I’m 5’6”ish—maybe 5’7” when I even out and about 205 pounds. I’m a thick build but consider myself about 20 pounds over where I should be...hopefully i’ll knock off some pounds during rehab! I have no idea what size nail they used.
Maybe they used 11.5mm https://www.nuvasive.com/procedures/featured-offerings/precice-stryde/ And that's why it's not recommended to full weightbear.
Days 13-14: This was an exciting day...did my first preop post surgery visit. I have corresponded via email but no in person visits until now. I went to a more local clinic yesterday to get X-rays though the X-ray tech wouldn’t let me see the images (grrrr) so I didn’t get to see anything until the visit this AM. At the time of the X-ray, I had done 6.5mm using the erc at home and the surgeon did 1mm in the hospital. Growth on the X-ray shows about 6.9mm so seems like everything is going as planned, possible that the bone osteotomy is the small difference. I still have very manageable pain...only thing that feels a little tight is my quads so I continue stretch them most. Somewhat relieved to have the photo evidence...you use the machine every day..... wrrrr, wrrrr, wrrrr, wrrrr, wrrrr...but without the xrays I was still a little nervous about “am I doing it right?” Phewwww...keep going...next in clinic visit on 10/14....projected to be at ~2cm by then so close to my end goal.
https://m.imgur.com/a/2S7pT7S
Quote from: bgreeneee on October 01, 2019, 05:41:02 PMHi Hamza—Styrde is fully weight bearable per design. My doctor as well as the distributor told me to play it safe and not push it... this is mostly just because it’s not as critical for a LLD patient since we still have a “good” leg. I have an appointment with the doctor today and will ask when he thinks he will release me for more weight bearing...but during the growth phase I’m not doing too much weight bearing. I assume it will depend on my bone consolidation in xrays. As I mentioned before, I do weight bear here and there as needed just moving around the house.
Also, just as an FYI for your situation, I asked the device distributor that I see for Stryde about nail failures in the previous versions prior to Stryde and he had only seen 1. He said the patient he knew of that had the failure ignored the weight bearing restrictions and was walking on the nail. He said the guy had an insanely high pain tolerance and did way more than he should have way too early. That gentleman had the nail removed/replaced and started again.
In my case I didnt walk on it untill Dr allowed me to do after 10 weeks on crutches and still the distraction was lost.
I think in my case the nail malfunctioned and very late union is due to nail instability ( 2 Dr s said that).
The surgery itself was successful also the lengthening process. when I started walking I had a great feeling as I felt balanced finally and without any insoles or shoes modification.
well my correction surgery with Dr Betz using solid nail is on the 10th of OCT.
Keep strong !! u will love the feeling when walking and forget everything that passed.
Day 17: Today will be ~11.5mm of growth which is about 1/2 way to my goal. There is some art with the science for LLD target growth.
First of all, it’s hard to get the exact difference with xrays...so every time I’ve had measurements they’ve been slightly different. I’ve heard anywhere from 3/4” to 1.1”....though I know it’s over an inch. The latest xrays had like 3/4” in the femurs and the remainder in the tibia which was new news for me but makes sense...looks like when my body shut down growth in the femur it also shutdown growth in the tibia and foot (my foot is a half size smaller). This makes perfect sense...an intelligent designer (God) would build this in to work that way to keep proportions in line.
Second of all, my body has adjusted to not a complete correction. For the past 20 years or so I have lifted my shoes 7/8” (~22.2mm). This has been sufficient but I felt a little short. The art was lifting the shoe as little as possible for my body since the lift adds weight and instability. So, if I go too much farther past 22mm I risk my body not liking it after 20 years of only this amount of correction.
What my doctor says is it’s up to me. So as I get close, each day will be “how do I feel?” If I were to speculate at this point, I think I stop around 24mm but time will tell. Ironically, this will make my femurs inequal (again) but I’m not touching my tibias for something so small so this makes the most sense.
In regards to how I feel now...I’m definitely sorer the past few days. I’m feeling the stretch in my groin which winces some when I use it and I’m tight and tender to the touch on the outside of my quad. It’s not unbearable but I feel like I’ve gone backwards some in terms of “recovery”...the reality is recovery doesn’t start for a couple more weeks when I stop growth.
Keep growing...turning on my erc now.
Quote from: bgreeneee on October 05, 2019, 05:25:10 PMDay 17: Today will be ~11.5mm of growth which is about 1/2 way to my goal. There is some art with the science for LLD target growth.
First of all, it’s hard to get the exact difference with xrays...so every time I’ve had measurements they’ve been slightly different. I’ve heard anywhere from 3/4” to 1.1”....though I know it’s over an inch. The latest xrays had like 3/4” in the femurs and the remainder in the tibia which was new news for me but makes sense...looks like when my body shut down growth in the femur it also shutdown growth in the tibia and foot (my foot is a half size smaller). This makes perfect sense...an intelligent designer (God) would build this in to work that way to keep proportions in line.
Second of all, my body has adjusted to not a complete correction. For the past 20 years or so I have lifted my shoes 7/8” (~22.2mm). This has been sufficient but I felt a little short. The art was lifting the shoe as little as possible for my body since the lift adds weight and instability. So, if I go too much farther past 22mm I risk my body not liking it after 20 years of only this amount of correction.
What my doctor says is it’s up to me. So as I get close, each day will be “how do I feel?” If I were to speculate at this point, I think I stop around 24mm but time will tell. Ironically, this will make my femurs inequal (again) but I’m not touching my tibias for something so small so this makes the most sense.
In regards to how I feel now...I’m definitely sorer the past few days. I’m feeling the stretch in my groin which winces some when I use it and I’m tight and tender to the touch on the outside of my quad. It’s not unbearable but I feel like I’ve gone backwards some in terms of “recovery”...the reality is recovery doesn’t start for a couple more weeks when I stop growth.
Keep growing...turning on my erc now.
Same for me as Dr Rozbruch picked up 10 mm, Dr Betz Picked up 14 mm and in my country they picked up 11 mm.
I decided to correct 10 mm despite that they r not all in femur.
Femur measurements alone showed 6 to 9 mm in 3 xrays done in 3 different countries.
My advice is to correct as much as the least XRAY showed.
The most important thing is to equalize your pelvis, small difference between knees will not affect Your walk.
From my experience with 18 years LLD patient I strongly believe that for an active person, any difference more than 3 mm may result in injuries and discomfort.
My correction surgery is on Thursday 10th. so i will keep u updated.
Day 19: I’ve hit a pain wall I haven’t experienced yet. I’m at about 13mm and this is the first time I’ve had to get out the stronger meds. The meds really don’t touch the sharp pain on the upper quad by the hip when I try to move, very intense. I’m just chilling moving as little as possible right now and hoping this passes. I was out all day yesterday...about 3 hours in a car and about 8 hours as a spectator at an event in a gym in bleachers. I felt fine yesterday but started to feel worse on the 1.5 hour drive home. After the erc last night I got worse and had a pretty rocky night with very little sleep. So maybe I overdid it, not sure...or maybe I’m just at a point where that muscle/soft tissue is aggravated a lot in that area.
Looking to the veterans for advice...do you have similar experiences? I’m more than 1/2 way to my goal which is a lot smaller of a target than most of you...is this a cycle in the process where certain muscle groups get aggravated and then it passes? Or do you have to live with pain in the same area for the entire journey or?? Do you grow through the pain and eventually your body catches up?
I really can’t even stretch right now...literally flat on my back trying not to move! Thanks for the advice....
Day 20:
PAIN:
The good news for me is that the upper quad pain is a LOT better compared to yesterday, almost non existent. I’m pretty tender and sore now in my outside quad mid thigh and towards the knee. So I still need to take caution when moving my leg around or I get a level 8 stab of pain. I feel like I’ve moved back about 2 weeks in regards to current function but I continue to grow so recovery is a moving target. Yesterday felt like day 2 with me needing a lot of assistance from my wife and son just to shift positions. There’s definitely more discomfort that goes with the erc in the past few days....so much so that I’m definitely watching it count up to 0.50 and anxiously waiting for it to end and then putting a heating pad on ASAP.
GROWTH:
I should be at about 14.5mm by end of day...only 1+ week remaining of growth. I got an X-ray today to check on progress. I don’t have a copy yet but saw it on the screen and the gap is widening, ugly and weird but exactly what I want to see! To the novice eye, looked to me like there’s the beginnings of the bone filling in as well.
SLEEP:
It’s sucked the last few nights. I’m pretty exhausted and I think I’ll be able to get some zzz’s. If not it may be time for another Ambien as I can’t go much more than 1 night without getting some decent sleep.
Day 22:
Growth:
I’m going to hit 16mm today. Somewhere ~6-9mm remaining until I can stop.
Pain:
Very happy that the pain has gone down the past few days. After 12mm it’s definitely been harder for me. Days 19-20 sucked...needed a lot of assistance from my family to move around. As of yesterday, I can now do leg lifts again and so have regained some mobility. The pain is higher now than it was before day 19...but I’ve adjusted and know how to deal with it. I think likely for the remainder of my growth, this pain level is the new normal. It’s not so unbearable that I need stronger pain meds (though i did on days 19 and 20)... I am back on Tylenol or Advil. It’s not constant pain but will stab me when I move certain ways.
New video up today here that summarizes a little more detail.
youtube.com/channel/UC3M6CaDHmoGXDoVOtWymJig/videos
Nice update. Keep going.
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