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Author Topic: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22  (Read 4371 times)

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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #31 on: April 16, 2023, 02:33:12 PM »

How about your gait now? Did u improve the severe APT(duck-ass)?

Duck ass is probably 60% better, this will take time to resolve but I’m not worried. Gait is still pretty unnatural, related to hip flexor and IT band tightness, but stamina and muscle strength getting much better.
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Yau

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #32 on: April 17, 2023, 12:13:37 AM »

Duck ass is probably 60% better, this will take time to resolve but I’m not worried. Gait is still pretty unnatural, related to hip flexor and IT band tightness, but stamina and muscle strength getting much better.

Did u have IT band release? Do u keep PT sessions or do it yourself at home?
Dr Assayag is my first choice, so I concern all cases in the forum😆. (I am also considering Dr Paley and Dr Donghoon Lee).
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #33 on: April 17, 2023, 11:56:03 AM »

Did u have IT band release? Do u keep PT sessions or do it yourself at home?
Dr Assayag is my first choice, so I concern all cases in the forum😆. (I am also considering Dr Paley and Dr Donghoon Lee).

Yes, ITB release is standard for Dr. A. I have done PT with a pro consistently throughout the process - 3x per week during lengthening, 2x per week for two months of consolidation, 1x now. I plan to continue until my gait normalizes. Unless you are incredibly self motivated I’d highly recommend finding a good PT.

I know less about Dr. Lee but you’ll be in good hands with Dr. A and obviously Dr. Paley has a stellar reputation as well.
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Yau

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #34 on: April 18, 2023, 04:51:10 AM »

Yes, ITB release is standard for Dr. A. I have done PT with a pro consistently throughout the process - 3x per week during lengthening, 2x per week for two months of consolidation, 1x now. I plan to continue until my gait normalizes. Unless you are incredibly self motivated I’d highly recommend finding a good PT.

I know less about Dr. Lee but you’ll be in good hands with Dr. A and obviously Dr. Paley has a stellar reputation as well.

U have done PT with Dr A’s team in hospital, or u found one rehabilitation center near your home?
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #35 on: April 18, 2023, 02:45:30 PM »

U have done PT with Dr A’s team in hospital, or u found one rehabilitation center near your home?

I already mentioned this in my earlier posts - I worked with Moshe Roth (https://mrothpt.com) while staying at Sinai and now I am working with a PT who comes to my apartment in the city I live in.
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #36 on: April 18, 2023, 03:03:45 PM »

Quick update - I drove down to Baltimore Sunday night and met with Dr. A and team yesterday at his facility in Owings Mills. This is in the suburbs of Baltimore in a fairly nice neighborhood in a higher end and newer strip mall (yay America!) and I highly prefer this location to Sinai Hospital because it feels like less of a "medical" setting and more like an office.

While it would be much cheaper to simply do X-rays where I live and send them over to Dr. A for review, the experience is so much better in person, particularly at Owings Mills. For any Dr. A patients, I highly recommend you visit in person once every few months during the consolidation phase, particularly early in the process. The staff is friendly, the standing X-ray machine is seamless (no weird contortions while laying down on a table as with normal machine), and the stadiometer is highly accurate. Moreover, being in person gives Dr. A and team the ability to thoroughly evaluate the patient's gait and movements and offer suggestions on where to focus.

Everything looks ok but not spectacular. Bone growth is better than before (although not fantastic), but muscles - IT band, hip flexor, glutes, - are pretty tight for this stage in the process. My major takeaway is that I've probably hit a point of diminishing returns on things just automatically getting better - going forward, I will need to work harder at PT to maintain my rate of recovery. Dr. A estimated that my gait will likely normalize with three months of dedicated work of 1+ hour per day of PT.

Dr. A showed me some new stretches and recommended I purchase one of these (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T4JFQKM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) to really work on my hip / IT band tightness.

One of the happier outcomes from the visit is that, although I am still "unraveling" and not at my full height because of the lingering duck ass, I have reached nearly 173cm or 5'8 even. Since I started at around 164cm and expected to hit 172cm at best, I am beyond delighted with this outcome. How did this happen? Dr. A explained that due to the way the osteotomy is performed, the bone is straightened / aligned, which can account for up to 7mm of additional height. Thus, I must have started at around 164.3, and with 8.7cm of total lengthening ended up at around 173 (and counting!). I can not put in words how psychologically gratifying it is for me to hit 5'8, and the feelings of "normalcy" which that engenders.

As always, let me know any questions or feel free to DM me!
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informationispower

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #37 on: April 18, 2023, 03:21:03 PM »

Heightwise, how do you feel walkig around? Do you feel like you cured your height neurosis?
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #38 on: April 18, 2023, 07:08:11 PM »

Heightwise, how do you feel walkig around? Do you feel like you cured your height neurosis?

In most situations I feel great - I live in a diverse city with people of all backgrounds so I don’t feel unusually small like I used to. If I lived in the middle of America I might feel different but in my particular circumstances I feel like I’m at a great height and no longer neurotic or embarrassed about it.
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ballsackoffury123

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #39 on: April 18, 2023, 11:53:26 PM »

how quickly after consolidation started did most of your pain start to go away? I'm 30mm in and facing some lower calf nerve issues (sensation loss and inner ankle nerve pain). I heard it's normal but I'm still quite early on and know this will prob be with me until I start consolidation. Just wanted to know how quickly things started to turn 180 better for you once consolidation started.
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #40 on: April 19, 2023, 12:00:36 AM »

how quickly after consolidation started did most of your pain start to go away? I'm 30mm in and facing some lower calf nerve issues (sensation loss and inner ankle nerve pain). I heard it's normal but I'm still quite early on and know this will prob be with me until I start consolidation. Just wanted to know how quickly things started to turn 180 better for you once consolidation started.

First, I'm really sorry to hear about the pain you are experiencing and hope that gets better soon.

To answer your question, I would say my pain was mostly muscular (never really had much nerve pain other than kind of a strange shooting pain) and persisted for about month or 6 weeks into consolidation. I actually had very little pain during lengthening after the ~6 week mark - it only got rough again after I hit 7cm and continued after stopping. That said, it wasn't too painful and mostly bothered me at night when trying to sleep but I was able to control using Tylenol and Celebrex.

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ballsackoffury123

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #41 on: April 19, 2023, 04:32:31 AM »

First, I'm really sorry to hear about the pain you are experiencing and hope that gets better soon.

To answer your question, I would say my pain was mostly muscular (never really had much nerve pain other than kind of a strange shooting pain) and persisted for about month or 6 weeks into consolidation. I actually had very little pain during lengthening after the ~6 week mark - it only got rough again after I hit 7cm and continued after stopping. That said, it wasn't too painful and mostly bothered me at night when trying to sleep but I was able to control using Tylenol and Celebrex.

Nothing to be sorry about. We're all in this crazy journey together. Thanks for the response, and I agree. Sleeping and morning sucks, every other time of the day is fine (for me at least). Jealous of you and cant wait to get where you are one day.
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #42 on: April 20, 2023, 02:04:33 PM »

Nothing to be sorry about. We're all in this crazy journey together. Thanks for the response, and I agree. Sleeping and morning sucks, every other time of the day is fine (for me at least). Jealous of you and cant wait to get where you are one day.

For sure, the insomnia really drove me nuts and made it harder to comply with the PT regimen. I just felt totally apathetic and miserable on the days when I couldn't sleep. Interestingly, Dr. A said most of his patients don't experience this, but I knew from reading the forum that I was not alone. I found that THC was really helpful for me in making me sleepy enough to overcome the discomfort.

I wish you the best and you'll be at my stage in no time!
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Yau

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #43 on: April 20, 2023, 11:54:42 PM »

For sure, the insomnia really drove me nuts and made it harder to comply with the PT regimen. I just felt totally apathetic and miserable on the days when I couldn't sleep. Interestingly, Dr. A said most of his patients don't experience this, but I knew from reading the forum that I was not alone. I found that THC was really helpful for me in making me sleepy enough to overcome the discomfort.

I wish you the best and you'll be at my stage in no time!

What is THC?
Is it prescribed med? Any side effects?
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #44 on: April 21, 2023, 01:36:49 AM »

What is THC?
Is it prescribed med? Any side effects?

It's the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. I take a very small amount in edible / gummy form (2.5mg) for sleep and don't experience any side effects. You can purchase legally in a number of US states, so may be relevant depending on where you do your surgery.
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sphenopetroclival

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #45 on: May 20, 2023, 03:38:10 PM »

If you have recent imaging data please put it at this thread. Redact any information that could be used to dox you.
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7171-9248
LL “doctors” to avoid marked as *MOVED below.They’ve been reinstated as a professional courtesy

Yau

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #46 on: May 21, 2023, 01:18:38 PM »

Hi! Any update?
Everything is going well?
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user1396

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Re: LL experience overview: bilateral femurs with Dr. Assayag 9/22
« Reply #47 on: May 21, 2023, 11:45:20 PM »

Thank you for asking. All is well, really starting to build back my stamina and muscle strength. Still a ways to go but feeling much better and further along than when I last updated.  I logged my first 10k step day since my procedure this week. Glute weakness and hip tightness are my lingering bottlenecks along with cardiovascular stamina.

I’ll also say that I’ve had the opportunity to go to a number of social events and I feel significantly more confident and a sense of belonging among other people that I’ve never experienced before as an adult. This is giving me a glimpse of the true transformative nature of this surgery.

I’m a little concerned about the direction of this forum with all the antisemitism and weird alt right language that is becoming prevalent. That said, I’ll give a more detailed update later this summer.
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