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

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Quote from: 6CMFemurs on November 02, 2021, 07:26:33 AMI 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.

Wow thank you for the analysis!

I've got a few more if you don't mind.

You said that sprinting 100 percent pre-op is possible but would this be possible if lets say I lengthened 2 segments with a total of 11cm?

Do you feel pain when sprinting or walking for a certain period of time and would this be linked to the surgery or simply because you're tired.

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Quote from: Audous on November 02, 2021, 09:21:26 AMWow thank you for the analysis!

I've got a few more if you don't mind.

You said that sprinting 100 percent pre-op is possible but would this be possible if lets say I lengthened 2 segments with a total of 11cm?

Do you feel pain when sprinting or walking for a certain period of time and would this be linked to the surgery or simply because you're tired.

From these questions you are asking me, it seems like you have a lot of anxiety about returning to 100 percent. I wish there was a magic number I could give you of how much you could lengthen, but this is impossible on my end. The same way that people fret about every millimeter changing their proportions. I would look at it this way if I was in your shoes…. You have never reached 100 percent of your athletic potential. Every second you spend on this forum, is another second you could be training or working with strength coaches and dieticians to reach that athletic peak. Yet you are ok not achieving this 100 percent potential, because everything in life is a trade off. This surgery is a trade-off too. Maybe if you get it done and spend the same time you spent thinking about it training, you can get back to where you are now. Maybe you will be a tad less athletic in some ways, but shift your focus to building strength and stamina and excel in other ways or at other sports. If you go to a reputable doctor at a good hospital you will probably be guaranteed to gain back almost all of your day to day function and the rest will be up to you. My gut tells me that once you get this done or decide not to and focus on some other aspect of your life, you will quickly get over this anxiety.

I have some very minor hip pain related to the surgery and some patella-femoral pain from my torsional deformity (not related to the surgery). The hip discomfort seems to be near the proximal screws so we will see if that goes away when I take the nails out. I feel like my stamina is better than ever tbh, I don’t feel more easily tired when walking/running at all post-op.

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At what point after surgery did you feel that these are your healthy legs you can rely on to do 100% normal activities without getting tired, fatigued, aches and that your legs are not inferior in health to any normal persons.

there is the physical aspect but also there is the mental aspect of gaining confidence that even though did something out of the ordinary you're perfectly healthy. The mental aspect obviously comes later and thats what I'm asking of.

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I have also read how people describe that their legs don't feel "normal" as before. Is this how you feel? In other words, if the memory of your LL was erased, would you suspect something was off with your legs?

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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!

Why did u wait 8 years to remove nails?

I thought staying within 8 cm would mean full recovery.

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@Antonio: I will be removing nails one at a time starting  in February as I do each tibia, so yes 8 years. Doctor wants me to have a fully “good leg” for each side.