Limb Lengthening Forum

Limb Lengthening Surgery => Limb Lengthening Discussions => Topic started by: DreamKamchatka on December 01, 2016, 10:57:51 PM

Title: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: DreamKamchatka on December 01, 2016, 10:57:51 PM
I would do external. Is internal better for sleeping? Does the insomnia come from pain or self-worrying?
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Iamready on December 01, 2016, 11:30:52 PM
I had internal.  Several factors.  Pain, discomfort, difficulty adjusting to new sleeping position and constantly waking up every 2 hours for no reason at all but to remind you of how tight and painful your limbs feel.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: talldarkandhandsome on December 02, 2016, 04:45:25 AM
Can this be managed with pain killers ?
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Iamready on December 02, 2016, 06:11:54 AM
They will help you sleep but in my experience I always woke up two hours after taking them.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: talldarkandhandsome on December 02, 2016, 02:31:01 PM
Yeah but pain killers should alleviate the pain completely no? I'm a not very tolerant to pain so this is something I'm afraid of.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Iamready on December 02, 2016, 03:38:28 PM
In my experience they are better than nothing but not as good as you would think. They do make you tired though.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: KrP1 on December 02, 2016, 03:44:29 PM
In the recovery you could sleep ok. The problem is during lengthening. The problem is that you doesnt move your muscles for hours so them get very tense
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: talldarkandhandsome on December 02, 2016, 06:38:15 PM
Where did you get your LL done?

 What type of pain meds were you on?

Are you sure you were taking enough ?
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Penguinn on December 02, 2016, 07:02:02 PM
I'm sleeping great without pain meds(6-8hrs) but I haven't seen this written by anyone else. Sometimes I'll wake up for a few seconds, change my sleeping position and go back to sleep. The sleep isn't as deep as before but not exactly light either.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: talldarkandhandsome on December 02, 2016, 10:36:22 PM
I'm sleeping great without pain meds(6-8hrs) but I haven't seen this written by anyone else. Sometimes I'll wake up for a few seconds, change my sleeping position and go back to sleep. The sleep isn't as deep as before but not exactly light either.
.

Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: programdude on December 04, 2016, 01:57:13 AM
Its hard to explain, You really have to experience it to understand. Its just these aches that wear on you.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: EndGame on December 04, 2016, 05:26:52 PM
The pain was a huge issue for my sleep. Sleep aids were useless when the pain was above level 3. Pain meds I found both helped reduce pain and induce sleep. But the pain would return and woke me often. Additionally, I've always been a side sleeper and having to sleep on my back as they said to for internal femurs was nearly impossible even without pain. Hopefully you sleep on your back normally or are doing tibias. If not I suggest getting used to it ahead time.  Strangely enough I found warm heat packs or even a nice warm shower would help me fall asleep. Staying asleep more than an hour or two was generally difficult during lengthening. Sadly most people find weed doesn't help you sleep while lengthening the way it normally does. You get more aware of your aches and pains, almost like it amplifies them sadly. Stretching when I could not sleep both helped me to knock out one of my daily stretching sessions in the middle of the night and helped alleviate pain and stiffness which often helped me sleep some more.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: talldarkandhandsome on December 04, 2016, 08:48:48 PM
The pain was a huge issue for my sleep. Sleep aids were useless when the pain was above level 3. Pain meds I found both helped reduce pain and induce sleep. But the pain would return and woke me often. Additionally, I've always been a side sleeper and having to sleep on my back as they said to for internal femurs was nearly impossible even without pain. Hopefully you sleep on your back normally or are doing tibias. If not I suggest getting used to it ahead time.  Strangely enough I found warm heat packs or even a nice warm shower would help me fall asleep. Staying asleep more than an hour or two was generally difficult during lengthening. Sadly most people find weed doesn't help you sleep while lengthening the way it normally does. You get more aware of your aches and pains, almost like it amplifies them sadly. Stretching when I could not sleep both helped me to knock out one of my daily stretching sessions in the middle of the night and helped alleviate pain and stiffness which often helped me sleep some more.



Good thing I sleep on my back mostly, and I will definitely give the hot showers a try.

Which phase is the most painful would you say?

I hope I get prescribed some good pain killers from my doc ... I could see how sleeping pillls wouldn't do much but as far as pain goes you should be able to manage with high enough doses of good pain meds. I hope 😬
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: EndGame on December 05, 2016, 01:18:14 AM


Good thing I sleep on my back mostly, and I will definitely give the hot showers a try.

Which phase is the most painful would you say?

I hope I get prescribed some good pain killers from my doc ... I could see how sleeping pillls wouldn't do much but as far as pain goes you should be able to manage with high enough doses of good pain meds. I hope 😬

After I was discharged from the hospital and dropped down to only Tylenol 3 and the next 3 weeks while legs recovering from trauma of initial surgery was most painful in general.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Auron on December 05, 2016, 10:59:51 AM
In my case what bothers me is the discomfort and not so much the pain.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: talldarkandhandsome on December 05, 2016, 04:35:41 PM
Tylenol 3 is a very weak pain killer. I was prescribed it for a root canal once.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Bigpoppapump on December 18, 2016, 10:11:21 PM
Pain isn't the issue it's more discomfort or it was for me

Sleep basically forget about it especially if doing external fixators! Getting comfortable side ways with external foxators is a fkn nightmare! If you lie at a bad angle you will wake up with sore knee and hip joints. You cannot lie face down at all.

IMO if you cannot sleep on your back do not do external fixators unless you want a minimum of 3-6 months of insomnia. And I swear these things hurt ten times worse the moment you head to bed
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: notimportant on December 18, 2016, 11:32:44 PM
Is it really that bad?
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Bigpoppapump on December 19, 2016, 12:46:59 AM
Is it really that bad?

Ive still got my frames on and I dread night time. Yes its unpleasant, Ive had some unpleasant things in my life and this tops it. If you like sleep don't don't do external fixators. If you lead an active lifestyle and get bored easily don't do this either. And do not do this if you are muscular or have thick strong tendons!
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: onemorefoot on December 19, 2016, 02:05:58 AM
Oh god, I am not that Brave. Is there any kind of fixators that cannot be that uncomfortable.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Bigpoppapump on December 19, 2016, 02:37:36 AM
From what Ive read none they are all somewhat uncomfortable and inhibit a lot of things. I dare say some people are not bothered by them as much but people who are light sleepers should really think twice about them. Internal methods I'm sure allow you to sleep a lot easier and wash yourself properly as well however the internals from what Ive read on here can cause a lot of joint pain. I'm honestly dreaming of the day these things can come off walking in them is painful you will only get to a certain level of comfort with them on to get back to regular comfort levels they will need to come off. You can only walk so good in them as well trying to walk normal really starts causing muscle tethering round the pin sites.

I'm a bad sleeper as it is, so bad in fact that I woke up pretty much straight after the initial surgery they then used an entire syringe on me again and I slept for 1 hour
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: onemorefoot on December 19, 2016, 04:33:39 AM
What about LON???Time in frames is short.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: Bigpoppapump on December 19, 2016, 04:42:20 AM
That's likely easier comfort wise yeah but I think a lot of folk avoid rods due to knee pain problems that can potentially occur
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: onemorefoot on December 19, 2016, 05:03:49 AM
I read that with LON, frames are less compñocated
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: myloginacct on February 03, 2018, 03:15:45 PM
This seems to be the main annoyance in CLL (next to using the bathroom and showering), if everything else goes well and the painkillers are working.
Title: Re: Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?
Post by: myloginacct on April 17, 2018, 02:48:03 PM
I'm sleeping great without pain meds(6-8hrs) but I haven't seen this written by anyone else. Sometimes I'll wake up for a few seconds, change my sleeping position and go back to sleep. The sleep isn't as deep as before but not exactly light either.

Why do you think it was like that for you, Penguinn?
Title: Can't sleep because of pain
Post by: OverrideYourGenetics on April 27, 2018, 09:13:53 AM
It's 5am and I've been tossing and turning for several hours, unable to sleep. I'm an internals quadrilateral patient 6 weeks after tibias, 3 after femurs. The reason I can't sleep well is because like most other humans (https://sleepbetter.org/ask-the-asa-changing-sleep-positions/),

We probably shift positions during the night in order to prevent pressure sores, because they can develop after just a few hours of constant contact.

The problem is that due to the screws that fixate the femur nails, I feel pain as soon as I try to roll over to any side. Thus, I can only sleep on my back. Whenever my body tries to roll over, the pain from the hip screws wakes me up.

I really hope this will go away with time, but it's not connected to lengthening or consolidation, so I have no idea of the timeframe. With only 1-2 hours of sleep per night, I've been pretty screwed - tired, apathetic, and borderline wanting to quit lengthening.

The pain was a huge issue for my sleep. Sleep aids were useless when the pain was above level 3. Pain meds I found both helped reduce pain and induce sleep. But the pain would return and woke me often. Additionally, I've always been a side sleeper and having to sleep on my back as they said to for internal femurs was nearly impossible even without pain. Staying asleep more than an hour or two was generally difficult during lengthening. Sadly most people find weed doesn't help you sleep while lengthening the way it normally does. You get more aware of your aches and pains, almost like it amplifies them sadly. Stretching when I could not sleep both helped me to knock out one of my daily stretching sessions in the middle of the night and helped alleviate pain and stiffness which often helped me sleep some more.

Can confirm all of the above.

In addition, keeping my knees straight has been a challenge, so I often flip between straight knees and bent knees every minute or so while awake. Stretching my calves and hamstrings in the middle of the night while I can't sleep, helps keep the knees straight.
Title: Re: Can't sleep because of pain
Post by: Jim_dabarber on April 27, 2018, 01:24:04 PM
It's 5am and I've been tossing and turning for several hours, unable to sleep. I'm an internals quadrilateral patient 6 weeks after tibias, 3 after femurs. The reason I can't sleep well is because like most other humans (https://sleepbetter.org/ask-the-asa-changing-sleep-positions/),

We probably shift positions during the night in order to prevent pressure sores, because they can develop after just a few hours of constant contact.

The problem is that due to the screws that fixate the femur nails, I feel pain as soon as I try to roll over to any side. Thus, I can only sleep on my back. Whenever my body tries to roll over, the pain from the hip screws wakes me up.

I really hope this will go away with time, but it's not connected to lengthening or consolidation, so I have no idea of the timeframe. With only 1-2 hours of sleep per night, I've been pretty screwed - tired, apathetic, and borderline wanting to quit lengthening.

Can confirm all of the above.

In addition, keeping my knees straight has been a challenge, so I often flip between straight knees and bent knees every minute or so while awake. Stretching my calves and hamstrings in the middle of the night while I can't sleep, helps keep the knees straight.

Weed would actually help me sleep. The first time i tried i realized i was using sativa blend and that actually kept me up and instensified the pain. I hated that night. I did more research and realized i was supposed to use indica strands for pain and relaxation and that would knock me out in about 20 minutes. I would normally get around 4 hours of constant sleep. Probably more but the way my clicking schedule was i would click at 12am and then at 4am so i was having to click 6 times per day on my femur to avoid pre-consolidation. Im sure i couldve slept more if it wasnt for this reason.