My Experience So Far- External Monolateral - Dr Mitkovic

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So weird and confused in the preliminary, but you are happy about it now?

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I have everything under control now so yeah I'm pretty happy but it's been stressful.. I've had to do a lot of work myself to ensure that my legs are lengthening without having bad Mis alignments .. If I had have just sat back and not stressed about anything I don't know how bad my legs would be right now.. I've had to work out how many degrees my legs can afford to be bent back during lengthening from what they originally were before the operation, to ensure I have normal functionality at the end.. I've had to do geometry on my x rays and compare them to geometry of my x rays from before the operation just to ensure my legs are staying within those certain degrees.. I've also had to tweak the device a little bit to prevent the pins from causing these mis alignments.. These are things that I didn't think I'd have to be doing.. Once my lengthening phase has been finished (1 more week) and my legs are how I want them then I'll be much more relaxed.

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Friday 22nd May - According to my lengthening chart, I should have gained my desired amount of 4cm. I went and got a full Xray and had it measured on the computer using there highly accurate system. Just under 4.1cm. Such a relief that i had now finished the lengthening phase. As alignments go my right leg was about 1-2 degrees which is no problem. My right leg was about 4 degrees. The doctor came saw the Xray and and said he will come back tomorrow and put the correction bar on.

Saturday 23rd May - The doctor came and installed the bar. It will be slowly corrected over the next few days by tightening some bolts which he will perform daily until fully corrected(probably until Monday.)

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Congrats on overcoming ur distraction phase. Post some pictures , itd b great.

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are you going home for consolodation, and if not, why not?

when you mention about getting a hospital to clean your pin sites, would it not make sense to get doctors to come to your residential home, or would you say I should go to the hospital weekly to get this done.

also about the patients that left after 6 months, why did they not leave after 4 months, did they stay for the first month or so of consolodation and got bored, or is it safer to stay for the first month or two of consolodation for another reason.

also about removal of the device, it reads on the page 'After that time external devices are removed without new surgery' so if that is easily done could you maybe get that done in your local hospital, and is this something special that may make this a better option than external.

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You wanna stay at least the first 2-3 months incase something goes wrong.. I'm staying here the entire time.. It's cheaper and easier.. It's boring as but this is a once in a lifetime sacrifice and when ur not walking u can't do much anyway.. The guy that left after 9 months was completely healed and had the devices removed.. There was another guy here for 4 months and he had to return home for personal reason and is planning on returning later to have devices removed etc.

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Sunday 24th may.. Doctor came and put correction device on my left leg to correct the alignment.. The top segment of my tibia was creating a bump that you could see on the front of my shin..the correction device Did absolutely nothing to be honest.. I knew as soon as he put it on that it wasn't goin to work.. I asked him if my leg stayed like this would It effect my functionality at all.. He told me 100% that it won't and that the correction was purely just aesthetics so I didn't have a bump on my shin... He also told me that eventually over the next few years the bump would go away.. I thought screw it just leave it.. I can live with a bump for a few years.. And only I'll ever notice it..

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is their no pain in the consolodation phase?

do you know of any cases where people returned home and got the device removed at home.

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You can go home during consolidation.. Just need to make sure you have a good setup for being able to go to the toilet, have a shower etc. and u have to make sure u do do all ur stretching and walk a little bit with the walker everyday..  The consolidation phase is pretty much 5-6 months of physio to regain muscle ad flexibility to your new legs..

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The pain is low during consolidation but walking is exhausting.. And the process is slow, so you have to be patient. The best way to deal with it is to film yourself walking each week so u can see the improvement. It's a battle of mental strength and seeing progress gives you a whole lot of determination. The way I see it is each week is going to be easier than the next.. If you don't slack off and make sure that every single  day u do the appropriate stretching and walking than the closer u will be back to normal functionality once your bones are strong enough to have the frames off.. Frames can be taken off by yourself..