Great diary!
I've met the doctor and my impression is that he is really honest and world-class. And I also thought SA is like Australia especially in geography (except the secured fences ubiquitous in SA).
My question is if for example you wanted to extend your visa, who will apply this for you? Or does it have to be in person?
Thank you.
Quote from: toafrica on March 02, 2016, 07:28:32 PM
What really bothers me is what it seems to be nerve pain in both legs. Both my tibias burn like crazy all the time, from my knees to my feet. It’s a pain that never stops, sometimes it’s quite high (8/10) and sometimes a bit less (4/10), but NEVER stops. It doesn’t matter which medication I take, what exercises I do, what postures I take…. Pain never stops, and it’s starting to drain me. Today is the second day I’m taking Lyrica to see if the pain goes down.
Regarding sleeping, due to the constant pain I never sleep more than 1-2h before waking up because it hurts. So I just do small naps through the day, mainly after taking the oxycodone, which allows me to sleep around 2h. I’d say I probably sleep around 6h per day discontinuously.
Also dr B and his team will offer you to drive you to some malls or something so you won’t go crazy after 3 months here. And although I’m really grateful, at the moment I’m just thinking in suffering alone all this pain in my bed, where I’m 99% of the time if I’m not at the hospital. But we’ll see if this pain ever goes down.
I wish you the best!!! I have never reached 4/10 in pain, I am so sorry for you. I feel some disconfort in my knee nothing else.
If you discover anything to sleep better please share it!!
This is a mental game, some days I think it is enough I am going to stop, but other you feel well and tell myself it is not so hard, just boring,
Just two days ago, my sister told me " you looks taller" I had my isolate to reduce the gap between my legs...... and I felt so well.
Think in the goal!!
Cheers
Cheers for the information dude. All very helpful replies 
Ouroboros. ITB release was performed during the surgery, he spoked to me about it in the consultation and we agreed that it would be better to release it to avoid further problems (it's a pretty simple surgery)
Mediocre. About the visa, they told me that they would help you get a medical visa if you need to stay longer. But since that is not an option I will ever take, I did not ask any further. You should ask dr B about it, although he will not stop your lengthening just because of time reasons, he told me that
Yagen. You are lucky to have no pain. I also think unilateral lengthening is way easier to handle, like, my left leg is almost painless, but the right one that got the bleeding... Jesus, 90% of my pain comes from that leg. As for sleep, try oxycodine, normally after taking it it knocks me out for 2h, that's why I sleep in 2h fractions lol
I'm yet to discover how to upload photos and videos
this should help: http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=2183.msg35019
you can upload videos on YouTube and post the links here.
There you go, if you want anything specific let me know and I'll see if it's doable.
Hospital main hall
Some South Africa rands and chips (I found it interesting lol)
The PRECICE machine I use for distraction
My active knee flexion and scars
http://imgur.com/a/b1isE
The video thing seems more complicated, I'll look at it, but it's just me using an stationary bike, nothing impressive lol
EDIT: Images are huge, how can they be made smaller? Some admin can give me a hand? I'll just link the album so you can see them smaller until someone explains me how to make them smaller here
Great pics! Rands look very similar to canadian money..... and btw, your knee flexion is incredible, congrats!
Thanks for answering my previous question.
I wanted to know a couple of other things..... did you have to pay additional costs for the IT band release?
Also, I think you mentioned that your stay at the hospital was about 2 weeks....did you have to pay more because of your extended stay?
Lastly, did you inquire about renting a stationary bike to have in your apartment for the 3 months?
Could you post a picture of the side of your leg like the one you posted but including the entry point of the nail in the hip to get an idea of all the scars?
Another thing, why didn't you go with a European doctor, being from Central Europe?
Thanks in advance.
Ouroboros. Notes are quite funny for me coming from Europe, looks like monopoly money lol. Regarding the ITB release, no, I paid no extra money, dr B performs it routinely for bilateral precice as he told me.
Regarding the extended hospital stay, I prefer not to disclose it, since dr B will adapt to each case and for respect I prefer not to tell the arrangements we've done to that regard. Unless he himself wants to make it public if he reads this. Sorry about that. Anyways as I told you just have a couple of thousands if complications arise, you don't want to have no money with a serious complication!
I have asked Franz about the stationary bike yesterday actually, I'm still waiting his response, I'll write here what can be done. I couldn't find anything in the internet (if you find anything please let me know too).
Dingo. That's gonna be a compromising picture... But I'll see what I can do tomorrow. Bear in mind that there's still bruising around some scars.
The only viable option I'd consider in Europe would be Guichet, I truly don't think the other doctors are top level doctors or safe enough (like Betz's rate of complications). I was actually in contact with Guichet at the very beginning, when price was around 45k euros, but soon after he changed it to 60k without warning, and that's an amount I couldn't pay. So the only viable option, looking at safety and quality, was dr Birkholtz. I would never accept something worse for internals like India, Turkey and so on. Besides, Precice is considered the gold standard for femur lengthening (drG nail is limited to himself), so I was not going to risk my health with anything worse. Additionally, I'd never go to Paley since I can't be near god-like orthopaedic surgeons, I'm surrounded by too many of them every day at work.... (and he costs a fortune).
I'll just try to sleep for today, this f*cking pain is driving me crazy. I hope it'll stop at some point, or just give me a break...
Good toafroc 
how much surgey & 2 mounth in south africa ??
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