Hey all--I haven't posted here in a while, I've been busy with life and kind of put LL to the back of my mind, but it's still stayed in my mind. I was previously set on doing Precise or Guichet femurs, but as soon as the costs of that struck me, I started considering just external tibias. They appeal to me because:
*They're cheap (thinking of the Russian doctor who charges $8,000 USD for the surgery. That's peanuts for a surgery that can do so much for me.)
*Even with the pain, it just seems much less invasive and shocking than rods inside your femurs

Because of my modest height goals--and the dangers of overlengthening tibias--and wanting to leave some proportion room for doing femur lengthening in a few years if I want more height and have the money--and not wanting to spend forever in the frames, I've decided I'm going to be another one of those people aiming for only 2.5, 3 or 4cm at the most of tibia lengthening.

Yes, the lengthening would be small, but it wouldn't be nothing. 2-4cm is noticeable, and can be just as much as some people need to push them from inconfidence into satisfaction. In fact 3cm can bring someone who's short, but in the normal range from the 22nd percentile of men's height to the 41st percentile--which for all intents and purposes is "average." Possibly, I could combine it with temporary 1-2cm spine stretching (or that pelvic lengthening someone posted about), or even just wearing 1 or 2 cm lifts, to make my total gains quite close to what a conventional 5cm-6cm surgery would bring.

I'm wondering, again, what would the total time in frames likely be for that amount of lengthening? I had seen some rule of thumb a long time ago but I forgot and can't find it.
 And can anyone who has done similar amounts relate to how your body responds to mild lengthening such as this...are biomechanics even noticeably changed? Do the lengthened segments eventually feel completely "normal" on your body, like they belong?