A Learning Experience- 6 CM (femurs) with Paley (Precise 2) 5.5 Years ago AMA

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Quote from: 6CMFemurs on October 30, 2021, 10:19:12 PMSo now I am 8 years post op and feel absolutely fantastic. My legs are strong and have a lot of stamina. I go on strenuous hikes 3-4 times a week as my primary source of exercise. I avoided running and jumping at 100% power for many years post-op, so I could preserve the nails still in my legs and lengthen the last inch. Once I found out that the nails no longer worked, I embraced strenuous activity and within a few months almost all of my athletic ability came back. I would say I have regained around 90 percent of my explosive ability and sprinting. My jumping ability is 95-100 percent what it was pre op. Most surprisingly of all I now walk faster and have more endurance hiking uphill than I ever did before. Pre-op I was in an elite combat unit in the Army, and I believe if I had to, I would be fit enough to do it all over again now. Not sure if there have been any studies on this, but I wonder if my walking speed has increased due to my proportionally long femurs?

To update my plans, in December I will be removing my femur nails and doing deformity correction/lengthening my tibias one at a time.

Hope this answered your question!

Hey 6cmFemurs, glad to hear from you. Appreciate your contribution to the community. Thanks for the update as well, good to hear about your success from this procedure. Wanted to ask you a few questions, feel free to answer and not answer whichever ones you want to or don't want to:

1. What made you avoid these forums for so long?

2. Anything you struggle to do today that you didn’t pre surgery or anything you miss before gaining 6 cm?

3. Do you feel that cll cured whatever made you feel the need to get it in the first place?

4. After going through cll 8 years ago what advice would you give someone who was going to go through this surgery 2021 expecting it to cure them of their height insecurities after they get their gains?

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Quote from: 6CMFemurs on October 30, 2021, 10:19:12 PMSo now I am 8 years post op and feel absolutely fantastic. My legs are strong and have a lot of stamina. I go on strenuous hikes 3-4 times a week as my primary source of exercise. I avoided running and jumping at 100% power for many years post-op, so I could preserve the nails still in my legs and lengthen the last inch. Once I found out that the nails no longer worked, I embraced strenuous activity and within a few months almost all of my athletic ability came back. I would say I have regained around 90 percent of my explosive ability and sprinting. My jumping ability is 95-100 percent what it was pre op. Most surprisingly of all I now walk faster and have more endurance hiking uphill than I ever did before. Pre-op I was in an elite combat unit in the Army, and I believe if I had to, I would be fit enough to do it all over again now. Not sure if there have been any studies on this, but I wonder if my walking speed has increased due to my proportionally long femurs?

To update my plans, in December I will be removing my femur nails and doing deformity correction/lengthening my tibias one at a time.

Hope this answered your question!

How did you determine your nails no longer worked?

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yes, after 8 cm femur my stride is not surprisingly longer (Stride length is far more dependant on Femur length than Tibia length) and hence my max walking speed (before breaking into a jog) is also higher , unfortunately for me i would say my endurance has dropped off, and the pain in my LKnee *TFL)  wears me down too, i have also noticed strong Ant Tibialis muscle swelling (both legs) when i walk too fast for too long (maybe 1 klm), this then begins to limit my ankle ROM and makes ascending/descending footpaths more difficult.

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Quote from: Stryde2021 on October 31, 2021, 02:15:02 AMHow did you determine your nails no longer worked?

I found a surgeon to remove the distal (bottom screws) and we tried retracting the nails inside my bone canals. Unfortunately they didn’t budge.

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hey 6CMFemurs

what do your surgery papers from Paley mention? bilateral LL?

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Quote from: pokemon go on November 01, 2021, 08:01:45 AMhey 6CMFemurs

what do your surgery papers from Paley mention? bilateral LL?

Bilateral femoral osteoplasty. I think stature lengthening was also mentioned in notes since my official diagnosis was “Constitutional Short Stature.”

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Quote from: 6CMFemurs on November 01, 2021, 03:03:21 PMBilateral femoral osteoplasty. I think stature lengthening was also mentioned in notes since my official diagnosis was “Constitutional Short Stature.”

Thanks

This may not apply to you, but hypothetically if you had to convince someone that you had some deformity surgery and not LL... if you showed that person the surgery letter they would immediately find out you had LL?

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Quote from: pokemon go on November 01, 2021, 03:59:48 PMThanks

This may not apply to you, but hypothetically if you had to convince someone that you had some deformity surgery and not LL... if you showed that person the surgery letter they would immediately find out you had LL?

Well no one would even understand the surgical notes and diagnosis unless they were a doctor, and even some doctors would be confused unless they were an orthopedist. For my second LL I am actually having deformity reconstruction. If you are doing purely cosmetic, I would just say you had osteoplasty of the knee or hip and if the person is really curious say that the angle or rotation of the bone was adjusted, and leave it that.

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Hey. Do you happen to know your speed for 100m dash? Are you still fast as pre-op or not really. Thank you.

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Quote from: Audous on November 02, 2021, 06:23:21 AMHey. Do you happen to know your speed for 100m dash? Are you still fast as pre-op or not really. Thank you.

I am probably a little slower than I was before at sprinting, but I’m fairly certain I am within the average range for a 30 year old man. But my case won’t necessarily be yours, these are factors you have to take into consideration too:

1) my primary form of exercise is hiking, walking, and other outdoorsy things, not sports that require a lot of sprinting. My cardio feels good and my legs don’t get fatigued as quickly as the other people I hike with. If I had spent these 8 years post-op dedicating myself to sprinting and basketball etc I have no idea if I would be, it just wasn’t my priority.

2) I still have the rods in. Some people swear they only felt fully recovered once they removed them.

3) I have an external tibial torsion deformity which effects my ability to push off. Even pre-op, I had a slow first step but then sped up after a few strides. I was never a zero to sixty in 3 seconds guy like your prototypical sprinter is.

4) I avoided high impact activities for many years post-op, to preserve the rods in case I wanted to relengthen.

I think if your primary goal is to sprint at 100 percent your pre-op levels and you dedicate yourself to that end, you will be able to achieve it. I have spent the last 8 years finishing college, grad school, traveling, and genuinely enjoying my life.