+6 cm tibia LATN with dr. Dimitrios Giotikas

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@morningstar, how is your consolidation going, any new update buddy ?

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Hello, sorry guys for a pretty long silence. I’ll try to update even after a few years, but for sure updates will be more and more rarely. OK, so let’s go.

Consolidation? I have only six weeks old X-rays and they looked good. So now should be even better. But I am pretty lazy to go for the X-rays now. Maybe I’ll check after one more month.

Walking? I’ve been walking unsupported for 1 month now but still I haven’t regained my walking gait yet. I have to admit that I was a little wrong when I was thinking at the end of the January that "in one more month I’ll be almost perfect". I can walk almost normally but I have to be warmed up and use 1,5 cm lifts. Without lifts I still can’t fully reach the ground with both bare feet in the same horizontal line and with 50% of weight on each leg (if I put at least a little more weight on one leg, then I easily reach the ground fully). Especially difficult in the mornings just after the sleeping. I need around 5 minutes of warm up before starting to walk because calves are very stiff in the mornings. I can easily climb up the stairs and a little bit more difficult to climb down. A little strange, but after a long walk my legs aren’t tired but feet become very tired, even painful. Maybe wearing some antiballerina shoes at night would help to get rid of this slight ballerina faster but I value good and comfortable sleeping more than a fast removal of this ballerina.

Permanent knee pain? No knee pain.

Reaction from others? I’ve heard a comment for at least a few times: "strange… You look taller than before… But maybe I haven’t seen you for a long time and I don’t remember…", haha.

Was it worth? Without any doubts - yes. Even with my extremely difficult recovery. If I am not living my dream life now, so at least closely. I’ve bought Porsche (instead of one more LL, haha), I date taller girls (I just say that I am after the injury). Everything is going well.

Would I do it again? I would definitely do LL again. But maybe femurs, not tibias. Since I’ve realized that you can do more centimeters on the femurs and they are easier to recover albeit longer tibias look better. Still I am happy.

Best regards to all brave men and women who already did, are doing or will do LL

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Hi Morningstar, thanks for your diary!

Can I ask why you did tibia instead of femurs?

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Quote from: Issun-Boshi on March 21, 2022, 10:25:16 PMHi Morningstar, thanks for your diary!

Can I ask why you did tibia instead of femurs?
Hi. Because when I've done my choice, Giotikas provided only LATN.

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Thank you for your pointing the importance of finding an apartment with no entrance stairs.

I wonder how did you manage to climb up/down those stairs while sitting on a wheelchair?
- Do you stand up, climb up/down the stairs with your legs, and then grab the wheelchair by hand?
- Or you simply climb up/down the stairs while sitting on the wheelchair?

I will have my surgery in Athens in several months. I hope I can figure out these important details before the surgery so that I will face less problems during my lengthening in Athens.

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Morningstar, glad to know you're doing okay. Are you still doing any stretchings now? do you feel that your flexibility is back to pre-op without doing any stretch or do you need to stretch often now just to keep flexibility? Any estimate on when you think you'll get back to normal gait?

Cheers and again congrats on finishing lengthening

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Hey, folks!

@FreedomFighter first of all, I was in a wheelchair for a very short period of time. Most of the time I was walking with a walker. Second - I was hiring a nurse to help me. Anyway, if you feel pain or you are uncomfortable to climb down the stairs, one of the easiest technique is climbing down on your ass. Yes, it looks a little bit embarrassing, but at the same time it’s very effective. Just sit on the ground and go down on your ass step by step. Later sit to the wheelchair with a help of your hands  or a help from the nurse.

@canterk thank you! Yes, I’ve bought simple slant board from the Amazon and I am trying to stretch everyday. It really helps a lot. Of course, sometimes I forget to do that.  No, my flexibility is not at the pre-surgery level. Now I can touch the ground with both feet so more or less I’ve overcome ballerina but that means that my dorsiflexion is at 0 degrees. I need to continue stretching to be able to push my heels lower. Actually, when I am with a shoes my walking gait is already normal. I will make a video in a few weeks. When I am with a bare feet it’s still not perfect. Also I can’t walk in a normal pace for a very long time. Maybe 2-3 km. Later my legs become tired. I hope that will increase in time. Also one little problem - when I sit for example for 20 minutes or more, then I standup, I have to stand for about 10 seconds before starting to walk. Of course, I can walk immediately but then my first 4-5 steps look strange, like with a gelatine legs. Seems like muscles become relaxed and they need some tension before starting to walk. And still I can’t run.

Regards

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Any updates?

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Did You lengthen exactly 6 cm?? Which is your height now?

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Hello folks,

Almost a year passed from the first surgery. I still have only old X-Rays (from the February). Every week I think: "this week I’ll really go into hospital to do new x-rays", but every week I am too lazy. How I am in general? More or less very good.
 
From the good things: I have no ballerina, my normal walking gait has returned, my feet pain has disappeared, I can walk pretty fast and long distances (maybe around 10 km now), even after sitting for a few hours there is no problem to walk immediately, I can even go to the club and dance, haha.

From the bad things: I can run very slowly, in the mornings my legs are still stiff for a few minutes, I can jump very little (actually I afraid to try more). The main bad thing: despite normal walking, my legs are weak as hell comparing with the normal legs. I tried to do leg press in a gym with 40 kg (which is a pathetic weight), so I was able to do 10 reps but with an effort. Another example: I was standing and kissing a girl and I lean a little bit towards her (I put my weight in front of the legs). And she said: "relax, your legs are shacking", lol Of course my legs were shacking because of the muscle weakness.

Was it worth it? Without any doubts YES. I am living my best life. Yes, I sacrificed my athletic abilities, but I don’t care. I am not a professional athlete. Maybe one day my legs strength will return but even if no, then all good.
BUT. I have to warn all of you who plan to do that. Only now I’ve started to understand how fuc*ing complex it is. And how lucky I am. Maybe not the luckiest one but far better than the unluckiest one. I’ve seen one guy dead. I’ve seen one person almost crippled (non-union) (if you are reading this I really hope you will heal, just don’t lose the hope, stay strong). I’ve seen so much pain from myself and the others. Yes, I didn’t understand before how complex it is and what a lottery I am trying to play. And maybe that’s good because otherwise I wouldn’t have been brave enough to go through all this. I’ve won my lottery but there is also a pretty big change of losing it, even with a skilful and experienced surgeon (I am not even talking about the butchers from the third world countries). Sometimes your body just acts how it wants and no science can explain that.

The highest: I’ve added 6,1 cm. Now I am around 177 cm.

Regards

P. S. Sorry, I still haven’t made my walking video. I’ll try to do that until the end of the summer.