Long John Silver in the Orient - Dr Xia

Edit Post

That's cool how you visited Guahgzhou and immersed yourself in the culture first.  China was completely new to me and I didn't know ONE WORD of the language when I got to the hospital.  How did you first meet Lisa?

LOL @ the cigarette thing; that happened to me a bunch of times too.

Too bad it's just you and the Swiss guy as far as international patients go.  Wish they'd lower their prices back to 2007 levels.  But I'm sure you'll make plenty of Chinese acquaintances while you're there.

It's good to hear you're doing well so far.  Hope things keep going well for you.

Edit Post

Wait what...? Didnt you say in an earlier post that you already had a girlfriend? Lol. Or did you mean online girlfriend or do you have both a real girlfriend and an online one, if so, nice!!

Edit Post

I'm doing LATN and the cost for 4 months is 25,000 Euro. Although USD $33,000 has been advertised it is whatever the dollar equivalent depending on the daily posted Beijing rates is. So for me I got good rates on the dollar because I tracked for months and transferred foreign currencies as well as making a size able deposit to the hospital in advance to hedge against rate fluctuations.

Edit Post

Rather than attend Chinese classes in my hometown I discovered a Chinese girl who was teaching mandarin over Skype for $20 per hour. She introduced me to Lisa who she went to university with and who had broken up with her Chinese boyfriend.

Over the course of several months Lisa and I skyped regularly and became good friends. I found her extremely attractive but also saw her as a friend and talked to her like I would my little sister. I also thought she was much younger as she dressed like a pretty teenager.

I planed to visit both Lisa and my tutor 3 months after the operation but had advice from MDOW that I may not be that able bodied at that stage. So I decided to spend a 2 week holiday before the operation and Lisa met me when I came through customs.

For the first week we spent loads of time together as friends And although I found her very sexy I did nothing. I think I grew on her as she felt safe and laughed a lot at my bad mandarin. Although I lost a lot of weight and have a flat stomach I don't have a great body (no abs) and am average looking.

There was strong chemistry and we held hands and hugged and on the Saturday night after dinner and a couple of SWAN beers she came back with me.

The rest of the second week we were intimate every night and morning so leaving after the second weekend was difficult.

I've exchanged two emails with Lisa since coming to Beijing but I feel things will Peter out.

I have a girlfriend at home who I love and adore and miss terribly.  This thing just happened.

Edit Post

That brings me back to when I spent a week in Beijing as part of a language program and ended up hooking up with a waitress next door each night. Man those were fun times

Edit Post

I slept really well on my first night at Yanda International Hospital and was awoken by the nurse for my blood sample. My room mate had told me where the canteen was so I went alone for a huge breakfast of eggs, soup and breadrolls with meat and veg inside.  I went  back to my room and was soon taken down for heart monitoring and x-rays. I returned to my room again and this time Ronne was waiting for me. She looks after the international patients and we had communicated a lot over the previous six months so it was good seeing each other finally. Ronne and I discussed again my requirements and sorted out financials and other stuff, including how I could Make use of the hospital gym during my stay. As a martial artist I explained my need to also keep my upper body fit and strong. Tomorrow when the medical results are available we are to meet the famous Professor Xia for the consultation.

Edit Post

Lol you better hope your girlfriend doesnt stumble on here and read those posts  But since she knows nothing about your surgery, I think you're good, carry on

Could you also ask if they'll do externals only instead of LON/LATN and if so how much would it cost?

Edit Post

Yes, you don't have to have nails and can continue to consolidate at the hospital for an extra $1,500 per month or go home and consolidate for as long as you like and come back for frame removals.

I've been given the option to Not have nails inserted.

Edit Post

Wednesday morning and as usual I'm awake at 6am and starving , however the canteen doesn't open until 7am.  I do my morning stretches, calisthenics, pushups and isometrics and head into the bath room to smarten up for my consultation with Xia.

I forget to tell you folks that I met two chinese patients in the room beside the empty next room and had a chat about their experiences.  The skinny one is already 6 on his tibia and the stockier one is almost 4 on his femurs.   Neither have English names so I can't pronounce/ remember their names yet. However the femur guy painted a dim picture of the whole femur lengthening experience compared with tibia and explained it is more painful, restrictive in bed and sleeping , takes longer to recover and other stuff.   He had also done tibia lengthening 4 years previously.

I also discovered from my X-rays that my discrepancy spread across both femur and tibia and either way would be an improvement but not total perfect alignment.

Edit Post

So externals only is the same price as LON/LATN? China does seem more expensive now than all those years back when it was like the Nissan GTR in that it was the bargain of the century. With $33,000 or so I could do the entire lengthening and consolidation phase(9-10 months) in either India or Russia and stay at a hotel or hospital respectively... Where as China is an extra $1,500 a month on top

Still a decent price for LON/LATN I guess