Hey man, I'm turning 21 soon and I've been planning and saving since I was 17. I hope you don't mind this wall of questions, but seeing as we're getting it done at a similar age (and not to many people do) I have a lot to ask.
- Can you go hiking? Go to festivals? Walk for a full day at theme parks? Do you feel leg pain?
- Do you feel like getting this done at a young age helped your career, your business and professional relationships?
- What is your parent's opinion of the surgery now 4 years later? More approving? Assuming you've become a happier, better version of yourself?
- Have you ever had anyone comment about your proportions, or ever felt weird about looking in the mirror or putting on certain clothes?
- Do you remember what it was like to be short? What does it feel like? A nightmare in comparison? Not that different? etc...
- What has been the biggest difference in your life since you had LL? Do you feel like it impacted your personality drastically, your social life, your romantic life?
- Given the result and recovery, was it worth the cost, or would you go for a cheaper alternative (being young and having that kind of money can really lead to some great long-term investments).
- Do you still think about lengthening more on your tibias?
You don't have to answer everything point by point, or even answer all of them at all. Just any information you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Whoo, bunch of questions! I'll go through them one by one.
>- Can you go hiking? Go to festivals? Walk for a full day at theme parks? Do you feel leg pain?
This question made me chuckle, just because I would have had the same ones at your stage in life.
The answer is yes to doing all of those. I don't feel leg pain and the only time I do is minor when I have been running fast for a long distance (without previously running for a while.) Almost like a "getting used to it" sort of pain.
>- Do you feel like getting this done at a young age helped your career, your business and professional relationships?
This is a good question, and again one I have had the same before doing LL at your age. It's hard to say. I know as a fact it has helped in my romantic life, and overall my confidence, so you could say by that token it has helped me in my work life. Being more confident will assist you in all areas of your social, career, and personal life.
> What is your parent's opinion of the surgery now 4 years later? More approving? Assuming you've become a happier, better version of yourself?
We don't talk about it. We almost pretend as though it hasn't happened. Which in a way, is pretty easy to feel because all of us have moved on from it. It's almost a non-factor because it doesn't play into our daily lives whatsoever.
To add to this though, this surgery and plastic surgery in general is incredibly out of the realm of ordinary for my family. Doing it might hang over my head a bit, but I don't pay much attention to it which in turn causes my family not to care about it either I believe.
>- Have you ever had anyone comment about your proportions, or ever felt weird about looking in the mirror or putting on certain clothes?
Never. No one has ever commented about my proportions. I do not feel weird looking in the mirror or putting on clothes HOWEVER; I do feel weird about tucking in shirts. My torso is way too short and my legs are way too long to be tucking in shirts. The only time I feel comfortable doing that is when I'm wearing a suit jacket along with it.
>- Do you remember what it was like to be short? What does it feel like? A nightmare in comparison? Not that different? etc...
Absolutely. Life sucked. I was uncomfortable in my skin and being unconfident hurt every area of my life. I'm still not entirely content in my skin, but I'm a lot happier than I used to be. Being short is not a nightmare in comparison but it is definitely worse.
>-What has been the biggest difference in your life since you had LL? Do you feel like it impacted your personality drastically, your social life, your romantic life?
This is a tough one to answer. For anyone reading this, I only went from around 5' 5" to 5' 8". That's not a tall height for anyone, but for me, it changed my world. I feel 'average' instead of feeling short for once. I felt like I no longer had to be "embarrassed" of my height.
My social life remained relatively unaffected but my romantic life has been a world apart. To put it bluntly, I pull a lot more girls than I would have 4 years ago. However, a year after surgery, I wasn't pulling any girls at all. It was only until a few years later when I was able to mesh a personality with my looks that would enable me to amplify my romantic life.
>- Given the result and recovery, was it worth the cost, or would you go for a cheaper alternative (being young and having that kind of money can really lead to some great long-term investments).
This is an interesting question. I still have money, and I still enjoy having money. But I have a much different perspective on money than I used to.
Back then, I saw money as something that you needed to invest/save at all costs. Now I view money as, well, why not spend it now? What I care about, what we readers on this forum care about, is being happy and content with ourselves now. And if it costs 100K to do it, and you have the money, then why not?
Would I go for a cheaper alternative? I can't say yes given my experience that 1) I am not dead and 2) still able to walk, but I wouldn't mind having an extra ~50K in my pocket.
>- Do you still think about lengthening more on your tibias?
This is probably why I've come back to the forum.
I do consider it on occasion (rarely, and I do not obsess over height like I used to. In some respects, I stopped caring altogether and enjoy being this height). But I would like to have an extra 1" or 2 inches MAX. It feels like that would compliment my overall proportions well without being too crazy tall.
However, I'm 99% sure that I won't be doing the surgery. And the reason? Nothing to do with money/pain/lifestyle change.. actually, tibias are easier to lengthen than the femurs with precice. What I am worried about is a very cosmetic reason, and that is the SCARS. I have extremely noticeable keloid scars from the femur lengthening. And it's quite embarrassing and makes me uncomfortable to take even my shorts off around people. The release surgery left the largest and most noticeable scars next to my left and right knee which is very visible when I'm wearing shorts.
Unfortunately it's impossible to remove keloid scars so until it's possible to do so, I probably won't be lengthening my tibias...
Thanks for all those questions! It feels good to write my thoughts out which I haven't done in quite a while.
I wonder if it's true that veteran LLers reach the point where they forget they did CLL?
knowing what you know now, Will you do LL again?
It's not necessarily that we forget that we did CLL. It's more that we realize there isn't much to gain by reading these forums and posting on them anymore.
Everyone (myself included) highly active on these forums usually have not done LL yet or were in the process of getting it done. Before surgery, there is a lot of nervous excitement and of course anxiety about getting a surgery as drastic as this one. But once you get the surgery done, what is left for there to be said? You realize coming to these forums to vent about your experience is pretty much the extent of what you can gain from posting here. The best thing you can do for your mental health and happiness moving forward is to entirely forget about LL and focus on the other areas of life that you were neglecting or putting aside because of your unhappiness with your current stature.
To answer your last question, would I do LL again given what I know now? 110% yes.
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Topic: Big D is Growing - PRECICE 2 Internal Femurs - Dr. Paley (Read 103375 times)