8cm on femurs - Dr. Mahboubian - Limb Lengthening Community

Member

Posts: 115

Joined: Feb 2018

Posted on Jul 11, 2018, 12:37 am

#101

Quote from: OverrideYourGenetics on June 15, 2018, 07:35:25 PMWow. Talk about traumatizing Thanks for sharing, and yeah, enjoy that "born again" feeling! Life-changing moment indeed.

Actually, 180 days after you get your H-1B, it's no longer tied to the company that brought you to the US. I was without a job for about half a year before I got my green card and everything was fine. Look up "AC21 portability" and "I-485 adjustment of status" for details.

Dr. Paley prescribes Xarelto 10mg for the entire duration of the lengthening + consolidation. I will have been on it for about 5 months, every day.

I wouldn't say that large bruises necessarily means something went wrong. Here are my thighs after the tibias surgery:

on h1b you can remain in the US without job for maximum 60 days (thanks to Obama, before that it was 0 days!!) so now way can you be on h1b and without a job for 6 months in the US, it would be illegal

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O

OverrideYourGenetics

Member

Posts: 359

Joined: Sep 2017

Posted on Jul 11, 2018, 2:48 am

#102

Quote from: 7231 on July 11, 2018, 12:37:10 AMon h1b you can remain in the US without job for maximum 60 days (thanks to Obama, before that it was 0 days!!) so now way can you be on h1b and without a job for 6 months in the US, it would be illegal

What I said about H-1B isn't contradicted by what you said (which is correct, in the strict sense of being without a job as an H-1B without having filed for anything else towards getting a green card). Perhaps I should've been clearer than just suggesting you look up AC21 and I-485 adjustment of status: if you file for that and get an EAD, you can be out of a job and still legally remain in the US. Again, I've done, and then got my Green Card.

Another major concern for foreign nationals who have lost their jobs during the green card process is maintaining lawful status after their employer lays them off. If you have already filed the I-485 application, you are in “authorized status,” and losing your job – in and of itself – does NOT automatically jeopardize your status.

[...]

The EAD allows you to work for any (or multiple) U.S. employers without requiring the employer to file an H-1B petition (or other work visa petition) on your behalf. Remember, once you have a new employment offer, you may qualify for “porting” under AC21

- http://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/us-immigration/laid-off-before-get-green-card.html

PS: please quote only the relevant portion of a post when replying. The image of my bruises had nothing to do with immigration matters

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M

Movie

Member

Posts: 134

Joined: Jul 2017

Posted on Jul 25, 2018, 8:23 pm

#103

Crazy Log bro! glad you're still here with us and got your height neurosis successfuly taken care of in the end !

any updates?

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J

JohnOdin

Member

Posts: 271

Joined: Jul 2018

Posted on Jul 31, 2018, 2:13 am

#104

hey fallen, i hope your recovery is going well! if i could ask what is your wingspan? i checked your gait video and you still look AMAZINGLY proportional after 7cm! thx

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M

MirinHeight

Member

Posts: 99

Joined: Nov 2017

Posted on Sep 28, 2018, 11:34 am

#105

Quote from: fallen774 on June 14, 2018, 01:02:16 AMAlright guys, I thought it thoroughly and I think it's ok for me to disclosure what happened, and it hopefully will help someone to not do the same.

On May 14th, Monday, I went back to work. I thought I was prepared for the social anxiety, for dealing with people looking at me, but I actually wasn't. I wasn't much productive on my first few days back at work, but my whole team (which is essentially a suborganization within a company in the software engineering world) was extremely supportive. The FMLA could give me a medical leave of up to 16 weeks, but it was a personal decision to take 6 weeks. Actually, the initial idea was to take only 2 weeks of leave, work 2 weeks from home and then go back to work. But if you guys read my posts, you know that there were a couple complications along the way. My plan to go back to the Bay Area by the end of April went downhill when I realized my right leg was still in a lot of pain and swollen, and I felt safer being closer to the doctor.

Although some days I'd wake up in a better mood, I tried to get work done but I guess my seratonin levels were very low. The first month of the surgery just drains your whole energy. Or, at least, it drained mine. So, I went back to work and I couldn't produce much, but I felt VERY guilty that an elective surgery would impact my performance. I felt bad for being unproductive to my team and to my coworkers. I know it was all in my head. I talked to my manager and she was extremely complacent with the situation. They would even tell me that I could work from home a couple of days in the week. But despite all this, I still felt guilty. So what I did? I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist and got ADHD medication. Those pills are used by teenagers and adults with ADHD and I felt I could benefit from that since my attention span was f*cked up after 1 month and a half away. Not only that, I also got prescribed Xanax (Alprazolam), as a short-term solution for my anxiety. Apart from that, I was also taking opioids. If you know something about psychotropic medications interaction, you can already guess the sh*t I've done.

Let's go: my productivity became GREAT. I was able to focus and code and give insights on meetings. I felt like super-man during the day, lol. So by Friday, May 25th, I was completing 2 weeks back to work and I was feeling great. My nerve pains (which I've been having since the beginning of May) were unnoticeable. I couldn't stop talking. I felt happy about the smallest things. But none of this was natural. I was actually completely disturbed and couldn't even notice. By Sunday, May 27th, I had a mental breakdown. My anxiety was so high that I could feel my chest burning cold. I took an opioid and a Xanax, and then went to the pool. Trust me, this is the first time in my life I'm dealing with such medications and I was COMPLETELY ignorant of their side effects and interactions. I'm not saying I was innocent and I can take all the blame on what happened, but what I'm trying to say is that I didn't do anything on purpose, I was completely disturbed and trying to get better. When I got to the pool, I started feeling I was going to faint. I remember closing my eyes involuntarily and waking up seconds later, several times per minute. It was non-stop. I went up again and drank a bunch of water, and told my mom that I was afraid that I would close my eyes and not wake up again. That was honestly the feeling that I was having and the words I used.

Night came, I did the procedure and went to sleep, nothing major happened so far. At 4AM on Monday, May 28th (Memorial Day), I woke up with the same feeling that I would close my eyes and not wake up anymore. And what I did next was the most stupid thing someone can ever do, and I'm completely aware of the sh*tty thing I did. I went for yet another opioid and Xanax, and went back to sleep. Both pills depress your respiratory system. When you mix them together, the toxic threshold lowers down closely to the therapeutic dosage. While I slept, my respiratory system stopped working. I closed my eyes and didn't wake up. I aspirated during sleep. Prior to having a cardiac arrest, I made a very weird noise with my mouth at around 6:30AM. I know that because my mom told me -- she heard it from across the apartment and came to check on me. When she found me, I was pale, with colorless lips, drooling and not breathing. She started pushing me and screaming at me to wake up but I was completely out, unconscious, no pulse. She doesn't know English, she doesn't have a SIM Card here and she didn't know or have a way to call 911, so she went to the balcony and started screaming for help. I was very, very, very lucky. I had a neighbor who happened to be a nurse and was swimming in the pool (AT 6:30AM!!!), and she heard my mom's call for help (and she was also screaming the apartment number). She came running to help me, along with a guy that turns out works at the same Company as I do, and she started doing CPR on me. She did it for about 3 minutes until my pulse came back, but I was still unconscious. By the time the firemen, police and ambulance arrived, everybody thought I'd go in vegetative state. 8 minutes without oxygen in your brain is enough for you to have irreversible brain damage. They put me in the cot and took me to the ambulance. About five minutes away from the hospital, I regained consciousness. So, on my timeline perception, last thing I remembered was going to sleep, and then waking up aching in pain in the ambulance. A bunch of people asking me if I tried to commit suicide -- no, I didn't. I went to the emergency room and more doctors came and asked me the same thing. I wasn't able to answer with words because I was 100% dependent on the breathing machine, my lungs were full of liquid. I was feeling so much pain on my legs, and I was at some hospital I hadn't been before and had to explain them the surgery I had on my legs. They did a ultrasound on me and found one blood clot in each leg, the one on the right leg being larger.

Some doctors said that the reason for my respiratory system to have failed during my sleep is that some pieces of the blood clot might've gotten loose and went to my lungs, causing pulmonary embolism. Some other doctors think that it was because of those medications interactions. In any case, I was hospitalized for 3 days. For the first 26 hours or so, I couldn't drink or eat a single thing. I was just on saline and antibiotics. It was a nightmare, I never thought I'd say this but it was way worse than the thing that happened on my 5th day post-op when I went to the emergency thinking I'd lose my right leg.

As soon as my mom told my dad about that, he bought a ticket all the way from Brazil and arrived here 1 day after this whole thing. He helped me a lot too. At the same time, I was feeling so guilty, once again. This time, for f*cking up things and causing that much trauma to my parents. I know my mom saved me and I can't even imagine the trauma she experienced, finding me like that, screaming for help, going to the hospital without knowing if I made it there dead or alive. Being interrogated in a foreign language if her son tried suicide, and at the same time crying and worrying if I was gone for good (they wouldn't let her come with me in the ambulance).
I don't want to talk much about that week but I received a visit from coworkers and friends, and I wouldn't have the guts to tell it was because I f*cked up, because I was relying on pills to be able to go through this hard process and at the same time keep my productivity at work very high, while keeping my anxiety away. Completely selfish and stupid and I'll take sometime to forgive myself for that.

As a follow-up, I'm taking blood thinner (Xarelto) again, but now on a way higher dosage (30mg for 15 days, 20mg for 75 days). I also stopped taking the medications I was taking. The doctors at the hospital were really good and understood my whole situation. The only thing I felt bad for (that is, if I can actually feel bad about anything) is that I asked my doctors confidentiality regarding the LL. One of the doctors assured me that it was completely confidential and nobody would know about this. Next thing I know is hearing a couple of people (some nurses and nurse assistants) saying: "he was taking Norco, but it's reasonable, he went through limb lengthening, it must be very painful". I know this is nothing important and I won't even complain, just keep in mind that some people might not take your confidentiality request seriously. I know it was a hospital, but as far as I know, only the doctor needed to know about this, because he/she is the one prescribing the treatment.

Anyways, today has been more than 2 weeks since all of this. I'm getting better. This is the first time that I'm openly talking about this. I'm trying hard to overcome and forget what happened. I know I was that close to not coming back, or coming back with irreversible sequels, but somehow I got a second chance, and I really have to make it count. Some of you might judge me for keeping doing the procedure even after this, and I won't blame you. Sometimes I catch myself doing the same, wondering if I'm crazy for doing that. Makes you think about priorities, right? But I'm rational. I know that the procedure is fairly safe, and the only correlation one can make with what happened is that if I hadn't done the surgery, I wouldn't be taking the pills. Period. But I did the surgery and I could handle the medications initially, until I went back to work and started pressuring myself, which caused this mental break down. I caused this to myself and I know how to learn from my mistakes, and nothing like this will ever happen again. So that's why I will keep doing it. I've been through a lot and I overcame every obstacle. This was like the boss-obstacle lol, I can't imagine things going more wrong.

And I can at least take a few positive things from this. If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't know about the blood clots and wouldn't be treating them. I wouldn't have the help of my dad that was necessary despite this episode; I'm on the final stage of the procedure and was really a nerve wreck. I wouldn't know how dangerous these medications are, and I could do it again in the future, but without anyone around to save me. Things could go terribly wrong but they turned out fine, no sequels, apart from the memories that will take some time to go away. Finally, I'm feeling great. I'm not taking any pills and my productivity is high again. I'm feeling happy and motivated. I wouldn't be able to write that much if I wasn't. I'm excited about the upcoming weeks, about the consolidation phase. I'm looking forward to returning my life back to normal, about going back to the gym, going out with friends, going out on dates. I'm confident that things will only get better from now on.

i know this is old, but I just read all of this, and you ending up in the hospital definitely had to do with the drug interaction. You can easily unintentionally overdose on opiods. and mixing them with benzodiazepines is a fatal mix. Read this: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20170315/opioid-painkillers-and-xanax-or-valium-a-deadly-mix-study#1

Of all fatal overdoses from narcotic medications, nearly 30 percent also involved benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, Klonopin and Valium, the researchers said.
When patients take benzodiazepines along with narcotic painkillers such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin, the mix lowers the threshold for an overdose, said Sun. He is an assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University.

i do not even know why you were or are taking opiods. You shouldn't need such strong pain medication that is easily abused and leads to thousands of deaths per year.

furthermore from: https://www.fds.org.au/images/Benzos.pdf
Problems associated with benzodiazepine abuse may include:
PHYSICAL PROBLEMS
• Organ damage
• Collapsed veins and poor circulation
which can lead to amputation of
limbs
• Cellulitis (red, swollen, infected skin)
• Stroke
• Thrombosis (blood clots)
• Endocarditis (heart infection)
• Vertigo
• Liver damage.

you need to be smarter about all of this. And this is a lesson for everyone to always ask your doctor about drug interactions and/or if you should even be taking these strong medications post orthopedic surgery. Hope you have a good recovery bro

Edit Post

Quote from: fallen774 on June 14, 2018, 01:02:16 AMAlright guys, I thought it thoroughly and I think it's ok for me to disclosure what happened, and it hopefully will help someone to not do the same.

On May 14th, Monday, I went back to work. I thought I was prepared for the social anxiety, for dealing with people looking at me, but I actually wasn't. I wasn't much productive on my first few days back at work, but my whole team (which is essentially a suborganization within a company in the software engineering world) was extremely supportive. The FMLA could give me a medical leave of up to 16 weeks, but it was a personal decision to take 6 weeks. Actually, the initial idea was to take only 2 weeks of leave, work 2 weeks from home and then go back to work. But if you guys read my posts, you know that there were a couple complications along the way. My plan to go back to the Bay Area by the end of April went downhill when I realized my right leg was still in a lot of pain and swollen, and I felt safer being closer to the doctor.

Although some days I'd wake up in a better mood, I tried to get work done but I guess my seratonin levels were very low. The first month of the surgery just drains your whole energy. Or, at least, it drained mine. So, I went back to work and I couldn't produce much, but I felt VERY guilty that an elective surgery would impact my performance. I felt bad for being unproductive to my team and to my coworkers. I know it was all in my head. I talked to my manager and she was extremely complacent with the situation. They would even tell me that I could work from home a couple of days in the week. But despite all this, I still felt guilty. So what I did? I scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist and got ADHD medication. Those pills are used by teenagers and adults with ADHD and I felt I could benefit from that since my attention span was f*cked up after 1 month and a half away. Not only that, I also got prescribed Xanax (Alprazolam), as a short-term solution for my anxiety. Apart from that, I was also taking opioids. If you know something about psychotropic medications interaction, you can already guess the sh*t I've done.

Let's go: my productivity became GREAT. I was able to focus and code and give insights on meetings. I felt like super-man during the day, lol. So by Friday, May 25th, I was completing 2 weeks back to work and I was feeling great. My nerve pains (which I've been having since the beginning of May) were unnoticeable. I couldn't stop talking. I felt happy about the smallest things. But none of this was natural. I was actually completely disturbed and couldn't even notice. By Sunday, May 27th, I had a mental breakdown. My anxiety was so high that I could feel my chest burning cold. I took an opioid and a Xanax, and then went to the pool. Trust me, this is the first time in my life I'm dealing with such medications and I was COMPLETELY ignorant of their side effects and interactions. I'm not saying I was innocent and I can take all the blame on what happened, but what I'm trying to say is that I didn't do anything on purpose, I was completely disturbed and trying to get better. When I got to the pool, I started feeling I was going to faint. I remember closing my eyes involuntarily and waking up seconds later, several times per minute. It was non-stop. I went up again and drank a bunch of water, and told my mom that I was afraid that I would close my eyes and not wake up again. That was honestly the feeling that I was having and the words I used.

Night came, I did the procedure and went to sleep, nothing major happened so far. At 4AM on Monday, May 28th (Memorial Day), I woke up with the same feeling that I would close my eyes and not wake up anymore. And what I did next was the most stupid thing someone can ever do, and I'm completely aware of the sh*tty thing I did. I went for yet another opioid and Xanax, and went back to sleep. Both pills depress your respiratory system. When you mix them together, the toxic threshold lowers down closely to the therapeutic dosage. While I slept, my respiratory system stopped working. I closed my eyes and didn't wake up. I aspirated during sleep. Prior to having a cardiac arrest, I made a very weird noise with my mouth at around 6:30AM. I know that because my mom told me -- she heard it from across the apartment and came to check on me. When she found me, I was pale, with colorless lips, drooling and not breathing. She started pushing me and screaming at me to wake up but I was completely out, unconscious, no pulse. She doesn't know English, she doesn't have a SIM Card here and she didn't know or have a way to call 911, so she went to the balcony and started screaming for help. I was very, very, very lucky. I had a neighbor who happened to be a nurse and was swimming in the pool (AT 6:30AM!!!), and she heard my mom's call for help (and she was also screaming the apartment number). She came running to help me, along with a guy that turns out works at the same Company as I do, and she started doing CPR on me. She did it for about 3 minutes until my pulse came back, but I was still unconscious. By the time the firemen, police and ambulance arrived, everybody thought I'd go in vegetative state. 8 minutes without oxygen in your brain is enough for you to have irreversible brain damage. They put me in the cot and took me to the ambulance. About five minutes away from the hospital, I regained consciousness. So, on my timeline perception, last thing I remembered was going to sleep, and then waking up aching in pain in the ambulance. A bunch of people asking me if I tried to commit suicide -- no, I didn't. I went to the emergency room and more doctors came and asked me the same thing. I wasn't able to answer with words because I was 100% dependent on the breathing machine, my lungs were full of liquid. I was feeling so much pain on my legs, and I was at some hospital I hadn't been before and had to explain them the surgery I had on my legs. They did a ultrasound on me and found one blood clot in each leg, the one on the right leg being larger.

Some doctors said that the reason for my respiratory system to have failed during my sleep is that some pieces of the blood clot might've gotten loose and went to my lungs, causing pulmonary embolism. Some other doctors think that it was because of those medications interactions. In any case, I was hospitalized for 3 days. For the first 26 hours or so, I couldn't drink or eat a single thing. I was just on saline and antibiotics. It was a nightmare, I never thought I'd say this but it was way worse than the thing that happened on my 5th day post-op when I went to the emergency thinking I'd lose my right leg.

As soon as my mom told my dad about that, he bought a ticket all the way from Brazil and arrived here 1 day after this whole thing. He helped me a lot too. At the same time, I was feeling so guilty, once again. This time, for f*cking up things and causing that much trauma to my parents. I know my mom saved me and I can't even imagine the trauma she experienced, finding me like that, screaming for help, going to the hospital without knowing if I made it there dead or alive. Being interrogated in a foreign language if her son tried suicide, and at the same time crying and worrying if I was gone for good (they wouldn't let her come with me in the ambulance).
I don't want to talk much about that week but I received a visit from coworkers and friends, and I wouldn't have the guts to tell it was because I f*cked up, because I was relying on pills to be able to go through this hard process and at the same time keep my productivity at work very high, while keeping my anxiety away. Completely selfish and stupid and I'll take sometime to forgive myself for that.

As a follow-up, I'm taking blood thinner (Xarelto) again, but now on a way higher dosage (30mg for 15 days, 20mg for 75 days). I also stopped taking the medications I was taking. The doctors at the hospital were really good and understood my whole situation. The only thing I felt bad for (that is, if I can actually feel bad about anything) is that I asked my doctors confidentiality regarding the LL. One of the doctors assured me that it was completely confidential and nobody would know about this. Next thing I know is hearing a couple of people (some nurses and nurse assistants) saying: "he was taking Norco, but it's reasonable, he went through limb lengthening, it must be very painful". I know this is nothing important and I won't even complain, just keep in mind that some people might not take your confidentiality request seriously. I know it was a hospital, but as far as I know, only the doctor needed to know about this, because he/she is the one prescribing the treatment.

Anyways, today has been more than 2 weeks since all of this. I'm getting better. This is the first time that I'm openly talking about this. I'm trying hard to overcome and forget what happened. I know I was that close to not coming back, or coming back with irreversible sequels, but somehow I got a second chance, and I really have to make it count. Some of you might judge me for keeping doing the procedure even after this, and I won't blame you. Sometimes I catch myself doing the same, wondering if I'm crazy for doing that. Makes you think about priorities, right? But I'm rational. I know that the procedure is fairly safe, and the only correlation one can make with what happened is that if I hadn't done the surgery, I wouldn't be taking the pills. Period. But I did the surgery and I could handle the medications initially, until I went back to work and started pressuring myself, which caused this mental break down. I caused this to myself and I know how to learn from my mistakes, and nothing like this will ever happen again. So that's why I will keep doing it. I've been through a lot and I overcame every obstacle. This was like the boss-obstacle lol, I can't imagine things going more wrong.

And I can at least take a few positive things from this. If it hadn't happened, I wouldn't know about the blood clots and wouldn't be treating them. I wouldn't have the help of my dad that was necessary despite this episode; I'm on the final stage of the procedure and was really a nerve wreck. I wouldn't know how dangerous these medications are, and I could do it again in the future, but without anyone around to save me. Things could go terribly wrong but they turned out fine, no sequels, apart from the memories that will take some time to go away. Finally, I'm feeling great. I'm not taking any pills and my productivity is high again. I'm feeling happy and motivated. I wouldn't be able to write that much if I wasn't. I'm excited about the upcoming weeks, about the consolidation phase. I'm looking forward to returning my life back to normal, about going back to the gym, going out with friends, going out on dates. I'm confident that things will only get better from now on.

i know this is old, but I just read all of this, and you ending up in the hospital definitely had to do with the drug interaction. You can easily unintentionally overdose on opiods. and mixing them with benzodiazepines is a fatal mix. Read this: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20170315/opioid-painkillers-and-xanax-or-valium-a-deadly-mix-study#1

Of all fatal overdoses from narcotic medications, nearly 30 percent also involved benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, Klonopin and Valium, the researchers said.
When patients take benzodiazepines along with narcotic painkillers such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin, the mix lowers the threshold for an overdose, said Sun. He is an assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University.

i do not even know why you were or are taking opiods. You shouldn't need such strong pain medication that is easily abused and leads to thousands of deaths per year.

furthermore from: https://www.fds.org.au/images/Benzos.pdf
Problems associated with benzodiazepine abuse may include:
PHYSICAL PROBLEMS
• Organ damage
• Collapsed veins and poor circulation
which can lead to amputation of
limbs
• Cellulitis (red, swollen, infected skin)
• Stroke
• Thrombosis (blood clots)
• Endocarditis (heart infection)
• Vertigo
• Liver damage.

you need to be smarter about all of this. And this is a lesson for everyone to always ask your doctor about drug interactions and/or if you should even be taking these strong medications post orthopedic surgery. Hope you have a good recovery bro

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F

fallen774

Member

Posts: 316

Joined: Dec 2017

Posted on Oct 29, 2018, 8:02 am

#106

Hey guys.

Sorry for the disappearance. Its true what all the other veterans say -- after a while you want to move on and forget about this once and for all. In my case, the hardest memories still lingered for a while. My story had quite of a significant repercussion, but it had a good outcome. Long story short is that one of the people responsible for helping on that morning became a terrific friend, and asked me if he could post about it. The reasoning for the post is that he wanted to tell people the benefits of taking CPR classes. He would avoid any mentioning of names, but at that point, I wasn't ashamed of publicly acknowledging that I went through this cardiac arrest caused by bad medication interaction.

His post got tens or hundreds of shares, and many people reacted positively to it, signing up for CPR classes. Since this forum is public and what I described here matches what he shared, some people identified me and messaged asking if I was fallen774 and if I would be willing to meet up to tell a little bit more about the journey, which I gladly did. I'm more than happy to help people in any way I can, even if just by sharing my journey. The preparation phase, the first few weeks of unbearable pain, the unforeseeable stumbling blocks which may appear in the way, the help you will need from others, and the discipline required for a smooth recovery.

Early in September, I had my last follow-up with Dr. M. I flew to Burbank and took the last set of X-Rays. My bones are fully consolidated, and I'm about to schedule the removal of the rods. He wants to do it in January, but I'll probably postpone it to March — my family will be visiting me, and I want to align things with their visit so that when they leave, my mom will stay and help me out with this last phase. She's very insistent in wanting to be here to help.

After that last visit, I stopped my PT sessions, and am slowly going back to the gym. I don't feel any pain for quite a few months now, I recovered almost all of the sensation on my lower left leg, and I'm able to run and do exercises without any limitation. But quite frankly, I'm trying to prioritize other things in my life right now, so I haven't gotten back to my previous weight. For the first time in my life, I'm just fine with my body. I go to work or go out to dance, and I just don't get overwhelmed with the thoughts of others judging me or thinking less of me anymore. I don't think this is a result of the surgery itself, but of the mental (and possibly spiritual) maturity that you will gain after going through this, even if you believe you already are mature enough. After going through so much, you finally learn to give the proper importance to things in life. And no, I'm not saying that because "it's easy to say after I already gained a few inches.". I'm now more skinny than ever and would have the same motives to keep thinking others are judging me by my lack of muscles, but these distorted thoughts don't cross my mind anymore.

I'm thrilled with how I am, and I'm in no hurry to change, and if I ever do want to change anything again, it'll be for me, not others. You are probably tired of reading this on veterans diaries, but its the pure truth: only do this if it's for yourself. If you do it for others, you might still be unhappy when you realize that not much changes in how others treat you. But if you do it for yourself, you'll treat yourself better, and this will have a significant impact on your social life as well. It all boils down to giving the proper value to yourself, and only then you can expect others to value you too. But it's a tough journey. Think carefully. Ask the right questions. Don't feel ashamed of asking for help, because you will need it.

Enough with motivational phrases. I want to thank everyone here for all the words of support and also this forum for the fantastic people it enabled me to connect with, both online and in real-life, such as LAGrowin, short2tall, OverrideYourGenetics and others who I met through private messages. This community is incredible, and this forum is a fantastic source of information, so take the most out of it. As I'm moving on with my life, this story will slowly fade away for me but will lie here so others can benefit from it. I'm focusing on other things in my life now, and will probably show up very rarely, but feel free to PM me whenever you want, since I get notified via e-mail, and I'll be more than willing to answer any questions you may have. I'll probably post an update in about six months, after my rods removal surgery. Until then, I wish an incredible journey to all of you who will go through it.

I'll end this post answering the question that I most get asked: do I regret? No, I don't, not a single part of it, not even the wrong things I did. I don't regret it because I sincerely believe the outcomes of it went beyond the judgments to an actionable follow-up by many people that might, indirectly, have saved and will save lives. Take CPR classes :-)

And as promised, here's a before/after comparison pic with a friend of mine who's 5'7: https://imgur.com/a/RC9IasC

Over and out.

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Hey guys.

Sorry for the disappearance. Its true what all the other veterans say -- after a while you want to move on and forget about this once and for all. In my case, the hardest memories still lingered for a while. My story had quite of a significant repercussion, but it had a good outcome. Long story short is that one of the people responsible for helping on that morning became a terrific friend, and asked me if he could post about it. The reasoning for the post is that he wanted to tell people the benefits of taking CPR classes. He would avoid any mentioning of names, but at that point, I wasn't ashamed of publicly acknowledging that I went through this cardiac arrest caused by bad medication interaction.

His post got tens or hundreds of shares, and many people reacted positively to it, signing up for CPR classes. Since this forum is public and what I described here matches what he shared, some people identified me and messaged asking if I was fallen774 and if I would be willing to meet up to tell a little bit more about the journey, which I gladly did. I'm more than happy to help people in any way I can, even if just by sharing my journey. The preparation phase, the first few weeks of unbearable pain, the unforeseeable stumbling blocks which may appear in the way, the help you will need from others, and the discipline required for a smooth recovery.

Early in September, I had my last follow-up with Dr. M. I flew to Burbank and took the last set of X-Rays. My bones are fully consolidated, and I'm about to schedule the removal of the rods. He wants to do it in January, but I'll probably postpone it to March — my family will be visiting me, and I want to align things with their visit so that when they leave, my mom will stay and help me out with this last phase. She's very insistent in wanting to be here to help.

After that last visit, I stopped my PT sessions, and am slowly going back to the gym. I don't feel any pain for quite a few months now, I recovered almost all of the sensation on my lower left leg, and I'm able to run and do exercises without any limitation. But quite frankly, I'm trying to prioritize other things in my life right now, so I haven't gotten back to my previous weight. For the first time in my life, I'm just fine with my body. I go to work or go out to dance, and I just don't get overwhelmed with the thoughts of others judging me or thinking less of me anymore. I don't think this is a result of the surgery itself, but of the mental (and possibly spiritual) maturity that you will gain after going through this, even if you believe you already are mature enough. After going through so much, you finally learn to give the proper importance to things in life. And no, I'm not saying that because "it's easy to say after I already gained a few inches.". I'm now more skinny than ever and would have the same motives to keep thinking others are judging me by my lack of muscles, but these distorted thoughts don't cross my mind anymore.

I'm thrilled with how I am, and I'm in no hurry to change, and if I ever do want to change anything again, it'll be for me, not others. You are probably tired of reading this on veterans diaries, but its the pure truth: only do this if it's for yourself. If you do it for others, you might still be unhappy when you realize that not much changes in how others treat you. But if you do it for yourself, you'll treat yourself better, and this will have a significant impact on your social life as well. It all boils down to giving the proper value to yourself, and only then you can expect others to value you too. But it's a tough journey. Think carefully. Ask the right questions. Don't feel ashamed of asking for help, because you will need it.

Enough with motivational phrases. I want to thank everyone here for all the words of support and also this forum for the fantastic people it enabled me to connect with, both online and in real-life, such as LAGrowin, short2tall, OverrideYourGenetics and others who I met through private messages. This community is incredible, and this forum is a fantastic source of information, so take the most out of it. As I'm moving on with my life, this story will slowly fade away for me but will lie here so others can benefit from it. I'm focusing on other things in my life now, and will probably show up very rarely, but feel free to PM me whenever you want, since I get notified via e-mail, and I'll be more than willing to answer any questions you may have. I'll probably post an update in about six months, after my rods removal surgery. Until then, I wish an incredible journey to all of you who will go through it.

I'll end this post answering the question that I most get asked: do I regret? No, I don't, not a single part of it, not even the wrong things I did. I don't regret it because I sincerely believe the outcomes of it went beyond the judgments to an actionable follow-up by many people that might, indirectly, have saved and will save lives. Take CPR classes :-)

And as promised, here's a before/after comparison pic with a friend of mine who's 5'7: https://imgur.com/a/RC9IasC

Over and out.

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C

c

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Posts: 406

Joined: Aug 2017

Posted on Oct 29, 2018, 9:39 am

#107

I wish you all the best. Is it helpful to stretch before surgery?

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F

fallen774

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Posts: 431

Joined: Dec 2017

Posted on Nov 15, 2018, 1:22 pm

#108

Quote from: Chinese Actor on October 29, 2018, 09:39:29 AMI wish you all the best. Is it helpful to stretch before surgery?

Hey Chinese Actor. Definitely if you have been doing stretch exercises for a long time, so your muscles are more loose and it'll get tighter later than what usually happens with people that don't stretch. However, stretching a month or two before the surgery won't do much of a difference, but it won't kill as well. I didn't do any stretching and I recovered just fine and regained all my flexibility

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M

myloginacc

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Posts: 400

Joined: May 2018

Posted on Dec 5, 2018, 7:03 pm

#109

Thank you for that final post.

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fallen774

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Posts: 433

Joined: Dec 2017

Posted on Apr 15, 2019, 5:43 am

#110

Hi all,

As promised, I'm making one last update after removing the rods. My surgery was last week, April 4th, 1 year after putting those rods on my legs (April 5th 2018).

The surgery went great. I was already walking without assistance on the same day. When walking I would feel a minor pain on the hips but that's it. I went to my Airbnb which was on the second floor in a building with no elevator, and I could go up and down easily. It honestly feels that my flexibility is already better -- it was like 90% before and now it feels like 95%. Maybe the rods were indeed a limitation factor. Rest assured that being 90% or 95% instead of 100% don't affect absolutely anything in my life. When I estimate those numbers it's basically based on my ability to touch my toes with my fingers. Most people with or without the surgery wouldn't have it 100% anyways.

Today is my 10th day post-op and the pain (if I can even call that pain after what I've been through last year) is all gone. I'm back to my routine, already got back to the gym yesterday for upper body training and already returned to work. The only limitations he gave me is that I can't run for the first 6 weeks, and can't do sports such as soccer or basketball for the first 3 months. After that there is no limitation. Even though right now it feels I can run and do anything, I'll follow what he said and will wait a couple more weeks before getting back to lower body weight lifting.

This surgery is 100 times easier than the first one, but try to do it 1 year or 1.5 year after the initial procedure. Dr Mahboubian did two rod removal surgeries on the same day. I was the first one on that day, scheduled for 7:30am and the other was scheduled for 10am. On my follow up appointment he said he was glad that I went first, because my surgery only took 45 minutes on each side, but the other person had the rods for 4 years, it took 2 hours on each side and the surgery was way more complicated (he didn't give much more details besides for that).

I'm happy I'm over with this part of my life and it has already started to fade away from my mind. I barely think about it and I've moved on with every part of my life. I'm even married now and I honestly couldn't be happier.

I hope this journal will help future CLL'ers and now this is the real final post. Good luck!

Edit Post

Hi all,

As promised, I'm making one last update after removing the rods. My surgery was last week, April 4th, 1 year after putting those rods on my legs (April 5th 2018).

The surgery went great. I was already walking without assistance on the same day. When walking I would feel a minor pain on the hips but that's it. I went to my Airbnb which was on the second floor in a building with no elevator, and I could go up and down easily. It honestly feels that my flexibility is already better -- it was like 90% before and now it feels like 95%. Maybe the rods were indeed a limitation factor. Rest assured that being 90% or 95% instead of 100% don't affect absolutely anything in my life. When I estimate those numbers it's basically based on my ability to touch my toes with my fingers. Most people with or without the surgery wouldn't have it 100% anyways.

Today is my 10th day post-op and the pain (if I can even call that pain after what I've been through last year) is all gone. I'm back to my routine, already got back to the gym yesterday for upper body training and already returned to work. The only limitations he gave me is that I can't run for the first 6 weeks, and can't do sports such as soccer or basketball for the first 3 months. After that there is no limitation. Even though right now it feels I can run and do anything, I'll follow what he said and will wait a couple more weeks before getting back to lower body weight lifting.

This surgery is 100 times easier than the first one, but try to do it 1 year or 1.5 year after the initial procedure. Dr Mahboubian did two rod removal surgeries on the same day. I was the first one on that day, scheduled for 7:30am and the other was scheduled for 10am. On my follow up appointment he said he was glad that I went first, because my surgery only took 45 minutes on each side, but the other person had the rods for 4 years, it took 2 hours on each side and the surgery was way more complicated (he didn't give much more details besides for that).

I'm happy I'm over with this part of my life and it has already started to fade away from my mind. I barely think about it and I've moved on with every part of my life. I'm even married now and I honestly couldn't be happier.

I hope this journal will help future CLL'ers and now this is the real final post. Good luck!

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8cm on femurs - Dr. Mahboubian

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