blood thinners until 3 weeks after distraction while some say fine to stop 3 weeks after surgery. every dr is different.

regarding my knee when i lay flat on bed if i try really hard and in pain i can almost extend fully, however if seated back against wall with bum on ground my knee is fair way off ground. enough to put my other foot under my knee without touching skin of hamstring.  sure it is nothing like what i see on leechlet...the guy is on tip toes with walker but i guess even he and guichet thinks he will eventually recover. i kind of figured if i walk 3-4km a day on crutches as i have been doing since 6 days post op it would be enough but it seems it is not enough to keep pace with distraction. after 5.5cm things became tough. it seems every mm i distract results in knee bending more and i am distracting very slowly about 0.6mm per day.

i just want to know if it will eventually be normal
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: Medium Drink Of Water on July 02, 2014, 08:12:24 PM
Try putting sand bags on your knees.  That's what we did in Beijing if we couldn't straighten our legs.
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: mission on July 02, 2014, 09:01:45 PM
thanks I purchased 10kg rice bags already but it isnt fun. i spoke to some other people who say it comes back with time on its own if walking and leading a normal life. I would prefer to make it faster though. Maybe experience for tibs is different to femurs. the people i spoke to did their femurs and had such issues but after some months of stopping distraction theyrecovered
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: mission on July 02, 2014, 11:16:46 PM
How is my bone regeneration seven weeks post op? . I'm not young by the way
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: Sweden on July 03, 2014, 12:11:02 PM
Holy crap. You have to stop lengthening for a while now.
I guess it's getting there but it shouldn't be that hollow by now. This will take a long time to build up again.

Your knees will get back to normal. It took me little over a full year to fully squat without any problems.

Don't take blood thinning. Are you that fat?

You need to exercise every day.
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: Medium Drink Of Water on July 03, 2014, 02:41:21 PM
Your bone looks okay for 7-months post-op.  I wouldn't have expected it to have filled in much by now.
Title: Re: Lengthening now and need advice
Post by: mission on July 03, 2014, 05:53:03 PM
Holy crap. You have to stop lengthening for a while now.
I guess it's getting there but it shouldn't be that hollow by now. This will take a long time to build up again.

Your knees will get back to normal. It took me little over a full year to fully squat without any problems.

Don't take blood thinning. Are you that fat?

You need to exercise every day.

I think regeneration is fine for 7 weeks post op and so would most LL doctors. I'm guessing you aren't one.  I saw enough xrays of Betz patients to know what 2-3 months post op regeneration can look like. I'm not 21 years old.  I walk on one crutch, I exercise many hours per day since the first week post op and walk on one or two crutches 2-5km per day. My body fat is 10% and I am fitter than probably 95% of the people out there. With regards to blood thinners you need to take your views up with doctors. Seems Betz has his patients use thinnners until 3 weeks post clicking and they wear stockings throughout, Jamal has them stop mid way through distraction, Dr M has them stop after few weeks. So every dr is different. I don't take them anymore and all i was taking was asprin for the last month but i figured the asprin and pain med nsaid were impacting my regeneration so I stopped all meds a few weeks ago. I take nothing now except bonehealth

As I said I am slowly distracting over a longer period of time. the first 2.5 months I got about 6 cm.probably faster than I wanted but now I sit back and distract at 1.5cm per month.Other than my knee extension issue I am fine and lead a normal life except I must admit I do zero stretching which is reflected in my knee contraction but i still walk pretty normal,have no duckass, can join my thighs together and lead a normal life.