Limb Lengthening Forum
Limb Lengthening Surgery => Limb Lengthening Patients Experiences => Topic started by: racecarworm on March 30, 2021, 04:08:58 AM
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*DISCLAIMER* Please don’t even comment if youre just gonna say I’m fake, I will provide x-rays as soon as I get them.
About me: I believe I’m going to be the youngest CLL patient on this forum. I’m 17 years old, 167cm / 5 foot 6 inches. I know this diary probably seems suspicious / fake due to my lack of history on this forum but that is only because of the amount of trolls on here, just seems like an annoying thing to deal with. I’m from Orange County, 50 minutes away from Dr. Mahboubian’s office and the hospital that I’m staying at. I chose to do precice 2.2 and paid an additional $5000 for an expedited fee, as I wish to return to school next year. I’ve started my diary at 9pm, March 30, the night before my surgery scheduled early in the morning. Currently typing in the car lol
Stats: 4.8 weighted GPA (lol)
Junior in Highschool
92cm sitting height
173cm wingspan
Bench 1RM- 210lbs paused
Squat - I have no idea but I do 4x12 high-bar with 135lbs, ass to grass. Hope I can still squat deep post op.
DL - 265 (Never tried heavier)
130 lbs
I have been athletic most of my life, made varsity for wrestling my freshmen year, along with academy level soccer since middle school. As for my flexibility, I can touch all my 4 fingers and a bit of my palm to the floor without bending my knees, could touch my palm and bend a little if I warm up.
I chose Dr. Mahboubian due to the amount of vouches on this forum and his location (N Hollywood) which is not a far drive from me. I’ve had multiple consultations with Dr. Mahboubian and he seemed like the most reliable choice, guy has this sort of confidence about him that makes me feel at ease.
Honestly, every minute I’m either disturbingly calm or ting my pants. The past couple days I’ve been non-stop rereading diaries, specifically SNC, Movie and Penguin. I still have my pre-surgery shower to do, as I’m driving up to a hotel near the hospital to stay the night before. Please leave any tips for a precice patient, or any questions you have :) Hope the LL forum distracts me and serves as a source of assistance.
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Hope the LL forum distracts me
Sorry bubba nobodys comin' over to your house and holdin' that ERC on your legs and distracting you. you gotta do that all by urself.
anyhow good luck on the journey. 17 is a good age to do this
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Sorry bubba nobodys comin' over to your house and holdin' that ERC on your legs and distracting you. you gotta do that all by urself.
anyhow good luck on the journey. 17 is a good age to do this
Thanks my man :) Figured the earlier I could do this the better, allows me to enjoy life properly sooner.
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Currently 11pm, cant say im not anxious but im off to bed. Will update after surgery tmr.
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Hi racecar,
First of all I am assuming your parents payed for it but feel free to correct if I am wrong, this is just an assumption.
This is for sure interesting, I wish my parents could've helped me pay at that age for this surgery so the highschool trauma could've been lessened. I am interested in how did you find out about this surgery and how'd you get/convince your parents to let you do it? I assume height neurosis was extremely severe
I wish you the best and good luck
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Hi racecar,
First of all I am assuming your parents payed for it but feel free to correct if I am wrong, this is just an assumption.
This is for sure interesting, I wish my parents could've helped me pay at that age for this surgery so the highschool trauma could've been lessened. I am interested in how did you find out about this surgery and how'd you get/convince your parents to let you do it? I assume height neurosis was extremely severe
I wish you the best and good luck
I don’t think it was extremely severe, but rather one of the things holding back. I wish to enjoy life to it’s fullest, but with height as one of my biggest insecurities I cannot. I think that it’s more of like the wish to not be seen as short, rather than a desire to be tall (I wouldn’t be considered tall after 3 inches anyways). And yes, my father is paying for it, he said he even considered externals himself a decade ago. As for how I found out about it, reminds me of the Hospital’s financial manager, who asked me the same thing. Made me really timid, but I said the internet, not even sure how I came across LL.
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well good luck i do not think i have seen a pediatric diary ever so this is the first one it seem
and yes strydenailchallenge movie and legsgo! has the best recoveries in this forum very good!
for more advice i recommend https://overrideyourgenetics.com/ this guy has really good tips on what to buy and stuff
also victor from cyborg4life has very good videos as well as videos on his PT training and stuf
good luck, i agree with sentiment, this is not about being tall, mostly about feeling normal and NOT feeling short
also i forgot this is precice 2.2. its sad that theres no stryde so dont exactly compare to SNC movie or Legsgo since they have weightbear :( however the stretches should be mostly the same and i think u will fare enough
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Hey racecarworm, good luck on the journey! I've been lurking around looking for Precice 2.2 diaries and I had actually emailed Dr. M about it now that Stryde isn't available. I also wanted to do the surgery (hopefully by this summer) so that I can recover before we have to go back to the office to work. Do you have your family or someone around to take care of you during the lengthening? I'm very hesitant to do it because I live alone with no family/friends nearby :(.
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Hi! Thank you for the wishes :) Surgery went very well. I think you would need to atleast hire a caretaker, I can’t sit up to feed myself yet and I’m starving so I have my mom doing to do it.
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Good luck OP! I would avoid reading diaries like SNC and movie since they went with Stryde and will have drastically different recovery rates and experiences.
You should check out Fallen, Doingitforme, LAGrowin (Dr M patient), purushrottam, bilateraldamage etc. They all went with precice. You can go through all the pages in this subforum and find more precice patients.
You can also go on the old forum and read cases like rtaller, femurs2014, cooper etc etc using the link below.
http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=34102.0
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Nurses told me surgery went well but I have a leakage on my right knee. Pain was either non existent or like 7/8 out of 10. I had to use the pain button 6 times. I asked to take pictures of xrays when the pt came but he wasnt sure if i was allowed to, so that is still TBD.
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Good luck young man! Stay strong 💪 and keep us posted; wishing you the best
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ask them for a CD next time and get a CD player plug it into laptop and you can view it high definition :)
congrats you past the surgery:)
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First night over. Terrible night and barely got any sleep in. They have these calf massagers to stimulate blood flow and it is terribly itchy. Catheter was removed at like 3am and it was painful. Also had a neighboring patient screaming in pain all night :/ Hope the guys ok.
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Hey man! Glad to see another 17 year old. Do you mind telling me what month you were born in? I want to see which one of us are younger! I’m dec 2003 :)
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Finished my second pt session about 3 hours ago. Extremely painful, but I’ve made significant progress. I was able to stand up fully straight with the help of the PT’s, and do some side steps, however I cannot walk yet. It seems my glutes are incredibly sore, and I have more swelling than normal.
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dont push yourself too hard! post surgical trauma dont even worry about getting on feet! just do minimum :)
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goodluck man, if you have the 12.5mm nail, you can weight bear without issue post week 6 ish..but better to use crutch ;)
i did my surgery one month back, so a bit similar journey ;)
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You beat me racecarworm, I am August.I had my surgery on 13th of March.I am aiming for 7 cm.Lets hope our age makes us get through this faster.Also which nail are you using? I figured it has to be biggest nail if you can walk already.
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I am using precice 2.2, I cannot walk yet but I can stand up straight. They’re looking to discharge me from the hospital tomorrow so I hope I can take a couple steps without hurting too much!
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dear racecarworm,
Congratulations on starting the journey friend. I wish I can be in your shoes in some months. The difficulty of taking the final step is hardest and I am feeling scared to move into operation after saving money all these past years.
Your age is young and you can recovery fastly and enjoy the good height during your young years.
Since you did this operation very recently I want to ask to you did you ask Dr Shahab about risk of deep bone infection and how he will detect it? How many more days and months after the first surgery are you at risk from this complication? I am very scared of this complication. I will have a family member with me in the first month and not after that. So I cannot deal with more surgeries if I get the deep bone infection after that. Did you discuss this topic with Dr Shahab?
cheers,
sergio
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You beat me racecarworm, I am August.I had my surgery on 13th of March.I am aiming for 7 cm.Lets hope our age makes us get through this faster.Also which nail are you using? I figured it has to be biggest nail if you can walk already.
Really 17!!!
Money hungry surgeons. Dr. Mahboubian & Dr. Buldu
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I don’t think it’s bad to do this surgery early.I am now at 3 weeks post op and I regret nothing.I sleep 7-8 hours a day, my pain is minimal I can walk with walker without pain.And also I am lengthening at 1.5 mm a day.I think earlier is better.
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Hey redwedding,
I appreciate your comment a lot! Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. Day 3 was extremely stressful for me and I didn’t even have the energy to respond, was thinking about your message before I fell asleep. My father had documented everything the doctor said about health risks of the surgery whihc would include deep bone infections, but I haven’t had the chance to ask him to pull out the files. I will try my best to get back to you!
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How was your first 3 days? It’s been extremely uncomfortable for me, but not painful. I can handle the pain, the worst is like 7/10 when I do physical therapy and try to walk a couple steps with a walker.
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Today is Day 4 but I had not written the Day 3 recap.
Day 3, I had about 8 hours of sleep, split in two. I had waken up every 4 hours to take my dose of norco. Day 3 was the first day at home for me, and I had a couple things to get used to. The mattress I’m on is way too soft and my glutes sink in and get a lot more sore from inactivity, so I have to move my legs up with assistance from my mother pretty often. I also still have to urinate with a bottle, since I had not attempted to physically stand up and go to the bathroom since the surgery happened. Most of the day I kept my pain med usage on schedule and was perfectly fine, but just a loot of uncomfortability, as expected. About 6pm was when it started to be troubling. I needed to take a , and the doctor told me usually people would dump on the 5th day along with taking their patches off. I needed to badly, so I took 4 colace pills (dosage was 1-6 a day, just over the counter stool softener) and got my parents to help me. My wheelchair had not yet arrived, so I had to use an office chair to sit on and let my parents push to the bathroom. I had to get off the side of the bed with a walker, do a 90 degree turn, sit down on the chair, let them push me in, stand up from the chair with a walker, do a 90 degree turn and sit down on the toilet. Simple process, excruciating. I did it at about 8:30pm, despite taking my norco at 6 since amazon said my wheelchair wouldve arrived by 10pm but I could no longer wait. So, 9:30pm was when my hydrocodone was running out of effect, and I had to do the most painful thing. My parents were not strong enough to lift me up properly (pretty hard since it was in an awkward position, like a 130lb curl but worse). I ended up getting inside the bathroom and taking a dump at 10pm, excruciatingly painful. 7/10 the whole time probably. However, I did manage to take a proper dump but I did notice a small amount of blood when I was wiping. Got back to bed with the same process but in reverse, a bit more painful as it was now 10pm, I had just spent all my energy, and the norco had fully worn off. I ultimately got back to bed and slept until 2am, took my norco and adjusted my position, slept till 6, same thing again and until 8:30am which is when I am typing right now.
Seems like my muscles are too weak, for pt the doctor kept saying I had to get up and walk around but that was pretty much impossible, more like just a goal. I have been sitting with my legs off the side of the bed which stretches my quad a lot, and doing 5-10 reps of leg extensions. My eating has been consistent aswell, finally getting hungry.
Will see how day 4 goes :)
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Ehh, the hospital fee took a large portion of the total sum, more than the surgeon fee. I think its more like America being a lot more expensive rather than Dr M specifically.
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Hey racecarworm.I stayed in hospital for 4 nights and felt almost 0 pain.They have strong painkillers there.I could go to bathroom using walker on day 4.And after that I did that 4-5 times a day and there was no pain whatsoever.After I got home I didn’t feel anything until I lengthened over 0.5 mm.After that there was strong pain.Now it’s better.I would advice you to use walker as soon as you can, it will help with recovery and with muscle preservation.
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Damn, 0 pain! I only felt that for parts of the day, otherwise it was a very uncomfortable experience. Like when they took the catheter in and out (Had to do it twice, couldn’t urinate after the first time). Taking it in and out left me screaming, nurse was a bit extreme and didn’t really care to do it less painfully. I will try my best to use the walker, everyones been telling me its importance. Do you ice your legs? My body tends to get too cold after like an hour or so of icing.
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Catheter is painful I forgot to mention it, my nurse was careful but there was still burning for an hour or so.No I don’t ice my legs, right now I am taking 2 pills of painkiller with diclofenac potassium and that pretty much reduces pain to 0.Your pain level will decrease after a week since surgery but unfortunately muscle tightness will come
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Hey redwedding,
I appreciate your comment a lot! Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. Day 3 was extremely stressful for me and I didn’t even have the energy to respond, was thinking about your message before I fell asleep. My father had documented everything the doctor said about health risks of the surgery whihc would include deep bone infections, but I haven’t had the chance to ask him to pull out the files. I will try my best to get back to you!
dear racecarworm,
Please take care and get better. Do not worry about my inqueries until you are doing well.
cheers,
sergio
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Raceworm,
You gotta get up on your walker and go to the bathroom on your own/start doing normal functions man. Trust me, you will feel a lot better in general when you are walking around on the walker. I did Precise 2 at around 150 pounds and was on the walker from the day I left the hospital, if you are 130, you should definitely be fine. Don't overdo it, but also establish a little routine of being independent. The first three weeks were tough, but trust me you will feel better soon
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Did you get up on the walker by yourself? I needed assistance and still it was hard.
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I have a medical/portable toilet to put next to my bed do shorten the trip. Still, It is difficult to rotate 90 degrees by myself and I need assistance. I’ll try my best to go alone on the walker tomorrow. Thank you so much for the advice.
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@Raceworm: Yes, I was able to get up on the walker by myself and using a normal toilet from the beginning. I could actually walk on my walker from bed to car and from car to PT. Within a couple of weeks I was using the walker to get everywhere. It gets easier in a few weeks, trust me.
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Obviously, if it is insanely painful, don't hurt yourself, but you need to move a little. A good trick especially at the beginning is to bear almost all your weight through your arms on the walker and just basically touch tap heel/toe with your feet as you walk, so you are walking and get the walking motion but not bearing too much weight on your legs and hurting yourself.
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Aren't you still in the hospital? Why the rush to get up?
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My experience was very similar to 6cm femurs.Before surgery I was 155 pounds, but now I lost over 10 pounds.And getting to toilet was never painful for me.Also one question, 6cm femurs after how many days you were allowed to walk unassisted?
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I was discharged on afternoon of the third day post op. I am trying to stand up and move around with the walker with other people assisting me since many people are telling me (including the doctor) that I should be walking with the walker. It is difficult to even stand up from a seated position in bed with help from people on both sides. It is currently 1am and I made it to Day 4 post op but I am very tired and the ice packs got me a bit wet and am very uncomfortable, so looks like day 4 recap will come tomorrow.
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Thank you for your wishes man, seriously helps a lot mentally (my mental health is healthy and fine, I just appreciate it).
I will call Dr. Mahboubian’s office tomorrow and ask for his statement about the deep bone infection.
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Hey! I’m not sure if my private message went through yet, I just responded and I will also reply to this comment on my thread now. Today is Day 5 post op (1:52am) and I’m still reliant on my mother to take care of me. I think the first week or so is extremely uncomfortable and you would most definitely need someone to help you out for a couple days once you’re out of the hospital. When you’re in the hospital (I believe it is for 2 nights) You can press a button and the nurses will come assist you, some are nice but some are a bit harsh when you ask them to physically help you (When one of the nurses pulled a catheter out it was extremely painful since she did it without much care). But, I think you wont neeeeeed a care taker for the first days when youre in the hospital since the nurses do the job well enough. I think you could hire one, the tasks my mother does to help me are very simple (still difficult). Things like grabbing water from the kitchen, food, changing blankets, or helping me adjust my legs / balance my torso or move my pillow. I can’t speak about the necessity for the caretaker throughout the lengthening process as Dr. M has not yet given me the go ahead, he wants me to wait a full week so I’m meeting him at his office on Tuesday next week.
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dear racecarworm,
do you feel your experience would have been easier so far if you had did just the one leg and not the other? do you think you could have did it all by yourself then? Or do you feel that it would have been the same difficult because discomfort = discomfort one leg or two.
cheers,
sergio
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Yeah, definitely. My right leg is also more sensitive in pain, less flexible and weaker muscle wise, despite it being much stronger pre-surgery. This may be to the small leakage that Dr. M said is no problem, but I will ask him the exact reason why.
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Today is Day 5 post op.
Woke up extremely painful and sore, slept in splits of like 4 hours, woke up 3 times. I went to bed early but kept waking up needing to adjust my legs while in pain.
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Keep fighting brother. Serious post-surgical trauma pain only last the first week and a half or less. You leaving the pain soon. You got this.
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Thank you so much man. Your words help a ton, I felt like a couple hours ago and this message helped me out a lot. Just reminded myself it wont last long and I’ll be done with this process soon.
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All the best mate. How would you rate/compare this pain on a scale or how much it hurts compared to other pain/injuries u had in the past?
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I had a grade 4 ankle sprain from sports before. I think this is a more of an annoying, constant pain compared to like an excruciating one like a severe ankle sprain. I’ve never broken any bones, so I can’t compare but it’s like an annoying sense of numbness and soreness. I could deal with it, but it is also mentally challenging when you’re not able to do the same activities as before, just the smallest things like sleep on your side or grabbing something by yourself. Pain overall has been minimal other than when I take medicine without eating or when I do some assisted exercises, have not tried anything by myself yet.
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Ahh, glad to hear that the pain is at least tolerable to you. Hope you get better soon! :) Keep us posted!
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@Dionysus: I was never allowed to walk unassisted until I consolidated enough for full weight-bearing about 5 months post op/6 weeks post lengthening. I just used the walker the entire time.
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I did it! Made it past the night. Today is Day 6 post op, but I will write the Day 5 diary here. Day 5 was uneventful and disencouraging, the pain wasn’t extreme but I did not rat enough when I took medicine and it hurt my stomach. Furthermore I had no caretaker around for physical therapy so I did not attempt to do any exercises since I was afraid of failure and of hurting myself. So I just sat in bed all day. Aaaaand my body became super sore from not moving for many hours straight. At about 9pm last night I finally got the motivation to do self physical therapy for the first time, witjout assistance. I had to slowly lift my legs up with my hands helping a bit, move directions, push myself up to move my glutes and repeated the process until I got to the side of the bed. Then, I had my father put a small box below my feet to keep it bent, since my legs hurt when they hang off the bed (my tibias are not that short the bed is just very raised lol). I had him give me the walker and I was just sitting there thinking for like 30 minutes or so, giving my legs some rest. I really loathed the prospect of hurting myself while pushing myself up on a walker without assisstance, and I didn’t have the strength to either. It’s weird, I should be able to do it easily like a dip exercise and just push my triceps down on the walker and carry all my weight, but for some reason I cannot at all. Ultimately had my father help me up, then I rotated 90 degrees and sat down on the portable toilet. When I was moving and taking steps, I noticed my left leg not being able to lift off the ground, compared to my right which easily did so. This is weird since my left leg was much less painful and more flexible when I was in the hospital. If anyone has any ideas why or what muscle is used to lift up your leg when you walk it would help a lot. I then got back to bed, same process but with more help as I was exhausted by that time. It took me 2-3 hours to move off my bed, stand up turn 90 degrees and sit down, and the same thing backwards to get back on my bed. I ate a lot and iced my legs and massaged it for another hour and crashed when it was 2am. I woke up 2 more times, once at 5:30am as I slept sitting up and wanted to move down, then another at 8, then fell asleep again until 9:30am. Now it is 11:30 and I have not done much since.
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Day 6 Update:
I have a lot of bruises on the side of my legs and my glutes that came from nowhere. I’m not sure what caused this, or if theyre even bruises. I will talk to Dr. Mahboubian tomorrow about it and will give updates on this thread.
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Say 6 Recap: First half of the day was uneventful and uncomfortable. I was however able to extend the time periods between each norco pill, usually its 4 but today I made it 5. At about 7pm I did my physical therapy, I was once again able to get off the bed by myself but my left leg was extremely painful, at my hip. Between my quad and my groin, there were tons of constant aches that really limited my pt. I stood up with help, hurt the same place a lot but my right leg was mostly painless, and slowly rotated 90 degrees over to the portable toilet and sat down with help. I took a dump and the trip back to my bed hurt a lot more than the initial. After that my body was in heavy pain for about 30 minutes or so, but I could not take another norco pill since it had only been 3.5 hours since. However about 30 minutes after when I was able to take the pill I did not, and haven’t since. I did some light stretching on the bed with some assistance from my mother, lifting my leg up and pushing my knee towards my torso to stretch my glutes and quads. From there on I had been surprisingly comfortable, 0/10 pain with some small, short aches at random times. I feel “normal” and my legs do not feel numb or sore. I have done the same stretches and pt 2 other times since then and will now head off to bed, without any norco (hope thats not a terrible idea). I have to wake up at 5:30am tomorrow morning to drive to Dr. M’s office and meet him for an appointment.
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I got this black calf massager from amazon (since they made me use one at the hospital for circulation) I figured it would help if I had one at home aswell, but this one keeps turning off every 40 minutes or so and I have to turn it back on. Goodnight LL forum :)
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Day 7 Update
I woke up at 7am for my appointment with Dr. M at 9am. I had to get into my wheelchair for the first time, get in the car from the wheelchair, and get off again. It was actually not painful at all throughout the whole process, of course I still needed assistance walking but this time I was able to lift up my left leg for the steps. Before this, I had to drag my feet to move it forward then let it down to take the step. However, this whole process was much faster and completely painless. The only time I felt some pain was when I got on the car, but it wasn’t anything extreme. I will finish this reply once I have more information, currently in the Dr’s office waiting for him.
Update: I have met with Dr. M and the Nuvasive rep! He says that I am doing well and should be able to stand up by myself and that it’s a mental block mostly. He also says that I should be able to remove the stitching surtures on Thursday. I asked him about the deep bone infection as redwedding was curious about and I was able
Update 2: Holy , I got home, pushed myself up the stairs by sitting down and doing a reverse tricep dip upstairs. I got up with the walker by myself and with no assistance I was easily able to take a couple steps. I’m absolutely ecstatic currently and I’m so excited to do more physical therapy. I’m currently in bed and I’m at 0 pain while icing my legs. I feel amazing!
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Hey sergio,
I asked Dr. M about infections and he said that I should not worry at all, and that all risks of infection were within the first 2-3 days post-op. I think he didn’t quite catch the fact that I asked specifically for a deep bone one, not the external patches that may have infected within my surgical surtures. If you would like, I will ask again about it the next time I see him (2 weeks from today), but I think it would be best for you to just email him and get a record of what he personally says.
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can you say how much you paid in total for the surgery?
thanks
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Pain: *aight imma head out*
:)
Don't go too overboard though, be careful. Some dude on this forum felt like superman on day 5 post op doing femurs at Paley and started walking alot with no walker and felt like a God. Next day he was sore like a b***h and had to take a whole week off or two weeks. haha
Glad to see the pain reducing and your spirits lifted :D
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Bahaha yeah man dont worry I’m not gonna be doing anything without the walker. Thanks for the heads up :)
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Thank you so much man! I need to get my xrays done this week too and then I’ll upload them here. Do you have any kind of pain of uncomfort when lengthening? My left leg experiences some acheing even though its the first week and the doctor says I should barely even feel it since my legs haven’t lengthened much and won’t experience the stretching pain / soreness.
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If anybody knows if there should be pain doing lengthening with precice please lmk! I will also contact Dr. M myself and ask about it again but he said I shouldnt have any during the first week since it’s still barely lengthened.
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Hi, from what I know, lengthening itself is not painfull.
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I felt pain in my right leg when lengthening for first week.Then I changed position and started lengthening lying down and after some time there was no pain left.
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If anybody knows if there should be pain doing lengthening with precice please lmk! I will also contact Dr. M myself and ask about it again but he said I shouldnt have any during the first week since it’s still barely lengthened.
Here’s my 2 cents. Don’t trip out too much about pains here and there. If there is one thing I learned during LL is that pains will be present and it moves all over the place randomly. Right now your legs probably feel heavy as hell, they will get swollen, hip pains will come and go and you will feel achy at times from just laying down in one position forever. You are about to go through a rollercoaster of crap BUT, DONT WORRY! Take the opiates (hard to avoid just because of the surgery trauma) , they help calm things down and just move through it day by day.
Another piece of advice, you will probably get depressed at times just because your stuck in bed and things will be difficult. If you were a super independent guy then the fact you need a helper for even the simplest things you used to do may just make you feel downright dog crap. AGAIN, DONT WORRY ABOUT IT!!! In the end, you’ll look back at it and think to your self “damn I did something awesome”.. As a matter of fact, I truly can’t remember all the details of my post surgery pains and lengthening pains, so it must have not been that bad.
To be honest with you, the worst part of the whole process for me was being on opiates for such a long time. It really took a toll on my body and I always felt unmotivated. I really believe the drugs contributed to my bouts of depression at times.
But now, 3 months into consolidation, I’m loving this sh*t....I walk in the gym, workout and see the results of my surgery and ITS A BEAUTIFUL THING!!! No real pains, just bullsh*t muscle soreness as you would expect from rebuilding the mass back up to where it was. No more opiates, I don’t even take ibuprofen or any over the counter pain meds really anymore unless I have a headache.
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Day 8 Recap
This morning I woke up at 7am, super sweaty, legs in pain and uncomfortable. Took my norco and got ready to leave to get my surgical surtures removed. I took my medicine, ate breakfast in bed; sat up slowly with assistance and stood up by myself. I walked straight forward and had my father put my wheelchair behind me. By now it was like 8am, and we then moved the wheelchair to the staircase for me to go down the stairs. I lifted myself up from the wheelchair onto the walker, and they held me and put me down to my butt so that it touches the ground. I then used both arms to move my torso with my legs hanging down the stairs, and slowly step by step I got down with a bit of help from my parents holding my legs. They got me to the bottom and it was like 8:30, bit painful (4/10) and I sat at the bottom for a break as my father calls to confirm the appointment. Sadly, my appointment was not correct, Dr. Mahboubian had said my surtures could be removed today (Thursday) but the place we called said 2 weeks after the initial surgery. So, next week on Tuesday. I sat downstairs kinda upset and in a bit of pain but it had been an hour and a half since the norco hit and I was feeling a bit better. I went to the bathroom well without much help other than me sitting down from a standing position. Then, I went back upstairs at about 11:30am.
From there on it had been an uncomfortable experience sitting at my computer desk, I was exhausted and pain was constantly 4/10. I think it’s from the soreness. Each time I lengthen my left leg hurts a decent amount (3/10) and it’s annoying because my right side is either 0 or 1. I coild not last at my desk and use my computer for long and returned to my bed at 3pm, after doing some self pt (My pt starts next week). I had lifted myself up from the walker, walked about 15 ft, turned around, and went for 4 laps. I was then exhausted and crashed on my bed. By this time I had probably taken another norco and was in pain for a good bit. I really hope my left leg recovers as well as my right one does. If it were, I could be fully self sufficient already.
At about 8pm I got back up. I was in bed, I was using my leg muscles to lift my legs in the air and turn my body to the right so I can get off the bed. This was the hard part from yesterday and I needed help but I managed to do it myself this time. I sat up 90 degrees with my knee at 90 degrees aswell for about 30 minutes, massaging my legs. I noticed they were more tight than usual, so I kept at it. I then stood up, walked forward and had my father put my chair behind me. I He used the chair to move me to my desk and I attempted to use my computer again, this time the pain was like 2/3 and I was able to play some games and use my computer until about 11:30pm, I lengthened on the chair. The pain on my left leg persists during lengthening but a bit less than usual. I then got back on my bed by myself and wrote today’s recap :)
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Hey sergio,
I asked Dr. M about infections and he said that I should not worry at all, and that all risks of infection were within the first 2-3 days post-op. I think he didn’t quite catch the fact that I asked specifically for a deep bone one, not the external patches that may have infected within my surgical surtures. If you would like, I will ask again about it the next time I see him (2 weeks from today), but I think it would be best for you to just email him and get a record of what he personally says.
Dear racecarworm,
thanks to you for your help. I don't think Dr Shahab will reply to my email but I will try it. If you have the concern about the deep bone infection for your case please ask upon the next consultation. I am compiling the answers from multiple surgeons and I will make a post on this with all the details.
regards,
sergio
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Thanks man, can’t wait to be back in the gym. This pain is very annoying though haha
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Thanks man, can’t wait to be back in the gym. This pain is very annoying though haha
Haha, just wait till your butt becomes boney. You’ll hate sitting at your desk. The amount of ass you lose is insane. This surgery is perfect for anyone who wants to lose their big fat butt if that have one....lol
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Day 9 Recap & Small Day 10 Update
Day 9 was another slow day for me, not much to do. However, I started noticing my legs were heavier than normal. I was getting used to it but my legs are much more tight than usual aswell, and the pain goes super high when I stand up from a seated position, up to 8/10 and leaves me screaming. The night of Day 9 was super ty because I have to lengthen every 6 hours, and I lengthened at 12am. I stayed up until around 1 to take my norco until I finally fell asleep. I then woke ip at 5am again, extremely uncomfortable with my stomach hurting. I think I am not eating enough even despite me not being hungry and eating as much as I can.
I really gotta stress the pain when I stand up. My legs are a lot heavier and sore, and the pain for the brief second in which I move from a seated position to a standing position with a walker is unbearable.
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How important is it to have a caretaker during the first 2 weeks? I'm planning to do Precise 2.2 Femur lengthening this summer.
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Personally could not survive without one during the first week. HUGE inconvenience if I didn’t have one during the second but getting a lot better.
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How's it been racecar. Week 3ish for you now. Hopefully your pain/soreness from post-surgery is going down!
Keep fighting bro
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Hey! I’m doing good. Pain and soreness has gone down a lot, but I’m stretching very intensely 4 times a day and its very painful when I push myself that hard, but I’m seeing clear results. I haven’t made an update post in a while but I will soon once I receive the x-ray film from the hospital! I’ve met up with Dr. Mahboubian again and he says that my xray is excellent, but my range of motion and tightness will have to improve a lot otherwise I won’t be able to go the full 8cm.
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Congratulations on the procedure. Wishing you a speedy recovery man!
Looking forward to your week 4 updates.
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Chekin up on ya racecar. How u doin. Make sure to Take care of yourself, especially mentally.
Cheers
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Hey man, my legs are a lot stronger now. However, the past week I’ve started to have hamstring problems. My tibias, for some reason, started to feel cold and numb, and I have a sharp pain that shoots through my whole leg sometimes. Hamstrings are my main concern currently and I’m gonna call Dr. M tomorrow to ask about the numbness. They’re super tight, it felt like they randomly started guarding — similar to my first couple days post op. Just when my quads flexibility really started improving. I’m currently at 3cm, and I’ve gotten a lot more used to it.
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Some xrays n pics please! Would love to see ur progress!
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@racecarworm - I am glad that you are feeling better! It's good for you that you are doing it at such a young age. Uni was the place where I wished I was taller the most. I hope the other 5cm will be easier and you will achieve your goal. Good luck!!! :)
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4.xx cm now
You Gucci?
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Stay strong , you can pull through it!!
Also, pls keep updating....always happy to hear abt your progress!
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Hey! Just passed 5cm today. Feeling well for the most part, will put up a more detailed post later. Sorry I’ve been a bit inactive, super busy with finals lately.
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At 6.5 cm —- Doctor recommends me to stop at 7 because I’m losing a lot of range of motion. I feel great, I take one tramadol a day before physical therapy and no pain otherwise. Just a lot of stretching. I can move around easily now and took my first step without the walker today. More updates incoming :) Sorry for the lack of messages lately, this is my last week of finals and I’ll have a lot of freetime. It was stressful to keep up with my academic standards and devote a lot of energy to my recovery at the same time.
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Wow that's amazing! Great to hear the news! I hope your consolidation goes great as you continue your journey :)
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6 month post op update
Okay, so I've been walking ~2.5 miles everyday, and up to 6 miles on some other days. I walk perfectly fine and feel perfectly normal, but when I get tired my glutes burn up and so my balance is a bit off. It's normal, same thing as if I hit leg day really hard. However, a bit ago I think I strained my quad. I can sort of feel a clicking in my lower left quad, I'm not sure if it's the nail or not. I emailed Dr. Mahboubian about it an hour ago, and had the x-rays done like 2-3 days after this sharp pain. The pain subsided significantly, and it only occurred during full extension of my quad, so I'm hoping I just strained it by exercising too much or something. Haven't had physical therapy in about 2 months since I've been well enough to jog and do squats & partial single leg squats.
Here are my x-rays! Forgot to post them before haha.
https://imgur.com/a/SdiGvz5
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I'm able to do about ~15 body weight squats before dying. Hamstrings and adductors are still very tight, been working on them slowly everyday. Hope to be able to recover enough in order to start working my legs out with weights. I've been hitting upper body muscle groups in the gym for about 2 months now, my adductors are still very tight and it makes it hard to lie down on the flat bench and some other exercises. I also actually gained about 5 lbs compared to pre-op despite my legs looking like chopsticks haha.
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Hey racecarworm! That's awesome to hear, and glad you're back on your feet. How many months post-op did you start walking without assistance? And how good would you say your walking gait is now? Also how would you rate your proportions?
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Hey racecarworm! That's awesome to hear, and glad you're back on your feet. How many months post-op did you start walking without assistance? And how good would you say your walking gait is now? Also how would you rate your proportions?
Hey! Thanks for the reply. I started walking 3/4 months post op, about 4 weeks after lengthening. It’s dependent on how fast your bone regenerates, my doctor gave me the green light to start weightbearing. My walking gait is alright, I thought it was fine and didn’t notice it until a family member told me that I should try to fix it. It actually feels amazing at times, when my ass isnt sore from walking. I think my proportions are great. Sometimes I look st them and I feel like they’re too long, but when I put clothes on and actually consider it then I feel like I’d be what a 5’10 person would look like. My femurs were relatively short prior to the surgery.
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Hey! Thanks for the reply. I started walking 3/4 months post op, about 4 weeks after lengthening. It’s dependent on how fast your bone regenerates, my doctor gave me the green light to start weightbearing. My walking gait is alright, I thought it was fine and didn’t notice it until a family member told me that I should try to fix it. It actually feels amazing at times, when my ass isnt sore from walking. I think my proportions are great. Sometimes I look st them and I feel like they’re too long, but when I put clothes on and actually consider it then I feel like I’d be what a 5’10 person would look like. My femurs were relatively short prior to the surgery.
Congratulations on your journey. We're the same height, except I'm 22. Really wanting to get this surgery done in the next few years. How does it feel being 174cm? Is it what you expected? Do you feel like you look better in clothes? Do you look taller? How has it been around your family and friends? Do you feel more confident now and making you feel like it's worth bearing through the pain?
Also would be awesome if you can either post or DM a walking video and before/after photos (with your identify blocked of course). Thanks!
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Hey! Thanks for the reply. I started walking 3/4 months post op, about 4 weeks after lengthening. It’s dependent on how fast your bone regenerates, my doctor gave me the green light to start weightbearing. My walking gait is alright, I thought it was fine and didn’t notice it until a family member told me that I should try to fix it. It actually feels amazing at times, when my ass isnt sore from walking. I think my proportions are great. Sometimes I look st them and I feel like they’re too long, but when I put clothes on and actually consider it then I feel like I’d be what a 5’10 person would look like. My femurs were relatively short prior to the surgery.
That's great to hear, racecar! I'm happy for you. Are you doing more gradual weightbearing / impact activities now? What does Dr. M think you can remove the rods? Also, how has your perspective changed with your new height?
For bone consolidation, did you take any supplements during/post lengthening?
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Hello racecarworm,
Since you mentioned tight hamstrings, have you ever had wide legs/stance? If so, how did it resolve?
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Hey man! How are you? How's you recovery been? Would love to hear an update...xray and video would be bonus lol! I hope things are going really great for you! Have a great day!
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Hey, yeah I'm doing great! I honestly forgot about the forum and the surgery together, and continued to move on with my life. Now I'm back lurking on here because it's been over a year since I had the surgery and need to get my nails removed lol. Here are some x-rays I found in old emails with Dr. M, from 5/11/21.
https://imgur.com/a/yRHLuCG
Prior to LL (March 2021) I could get 4x12 on barbell squats with 165 lbs.
Now (June 2022) I could get 3x8 on machine hack squats with 135lbs.
My legs were very tight, but I'm actively stretching and doing mobility work everyday, aswell as working them out twice a week (weights). My rectus femoris are especially tight, I notice when my quads are fully flexed they snap over my knee joint loudly. Same thing with my hamstrings / adductors, but there is no pain.
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Hey! Yeah I like the long legs look a lot more. I'm glad I had the surgery, I think my femurs were disproportionately short before and now they're long, and I like the look a lot. Clothes fit a lot better, can wear pants confidently now lol. I may post a video of me barbell squatting with myself blurred out if I can get myself to do it.