Walk looks 95% normal, proportions look completely fine. This has been a great journal and I congratulate you on your recovery. I understand that you’re disappearing; I myself only stick around to try and give people a version of your journal but with Precise 2.2. After I’m healed I will leave too, this forum draws some very strange and disturbed personalities and yet is a great resource for those who are at wits end with their neurosis and need guidance. Half the people here really are wonderful, but it’s easy to get neurotic around neurotic people. I understand entirely. If I stay after I hit 183-184 I will probably then get neurotic and try for 188 and that would be just dumb. But this forum can sometimes do that to you.
Again, you’ve been extremely helpful to me and others, and I’m extremely happy that you of all people look so good and walk so well after full recovery. Best of luck!
BelowTheMean – Stryde Femurs w/ Dr. Debiparshad – Nov 2020
Thanks, BTM - I’ll join in HobbitMan’s statements because I can’t say it any better. Thanks for sharing your journey and I wish you a long and happy tall(er) life! 😁
Proportions don't look off, keep at it with the squats and stretching! doing great for 8 months
good stuff
the walk is lil' bit off honestly, I feel like your one hand swings more than the other
squats are good. funny I always thought first you walk perfectly and then sqaut, but its all random irl 
but yeah good stuff, happy for you!
Hello BTM!
Glad to see your progress.
I am sure that very soon a day will come when you will have improved your walking so much that you will no longer think about surgery.
Your walk in this last video looks much better than in the previous ones, almost 100% normal.
I agree that the 6 months that many doctors promise to go back to playing sports and feeling like before is very, very optimistic and causes despair when you don't get it ...
I am in 6 and a half months and I still do not walk normally, I suppose it will take me another 2 or 3 months to be able to walk as before the surgery ...
I know that it is very likely that you will not visit the forum again for a long time but I give you all my support so that you continue to make an effort to recover completely because thanks to your diary and some others have helped me to focus on my recovery.
Thank you!!
I wish you good luck and I hope you continue to enjoy your new height, and every day you feel better and more convinced that you have achieved something very difficult.
Doctors help us by giving us the tools to grow, but the greatest effort and sacrifice is ours💪.
I'm sure that when you fully recover you will feel much stronger physically and mentally😉
Such a brilliant post ... And such a crazy update! Looks like in no time you will get back to normal!
Btw please dont abandon us! I dont know if anyone will say this....bt I really look up to you and you are an inspiration.... Would really be happy to hear from you now and then...!
Wishing you all the best for your further recovery!
Surgery Month +15, Consolidation Month +11
Hey everyone, I’ve been back on the forum for a little while and noticed it’s a lot less active here than it was back when Stryde was in its heyday so I thought I’d make a post. For some reason some of the forum functions don’t work for me anymore (links, videos, etc.) and some of the long posts are trimmed at the end so I’ll keep this post to text. As usual, I’ll cover what is most relevant to me at this stage in my recovery and I’ll answer any questions you might have. I feel like I have actually made quite a bit of progress lately, and just a few weeks ago I would have had a more pessimistic outlook on my recovery, but I'm feeling pretty good right now.
Walking: I would say that I’m pretty close to 100%. Sometimes if I’m not paying attention to my legs, my walk can deteriorate a bit, but I correct that as soon as I notice it. I definitely haven’t seen anything lately that would indicate that others were thinking that I had a weird walk. I can walk for pretty much any distance comfortably (though I haven’t tried more than 8km) and I’ve gone on quite a few hikes including some steep and muddy trails.
Running: Since I was cleared to run, I have had a ton of struggles trying to run due to pain in my femurs when my feet hit the ground. Recently I randomly tried running again and surprisingly didn’t have any pain. There was nothing that I did differently; I guess I must have suddenly just reached another level of recovery. I tested out my abilities and was able to “sprint” at 8.5mph on the treadmill briefly without any pain, so I plan to practice more going forward. I need to record a video of myself running though, because it feels weird when I run and I’m not very stable, so I need to see how bad my running gait is before I go run in public lol.
Weight Lifting: I’m actually in great shape right now even though I go to the gym infrequently due to a very clean diet. I've been working out my upper body completely normally for months and my strength is close to my past peak. Unfortunately, my lower body is still lacking a lot. Even though running doesn’t cause me pain anymore, squats still hurt. I can go through the motions pretty well, even with about 100 pounds on my shoulders, but my legs hurt so I’ve been taking it very lightly. I also haven’t been doing deadlifts because they hurt my legs as well and I end up using my back to compensate, which is dangerous. I don’t know how good my recovery is going to be here, but I will continue to take it slow. My knees weren't great even before surgery, so that doesn't help either.
Cardio: I’m not sure if it’s because I caught COVID last year or if it’s from LL recovery, but my cardio level is absolutely horrible. I can only run at a jogger's pace for a minute or two before my heart rate gets very high. I can’t even jog for a mile (1600m) right now, so that 9:00 mile goal I set over a year ago is nowhere near achievement. I think the closest I’ve gotten is a timed attempt on 800m and that took well over 6 minutes, and I had to slow down to a walking pace multiple times. (I could run a mile in under 5:30 before surgery). I still think I will eventually improve here, especially once my nails are out, but I really don’t know how long it will take at this point.
Sports: Surprisingly, I’ve been able to play sports that don’t require running quite well. For example, I can still shred down a black diamond in the Rockies. I haven’t tried skiing yet, but I imagine my level would still be just as good as before. I’ve also surfed a couple of times on the Pacific coast and it wasn't bad at all. I can swim both at the surface and with fins underwater no problem. For some reason my cardio issues aren’t as bad outside of running, so I can last for a while with other activities and I just need to rest a little bit more than before. Once I get more practice running and my running gait is normal, I’m definitely looking forward to playing other sports where I might need to run around and use agility.
Nerve Issues: For those who followed my journal, I had multiple bouts of nerve pain during lengthening and at the end of lengthening both my shins were completely numb. I would say that they have recovered slowly over time (with my shin nerves tingling and hurting a bit as they grew less numb), but out of nowhere a few weeks ago they suddenly jumped to about an 85% recovery. I’m pulling that number out of nowhere, but I have almost full sensation back in my shins. The biggest change was that I could finally feel the inside of my pants brushing against my shins normally like they used to. Now the only weird thing about my shins is that if I push hard on them I’ll notice that my skin is still a bit less sensitive to pain than before LL. I anticipate a 100% recovery here.
Physique:
My quadriceps are completely back and as just as thick as they used to be. From the front I look and feel like a beast in the mirror so I’m very happy with my body. However, on the other side my butt is still lacking a lot. It’s bigger than it was right after I finished lengthening, but nowhere near its former glory. I’ve started focusing on butt exercises in the gym. I think it will improve my stability in running and sports as well. Given how little I’ve focused on my butt in the gym, I think I can still get it back at some point if I work it out harder.
Dating: I’m dating a heightist and I don’t know how I feel about it. She is not even that tall, maybe a bit over 160cm. Due to this height stuff I’ve subtly prodded her to see how she feels about short guys and oh man it’s bad. One time she explicitly said that I wasn’t tall, but an “acceptable” height. I guess that's reasonable, but then because she didn’t think I would be offended if she insulted short guys, she went on a detailed tirade about how much she abhorred short guys, which was very offensive to me, but I didn’t want her to suspect anything so I had to keep a blank face. I can tell 100% that she would not be dating me at my original height. If she wasn’t hot as hell I would have dumped her already. I might break up with her soon anyway; I actually didn’t have a ton of chances to date after recovering from LL since I found her pretty quickly and I still want to play the field a bit with my new height. At my current height it’s noticeably easier to date both online and offline.
Social Aspects: A few people that I knew before surgery that I’ve seen a bunch of times have started questioning if I grew. I just continue to gaslight them and deny it and they don’t press much further. Otherwise, the pandemic was the perfect cover for me, and for most people (coworkers, distant friends, etc.) I didn’t see them for over two years so they didn’t have much to say when they saw me for the first time. Otherwise, my new height has no impact on my daily life. I don’t feel like I’m taller anymore and I feel like this is the height I have always been. Also, at some point I even realized that I stopped mentally comparing my height to other people out in public, like I used to right after I finished lengthening. I guess even subconsciously I don’t have anything to prove anymore.
Nail Removal: I’m currently researching nail removal options. Mentally I’m not in a huge rush to take them out since I don't think they're hindering me, but my X-rays look very solid and I don’t want to run into any Stryde lysis issues. I may have a chance to take a long break from work later this year, so I’m planning ahead to get them taken out around then. I will try to put together an update after I recover from nail removal.
Scars: Unfortunately my scars still haven’t faded. The scars near my knees are very dark and obvious and the rest are light, but still noticeable. Once I get the nails removed, I plan to get all the scars removed by laser as soon as I can. For now, the scars are a PITA because I can’t easily wear shorts around people that I don’t want to know about my scars, which is pretty much everyone I knew before surgery. I guess I shouldn't have just trusted everyone who said the scars would fade on their own.
Final Thoughts: Now that nail removal is in my sights, a big part of me is very excited to finally be done with this whole thing. It was an interesting experience for sure, and I don't regret it one bit. It gave me some serious introspection into my own brain, and in a way it feels like I took an epic adventure into what's possible with the human body. I can still happily report that I have absolutely no intention of doing my tibias. I think my current height is great, and even though many would not consider me "tall" I no longer feel that my height is limiting me in any way. I don't care about the numbers anymore and I don't care what others say about my height. Although I still have some physical limitations in my recovery, I've been able to do most of the activities that I love and go to the places that I enjoy. Overall, I have a pretty positive outlook on life right now, and it feels like LL both helped me unlock my potential and better helped me appreciate all the things that I already had.
Quote from: BelowTheMean on February 13, 2022, 06:02:34 AMSurgery Month +15, Consolidation Month +11
Hey everyone, I’ve been back on the forum for a little while and noticed it’s a lot less active here than it was back when Stryde was in its heyday so I thought I’d make a post. For some reason some of the forum functions don’t work for me anymore (links, videos, etc.) and some of the long posts are trimmed at the end so I’ll keep this post to text. As usual, I’ll cover what is most relevant to me at this stage in my recovery and I’ll answer any questions you might have. I feel like I have actually made quite a bit of progress lately, and just a few weeks ago I would have had a more pessimistic outlook on my recovery, but I'm feeling pretty good right now.
Walking: I would say that I’m pretty close to 100%. Sometimes if I’m not paying attention to my legs, my walk can deteriorate a bit, but I correct that as soon as I notice it. I definitely haven’t seen anything lately that would indicate that others were thinking that I had a weird walk. I can walk for pretty much any distance comfortably (though I haven’t tried more than 8km) and I’ve gone on quite a few hikes including some steep and muddy trails.
Running: Since I was cleared to run, I have had a ton of struggles trying to run due to pain in my femurs when my feet hit the ground. Recently I randomly tried running again and surprisingly didn’t have any pain. There was nothing that I did differently; I guess I must have suddenly just reached another level of recovery. I tested out my abilities and was able to “sprint” at 8.5mph on the treadmill briefly without any pain, so I plan to practice more going forward. I need to record a video of myself running though, because it feels weird when I run and I’m not very stable, so I need to see how bad my running gait is before I go run in public lol.
Weight Lifting: I’m actually in great shape right now even though I go to the gym infrequently due to a very clean diet. I've been working out my upper body completely normally for months and my strength is close to my past peak. Unfortunately, my lower body is still lacking a lot. Even though running doesn’t cause me pain anymore, squats still hurt. I can go through the motions pretty well, even with about 100 pounds on my shoulders, but my legs hurt so I’ve been taking it very lightly. I also haven’t been doing deadlifts because they hurt my legs as well and I end up using my back to compensate, which is dangerous. I don’t know how good my recovery is going to be here, but I will continue to take it slow. My knees weren't great even before surgery, so that doesn't help either.
Cardio: I’m not sure if it’s because I caught COVID last year or if it’s from LL recovery, but my cardio level is absolutely horrible. I can only run at a jogger's pace for a minute or two before my heart rate gets very high. I can’t even jog for a mile (1600m) right now, so that 9:00 mile goal I set over a year ago is nowhere near achievement. I think the closest I’ve gotten is a timed attempt on 800m and that took well over 6 minutes, and I had to slow down to a walking pace multiple times. (I could run a mile in under 5:30 before surgery). I still think I will eventually improve here, especially once my nails are out, but I really don’t know how long it will take at this point.
Sports: Surprisingly, I’ve been able to play sports that don’t require running quite well. For example, I can still shred down a black diamond in the Rockies. I haven’t tried skiing yet, but I imagine my level would still be just as good as before. I’ve also surfed a couple of times on the Pacific coast and it wasn't bad at all. I can swim both at the surface and with fins underwater no problem. For some reason my cardio issues aren’t as bad outside of running, so I can last for a while with other activities and I just need to rest a little bit more than before. Once I get more practice running and my running gait is normal, I’m definitely looking forward to playing other sports where I might need to run around and use agility.
Nerve Issues: For those who followed my journal, I had multiple bouts of nerve pain during lengthening and at the end of lengthening both my shins were completely numb. I would say that they have recovered slowly over time (with my shin nerves tingling and hurting a bit as they grew less numb), but out of nowhere a few weeks ago they suddenly jumped to about an 85% recovery. I’m pulling that number out of nowhere, but I have almost full sensation back in my shins. The biggest change was that I could finally feel the inside of my pants brushing against my shins normally like they used to. Now the only weird thing about my shins is that if I push hard on them I’ll notice that my skin is still a bit less sensitive to pain than before LL. I anticipate a 100% recovery here.
Physique:
My quadriceps are completely back and as just as thick as they used to be. From the front I look and feel like a beast in the mirror so I’m very happy with my body. However, on the other side my butt is still lacking a lot. It’s bigger than it was right after I finished lengthening, but nowhere near its former glory. I’ve started focusing on butt exercises in the gym. I think it will improve my stability in running and sports as well. Given how little I’ve focused on my butt in the gym, I think I can still get it back at some point if I work it out harder.
Dating: I’m dating a heightist and I don’t know how I feel about it. She is not even that tall, maybe a bit over 160cm. Due to this height stuff I’ve subtly prodded her to see how she feels about short guys and oh man it’s bad. One time she explicitly said that I wasn’t tall, but an “acceptable” height. I guess that's reasonable, but then because she didn’t think I would be offended if she insulted short guys, she went on a detailed tirade about how much she abhorred short guys, which was very offensive to me, but I didn’t want her to suspect anything so I had to keep a blank face. I can tell 100% that she would not be dating me at my original height. If she wasn’t hot as hell I would have dumped her already. I might break up with her soon anyway; I actually didn’t have a ton of chances to date after recovering from LL since I found her pretty quickly and I still want to play the field a bit with my new height. At my current height it’s noticeably easier to date both online and offline.
Social Aspects: A few people that I knew before surgery that I’ve seen a bunch of times have started questioning if I grew. I just continue to gaslight them and deny it and they don’t press much further. Otherwise, the pandemic was the perfect cover for me, and for most people (coworkers, distant friends, etc.) I didn’t see them for over two years so they didn’t have much to say when they saw me for the first time. Otherwise, my new height has no impact on my daily life. I don’t feel like I’m taller anymore and I feel like this is the height I have always been. Also, at some point I even realized that I stopped mentally comparing my height to other people out in public, like I used to right after I finished lengthening. I guess even subconsciously I don’t have anything to prove anymore.
Nail Removal: I’m currently researching nail removal options. Mentally I’m not in a huge rush to take them out since I don't think they're hindering me, but my X-rays look very solid and I don’t want to run into any Stryde lysis issues. I may have a chance to take a long break from work later this year, so I’m planning ahead to get them taken out around then. I will try to put together an update after I recover from nail removal.
Scars: Unfortunately my scars still haven’t faded. The scars near my knees are very dark and obvious and the rest are light, but still noticeable. Once I get the nails removed, I plan to get all the scars removed by laser as soon as I can. For now, the scars are a PITA because I can’t easily wear shorts around people that I don’t want to know about my scars, which is pretty much everyone I knew before surgery. I guess I shouldn't have just trusted everyone who said the scars would fade on their own.
Final Thoughts: Now that nail removal is in my sights, a big part of me is very excited to finally be done with this whole thing. It was an interesting experience for sure, and I don't regret it one bit. It gave me some serious introspection into my own brain, and in a way it feels like I took an epic adventure into what's possible with the human body. I can still happily report that I have absolutely no intention of doing my tibias. I think my current height is great, and even though many would not consider me "tall" I no longer feel that my height is limiting me in any way. I don't care about the numbers anymore and I don't care what others say about my height. Although I still have some physical limitations in my recovery, I've been able to do most of the activities that I love and go to the places that I enjoy. Overall, I have a pretty positive outlook on life right now, and it feels like LL both helped me unlock my potential and better helped me appreciate all the things that I already had.
Thank you for sharing it. Doing LL is a big challenge in life, probably the most challenging task right?
Cheers for the update. Glad to hear things are going well generally. What do you think of your proportions now? Also, how hard has it been to squat with your new biomechanics? This is one of my biggest concerns.
Quote from: BelowTheMean on February 13, 2022, 06:02:34 AMSurgery Month +15, Consolidation Month +11
Hey everyone, I’ve been back on the forum for a little while and noticed it’s a lot less active here than it was back when Stryde was in its heyday so I thought I’d make a post. For some reason some of the forum functions don’t work for me anymore (links, videos, etc.) and some of the long posts are trimmed at the end so I’ll keep this post to text. As usual, I’ll cover what is most relevant to me at this stage in my recovery and I’ll answer any questions you might have. I feel like I have actually made quite a bit of progress lately, and just a few weeks ago I would have had a more pessimistic outlook on my recovery, but I'm feeling pretty good right now.
Walking: I would say that I’m pretty close to 100%. Sometimes if I’m not paying attention to my legs, my walk can deteriorate a bit, but I correct that as soon as I notice it. I definitely haven’t seen anything lately that would indicate that others were thinking that I had a weird walk. I can walk for pretty much any distance comfortably (though I haven’t tried more than 8km) and I’ve gone on quite a few hikes including some steep and muddy trails.
Running: Since I was cleared to run, I have had a ton of struggles trying to run due to pain in my femurs when my feet hit the ground. Recently I randomly tried running again and surprisingly didn’t have any pain. There was nothing that I did differently; I guess I must have suddenly just reached another level of recovery. I tested out my abilities and was able to “sprint” at 8.5mph on the treadmill briefly without any pain, so I plan to practice more going forward. I need to record a video of myself running though, because it feels weird when I run and I’m not very stable, so I need to see how bad my running gait is before I go run in public lol.
Weight Lifting: I’m actually in great shape right now even though I go to the gym infrequently due to a very clean diet. I've been working out my upper body completely normally for months and my strength is close to my past peak. Unfortunately, my lower body is still lacking a lot. Even though running doesn’t cause me pain anymore, squats still hurt. I can go through the motions pretty well, even with about 100 pounds on my shoulders, but my legs hurt so I’ve been taking it very lightly. I also haven’t been doing deadlifts because they hurt my legs as well and I end up using my back to compensate, which is dangerous. I don’t know how good my recovery is going to be here, but I will continue to take it slow. My knees weren't great even before surgery, so that doesn't help either.
Cardio: I’m not sure if it’s because I caught COVID last year or if it’s from LL recovery, but my cardio level is absolutely horrible. I can only run at a jogger's pace for a minute or two before my heart rate gets very high. I can’t even jog for a mile (1600m) right now, so that 9:00 mile goal I set over a year ago is nowhere near achievement. I think the closest I’ve gotten is a timed attempt on 800m and that took well over 6 minutes, and I had to slow down to a walking pace multiple times. (I could run a mile in under 5:30 before surgery). I still think I will eventually improve here, especially once my nails are out, but I really don’t know how long it will take at this point.
Sports: Surprisingly, I’ve been able to play sports that don’t require running quite well. For example, I can still shred down a black diamond in the Rockies. I haven’t tried skiing yet, but I imagine my level would still be just as good as before. I’ve also surfed a couple of times on the Pacific coast and it wasn't bad at all. I can swim both at the surface and with fins underwater no problem. For some reason my cardio issues aren’t as bad outside of running, so I can last for a while with other activities and I just need to rest a little bit more than before. Once I get more practice running and my running gait is normal, I’m definitely looking forward to playing other sports where I might need to run around and use agility.
Nerve Issues: For those who followed my journal, I had multiple bouts of nerve pain during lengthening and at the end of lengthening both my shins were completely numb. I would say that they have recovered slowly over time (with my shin nerves tingling and hurting a bit as they grew less numb), but out of nowhere a few weeks ago they suddenly jumped to about an 85% recovery. I’m pulling that number out of nowhere, but I have almost full sensation back in my shins. The biggest change was that I could finally feel the inside of my pants brushing against my shins normally like they used to. Now the only weird thing about my shins is that if I push hard on them I’ll notice that my skin is still a bit less sensitive to pain than before LL. I anticipate a 100% recovery here.
Physique:
My quadriceps are completely back and as just as thick as they used to be. From the front I look and feel like a beast in the mirror so I’m very happy with my body. However, on the other side my butt is still lacking a lot. It’s bigger than it was right after I finished lengthening, but nowhere near its former glory. I’ve started focusing on butt exercises in the gym. I think it will improve my stability in running and sports as well. Given how little I’ve focused on my butt in the gym, I think I can still get it back at some point if I work it out harder.
Dating: I’m dating a heightist and I don’t know how I feel about it. She is not even that tall, maybe a bit over 160cm. Due to this height stuff I’ve subtly prodded her to see how she feels about short guys and oh man it’s bad. One time she explicitly said that I wasn’t tall, but an “acceptable” height. I guess that's reasonable, but then because she didn’t think I would be offended if she insulted short guys, she went on a detailed tirade about how much she abhorred short guys, which was very offensive to me, but I didn’t want her to suspect anything so I had to keep a blank face. I can tell 100% that she would not be dating me at my original height. If she wasn’t hot as hell I would have dumped her already. I might break up with her soon anyway; I actually didn’t have a ton of chances to date after recovering from LL since I found her pretty quickly and I still want to play the field a bit with my new height. At my current height it’s noticeably easier to date both online and offline.
Social Aspects: A few people that I knew before surgery that I’ve seen a bunch of times have started questioning if I grew. I just continue to gaslight them and deny it and they don’t press much further. Otherwise, the pandemic was the perfect cover for me, and for most people (coworkers, distant friends, etc.) I didn’t see them for over two years so they didn’t have much to say when they saw me for the first time. Otherwise, my new height has no impact on my daily life. I don’t feel like I’m taller anymore and I feel like this is the height I have always been. Also, at some point I even realized that I stopped mentally comparing my height to other people out in public, like I used to right after I finished lengthening. I guess even subconsciously I don’t have anything to prove anymore.
Nail Removal: I’m currently researching nail removal options. Mentally I’m not in a huge rush to take them out since I don't think they're hindering me, but my X-rays look very solid and I don’t want to run into any Stryde lysis issues. I may have a chance to take a long break from work later this year, so I’m planning ahead to get them taken out around then. I will try to put together an update after I recover from nail removal.
Scars: Unfortunately my scars still haven’t faded. The scars near my knees are very dark and obvious and the rest are light, but still noticeable. Once I get the nails removed, I plan to get all the scars removed by laser as soon as I can. For now, the scars are a PITA because I can’t easily wear shorts around people that I don’t want to know about my scars, which is pretty much everyone I knew before surgery. I guess I shouldn't have just trusted everyone who said the scars would fade on their own.
Final Thoughts: Now that nail removal is in my sights, a big part of me is very excited to finally be done with this whole thing. It was an interesting experience for sure, and I don't regret it one bit. It gave me some serious introspection into my own brain, and in a way it feels like I took an epic adventure into what's possible with the human body. I can still happily report that I have absolutely no intention of doing my tibias. I think my current height is great, and even though many would not consider me "tall" I no longer feel that my height is limiting me in any way. I don't care about the numbers anymore and I don't care what others say about my height. Although I still have some physical limitations in my recovery, I've been able to do most of the activities that I love and go to the places that I enjoy. Overall, I have a pretty positive outlook on life right now, and it feels like LL both helped me unlock my potential and better helped me appreciate all the things that I already had.
Amazing post !
Thank you .
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