Quote from: Froggy on December 04, 2020, 02:06:00 PMGreat Journal with tons of details. I think I’m at a similar stage in my journey and your journal has been really helpful in keeping me going through this challenging process.
Thanks for the feedback! It must be at least a little relieving to read about other people in similar pain while you are in pain. 
Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss any details about lengthening.
Surgery Day +17, Lengthening Day 14 (+1mm, 14.66mm total)
I woke up at 12:30am to my quads being tight and twitching so maybe I should have taken some cyclobenzaprine before going to bed. I managed to fall asleep eventually and then woke up again at 3:30am to go to the bathroom. My legs were tired, tight, and still twitching, so I took an acetaminophen pill hoping it would help me sleep for the rest of the night. I think it did. When my alarm finally went off, I hit snooze a couple of times since I was still dead tired. Once I finally decided to get up, I took all my morning pills and sat in bed for a while. My watch data showed that I got 6.1 hours of sleep for 7.6 hours in bed, which I suppose is a tolerable amount. Then I realized I was actually pretty hungry so I went into the kitchenette to make breakfast.
After eating breakfast it was time for the first lengthening session. Since I had PT later in the day I only did the minimal number of exercises to get my legs warmed up. Then I did all the stretches, including the stretches on my stomach since those worked pretty well the night before. Lengthening was a breeze, with no additional pain after using the ERC. I stretched lightly afterwards, then it was time to get some work done. Around noon I decided to eat a snack, though I was still kind of full from breakfast. As I got up to get some food I noticed that my whole left knee area was still hurting just like the past few days. Unfortunately it looks like it may take a long while for this to heal. I hope it does heal as soon as possible though, otherwise I simply won’t be able to walk very well.
One other thing I’ve noticed today is that I can’t seem to focus on work because of my legs. In the last few weeks, there have been times where I would be sitting down and I wouldn’t feel anything abnormal from my legs and as long as I didn’t move them. There were moments almost as if I hadn’t had the surgery at all. However, today my legs felt just a little bit uncomfortable no matter what sitting position I was in. It wasn’t painful, but I constantly felt like I had to adjust my legs, to the point where it was distracting me from doing work. I took an acetaminophen pill in the early afternoon but it didn’t seem to help. Hopefully my legs can return to not distracting me, otherwise I’m going to have to figure out other ways to get my work done.
Eventually I was able to gain some focus. While I was still uncomfortable, I managed to get some work done. I also had to get up and use the bathroom quite a few times, and learned that I probably should have tapered down on laxatives when I stopped taking MS Contin. However, as annoying as going to the bathroom repeatedly was, it still beats having constipation. Around 2:30pm I figured it was a good time to lengthen so I started doing my PT exercises. Although my left knee hurts when I walk, somehow it doesn’t hurt when I’m laying down doing various exercises. I’m not sure why this is, but at least it allows me to work out and stretch before and after each lengthening session. The lengthening session itself was easy just like the last few. I didn’t feel any additional uncomfortable aftereffect, though part of it may be because my legs have already been constantly uncomfortable today.
A short while later it was time to head to the PT clinic. I ordered an Uber as usual, and got there pretty quickly, which was good because the Uber smelled of Big Mac sauce, which I’ve never experienced before. After checking in at the front desk, I headed to the stationary bike apprehensively, knowing that it would be painful on my knees to ride. Fortunately, today the head PT was in and he told me that I was actually going to try the treadmill. The treadmill was in front of a wall mirror, so I could observe my gait while walking. I walked at a comfortable pace of 0.6 mph for about 8 minutes. At first I was able to control my gait some and walk with only a slight wobble, but as my legs and glute muscles got tired and my left knee started hurting I started wobbling like a penguin again, and I had to use the armrests on the treadmill to balance out my hip sway. After getting off the treadmill, I got on one of the tables and did some of my old exercises, but I also got introduced to a bunch of new exercises as well. This was refreshing to me, and I was quite happy that I was able to do everything they threw at me. The best part was getting trained to stand up from a sitting position on a low chair. This chair was nearly as low as a toilet seat, and I had yet to stand up from sitting on something this low without major support from my arms. At first I could not stand up at all without holding onto something with my arms, but the PT had me gradually use less and less arm strength with each attempt, until the fifth attempt, where I finally stood up without using my arms at all. I had this power locked in my legs the entire time; I just had to relearn how to use them!
Thinking about muscle power, my physique has actually improved a bit since the surgery. My body traditionally stores body fat in my thighs, so I've always felt like my upper legs were kind of thick, but with LL they are looking more and more ideal to me. I even wonder if I'll feel like they are too long at some point during distraction. My calves are still toned, though maybe a little smaller than they used to be. My upper body is still toned as well and just as strong as before. I hope to continue PT through my entire CLL experience, even when I return home. After all the exercises, the PT inspected my left knee and tried to stretch it in various forms. Then he used what I can only describe as some kind of viscous cream and rubbed it into my knee area with what looked like brass knuckles! Somehow it helped relieve the pain a bit. After that I got the hot towel treatment, and then it was time to go. I scheduled all my other PT appointments for the rest of my time in Las Vegas (which is quickly passing by) then called an Uber to get back to the Airbnb.
As soon as I got back I ordered some food - fried chicken to be specific. I had skipped lunch and wanted to eat a big meal. To my amazement, the food was delivered within 15 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever had that fast of a delivery before. I enjoyed the piping hot chicken and side dishes, but I had ordered way too much so I had plenty of leftovers to leave in the fridge for my next meal. It was still quite early in the evening, so I needed to find something to do until the last lengthening session of the day. However, I was sleepy and was feeling a bit of food coma coming on, but I was definitely not ready to go to bed yet so I fought to stay awake.
Randomly thinking about the CLL process - it’s crazy to me how much of this is impacted by my mood, and how much my mood is impacted by my pain level. The whole process seems so easy when I’m feeling optimistic - time just flies by. On the other hand, everything feels hard when I’m in pain and feeling pessimistic. Time moves slowly and I feel like the process will take forever. Time itself flows strangely during this phase. Sometimes it feels like I just had the surgery, even though it was weeks ago. I’m surprised that I’ve gotten almost 1.5 cm in already. Other times, when I focus too hard, it feels like a drag, and I feel every bit of how slow 1/3 of a millimeter per session really is. It feels like I haven’t accomplished anything yet because I don’t actually feel any taller, but from what other people have said, only a few more weeks until I hit that point where my perspective changes (literally.)
I didn’t really feel like doing work since I don’t have anything urgent to work on. Therefore, I just watched YouTube videos for a while in bed, sitting under the covers as it was a bit cold. I planned to go to sleep very early so I figured I could start the lengthening process around 9pm. The time to lengthen came quickly enough, and I felt a little bit tight when I started warming up. I figured an acetaminophen pill wouldn’t hurt, so I took one before starting my exercises and stretching. Since I did PT earlier in the day, I kept my exercises light, but did a full array of stretches. I ran the ERC on each leg and again didn’t feel much aftereffect. I stretched afterwards anyway just for good measure, then got ready to go to bed. I had high hopes that my sleep would be better than usual. The Airbnb host was having some kind of party next door, which was a little noisy, but I plugged in my noise cancelling earbuds and listened to some calm music. I fell asleep pretty quickly, but was awakened by my phone’s sleep reminder. (I need to turn that off when I go to bed early!) I was totally out of it though, and fell back asleep instantly.
Surgery Day +18, Lengthening Day 15 (+1mm, 15.66mm total)
Sleep was terrible last night. I awakened at 12:30am with sore legs and limped over to the restroom. I remember it took awhile for me to fall back asleep but eventually I got there. I briefly woke up a bunch of other times, but fell back asleep quickly. Then I got up again at 5:30am. Since I had been in bed for over seven hours, I guess my body must have thought that it was time to wake up. Still, my alarm hadn’t gone off, and I wanted to sleep some more, but my legs were too uncomfortable to fall asleep. 20 minutes later I took an acetaminophen pill and shortly after I was able to sleep again. I should have taken it right away instead of waiting, but how was I to know whether I could fall asleep naturally or not. Unfortunately, my alarm went off shortly after I fell asleep and I immediately hit snooze. Of course, then I missed the next two alarms and woke up after 7am. I was half awake, but quickly signed onto my work computer to see if anyone was looking for me, and sure enough, there were a couple of messages already - this was going to be a very busy morning. My mind sharpened quickly since I needed to be efficient, and I sat up to take my morning regimen of drugs, minus the laxatives.
Then I got in my usual sitting position on the bed with my back to the wall (padded with pillows of course) to start working and was pretty comfortable a few minutes later. I assume it was the half pill of hydrocodone that did it. I replied to my coworkers and addressed their needs promptly. Then I remembered to check my watch data for last night: 6.5 hours of sleep out of 8.5 hours in bed - par for the course. After that, I got up to make breakfast. It was a quick and easy breakfast since I was in a rush. Once I finished eating I sat back down and let my food digest while I started filling out some paperwork for the PT clinic. Since two weeks had already elapsed since my release from the hospital, the payment responsibility for PT was switching from Dr. D’s office to me. It took a few minutes to fill everything out, but after that I started doing some light PT exercises and stretches so I could lengthen soon. I managed to get my morning lengthening session in the earliest that I have in over a week, even though I woke up late and had a bunch of stuff to do first. That's the power of efficiency!
The lengthening session was painless and I felt minimal aftereffects so afterwards my focus immediately went back to my work laptop and I made sure that everything was good there. Once I was in the clear, I called an Uber to go to the PT clinic. They are only open in the morning today, so I couldn’t get my usual afternoon appointment and had to do a morning session. Honestly I’m already kind of used to being tired and in a bit of pain during PT, so I suppose I didn't mind scheduling one early in the morning. I went inside, checked in, and handed all the paperwork to the front desk. Today the head PT was not in, and I got started on the stationary bike for 10 minutes. It was just as bad as before due to my left knee, so I went at a pretty slow speed. The trick was sitting as far back as I could from the left pedal, as my knee wouldn’t have to bend as much during each revolution.
One thing I noticed recently is that I have duck ass (or at least I’m pretty sure I do.) I also think that it’s the exact same thing as anterior pelvic tilt, which I knew about before because I had a slight tilt already. Now after getting CLL it has become more pronounced than before, especially when I tried to straighten my legs all the way. If I straighten my legs and put my back against a wall, I can’t even touch part of my back to the wall no matter how hard I try. I was planning to ask the PT if they had any ideas to help manage this, since I imagine that it will only get worse over the course of lengthening. However, I didn’t get to see any PTs today, just the PT assistant. I will remember to ask the next time I see the head PT.
One complaint I have about PT today is that it took forever. Although I had a 9am appointment and arrived early, three people had checked in already and were waiting in line ahead of me. I didn’t get started until almost 9:30 and the PT assistant was so busy juggling patients, that it took an hour and a half to do all the exercises and get the hot towel. I spent two hours in PT doing one hours worth of training - talk about a waste of time. At least I had my phone on me though, so I was able to reply to emails and stuff. Finally I finished and immediately took an Uber back to the Airbnb. This time my driver was almost 80 years old! I can’t believe he was willing to drive during the pandemic. Calling an Uber in Vegas is like gambling, you never know what kind of driver you're going to get. 
Like every other driver, this guy asked about my injury. He said was a retired podiatrist so I figured I couldn’t easily BS him. I just remained vague about everything, and even though he kept asking questions about my legs, I didn’t reveal the true nature of my injury.
Once I got back I was relieved. My legs were actually in quite a bit of pain from being at the PT clinic for so long and it had been a bit difficult to walk. I took an acetaminophen pill right away, and then sat on the bed and relaxed for a moment. Soon I felt pretty comfortable, and I figured I’d get some work in before lunch. I had a bowl of blueberries as a snack, but was still hungry by lunchtime since I wasn’t on any opioids. I heated up the leftover chicken and devoured it. I still had an hour or two before the second lengthening session of the day, so I cleaned my hands and then went back to work.
Work must have been really exciting, because I think I dozed off at some point... Eventually it was a bit past 2pm so it was time to lengthen. I decided to try lengthening without any painkillers since I wasn’t feeling any worse than before. I did my PT exercises, which was no problem. I stretched as well, and then ran the ERC on each leg. There was a small aftereffect, but I did some long quad stretches lying on my stomach afterwards and it fixed the uncomfortable feeling right away. I ate some more snacks and got back to work. Most of my coworkers were wrapping up for the day already, but I wanted to catch up on some work that I probably should have done earlier. I was able to focus for a while, but then I encountered the same issue as before. My legs were uncomfortable in the sitting position on the bed, even though they were in 0/10 pain. The best way to describe it is this feeling of knowing that my range of motion is limited, even when I’m not trying to achieve a greater range of motion. Somehow this makes my leg uncomfortable even when it’s not in pain. The thought of my legs was just stuck in my head. I think acetaminophen has been helping with this, as it is able to somehow make me not think about my legs as much after taking it. However, I didn’t take one in the early afternoon since I had taken one right after getting back from PT.
A couple of hours later I decided to wrap up work for the day, though it was early and I had absolutely no plans for the night. My legs kept bothering me more and more as the night went on, so I succumbed and took another acetaminophen pill. I watched some YouTube videos and ate dinner, then after dinner I played some games on my cell phone, which really made time fly by. I kept adjusting between sitting with my legs straight and legs bent, so they wouldn't get too stiff (though they got stiff anyway.) Next thing I knew it was almost 10pm. I had to get my last lengthening in. I took half a hydrocodone pill and a cyclobenzaprine. Although I didn't have muscle spasms, I figured I was going to bed soon, and the last two nights I had muscle pains, so maybe taking cyclobenzaprine before going to sleep would help. After the pills, I immediately started my exercises before anything even kicked in. The exercises weren't what was causing me pain anyway; walking on my left knee was. After I finished a full set of exercises, I ran the ERC on both legs as usual. Again there was no aftereffect, so I definitely haven't hit any tightness or nerve issues yet (knock on wood.) Afterwards, I did the heavy stretch laying on my stomach. After that, I was feeling pretty comfortable so I rested for a while on my stomach. I found that I could crawl pretty easily on the bed, so I actually have some mobility facing down. I crawled backwards until I was about to fall off the bed, then straightened my legs, put them on the ground, and stood up. That was the first time getting up from laying face down. I was pretty happy with the increased mobility, but that was short-lived because as I started walking, I noticed that my knee pain was back to what it was earlier. I had taken hydrocodone less than an hour ago, and its effects had already worn off (at least on the knee.)
I went to the bathroom and got ready to go to bed. After returning from the bathroom I lay in bed and edited this journal entry. I think right now my legs are still somewhat uncomfortable, though some of it might actually have to do with the knee in pain. I hope that having three full days of rest without PT will be enough for my left knee to heal, but who knows. I might even try MS Contin tomorrow morning to see if that will help any. This left knee pain is seriously interfering with both my mobility and comfort. It isn't interfering with lengthening, but it could easily start doing that at any time. If it doesn't go away by the time I go to PT again on Monday, I will definitely reach out to Dr. D's office to see if they have any solutions. I was definitely walking better a couple of days ago before my left knee started hurting, so I would say that my walk has regressed (though my right leg is still improving every day.) Time to go to bed again, with hopes of getting another good night of rest. If I wake up anytime after 3am and need to use the bathroom I plan to take an acetaminophen pill.
BelowTheMean – Stryde Femurs w/ Dr. Debiparshad – Nov 2020
Hey BTM - Great diary! I am following your journey and rooting for you; I’m hopeful that I will replicate your successful journey in early 2021. Stay strong 💪
Please ask your physical therapist for Astym treatment or dry needling for your knee pain. Most physical therapy offices offer it included with the treatment and they usually don't charge extra for it.
Quote from: L8GowthSpurt on December 05, 2020, 06:56:01 PMHey BTM - Great diary! I am following your journey and rooting for you; I’m hopeful that I will replicate your successful journey in early 2021. Stay strong 💪
Welcome to the forum and thanks for your encouragement!
Quote from: readyprecisestryde on December 05, 2020, 07:19:32 PMPlease ask your physical therapist for Astym treatment or dry needling for your knee pain. Most physical therapy offices offer it included with the treatment and they usually don't charge extra for it.
I know the PT in Las Vegas offers dry needling, but I saw that being on blood thinners might make it more dangerous. Not familiar with ASTYM treatment. I actually found a solution my knee pain for now, but if it gets worse later on I will definitely look into those.
Surgery Day +19, Lengthening Day 16 (+1mm, 16.66mm total)
For the first time in a while I can say that I got a good night of sleep, and not because of the quantity of sleep, but rather the quality of it. I went to sleep quite a bit later than usual since I was browsing the web on my laptop last night. I woke up naturally at 7am and didn’t remember waking up once before then. I lay in bed for a moment trying to fall back asleep, but my legs were tight and stiff and the uncomfortable feeling was too pronounced for me to fall asleep. I got up to go to the bathroom, and as I walked I noticed my left knee area was still in quite a bit of pain. I would actually rate the pain a 5-6/10 since it was a sharp pain every time I lifted my left leg to take a step and it makes walking very difficult. When I got back to bed, I sat down and started selecting pills for the morning. Xarelto, just like every morning, then half a hydrocodone to get me ready for the first exercises of the day. Since nothing else was fixing the knee pain, I decided to try an MS Contin, since it had been a while since I used it, and maybe it would work on my knee pain. Also, I took a laxative to counter out the impact of MS Contin on my digestive system.
Now that I was fully awake, I checked my sleep data. I got 6.3 hours of sleep out of 6.7 hours in bed. That’s actually more sleep than I’ve gotten on some nights with over 8 hours in bed. According to the watch I only woke up twice last night (neither of which I remembered) and I didn’t need to go to the bathroom either time. Scrolling back on the data, it looked like the last time I got this quality of sleep was 6 nights ago. Since the painkillers hadn’t kicked in yet I felt a little hungry and I got up to make breakfast. I feel like this is usually the best meal of my day unless I order out, since my kitchenette doesn’t have a stove but it does have a toaster and microwave, so breakfast always feels legit. After standing in the kitchen and eating I walked back to the bed with some more knee pain and checked the morning news on my phone. As I sat for a bit, my legs had already warmed up a bit and weren’t feeling as tight as they did first thing in the morning. At this point, the painkillers should have kicked in already, but when I got up to test my left knee there was not even the slightest reduction in pain. Looks like MS Contin was not going to solve the problem, so I will go back to not taking it at all.
At this point it was time to start my exercises before the first lengthening of the day. I made the bed and lay on top with all my exercise “equipment”. I did all my PT exercises and stretches, after which my legs felt pretty good. It’s still strange to me that none of the PT exercises trigger the left knee pain that I get from walking. Afterwards I grabbed the ERC and ran it on both legs. I felt no aftereffects, so everything was great. Since my legs weren’t distracting me at all, I decided to try and catch up on some work since I wasn’t all that productive yesterday. I got my work laptop out, found a comfortable position and started working. I got about 30 minutes of work in before I got bored and started playing games on my phone. I was playing really well and went on a big win streak and before I realized it, it was almost 2pm. Also, I had eaten about 600 calories worth of fruit snacks, so I got up and stretched a bit and then decided that I should take a walk today. The weather was really nice outside and I figured I could try walking outside with the cane. I planned to return the walker and wheelchair to Dr. D’s office before leaving Las Vegas since I don’t have any way to transport them on the plane and I don’t need either of them.
Since my left knee was still in pain, I decided to try something new - two acetaminophen 500mg pills at once, which is the max dose for a 6 hour period. I had no idea if it was going to help or not, but after taking the pills and also some bone supplements I headed outside with just the cane. As soon as I stepped outside, the scent of fresh air hit me along with the warm desert sun. My mood immediately improved. I started walking down the driveway to the sidewalk one slow step at a time. I used the cane in my right hand to assist my left leg with weight bearing. My right leg was fine on its own. I felt like I was actually walking relatively quickly with this method. As I walked along the sidewalk I realized that the pain in my left knee was actually tolerable. Maybe the acetaminophen worked, or walking outside psychologically suppressed the pain. Either way, I had absolutely no trouble walking at all, which amazed me since I struggled to go from the bed to the bathroom this morning. I kept going and when I got to the stopping point from my previous walks, I felt good enough to keep going. I turned right into the next neighborhood and kept walking along the sidewalk. This sidewalk was uneven with a 10 degree slope from left to right. I was able to keep balance and continue walking forward with my cane.
Eventually when my watch showed 0.25 miles walked I figured it was a good stopping point and I turned around. As I was walking back toward the Airbnb, I focused on my gait and tried to keep my legs close together. Although my walk is not normal at all, my hip sway has greatly diminished from when I was using the walker. As I got closer to the Airbnb, my legs got more and more tired, but not to the point where I was worried about not being able to make it back. I could still walk, but I couldn’t walk with a controlled gait as I was limping a bit. When I finally got back to the Airbnb I remembered to take out the trash since I already had my shoes on. Then I went inside and changed into flip flops. My watch showed that I walked half a mile in under 20 minutes, at about a 37 min/mi pace. I can’t believe how much my legs have improved since last week! I literally wrote that my left leg had regressed in the last journal entry, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. All I can say is that it seems like taking walks and getting lots of steps in is incredibly important when lengthening with Stryde. Just one day ago I thought that I would need to take a 3 day break for my left knee pain to heal, but two acetaminophen pills later I could walk half a mile! I suppose technically I am on MS Contin as well, so I can’t write that off yet. Next time I have knee pain I will try the double acetaminophen without MS Contin to see if that works.
While my legs were feeling good, I went into the kitchen to clean the dirty dishes. I was already in a 7/10 good mood before my walk (which is why I even had the motivation to take that walk.) After the walk I would say I was in a 10/10 good mood, and feeling strongly optimistic for the first time since surgery. Less than a day ago I had replied to someone on this forum that I would be okay with doing 5cm, but I think part of it may have been from my constant left knee pain. I was just not confident that I could lengthen the whole 8cm so maybe I was really trying to convince myself ahead of time so I could accept it. Now I certainly have the confidence that I will have a great shot at getting all 8cm! Once I finished cleaning the dishes, I took a sip of Gatorade from an ice cold bottle that I got out of the mini-fridge and sighed with contentment. I thought about taking a video of my walk today, but I didn’t have a tripod so I’m not sure how I would have recorded it. I will definitely try to record a walking video before I leave Las Vegas though.
Since it was early afternoon, it was time for the second lengthening of the day. I figured it would be easy while my legs were fully warmed up, so I started stretching right away. Stretches were easy even though I didn’t do any exercises beforehand. That’s the power of walking! Lengthening was easy as well with no aftereffect. At this point I was pretty comfortable, and since I hadn’t gotten much work done in the morning I pulled my work laptop back out and started working. I had to bend and straighten my legs every 10 or 15 minutes to keep them from getting stiff, but I was actually pretty productive and worked all the way until I was hungry. Unfortunately, since I had eaten so much candy in the morning that I wasn’t hungry until pretty late. I got up and went into the kitchen to make food. The first thing I noticed was my left knee wasn’t that bad, maybe a 2/10 pain when walking. The second thing I noticed was that my tailbone area was a little numb, probably because I had just sat for hours without getting up.
As I wandered into the kitchen, I noticed that I still had quite a bit of food in the pantry, so I will have to try and eat most of it before I leave Las Vegas so it doesn’t go to waste. I’m still here for over a week though, so I should be able to get through most of it. I heated up some salmon risotto, leftover corn, chips and salsa, and some sliced ham. I also had a protein bar and blueberries for dessert. I was pretty stuffed, and after I cleaned up my meal I walked back to the bed. This time my left knee pain shot up to a 4-5/10 and I actually felt weak even putting weight on it. It’s amazing how fast things turn, CLL is really a roller coaster ride of pain. Since the tailbone area of my butt was still a little uncomfortable, I decided to lay in bed on my stomach, and I put a pillow under my chest, which propped me up a little so I could use my laptop. At this point my legs were starting to get stiff again, but it was too early to do the last lengthening of the day and go to bed. I watched YouTube for a while in this position and of course my neck started hurting a bit because I was craning my head to see the laptop screen.
Finally, it was late enough for the last lengthening session. I hadn’t taken any pills for over seven hours but I was not in pain as long as I was stationary. I sat on the edge of the bed and took one acetaminophen pill and one cyclobenzaprine pill. Then I leaned back into position to start doing PT exercises. It was a bit rougher than normal, maybe because I was tired from all the physical activity today, but I did just enough to warm my legs up and then I did a full set of stretches. Finally, I hopped off the bed and grabbed the ERC. I ran it on each leg and only feel slightly uncomfortable afterwards. Doing some long quad stretches helped with that. At this point I don't expect to feel anything bad after lengthening yet, and I hope that lasts as long as possible. I went to the bathroom to get ready to go to bed, then came back and turned off all the lights. I was originally planning to accumulate a couple of entries before posting since I didn’t think anything exciting was going to happen, but since today was so positive overall that I decided to post this entry by itself. Now I’m going to sleep. Good night!
Surgery Day +20, Lengthening Day 17 (+1mm, 17.66mm total)
Last night I started feeling uncomfortable in my legs before I managed to fall asleep. I would describe it as general stiffness and restlessness. It was difficult to fall asleep, but I did manage to eventually. I woke up to my alarm and snoozed it twice before actually getting up as I was quite tired. Data from my watch showed that I woke up 7 times last night, but I didn’t remember waking up at all. I had slept for 7.3 hours out of the 8.1 hours I was in bed. My legs felt uncomfortable as soon as I woke up but as long as I didn’t move them it was tolerable. I sat up in bed and felt a bit light headed and woozy. I was also hungry, which was surprising because I ate a lot for dinner the night before, and pretty late at night as well. I got off the bed and started walking toward the bathroom. I had to support myself with both the cane and random furniture as my legs felt extremely weak and putting weight on my left leg was a bit painful. In the bathroom I did my morning routine, and splashed some cold water on my face as well to help wake me up and shock away the dizziness. It only helped a little.
I walked back to the main room and sat down on the bed. I took a Xarelto and half a hydrocodone pill. Then I adjusted my position and leaned back into some pillows to rest for a bit, hoping that the hydrocodone would kick in and make me feel better. As I was reading the morning news on my laptop, 30 minutes had passed and my legs did feel a little better, though they were certainly still tight. I got up to eat breakfast though it turned out that even though my stomach was growling I wasn’t all that hungry. I ate a bit of food, but less than I thought I could. In general I felt very slow all morning. After breakfast I made the bed and climbed on top with all my exercise gear. I usually start with clamshells and then exercise my quads, hamstrings, and glutes. After those I did long stretches on both my quads and hamstrings, then I stretched some of my smaller side muscles as well. I also decided to work out my upper body a little. I did some dips on the walker and some crunches in bed. I wasn’t sure if I could do push-ups, but I’ll ask the doctor at the next appointment. Working out was easier than last night, but still a bit tiring.
Now it was time for the lengthening session of the day. I turned on the ERC and it told me that the battery was low and to plug it in. It was showing 2/5 bars, so I assume the ERC requires a certain voltage to operate and that the battery had fallen below that threshold. I plugged the ERC in the power outlet for the first time since I got it. Then I ran it on each leg while it was plugged in. The charging cable is pretty long so I was able to lengthen normally in my usual spot. Humans are creatures of ritual, and I have a dedicated lengthening corner on the bed (heh.) Interestingly, after lengthening the ERC said to keep the device plugged in and powered on. Normally, after lengthening it just reminds me to power it down. My legs felt good after lengthening, with no aftereffect. I probably wasn’t going to be able to keep my legs warmed up all the way until my early afternoon walk though.
Now that lengthening was out of the way, I sat back and watched a new episode of a TV show that I was following. Once that finished, I got my work laptop out and started working. If I manage to be productive today then I will have more time to stretch and lengthen during the week instead of scrambling to get both work and lengthening done. I managed to work for a couple of hours until my late lunchtime. I wasn’t too hungry at first but when I heated up my food and smelled it from the microwave, I had a much bigger appetite. I ended up eating a lot and of course that meant after lunch I had to go #2. I will note that it was a perfect 4 on the Bristol scale for the first time since surgery, which means I’m managing my laxative usage and fiber intake well. After that I figured it would be a good time to take my daily walk. My left leg was feeling a bit better but it still hurts when walking on it. I took two acetaminophen pills again and did some standing leg stretches while waiting for the painkillers to kick in. Then I realized it would be a good time to record a walking video before my outdoor walk made my legs really tired. I changed into my LL video clothes, cleared out a walking path in the Airbnb, and then took the following video on my phone:
I think my walking looks okay for three weeks after surgery. Compared to the last video my post-surgery swelling is completely gone, my stride length has increased, and my hip sway has gone down a bit. I still have a lot of work to do on flexibility and stamina though.
Now it was about time to go outside. It was a bit cloudy and chillier than yesterday, so changing to the long sleeves and pants worked out well. I put on my sneakers and mask and started tracking the walk on my watch. Then I stepped outside and walked down the driveway. The sky was mostly blue, but the sun was hidden behind the clouds so it didn’t feel very warm. I feel like the pain in my left knee area decreased as soon as I started walking outside, so maybe the pain is really somehow associated with walking indoors. Maybe it was only being triggered when I’m walking slowly and meticulously around a room. Regardless, I couldn’t tell if the acetaminophen was actually helping with anything. Maybe next time I could try the walk with one less acetaminophen pill, though with all the PT I had scheduled for next week I’m not sure when my next chance for an outdoor walk would be.
As I walked I focused on my gait and stride length. I feel like my current stride length is still quite a bit shorter than what it was before surgery, mostly because my flexibility isn’t great yet. I also don’t have the muscle strength to lift my legs high enough to push against the limits of my flexibility while walking normally. Keeping my legs close was not too difficult, but it did require some effort. Walking with a better gait takes quite a bit more effort than walking in the way that is most natural in my current state and even with putting in all this effort I still don’t have a perfect gait, it’s merely better than hobbling around. I wasn’t feeling as good as yesterday, so I turned around at the 0.15 mile mark. I walked back at a pace that felt brisk as I didn’t care as much about my gait anymore since my legs were feeling pretty tired. Upon returning, I saw that my overall pace was about 40 min/mile.
I changed back into indoor clothing and then rearranged everything back to the way it was before I cleared out a path for the video. I sat on the bed and did a full set of stretches, and then it was time to lengthen. I noticed that the ERC had turned itself off after fully charging, so I unplugged it and brought it over to the bed. After lengthening each leg I felt no aftereffects, so I returned the ERC to the table it was on, then hopped back onto the bed and sat down to relax for a bit. I was texting with some friends and I had a football game on in the background, and I eventually dozed off. I guess I wasn’t caught up on sleep. I’m the type of person who can survive on 6 hours of sleep a night during weeknights and then sleep in on the weekend. However, if I’m sleeping for 6 hours on average every night, then I’m going to be tired during the day.
It wasn’t that long before I woke up though, since I fell asleep in a sitting position. My legs weren’t in pain, but they were feeling slightly uncomfortable at this point, no matter what position I sat in. The best way to describe it is that my upper legs felt swollen, but in reality they were not swollen at all so it was just a phantom feeling. However, it was making me uncomfortable. The only thing that I could try was to lay down and see if that would help. I tried several positions, even laying on my stomach and stretching, but nothing could get rid of the feeling. I checked the time, and it was only two and a half hours since I had taken the acetaminophen. I figured that I should probably wait another hour and a half until I took any hydrocodone since that had some acetaminophen in it as well. I stood up and walked around, and that did help a bit on the swollen feeling, but walking around inside causes knee pain. I wasn’t sure what else I could do.
The only thing I had left to try now was to distract myself. I got some more fruit snacks and loaded up a game on my phone and put on some music on my laptop. If I couldn’t get rid of the feeling, then I would just have to try and make myself forget it. Amazingly it actually worked. One match in and I had lost focus on my legs. Afterwards it was nearly the arbitrary time I had set to take my hydrocodone. However, since my legs weren’t feeling bad anymore, I didn’t need to take any drugs at all. I guess what I was suffering wasn't really pain, so painkillers may or may not have helped with it anyway. I got up to use the bathroom and then sat back down in bed. At this point I remembered that I was going to order delivery tonight. I excitedly went online to search for a place to order from. I was in the mood for Chinese food today and found a place with good reviews that was close to the Airbnb in hopes that delivery would be faster. I placed my order and then picked up my work laptop to try and get some more work done before dinner.
My food arrived less than 30 minutes after I ordered. I have been tipping a bit more than usual since I feel bad for delivery drivers working during the pandemic, so maybe that helped. I had ordered about three meals worth of food, so I would have plenty of leftovers that I could just heat up later for a quick meal. The food smelled so good I was salivating before I even got a chance to try it. Unfortunately they did not give me any chopsticks, so I had to use a fork from the Airbnb to eat. Fortunately the food tasted as good as it smelled and I was able to do a little bit more work while I was eating. I ate too much though and I felt stuffed after dinner. I surely could have fallen asleep at this point if I didn’t have to wait another hour or two for the final lengthening session of the day. Instead I begrudgingly continued to do more work while I waited out my lengthening countdown.
Finally it was nearing 10pm, so I took my cyclobenzaprine and acetaminophen. I might try not taking cyclobenzaprine tomorrow night and see if I still have muscle spasms at night. I can always take it if I wake up in the middle of the night with them. I did a full set of PT exercises and stretches, which actually takes a while, as the physical therapist has shown me more and more exercises over the weeks. I felt pretty good during the workout, definitely better than I felt last night around the same time. Afterwards I ran the ERC on both legs. I did feel a bit of an uncomfortable aftereffect, and stretching didn't really help with it. I sat in bed for a while and it faded a bit. Then I had to use the bathroom again. After I came out of the bathroom the uncomfortable feeling had more or less subsided. Now I can post this and finally go to bed!
Your gait looks great. Congrats on the various positive developments!
I did femurs with Dr D a few months ago too. Let’s me tell you, for me it was a smooth ride right up to 5cm. After that the tightness came in like a bat out of hell and you’ll need gabapentin for nerves stretch pain at the shins.
I got a couple more weeks and should hit 8cm. I take some days where I only do 1 or 2 sessions ERC sessions. But keep pushing. You’ll knees start to bend and hamstrings will feel like they are in contracture mode, but get to your goal so you can enjoy getting rid of the ERC machine and let the body start getting back to how it used to be.
The last 2cm is where all the fun starts and pain pills and other meds will be needed for pain management. Sleep will be hell during the last 2 cm, but don’t worry. All will be well when the ERC machine will go bye bye.
Quote from: Froggy on December 08, 2020, 11:12:04 PMYour gait looks great. Congrats on the various positive developments!
Thanks! It looks okay but I feel like a walking zombie.
Quote from: itseasy on December 09, 2020, 10:24:16 AMI did femurs with Dr D a few months ago too. Let’s me tell you, for me it was a smooth ride right up to 5cm. After that the tightness came in like a bat out of hell and you’ll need gabapentin for nerves stretch pain at the shins.
I got a couple more weeks and should hit 8cm. I take some days where I only do 1 or 2 sessions ERC sessions. But keep pushing. You’ll knees start to bend and hamstrings will feel like they are in contracture mode, but get to your goal so you can enjoy getting rid of the ERC machine and let the body start getting back to how it used to be.
The last 2cm is where all the fun starts and pain pills and other meds will be needed for pain management. Sleep will be hell during the last 2 cm, but don’t worry. All will be well when the ERC machine will go bye bye. Got your first post hah. Yeah, the lengthening part hasn't been too bad for me yet, I'm sure I've got a lot of struggles to look forward to. I have some extra time planned out so I can reduce lengthening speed at the end if necessary.
Surgery Day +21, Lengthening Day 18 (+1mm, 18.66mm total)
After posting last night’s entry but before falling asleep I noticed a weird feeling on my skin, slightly painful on both feet, just above my heels. When I touched the area I realized I had a red rash there. It was partially covered by my leg hair but there were several red bumps on both legs, just above the heel. It seemed odd to me that something on my skin could appear on both legs at the same time but what do I know. It didn’t hurt much but was uncomfortable to touch. Also, I noticed that I was still bruised on the left side of my right foot and I have had this big bruise since surgery. I was too tired to deal with these though, so I just tried to go to sleep.
I woke up many times last night so I know my sleep was terrible. My legs were super stiff and it was hard to sleep. I woke up to my alarm, hit snooze, then turned off the alarm when it went off again and fell back asleep. Then I awakened to a meeting reminder on my work laptop. I had almost forgotten that I was hosting an early morning meeting. This shocked me awake and I went to the bathroom to get ready, returning with a few minutes to spare. I took all my morning pills and sat on the bed with my legs still a little uncomfortable and dialed into the meeting. While I had to do most of the talking during the meeting, I managed to sneak in breakfast while other people were talking. Afterwards, I checked my sleep data. I had gotten about 5.7 hours of sleep out of 7.6 hours in bed. It’s not great, but I could try taking a nap after PT today if I was tired. I then started doing exercises and stretches to get ready for the first lengthening of the day. Everything went smoothly and I had no uncomfortable feelings post-lengthening. I then returned my focus to work.
Just before noon I had a short break and heated up some leftovers. I was pretty hungry so I wolfed those down pretty quickly. Even though I had been sitting in bed all morning, my legs weren’t that stiff when I got up for lunch. However, I would still have to sit down for a few more hours in the afternoon to do more work so I’m not sure if my legs would continue to feel fine. I got pulled into a few extra meetings in the afternoon, including during my planned time for the second lengthening session. However, I wasn’t going to interrupt my lengthening timing for a last minute meeting when I can just multitask - that’s what earbuds are for. At this point my legs really didn’t feel that bad so I didn’t take any painkillers before I started. I did a light set of exercises and stretches since I didn’t want to work out too hard just before PT. Lengthening was okay, and while I felt a mild aftereffect, it went away fairly quickly. I stayed on the phone and continued to work all the way until it was time to head to PT.
I called an Uber and quickly took half a Norco and an acetaminophen pill so I would be at 100% at the PT clinic. I left the Airbnb with just my cane again. Getting in and out of cars is much easier with the cane than the walker since the driver doesn’t have to get out of the car to help me put the walker in the trunk. I arrived slightly early, and got started on the stationary bike. I was expecting my left knee to be in pain on the bike as usual, but surprisingly it wasn’t bad at all. At first it felt like my left knee would almost pop with every rotation of the pedals but it didn’t. After about two minutes I was warmed up and I actually was able to pedal at a normal speed, like how fast I would pedal casually if I was riding a bike. I don’t think I could go any faster with my legs currently, but I was pedaling at least 100 rpm, which is way faster than I could last week. It’s always good to be surprised by positive recovery stats. Next, I did a couple of the standard PT exercises with the PT assistant.
Eventually the head PT came over and checked on me. I told him that my left knee up through the quad was still giving me a bit of pain. He poked my quad a bunch of times and said it did feel very tight and was possibly knotted. So he went to get one of those massage rollers things and proceeded to use it on my left quad. He was using a decent amount of pressure and it tickled and hurt at the same time. However, it was also somehow relieving my soreness, so I just tried to endure it. After he finished with my leg, he told me not to do any leg lifts for a day or two. Then he checked my flexibility and said that I was very flexible at this point in my recovery. My knee flexion has indeed been improving even though I’m adding length every day, because I haven’t actually lengthened that much yet and my original flexibility has been slowly returning post-surgery. I can almost touch my heels to my butt again. I’m sure at some point when I lengthen more, the lengthened amount will make me less flexible until the consolidation phase.
Afterwards I did a bunch of other exercises, nothing was too hard except the last one where I needed to stand up from a sitting position without using my hands. I could do it, but my legs were tired from all the other exercises, so it was a bit difficult and painful to finish the full set. However, it was satisfying to get it done. As I was leaving the PT clinic, the head PT pointed out to me that my cane was set way too high and adjusted it down to the correct height for me. Apparently my arms have been tired when using the cane because I’ve been supporting my body weight with my arm bent instead of straight down. Hopefully this will help me take longer outdoor walks going forward. I called another Uber to get back to the Airbnb but this driver was kind of annoying and kept talking even though I wasn’t engaging him in conversation. It felt extra peaceful and quiet in the Airbnb by myself when I finally got back. It wasn’t that late at night yet, but I was hungry enough to eat dinner. I heated up some leftovers and watched football highlights from Sunday while I was eating. After that I had more work to do so I worked all the way until the last lengthening of the day.
Since I had been sitting down for a couple of hours, my legs were a bit stiff. Fortunately, it didn’t hinder me from doing my exercises or stretches. After finishing those I did the final lengthening session of the day. There was a minor uncomfortable feeling afterwards, but I figured it would go away after going to the bathroom and doing my night routine to get ready for bed. This was indeed the case and I went to bed feeling okay in my legs. I hadn’t taken any medication since right before PT and I didn’t feel like I needed any. I was planning to take half a Norco tonight though if I woke up with leg pain and couldn’t fall asleep. I know sleep is supposed to not be as good on opioids compared to normal sleep, but sleep on opioids is probably better than laying in bed with perpetually stiff legs and being unable to fall asleep. I had to get up pretty early the next day, so I turned off the lights and went to sleep.
Surgery Day +22, Lengthening Day 19 (+1mm, 19.66mm total)
I remember waking up once last night, and only an hour or two after I went to sleep. I couldn’t fall back asleep so I took half a Norco like I had planned to. I eventually fell asleep again. I woke up to my alarm and snoozed it twice. I managed to get up after the second snooze since I had an early morning meeting to attend. My watch data showed 6.6 hours of sleep out of 7.2 hours in bed, which is a good ratio. Aside from the time I remember waking up, the data also showed that I woke up once around 4am. I got up and went through my morning routine, including taking Xarelto and acetaminophen, and started working. My legs weren’t tight at all sitting in bed so I worked for about an hour, then I had a chance to take a break to eat breakfast and lengthen.
Doing PT exercises was okay. It was a bit cold in the room so working out actually helped me warm up. Lengthening was also routine. I didn’t feel any aftereffect so things are still going well as I slowly gain my millimeters. I continued to work all the way until lunch. I didn’t eat much and ate quickly since I was pretty busy with work. Finally, after my last meeting I had time to take a break and do the second lengthening of the day. Again, I didn’t exercise too hard since I wanted to give my legs a chance to rest. I did my full set of stretches before lengthening though. The lengthening process itself went smoothly again, so no comments there. After lengthening, I lay on my stomach to do the hard quad stretch and upon finishing that I closed my eyes for a second in a position that was far too comfortable. Next thing I knew 20 minutes had passed by. Since I was still technically supposed to be working, I flipped around back into a sitting position feeling a bit refreshed from my nap and continued to work until dinnertime.
As I was working I wasn’t focused on my legs, but as I got ready to heat up my dinner I realized that my legs were actually at 1-2/10 pain just sitting there in bed, probably for sitting too long without doing anything. I hadn’t taken any painkillers today except that acetaminophen in the morning and almost 12 hours had passed already. I didn’t see a reason to restrict myself on acetaminophen, so I took another one without thinking too much about it. While eating dinner I noticed some of the last remaining bandages over my incisions were loose. I used a pair of small scissors to trim down the loose parts. I also went outside to dump the garbage, which was the only time I went outside today.
For the rest of the evening I just worked, and occasionally got up for snacks or to stretch. I also alternated between sitting on the bed and laying on my stomach so I wouldn’t be stuck in one position for too long. I probably didn’t take too many steps today, but I think I’ll have plenty of opportunities to get more in for the rest of the week. As usual, I did the last lengthening session of the day right before going to bed. Again, I didn’t feel a strong aftereffect, so I basically went straight to bed afterwards.
Surgery Day +23, Lengthening Day 20 (+1mm, 20.66mm total)
When I got up this morning, I was 99% sure that last night would be the worst sleep I’ve had since surgery. Somehow my watch showed 6.4 hours of sleep out of 7.6 hours in bed. I remembered waking up during the 12am hour, the 1am hour, and the 2am hour for an extended period each time and feeling miserable not being able to fall asleep. The second time I woke up I took half a Norco but that only got me 45 minutes of sleep until my legs woke me up again. Fortunately after the third time I didn’t wake up again until my alarm went off. I snoozed it three times, and quickly fell asleep after each time, but then I had to get up for an early morning meeting. I’m sure I could have slept an extra hour or two if I didn’t have to get up for work. With over 6 hours of sleep though, I wasn’t missing out on too much, so I got up and got my day started.
I took my Xarelto and acetaminophen and my legs started feeling better about 15 minutes later. In another 15 minutes my legs felt great, with 0/10 pain and stiffness as long as I didn’t move. After my first meeting and addressing some early morning requests, I got up to make breakfast. I’m finally starting to run out of food in the pantry and fridge, which is great since I’m leaving Vegas soon. Although I wasn’t that hungry in the morning, once I started eating my appetite warmed up as well. After breakfast it was time to lengthen. I was determined to lengthen earlier today, not just because I had to get my second session in before PT in the afternoon, but I wanted to try lengthening earlier at night as well. It could be that I had trouble sleeping because I’m sleeping right after lengthening. I wanted to test that theory at least. I did a light set of PT exercises and then all my stretches. It was a little bit more difficult than most mornings, so my legs were definitely not feeling it. My right leg also was a little sore around the bone break area. Somehow my left knee wasn't really feeling all that bad though. At least lengthening was quick and easy, and I hit the 2cm mark!
Time moves fast sometimes and slow at other times, but lengthening is certainly moving along each day. I suppose 20 days of lengthening is nothing in the grand scheme of things, but with broken legs days really drag on and on. I’ll be honest, I don’t feel the slightest bit taller yet. It could be because the lengthened amount is too small, or it could be because of my bad posture (APT), or it could be that I’m in the Airbnb day in and day out so there’s no way to possibly notice the incremental difference between each day. Based on my experience so far though, I find it simply incredible that anyone would consider doing this for just 3 or 4cm of height. I’ll be just past the one inch mark when I go home and I hope to notice a difference then because I haven’t been home for over a month so everything at home should feel an inch lower than it did before. On the other hand, I have noticed that my thighs are longer than they used to be. However, since I feel like my original thighs were too short and thick, I definitely don’t mind the longer, thinner look. Three inches will probably be too long in terms of the thigh proportion though, but I need every cm of height I can get and I’m definitely not doing my tibias if I get anywhere close to my goal on femurs. Worst case scenario I’ll just wear my pants lower. If by some miracle the next 6cm is as easy as the first 2cm then this will have physically been a really easy process. I don’t anticipate that this will be the case though, as I will eventually have to deal with more soft tissue stretching issues, at which point I hope slowing down will help.
After lengthening, I got back to work, and continued working all the way to lunch time. I got up to make some food and my legs were very tight. My legs were also still hurting a bit in the same areas as they were in the morning. I didn’t take any more painkillers though. I was planning on taking something strong before PT today, and it was already past noon, so I needed to hold out until 3:30 or so.
After eating I needed to use the bathroom. As I was standing still in front of the sink and washing my hands, I heard a light popping sound in my left femur and felt something move. This obviously scared the living crap out of me, but nothing seemed to be wrong as I slowly tested my leg function. I could still walk, lift my leg up and down, and twist it a little left and right. My leg didn’t make any other popping sounds when I moved around. I immediately walked back to the bed, then sat down and texted Dr. D’s team. They got back to me right away and Dr. D said it shouldn’t be an issue as long as there was no pain and everything was functioning normally. We could wait for the x-ray on my next appointment since it was coming soon. Since I really didn’t feel any different and I wasn’t on any painkillers I don’t think anything bad happened to my hardware. It doesn’t seem like the nail bent or broke since I would definitely feel that and the popping sound wasn’t very loud and the movement I felt wasn’t very big. My biggest fear is that the lengthening mechanism somehow broke, in which case I probably wouldn’t feel any different in my leg, but this would be a huge obstacle in my path forward. Best case scenario it was only my hip (or maybe knee) popping and I just happened to feel it in my femur. I will continue forward normally, and if there is something wrong then I should physically be able to tell.
At this point, I decided to do a light set of stretches since I figured it shouldn’t hurt me if the popping sound was nothing important. Nothing felt abnormal during my stretches, and I didn’t hold back on them either. I realized that it was actually almost time for the second lengthening session, so I figured I’d just do it now since I was stretched anyway. No issues from lengthening, and everything felt the same as this morning. I had spent a lot of time on this problem at this point, so I sat back down on the bed and continued to work until it was time for PT. I set a reminder for all business day PT sessions on my work calendar so I would definitely see it and not miss my appointment. When it finally came time for PT, I called an Uber and popped half a Norco and an acetaminophen. I grabbed my jacket since it would be cold after dark, and went outside with my cane to wait for the car.
I arrived at PT a little early, as usual. The painkillers had not kicked in as I struggled to walk into the clinic and had to support my body weight with both hands on my cane while waiting in line to check in. I got started on the stationary bike, and at first it was a little rougher than last time. My left knee kept wanting to crack but couldn’t, so eventually I thought to cover it with my hand which finally made it crack. After that pedaling was comfortable for the remainder of the time on the bike. After riding the bike I was warmed up, and walking was a lot easier. Now strangely enough I stopped having extra pain in my left knee area, but my bone cut site on both legs seemed to be in a little pain, and the pain was on all sides as well, with the quads, hamstring and outer skin (incision side) all feeling a little bit. The right side was a little worse than the left side, but both sides were feeling some pain, especially when stretching my quads.
Fortunately that didn’t impact my training for the day. I was able to do everything that the PT assistant threw at me, though my weighted leg extensions were a bit weaker than before on my left leg. For my last exercise, I was not able to do all the sit-to-stands from the chair though. I felt much more pain using my full leg power to stand up than last time, but I pushed through to do five reps. I was also afraid of any lingering issue with my left nail, so I didn’t want to put too much weight on it. I can always increase my training load after I get another set of x-rays. Finally, I got a chance to meet with the head PT. He said that my post-surgical pain should be mostly gone by now since it has been over 3 weeks since surgery. It’s definitely possible to feel some pain around the site of the bone cut, though it was probably a mix between that and muscular pain. He used the roller on both of my quads at that center spot where the bone was cut, and it did relieve some of the pain. We also did a new exercise for the hip, and I laid on my side for the first time. Surprisingly it was not painful since the surface of the training table was harder than a bed, and I usually feel a little bit of pain on the side of my leg when I’m rolling over to lay on my stomach. I think I will try to lay on my side for a longer period when I get back to the Airbnb. It would definitely be nice to be able to sleep on my side.
I called a car to get back to the Airbnb and tried to order food on the ride back. Unfortunately the driver was not the smoothest driver and I started to get carsick while reading menus on my phone. I put my phone down and partially rolled down the window to get some fresh air. Somehow even when I got out of the car, I remained a little bit nauseated. I tried sitting down and then laying in bed and I still needed to order food, but every time I looked at the computer screen I would feel more nauseated, so I didn’t know what to do. I tried to close my eyes to rest but it didn’t really help. I lay down and pulled the blanket over myself so I could take a nap. I didn’t set an alarm or anything, I would just wait until I awakened naturally. I managed to fall asleep for about 30 minutes, after which I felt a bit better. While I still had some lingering nausea, I was able to order some sushi. I figured something light would probably be best right now, and hopefully getting some food in my stomach would solve the problem.
The food arrived super fast again (maybe delivery drivers in Las Vegas are just really good.) I got everything out and ate near the kitchen sink just in case I wanted to throw up. Fortunately as soon as I started eating, the nausea went away and I finally felt better. After eating and putting the leftovers in the fridge, I went back to sit down on the bed. There was still a tiny bit of lingering nausea (like it wasn’t really there, but I could somehow still feel it.) It wasn’t preventing me from using the computer though, so I watched a little bit of YouTube to relax. Afterwards, I went back to work to try and catch up on some of the things I didn’t do since I had lost focus during a big part of the day. My focus still wasn’t that great, but I was at least able to power through some of my work. The nausea finally went away sometime while I was working since I realized it was gone afterwards. Since I had planned to lengthen early today and give myself some extra time to rest my legs after lengthening and before going to sleep, I started stretching before 9pm. I did not take any additional painkillers since I took some before PT. After a long and stressful day and a hard PT session, I didn’t have the energy to push very hard before my last lengthening of the day. However, I got all the basic stretches done, and my legs felt somewhat loose.
I ran the ERC on each leg and felt okay afterwards. I have switched to using the ERC with my knees straight and my legs fully on the bed, whereas for the first few weeks I had been running it with my knees bent and legs dangling off the bed. I think lengthening with legs straight has been better since dangling actually makes my legs uncomfortable after a few minutes (and I had previously even thought it was due to the lengthening process.) With my legs straight I pretty much don’t feel anything after running the ERC. And yes, I’m pretty sure I’m lengthening correctly in this position since I still have my “X” stickers on my leg and the ERC is showing the green check mark which means it detects the nail. I’ll be getting x-rays in less than half a centimeter anyway, so if anything went wrong (knock on wood) I’ll find out soon.
Now that I was done lengthening early and since it wasn’t time for bed yet, I planned to do something that I needed to do pretty badly but had not done yet - that is to take a real shower. I ran out of bath wipes recently, which I had been using to clean my body of sweat when necessary. However, I didn’t use them on my face and my hair was super oily and needed a shampoo badly. However, the Airbnb didn’t have handicap bars in the shower. In fact, there is nothing for me to hold onto at all standing up, and even the side of the tub was hard to hold onto because of the glass shower door frame. The showerhead was not removable either, which would have been helpful. At least there was an anti-slip mat on the floor of the shower so that should help a tiny bit. I decided the safe solution was to take a shower sitting down. With the tub drain open, water wouldn’t collect and turn into a bath, and if I was sitting down I wouldn’t be at risk of slipping. I could also shampoo my hair, which was the biggest reason I wanted to shower. Dr. D had cleared me to take a shower on my last office visit, but since the bandages over my incisions were still partially intact, I wasn’t sure I wanted to shower since they would probably fall off and I didn’t know if I should let them naturally fall off (while dry) or let them get soaked and fall off because they were wet. I could also take a picture of my incisions and send it to Dr. D’s team to see if I could get cleared to take a bath, but I don’t really want to soak in the Airbnb bathtub either, for obvious reasons.
I realize I just wrote an entire paragraph theorizing how to take a shower, and I really did think through all that right before going into the bathroom, but here’s what actually happened once I stepped into the shower to test how difficult it would be to use. It was very easy to lift my leg over the tub wall. I noted that the anti slip mat was very secure and my feet definitely weren’t going to slip. Then I realized I could use the top of the shower door metal frame to support myself if I needed to move. (A benefit of being slightly taller hah.) So I decided then and there to just turn the shower on. The shower was fine, and I actually ended up spending over 30 minutes in there. Not just because I was super grimy, but also when my remaining incision bandages got soaked just from the shower pressure they all started losing stickiness and peeling off (which is not surprising.) Therefore, I had to spend a lot of time carefully peeling each bandage off without painfully yanking on the surgical sutures or pulling off my leg hairs as well. Standing for over 30 minutes nonstop was not a problem and I enjoyed the hot water coursing over my skin.
After showering I felt super fresh and in a good mood. The hot water helped calm my legs, but I was a little hot so after I dried off I went into the fridge and chugged half an ice cold Gatorade. Of course I immediately got a brain freeze and regretted it. Then I walked over to the bed and hopped on. I feel like my legs weren’t all that stiff, so fingers crossed for a good night’s sleep. Since my hair was still a bit wet I didn’t want to put my head on the pillow right away so I browsed the web on my phone for a bit. Eventually I got sleepy and my hair was probably dry enough so I slid down from a partial sitting position into a lying down position on the bed. I feel like I definitely needed some extra sleep after last night. If not then I hope I can catch up on some sleep over the weekend. Either way my eyelids started feeling heavy and I drifted off.
Surgery Day +24, Lengthening Day 21 (+1mm, 21.66mm total)
Shortly after I fell asleep I awakened. This was going to be another night just like last night and lengthening early did not help at all, so there goes that theory. My legs were very tight and I couldn’t sleep because I could feel my legs and they were just so distracting. I fell asleep briefly then woke up again. I took half a Norco and when it kicked in I got a little more sleep, but I still woke up a few more times. Finally, I fell asleep for a while but I was trapped in a weird dream. Then I realized the dream was a dream and suddenly woke up. It was almost dawn. I drifted in and out of sleep (mostly out) for the next two hours, trying so many different positions, but not being able to fall asleep consistently. Finally, almost 30 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, I gave up on sleeping and decided to get up so I turned off all my alarms. My sleep data showed that I got 5.4 hours of sleep out of 7.5 hours in bed. It definitely felt like I slept much less than that, and the quality of my sleep was terrible. My watch showed that I woke up over a dozen times last night, which corresponds to my experience as well. If I sleep like this every night for the next 3-4 months, it would be the worst experience of my life by far. I really hope I can figure out a way to get more sleep.
I got up and went to the bathroom for my morning routine, and splashed some cold water on my face. I was awake enough to start the day, though I was definitely hoping to be able to take a nap later. I came back to the main room feeling cold with my stomach growling too. Since I have been eating a big dinner every night and getting completely full, I’m always surprised that I’m so hungry in the morning. It could definitely be related to bone growth. I quickly got dressed and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. Warm food made me feel a lot better, though my legs were still tired and my bone break spot still hurt a bit on my right hamstring side. Around the time my alarm was supposed to go off I sat back onto the bed and took my morning medication. I finished the Vitamin D (weekly doses) so I got to throw away my first empty pill container. After that I signed onto my work laptop. While I was going to be busy today, it didn’t look like I had anything urgent scheduled for the morning. Therefore I decided to do my lengthening session a bit early.
I figured that exercising would also help me warm up my legs a bit, since they weren’t feeling that great even though I had taken acetaminophen. I started with bicycle kicks as a warmup, lately I’ve been doing that as the first thing before my PT exercises. I didn’t want to work any specific muscle group too hard since I had PT in the afternoon, but I did a set of all of my PT exercises. Then I did a full set of stretches and got the ERC ready. Lengthening was quick and easy, and I didn’t feel anything afterwards. After I set the ERC machine back in its place I started working for a bit. It would be a while until lunchtime and I had a lot to do. My legs eventually settled down a bit and I felt better sitting in bed.
When lunchtime arrived, I excitedly went into the kitchen to get my leftovers ready for consumption. I think food has been the highlight of my day lately since sleep is absolutely terrible and makes me miserable. It probably doesn’t help that my Airbnb isn’t very warm. I planned to try sleeping with pajamas to see if that could help a little. When I got up, my legs immediately reminded me that they were still stiff and in pain. Although I had gotten some work done in the morning, I was certainly not as productive as I could have been if my mind were fully focused. The uncomfortableness in my legs is persistent and always noticeable. I ate standing up in the kitchen to give my legs a bit of work since they were stiff from sitting for too long. Afterwards I hopped back onto the bed and returned to work as I would be busy until it was time to leave for PT.
As the work day winded down, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t done my second lengthening of the day yet and it was only an hour until I had to be at the PT clinic. If I wasn’t careful, I could potentially be feeling the aftereffects of lengthening during PT, which could make PT more difficult. I immediately started my stretches and did all of them quickly, though since I had to hold them for a certain amount of time, it wasn’t really possible to do them that much quicker. Then I grabbed the ERC and ran it on each leg. Afterwards I did feel a mild effect and it was almost time to call a ride to the PT clinic. I decided to do some more stretches first though in hopes that it would help me. I also took my usual pre-PT painkillers as I’m sure I would need it this time around. I’m not sure if stretching actually helped, but walking to the car and riding over I felt the exact same as it did normally.
When I arrived at PT, things were a little different. Both the PT assistant and the receptionist had changed so I had to do a double take to make sure I was in the right place. After I checked in at the front desk, I sat down and waited for the new PT assistant to get me started on the stationary bike. Now that I had a couple of tricks up my sleeves, I had no fear of the bike anymore. After the ride I did not feel as warmed up as I did the day before. However, I could walk around without too much stiffness. The PT clinic was busy with a lot of people. The new PT assistant was trying to keep up, but I basically ended up doing all the exercises by myself, with a little help getting all the bands and weights and stuff. While exercising, I noticed that my incision sites were bigger and redder than before. I googled it and it didn’t seem like it was an infection or anything like that. Since I had taken a shower yesterday, maybe there was a risk of getting my incisions dirty somehow. (Later on when I had returned to the Airbnb, the incisions looked normal to me again. I think it was just the fluorescent lighting at the PT clinic that made my incisions look bigger and redder than usual.)
I was a lot more warmed up after the exercises and I could walk around with no problems. I talked to the head PT briefly, and he showed me a new exercise, which was just walking from side-to-side for a longer distance, which I had no trouble doing since I was warmed up. He also told me that sleep is very important for recovery and if I was having trouble sleeping, then maybe a Norco before bedtime could help me get at least 4 hours of continuous sleep. Getting continuous sleep for long enough to enter deep sleep is just as important as the total hours of sleep in a night. I could try taking something before bed, though I don’t know how different it would be from taking it at 1 or 2am. Finally I got the heat pad for 10 minutes and ultimately left the clinic about 30 minutes later than I should have. Fortunately I wasn’t in a rush or anything like that. Only one more PT session in Las Vegas and I’ll be going home! I’m looking forward to it, though I think I will miss this little PT clinic since it has definitely been one of the highlights of my time here.
When I got back to the Airbnb I heated up my remaining leftovers and devoured them. I feel like my appetite is getting bigger, which is probably good since people keep saying on the forum that you easily need 4000+ calories a day to even maintain body weight while your new bone is growing. After eating, I cleaned up and sat back down on the bed. I had some work I needed to get done before tomorrow morning, so I started on that. My legs were feeling good, as they usually do after PT, so I was actually able to focus okay, though I felt quite tired at this point due to the lack of sleep. If I didn’t have work, I might have been able to take an evening nap, but who knows how that would affect my sleep. One other thing I could try is working out a bit more before going to sleep, and possibly having legs that are a little more limber before going to bed, though I feel like the process of going to bed (maybe laying down or sleeping) somehow tightens my legs, so I don’t know how well it would work. Regardless, I think I would have to try something different tonight to get better quality sleep.
I was still working when I noticed it was time for my last lengthening. I took a break from my work laptop and started my pre-lengthening stretches. I noticed that my right foot was now having that weird feeling that I had at the start of surgery where if I shifted or wobbled it left or right it would feel like there was something moving inside my foot or leg. It wasn’t painful or anything, just really weird. I also realized that I did not have this feeling at all in my left foot anymore. I think it may have to do with the IT band cut or something to do with weakened muscles after the surgery. I don’t think it’s a skeletal issue. Anyway, I wasn’t too concerned about it since it went away on my left foot so I’m sure it would go away in my right foot too. My right leg was still hurting more than my left leg in the hamstring side of the area of the bone cut. I actually don’t really care about this kind of pain, it’s like barely 1-2/10 pain but it’s actual pain so I can deal with it without even taking painkillers. What I can’t deal with is the stuffiness, tightness, and tiredness that I feel in my upper legs when I try to sleep at night. It’s not really so much pain as it is just this super uncomfortable feeling that forces me to think about my legs constantly and makes it nearly impossible to focus on anything else. I think it’s much worse than pain, and it’s probably what makes limb lengtheners suffer the most. Of course, I haven’t reached the latter part of the distraction phase yet, so I’m sure it will get worse, and I don’t think there is any way to prepare for it.
Anyway, aside from thinking about pain and weird leg stuff, I didn’t have any issues doing all the stretches, though I did not feel as flexible as I did during PT. I finished up the stretches and then ran the ERC on both legs. I didn’t have any post-lengthening issues either, so I started working again. I only managed to get about 30 more minutes of work in before I was too tired to continue. I would have to finish in the morning. At this point while I was sitting on the bed my legs didn’t feel bad at all. Like the PT told me to, right before going to bed I took half a Norco so hopefully that will help me finally get a solid night of sleep, which I probably need badly to focus on work and my leg workouts. Oh yeah, and I wore pajamas to bed to see if that would help as well (not quite the compression pants that other people mentioned, but worth a shot.)
Surgery Day +25, Lengthening Day 22 (+1mm, 22.66mm total)
Sleep was about the same as last night. I had a little bit of trouble falling asleep at first, but eventually managed to drift off. The first block of sleep was the best, which I’m guessing is because I took Norco right before going to bed. Then I woke up a bunch of times from 3-4am but was eventually able to fall back asleep and get another 90 minute block of sleep in. That’s when the troubles started. From about 5:30 I was no longer able to sleep. My legs were feeling stuffy and stiff no matter what position I was in. Eventually I couldn’t think of what else to do, so I did a full set of my PT exercises and stretches in hopes that would loosen up my legs. It actually worked a little, and my legs didn’t feel as tight as they did before. After tossing and turning a bunch, I managed to fall in and out of sleep for another hour or so. I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm was going to go off and I added 30 minutes to the alarm and tried to sleep again. Finally I woke up 20 minutes later and decided to give up on trying to sleep and got up. My health data showed 5.3 hours of sleep out of 6.7 hours in bed. I really hope I get a chance to catch up on some sleep over the weekend.
I needed to figure out what exactly was happening every morning that makes my legs feel tolerable. When I first wake up, my legs feel so stiff and tight, but by the time I’m sitting on the bed and working, they don’t feel that bad or distracting anymore. It could be from standing up for a while, it could be from eating breakfast, it could be from sitting instead of laying down, and it could be from taking acetaminophen in the morning. It could also be a combination of the above, but I just don’t know what exactly was making my legs feel okay in the morning. If I could figure it out and then apply it when I can’t fall asleep at night to get more sleep, it would definitely help me a ton with this process.
I had a very early meeting, so I did my morning routine and got ready very quickly. I wanted to do my first lengthening session beforehand but didn’t have enough time. However, I was able to start my exercises and stretching during the call. I went through everything and then ran the ERC. I had no problems yet even though I hadn’t taken any acetaminophen this morning. Standing up and returning the ERC to the opposite side of the room, my legs actually felt pretty good since they were fully warmed up. I took an acetaminophen afterwards anyway, just to see what the effect would be. I felt pretty normal and continued working until lunchtime. There was no tightness in my legs as long as I wasn’t moving so I was pretty focused. I’m still not sure why I feel so much better during the day than at night. I wonder if it would make sense to try and take naps during the day when my legs don't feel as bad.
For lunch I ate some more of my food in the pantry. I’m almost done clearing it out, and I’m proud of estimating the exact amount of food I’d need for my month in Vegas so nothing would go to waste! I only had a short break planned for lunch today since I was very busy at work today with meetings throughout most of the day. I continued to work until it was time for my midday lengthening, when I took another short break and got started on PT exercises and stretches right away. I finished all the exercises and the lengthening process in under 30 minutes and then I continued to work. Finally, after a few more hours it was about time to sign off since everyone else was offline by now. I still had some more work leftover that I still needed to get done, but I could work on it over the weekend under no pressure.
Next I decided to order some delivery, and I really wanted some Indian food (garlic naan plus some kind of curry) but then I thought I might not want to eat something too spicy after surgery, so I refrained. I ended up getting Japanese food again, sushi + some entrees, since it was delicious and easy to reheat later. Then I watched random videos on my phone and texted with some friends while I was waiting for the delivery to arrive. Sometimes I think about how crazy the world is right now; it’s perfectly normal for me to avoid seeing anyone I know and just communicate with them digitally without arousing any suspicion. I’m literally growing taller under their noses, but everything about me seems normal to them. We’re all working from home and bored out of our minds. My 5’9” and 5’10” friends may be in for a shock in a couple of months! I’m certainly not going to say I’m taller and I’ll act like nothing happened. I can’t imagine that they would have the slightest clue what I did. I plan to continue to work out my upper body as well and try to return to my peak physical shape since I still have a few months. If they say I look different, I’ll just say I got bigger, which will be true, just not in the way they think. Anyway, right now I’m really looking forward to the future, not just because I will finally be the height that I always pictured myself as, but I also want to be able to sleep normally again and not feel like my legs are constantly uncomfortable. Also, the concept of going out with a group of friends on Friday night seems so appealing to me right now, and not just because I’m stuck inside lengthening.
My food arrived fairly quickly and I whipped out my laptop and decided to start watching a movie while eating. I could finally take a break from work tonight. Honestly, my life isn’t much different than if I wasn’t lengthening. Once I get home and start cooking again, I think everything will feel normal, especially if I can start getting decent sleep again. I can’t imagine lengthening will impact my daily activities during the pandemic when I’m home all day. I suppose I will actually go outside more than before since I need to see a physical therapist a few times each week. I also plan to look into massage therapy and see if that has the potential to help me recover, though that’s not as important as PT.
After finishing the movie it wasn’t that late, so I still needed something to do for the rest of the night before the last lengthening. I definitely did not feel like doing any work and it’s not like I could go out anywhere for many reasons. I got my phone out and played some games on it, which burned an hour. Then I remembered that I had a bunch of journal entries to check and post, so I spent the rest of the evening working on that. It worked out well, because it's pretty late now and I'm pretty tired and I just finished editing all the entries for the week. So I'm posting it now and going to bed. Good night!
Surgery Day +26, Lengthening Day 23 (+1mm, 23.66mm total)
Sleep was not great last night, but okay. Since I really wanted to try and catch up on sleep I took a full Norco right before bed. I think it actually helped me a ton. I briefly woke up about three hours after I fell asleep and then stayed asleep until dawn. While I was only in bed for 6 hours total, I feel like I was asleep most of the time and didn’t really remember waking up and struggling to sleep. However, when I got up to use the restroom and drank some water I realized that I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep. Of course, I was tired and hungry, but I just didn’t feel sleepy at all. Since 6 hours had passed since I last took a Norco, I decided to take another one to see if it would help me get a little more sleep. After taking it nothing happened for a while. I just sat in bed and talked to people on my phone, though I felt a little dizzy. Then about an hour later it kicked in. I was so sleepy that all I could do was lie down and pass out. I slept for almost two hours. Then I awakened again, though a bit groggy. I didn’t really have the energy to do anything at this point, though it was about time for my first ERC session. I continued to lay in bed awake, not sleepy but still tired, browsing the web and chatting with people on my phone. Finally, I decided to get up since I thought I might also be dizzy and tired because I was hungry and I hadn't eaten anything yet. I went to the kitchen and made some breakfast, though at this point it might be better called brunch. Don’t be me and don’t take Norco on an empty stomach.
After eating, I started my PT exercises hoping that it would help kickstart my day. My legs felt okay, and that’s probably because I was still on Norco. In fact, the bone cut site pain on my right leg was completely gone, which made sense since opioids would be able to address this kind of pain. My legs were generally just feeling a little dull but not having any pain at all. The exercises were easy, though stretching afterwards was just as hard as usual. I don’t mind though, since that means I’m actually getting a good stretch in, just becoming less and less flexible. Then I ran the ERC on each leg and felt absolutely no aftereffect. Now I wasn’t sure what to do so I sat on the bed and browsed the web some more on my laptop. I could feel like I was getting sleepy again, so maybe I could try to take another nap. I closed my eyes while sitting on the bed and leaned back into the pillows. I’m not sure if I fell asleep but I think so since I started daydreaming. I was awakened or at least startled by my phone when I got a notification. Now that I was awake again, I realized that I didn’t feel so good, mostly due to being dizzy/nauseated. I guess I should not have taken a full Norco both last night and this morning. Hopefully it wears off soon, though it was at least tolerable while I was sitting in bed.
I decided to lay down for a while and get some rest, regardless if I could fall asleep and take a nap or not. I dozed off briefly for about 20 minutes. I was awakened by a call from the pharmacist. I was getting the drugs delivered to Dr. D’s office to pick up during my office visit next week and the pharmacy needed payment. Fortunately it cost less than last month since I didn’t need to refill everything, but the Xarelto isn’t cheap. After hanging up I noticed that I wasn’t feeling as bad as before, but I was still a little bit nauseated, though not quite as dizzy. It was past noon, so I could eat lunch. Hopefully filling my stomach would help as well. When I got up from the bed my legs reminded me that I was not on any painkillers anymore and that I had been sitting or laying in bed all morning. I was stiff and sore, and I probably should have done some stretches before standing up. Since I was already up though, I heated up my leftovers and ate everything quickly since I was quite hungry. I checked the time and the warmest point of the day would be in about two hours, so I could do my outdoor walk then. For now, I sat back down on the bed and decided to distract myself so I could feel better using an old trick - gaming on my phone. It can’t be just some casual puzzle game or something, it has to be a competitive and real-time game against other players and I have to want to win so that I have 100% focus on the game, but it really works for me as a distraction from my legs. After two matches I no longer felt any nausea from this morning, or any pain in my legs when sitting still.
Now that I was feeling better and I still had a little bit of time to burn, I got my laptop out and checked to see if any of the shows I was following had updated for the week yet, and two of them did. I had enough time to watch one before my outdoor walk. Afterwards I checked the weather and I still had a little bit of time before the daytime high temperature, so I decided to try and warm up my legs a bit by doing some light exercises and stretches before going outside. I also popped an acetaminophen pill. Then I changed into outdoor clothes, put on my shoes, grabbed my phone and keys, and stepped outside. I tossed out a bag of garbage that I had brought out with me, then proceeded to walk to the front of the house with my cane. I found a spot by the garage door that I could set my phone down to record a video. Here is the video of me walking down the driveway and back. The driveway has a slight incline, but no more than 5 or 10 degrees.
I definitely walk a little worse if the ground isn’t perfectly flat, but I’ve walked down this driveway so many times that I’m also kind of used to it. Next, I proceeded to follow my old path along the sidewalk to the next neighborhood down. Since my legs didn’t feel tired at all I kept going. The late afternoon sun was shining on my face and it felt great. I proceeded down the sidewalk all the way until it ended and I would have had to cross a street to continue. I figured I had already gone a bit further than my previous longest walk, so I turned around and headed back. I wasn’t tired at all on the way back, so I was still able to focus on keeping a better gait and walking with my legs closer to each other. I also tried walking without any support from the cane. Since I was only using the cane to support my left leg, and my left leg wasn’t really weaker, in more pain, or worse at walking than my right leg I guess I didn’t actually need to support my weight with the cane while walking, except for general safety reasons. So for a good part of the walk back, I did it fully weight bearing on both legs with the cane hovering just above the ground in case I slipped or needed support.
When I got back inside I checked my watch and I had walked a total of 0.75 miles (or 1.2km.) I was sure that I could have walked over a mile if I wanted to, but no reason to push myself too hard. As soon as I got inside and stopped walking my legs decided that they were tired again. I think they have a mind of their own since my body must be able to subconsciously differentiate between when I am walking indoors with the bed nearby and when I am walking outside and need to move forward just to survive. I changed into my indoor clothes and hopped onto the bed. I started chatting with people on the phone and then suddenly realized I was supposed to lengthen after the walk while my legs were still warmed up. Fortunately, my legs were still feeling okay so I stretched lightly and then grabbed the ERC to do my midday lengthening. I felt great after lengthening, so I just stayed in bed for a little while longer and then it was dark. During this time of the year it gets dark so early! It wasn’t even 5pm yet so I wanted to wait a little longer before ordering dinner. I played a couple more rounds of my favorite phone game to pass some time and then put in an order for food. Since I didn’t want to get interrupted in the middle of a match, I switched to watching YouTube while waiting for my delivery.
When the food arrived and I got off the bed to pick it up, my legs were surprisingly still not too stiff. I guess doing a long distance walk has its perks. I’m sure my legs would be stiff by the end of the night though and make me feel terrible when I try to sleep, but what can you do? After eating I put the leftovers in the fridge. Hopefully I have enough for the next day or two so I don't have to order out again. After dinner I felt much better in general. I wasn’t hungry, tired, or in pain, which is a lot to ask for during the distraction phase. I debated if I wanted to try and get some work done or if I wanted to consume some more empty entertainment and opted for the latter. I still had that other episode of TV to watch, then I browsed the web and played more games. I tried to enjoy Saturday like anyone else would while stuck indoors during the pandemic.
Finally I noticed it was kind of late, and ended up lengthening around 11pm, after doing exercises and stretches. I stayed up for a while though, and while I was sitting on the bed browsing the web, I realized that my legs were actually feeling an uncomfortable aftereffect after the lengthening session. It went away after about an hour, but I hadn't felt that in a while, so hopefully it doesn't mean I'm hitting any kind of limit. I was getting pretty tired, but I remembered to finish writing and post this entry. Now it's really time to go to bed since I still need to keep some kind of semblance of a daily schedule since I still have work on Monday. Before going to sleep, I plan to pop a Norco and do a set of stretches. Hopefully I get good sleep tonight and I manage to sleep in since it's the weekend.
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