Oct 16, day 31: I woke up with bad knee pain (left knee). It hurt when I bent it. PT taped my knee to help support it. The pain was gone in the afternoon, but I will still leave the tape on until the skin becomes itchy.
Oct 17, day 32: I can’t believe one month has passed... I finally stopped taking any pain meds today!
Quote from: SuchLL on October 18, 2020, 08:12:50 PMOct 16, day 31: I woke up with bad knee pain (left knee). It hurt when I bent it. PT taped my knee to help support it. The pain was gone in the afternoon, but I will still leave the tape on until the skin becomes itchy.
Oct 17, day 32: I can’t believe one month has passed... I finally stopped taking any pain meds today!
Wow no pain meds at all? Or just no prescribed pain meds/opioids?
Quote from: BelowTheMean on October 19, 2020, 12:50:16 AMWow no pain meds at all? Or just no prescribed pain meds/opioids?
Ya no pain meds at all!
SuchLL can you give us an update on your walking/mobility?
好的 祝福你
Hey SuchLL, glad to see your off the meds!
I'm a soon to be SW engineer as well and was wondering if the 3 months you took off work were important or can I continue to wfh while doing LL?
Quote from: Stryde2021 on October 20, 2020, 04:27:04 PMSuchLL can you give us an update on your walking/mobility?
I walk with a cane. I can also walk without any support but it’s not recommended.
Quote from: small on October 20, 2020, 08:41:48 PMHey SuchLL, glad to see your off the meds!
I'm a soon to be SW engineer as well and was wondering if the 3 months you took off work were important or can I continue to wfh while doing LL?
I see several people wfh after 3 weeks so I’m sure you can do it, but I think it’s best to just take 3 months off if you can. Working will make the whole process harder.
Oct 21, day 36: I started to feel a little numbness in some areas of my left lower leg. Numbness is one of the symptoms of nerve damage... I probably need to ask for meds for it.
Oct 23, day 38: I had my second x-ray today. Everything looked great. I mentioned the numbness to the doctor. Today I also started to feel pins and needles in my left lower leg when I kept left leg straight. The doctor sent me gabapentin and suggested slow down the lengthening. He said I could keep 1 mm a day, but he had one patient who still had numbness in his lower leg two years after lengthening. Since I’m only at 3.1 cm, I don’t want to slow down to make the whole process longer. I’ll keep 1 mm a day and consider slowing down if the nerve pain gets worse.
Nov 6, day 52: The nerve pain didn’t get worse or better in the last two weeks. I’m not sure if gabapentin works for me, but I didn’t slow down since the nerve pain didn’t get worse and it’s tolerable. Today I had my third x-ray and it looked great. During the appointment I mentioned that I can’t keep my back straight when my legs stay close. The doctor said it’s called duckass... I had duckass since the first day after the surgery. I didn’t know it’s called duckass. I’m not sure if my duckass is getting worse during lengthening but it’s not getting better. I asked the doctor what caused the duckass and he said it’s because my TFL is tight... The funny thing is... I mentioned the duckass problem to my PTs several times during the lengthening process and none of them gave me the correct answer. Some said my hamstrings were tight, some said my IT bands were tight, and some just couldn’t explain it after seeing me so flexible. I can still do 90+ degree hamstring stretch that some PTs can’t even do. My IT bands were not bad either since I couldn’t feel good stretch on my IT band. Today it’s my first time hearing TFL... I know it’s probably weird to see people who are flexible everywhere except TFL, but I’m still disappointed by the Paley PT team. I had appointments with at least 7-8 different PTs from his team, and none of them found that my TFL was tight even after I told them about my duckass... The doctor suggested slow down lengthening at the end of the appointment again. He thinks I won’t hit 8cm based on what he saw today (nerve pain and really tight TFL). I was angry but too tired to say anything. I paid for PT, I had duckass since the first day after the surgery, I let several PTs know about my duckass, and none of them found my tight TFL. My very flexible hamstrings, quads, hip flexors were kept getting stretched, and my really tight TFL was never stretched. Then I was told that I wouldn’t hit 8 cm.
Nov 9, day 55: I felt my duckass was already improved by 50% after stretching my TFL just for 3 days!! My butt and TFL feel tight when I fight duckass, but I’m able to keep my back much more straight! I feel my TFL was probably “dead” and it’s activated now. Besides TFL everything else is still super flexible. The nerve pain is almost gone too. I still have numbness but the area is getting smaller. I will finally hit 5 cm tomorrow wow
Glad to hear that you are feeling better after stretching TFL. I just googled about TFL. I did not know TFL before reading your post. Thanks for sharing this with us.
If I understand correctly, TFL is the muscle connect to IT band and pelvis. Paley will do IT band release for all femur patients. But its is wired that none of PTs stretch muscles in this area for you.
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