The consultation was 30 minutes on the DOT, and it was the most expensive 30 minutes of my life of $200.
Cost for Surgery and Nail:
$45,000 USD for Precise Internal Femur
$15,000 for External Tibia.
He doesn't have STRYDE nails.
No flexibility on costs. Yes, I asked.
I really didn't want to do this consultation because all of the questions I already knew the answers to because the answers could be easily found online but it seemed like it was a requirement if you wanted to do the surgery at all.
Here are some of the answers from Parihar himself:
1) Would the consultation fee count towards surgery?
A: No
2) Which would be preferred regarding recovery and safety? Internal Femur or LON Tibia?
A: Internal Femur is "state of the art, the best", and so the preference would be for Femur.
3) Does the bone healing duration compare from external to internal?
A: They are roughly the same. But I would say the femur might possibly be faster. This is because there is much more Vascular Tissue surrounding the femur and this may perhaps cause quicker healing in the femur. But this difference is nothing crazy and definitely not months.
4) Is it possible to get surgery in another hospital?
A: No, because they are too far away and this type of surgery requires frequent visitations from doctors. We are working on developing a new facility but this will be in the future.
5) I understand you don't do externals on femurs, but I see that lots of other doctors do. What do you think about such methods?
A: There are just too many complications that occur in external lengthening on the femur because there is so much muscle around it. It is never worth it and therefore I will never do externals on femurs for cosmetic purposes.
6) Do you need a Medical Visa or could someone come with a tourist visa and extend it?
(I asked this question because I'm not sure how someone would get their doctor to sign off on Cosmetic Limb Lengthening in the US. Sounds crazy to convince a doctor.)
A: Medical Visa is definitely necessary and we never had a patient that came on a tourist visa.
7) LON Knee pain has been commonly discussed. Is this avoidable?
A: LON Knee pain is more theoretical in my personal opinion. In our facility, we are frequently putting nails for trauma pains and I would know if knee pain was ever an issue as it would come up much more. I'm not convinced about knee pain, and I don't think research has enough evidence to support this. It probably isn't a practical issue but more a theoretical one. 
Risk of infection, what do you do the mitigate risks?
A: There is always less than 1% theoretical risk for any surgery. Not just limb lengthening but all surgery. We minimize this risk by standard methods that are applied by all hospitals not just in India but in the states as well. We take all the safety precautions necessary to minimize all possible infection risks.
9) Fat Embolism, do you prescribe any blood thinners or Xarelto?
A: I don't prescribe any medication, just take precautions during surgery. We also stay very vigilant throughout the lengthening process to keep a high suspicion of complications.
10) Do you still hold the same philosophy of "function over length"?
A: Yes, that is why I keep a hard limit of 6cm in tibias. Let's say for example I have a 99% success rate and a 1% failure rate. For that 1% of that patient, it is basically a 100% failure rate as they are experiencing all the fails. It is important to be cautious, rather than being adventurous.
None of these were burning questions, and since not a lot of people had questions to ask him (on my post before requesting questions), I just asked questions that I thought were most relevant in under 30 minutes.
Quote from: 2020hope on December 14, 2020, 04:41:18 PMThanks questpeanut.
Did you decide for or against going to him after the consult?
The consultation literally made no difference to me. I did all my research before talking and I've been set on Parihar for a while.
The biggest concern for me is the Visa Situation. How in the world do you convince your doctor to sign off on something as crazy as cosmetic limb lengthening? Like Kilokhan was able to barely squeeze their way to do it but I can't begin to imagine talking to my doctor about this. I might have to switch doctors for this because I can't bear to tell him about this.
Quote from: Medium Drink Of Water on December 14, 2020, 10:51:16 PMNo.
I could be wrong here, but I think the answer is "yes" if you need a medical visa?
Quote from: KiloKAHN on December 14, 2020, 11:27:01 PMMost hotels have discount rates for long term stays. I was at a 3-star hotel for the discounted rate of $1,500 a month ($50 daily).
Hey Kilokhan, I can't thank you enough for always giving good information.
One of the things I worry deeply about is food poisoning. I cannot think of a more TERRIBLE experience than getting food poisoning when you are in the beginning stages of limb lengthening. Food poisoning in India is nothing to f**k around with. If you do a simple google search about stomach viruses in India, there are very scary stories about “Delhi Belly” and even at worse case, dysentery.
I think if anyone is thinking of doing LL in India, this is a very high concern because the pain from this might be seriously dangerous combined with your broken leg's healing. Imagine being day 2 into LL and you have uncontrollable diarrhea and vomit.
I understand that you yourself got food poisoning during your LL Journey but you say it's not from the hotel food but from the bad ice cream. And luckily you got it before you had surgery.
1) You must have been eating mostly the hotel food for the many months you were there. Was the hotel food you were eating mostly vegetarian? I heard that avoiding meat is necessary to be safe.
2) Did you take any extra precautions with your food and water? Some people don't even trust bottled water in India and only boil water to brush their teeth or drink.
Quote from: KiloKAHN on December 15, 2020, 03:31:14 AMI think everyone coming into India ultimately gets a stomach virus at some point or another though, and I was lucky to have gotten it before the surgery. It was recommended that I take probiotic pills to help reduce the risk, and my doctor at home gave me some anti-malarial medication and some other things just as a precaution before entering the country. The stomach pain knocked me on my ass for a few days, but once I was over it I never had an issue again.
Last question, how long were you eating and drinking before you got the virus? Was it weeks or months after you got to India? I'm planning to purposely get food poisoning by eating dirty food early so that I don't suffer during my first days of LL.
Quote from: KiloKAHN on December 19, 2020, 05:43:22 PM
We use baby aspirin (81mg) twice a day after surgery both
in the hospital and as an outpatient until the end of
the distraction phase...
Strangely enough, I just got an email clarifying a lot of these things. I honestly find it very strange that this email came today. It took a month to get my consultation and the majority of the responses were unenthusiastic 1 or 2 sentences from Divya Ahuja. I send an email after consultation and there was absolutely no response for almost a week.
Now out of the blue, Parihar himself answers me for the first time and gives me a detailed response that is 3 paragraphs long. Also, he changes his policy so that the consultation fee is adjusted to the surgery fee.
I mean, I'm not complaining. I wanted to go with Parihar all along. But it feels like someone linked him to this thread or something because I don't understand the sudden change in mood.
Quote from: Body Builder on December 20, 2020, 12:27:26 AMAlso I really don't care what Paley said about aspirin after internals instead of blood thinners.
Giving anticoagulants is the easiest and most risk free thing after a major surgery like LL.
Doctors who don't give them must be joking and I really don't care if Paley is one of them which is very sad though.
I always respect skepticism from your posts. There are many doctors such as Giotikas, Parihar, and etc who are praised in this forum because they are affordable yet experienced. However, you always seem to say they are not worth the price. I can always respect a skeptic's opinion.
But can you give me other doctors' names that you approve of? You never give alternative doctors.
Quote from: Body Builder on December 20, 2020, 12:27:26 AMAlso I really don't care what Paley said about aspirin after internals instead of blood thinners.
Giving anticoagulants is the easiest and most risk free thing after a major surgery like LL.
Doctors who don't give them must be joking and I really don't care if Paley is one of them which is very sad though.
I always respect skepticism from your posts. There are many doctors such as Giotikas, Parihar, and etc who are praised in this forum because they are affordable yet experienced. However, you always seem to say they are not worth the price. I can always respect a skeptic's opinion.
But can you give me other doctors' names that you approve of? You never give alternative doctors.
Quote from: SpeedDialer on December 20, 2020, 06:57:12 PMThanks!! If you were to do it again, what other precaution would you take against having stomach pain in India?
There is not much you can do. It's a risk you have to take and it's based on luck. Hopefully, you don't get vomit and diarrhea on the day after surgery.
Quote from: SpeedDialer on December 20, 2020, 10:49:03 PMNo foods are safer than others in Mumbai?
Obviously, they are but no guarantee. The only way to be a little safer is to go full vegetarian, and even then there can be lots of problems.
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