BelowTheMean – Stryde Femurs w/ Dr. Debiparshad – Nov 2020

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BTM - Thanks for the update and video; I’m trying to plan for stairs which I’ll have to deal with lots during recovery.  You looked like you handled them well. Did you have increased pain when navigating the stairs? How’d that compare to baseline? Also, the edibles seem to me to be a great idea to try and ameliorate the low grade constant type pain and help with sleep. Any observations about their utility? Stay strong 💪; before you know it you’ll be there

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Hey BTM, great entry as usual. Glad to see you making steady progress towards your goal. I’ve tried reduced lengthening on occasion and they seem to help tremendously in terms of letting the soft tissues catch up and not feel as tight. Curious to see if you observe and feel the same during the 5 days of reduced lengthening.

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Great diary BTM, but it would be really nice to get a concise summary post on your progress for your next entry.  No offense--your entries are just a LOT to read to find the substantive info!

For example, where are you at on:
-Pain meds--what are you still taking?
-Mobility:  how far can you go with the cane?  Can you do any meaningful distance unassisted?
-Stretching routine:  how often?
-How tight?

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Quote from: L8GrowthSpurt on December 28, 2020, 03:34:32 AMBTM - Thanks for the update and video; I’m trying to plan for stairs which I’ll have to deal with lots during recovery.  You looked like you handled them well. Did you have increased pain when navigating the stairs? How’d that compare to baseline? Also, the edibles seem to me to be a great idea to try and ameliorate the low grade constant type pain and help with sleep. Any observations about their utility? Stay strong; before you know it you’ll be there
I haven’t tried stairs until now, but I think they should be doable pretty early on in the process as long as you have the guardrail in one hand and a crutch or cane in the other hand. Edibles are okay, but I don’t think they are the magic sleep pill that some other lengtheners have called them. I do think it’s at least as effective as Norco for helping me with sleep though. I plan to try CBD without THC when I get a chance to see if CBD by itself can help with sleep.

Quote from: Froggy on December 28, 2020, 05:35:22 AMHey BTM, great entry as usual. Glad to see you making steady progress towards your goal. I’ve tried reduced lengthening on occasion and they seem to help tremendously in terms of letting the soft tissues catch up and not feel as tight. Curious to see if you observe and feel the same during the 5 days of reduced lengthening.
Hey Froggy, slowing down these five days has definitely helped with soft tissue tightness. I think that it greatly reduced the pain in my left shin and the inside of my left thigh. I’m afraid that as soon as I go back to 1mm/day all the early nerve pain signs will return though. I guess we’ll find out soon!

Quote from: Stryde2021 on December 28, 2020, 11:56:37 PMGreat diary BTM, but it would be really nice to get a concise summary post on your progress for your next entry.  No offense--your entries are just a LOT to read to find the substantive info!

For example, where are you at on:
-Pain meds--what are you still taking?
-Mobility:  how far can you go with the cane?  Can you do any meaningful distance unassisted?
-Stretching routine:  how often?
-How tight?

What you consider to be substantive information right now will likely change once you start the LL process. The things you listed are going to vary a lot from patient to patient and doctor to doctor. You should be listening to your doctor’s advice for what to do regarding these and not some random person on the internet.

Surgery Day +41, Lengthening Day 38 (+0.66mm, 37.30mm total)

I woke up a few times last night and once again I couldn't fall back asleep after dawn. I think I finally figured out the best way to turn my alarm off early without losing my sleep data. It is to just set the alarm to the next few minutes and then let it go off. According to my sleep data I got 7.5 hours of sleep out of 8.3 hours in bed. I’m not sure how I slept so much and so efficiently, but I’ll take it! I only woke up 5 times last night, though the fifth time was for almost half an hour. I got nearly two 3-hour chunks of solid sleep as well and I actually remember dreaming, though not what I dreamed about. Hopefully I can figure out how to replicate this sleep success, because this morning I have more energy than I had any other morning this last week. I haven’t slept this well in over 10 days. I got up and did my morning routine. My legs were at 3/10 pain walking around, but I only took Xarelto and skipped the Tylenol since I wanted to see if it was actually doing anything in the morning (and I don’t think it does.) Next, I sat in bed for a while and worked on this journal and my log keeping for LL since I was so out of it last night that I didn’t write anything down.

After about an hour I got out of bed to make breakfast. I had been pretty hungry, but I was comfortable and making good progress on my journal so I didn’t want to move around yet. After breakfast I sat back in bed and continued to work on my laptop. I wanted to do my first lengthening fairly early today, but not so early that I wouldn’t be mentally ready for it. After another hour or so my legs were still a little uncomfortable, though not in any pain while sitting in bed, and I decided to just take a Tylenol. I still can't tell if the Tylenol has any pain relieving effect or if I was just distracted by other things but eventually I felt a little better. I got out of bed and started doing PT exercises and stretches to prepare for lengthening. My energy level was still pretty good and I was motivated enough to do full sets of even the harder stretches. I lengthened afterwards with no problems. After that I sat back in bed with my laptop for a bit. Around lunchtime I ordered takeout since the meat I had taken out of the freezer yesterday hadn’t finished defrosting yet. Since I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get some fresh air, I drove over to the restaurant to pick my food up in person.

When I got back I ate a ton for lunch, but still had plenty of leftovers. Then I kept busy with some errands and chatted with people for most of the afternoon. Towards the end of the afternoon I also decided to go to my building gym and try out the stationary bike. While it’s not completely safe to go to any gym during the pandemic, I was looking at the schedule for my gym and not a lot of people were signed up, especially over the holidays, so I think the risk is pretty low right now. I took a Norco right before heading down to the gym. When I peeked into the gym entrance, there was only one other person there and he ultimately ended up leaving about 10 minutes into my workout. I got on the Peloton bike and did a 20 minute beginner course. I scored in the bottom 14th percentile of males 30-39 with a weak 40kJ of output. While I’ve never scored in the bottom 14%ile on anything (except height) I didn’t actually feel bad about my biking score because I was too busy feeling bad for the ~4,000 people that I beat, because I’m pretty sure they did the course without any broken femurs (lol.)

One very important side note about biking during lengthening - the bikes that I was using at both the Vegas PT and my local PT were the kind that you could sit on comfortably and even lean back while pedaling. The Peloton was designed like a road bike, with an uncomfortable but aerodynamic seat. I was wearing regular gym shorts, I didn’t want to put too much weight on my legs, and my butt doesn’t provide a lot of padding right now, so it was extremely uncomfortable for me to sit on that bike seat and after I got off my perineum was slightly numb (awkward.) Fortunately, I have a pair of biking shorts from my triathlon days, so I will definitely remember to wear that the next time I use the Peloton. Keep that in mind if the bike you have access to is similar to mine. I still had about 15 minutes left in my allotted gym time, so I got a pair of 15 pound dumbbells to test out what I could safely do with my upper body. I carried the dumbbells one at a time to the bench and when I was using them I made sure not to put any extra weight or pressure on my legs. I hit my biceps and triceps, and also did multiple shoulder exercises. After doing a few sets of each lift, I felt really good (or the Norco finally kicked in.) My muscles were tired as I haven’t lifted anything with my upper body for a long time but it was the kind of soreness that makes you feel really satisfied. I was in an optimistic mood for the first time in a week or two, and I think I will be scheduling a lot more sessions in the gym, especially on days that I don’t have PT. Maybe if I improve my upper body build significantly while lengthening then I can just tell people that I got the Captain America treatment (and I’m only half joking.)



After that I left the gym and went home. I put a football game on in the background and started stretching for a lengthening session. Stretching was a lot easier after a workout and I spent about 15 minutes hitting all the usual stretches and then I lengthened with no issues, though I did feel a bit of pain on my left knee while stretching. It was definitely being dampened by the Norco because I’ve had the same pain before and it was a lot worse last time. I wasn’t hungry at all, and it wasn’t late yet. I tried to get some work done in the evening. As usual, it would help reduce my workload during the week so I could go offline in the middle of the day to go to PT and stuff. I was fairly productive for a while and I reached a good spot in preparation for the upcoming work week. At this point it was time to try the same sleep strategy as last night since it had worked so well. I took a CBD edible and finished watching the rest of the football game. I wasn’t going to take a bath and risk falling asleep in there again, but I did need to take a shower since I went to the gym today. After my shower I was hungry again and fortunately I had leftovers so I heated those up and ate them quickly. Then I went to bed feeling very good and anticipating that I should be able to fall asleep quickly.

Surgery Day +42, Lengthening Day 39 (+0.66mm, 37.96mm total)

I really don’t remember too much about last night, except that while I was half asleep I tried to stretch my left inner thigh (butterfly stretch) and it actually didn’t hurt that much since my pain was suppressed. I also remember waking up for a good 20 minutes around 2am and not being able to fall back asleep. During that time I got up to take a Norco and then immediately went back to bed. According to my watch, I slept for a total of 6.2 out of 7.6 hours in bed and woke up 8 times, but got nearly two 2-hour blocks of solid sleep. That’s about an average night for me during lengthening. However, I felt pretty refreshed this morning so I think I actually fell asleep before my watch started tracking my sleep. (Like I said before, the Apple Watch isn’t actually good at tracking sleep if you sleep before/after when the sleep start time is set or wake up before the alarm goes off.) I also think I fell into a relatively deep sleep last night because I remembered dreaming again. I don’t remember too many details about the dream, only that my hair was really messed up in it. Anyway, since I don’t feel tired at all I think I will continue my current sleep strategy.

I got out of bed to do my morning routine and take my pills, then grabbed my work laptop and sat back down in bed. After working in bed for about an hour, I realized that I was incredibly hungry and had completely forgotten to eat breakfast. I got up to make and eat breakfast, then I figured it would be best to lengthen early in the day. Today is the last of five consecutive days of lengthening at 2 sessions per day (0.66mm/day) so tomorrow I’m going back to full speed (1mm/day.) I planned to lengthen twice relatively early in the day today and then “skip” the last session; this way my body is at least used to two lengthenings relatively close to each other. I started doing my PT exercises and stretches, but didn’t overload myself since I had to actually go to PT today. After doing a set of everything I ran the ERC on each leg. I think slowing down has definitely helped me with overall pain, tightness, and stiffness as I feel less of all of it. However, it’s hard to quantify how much slowing down has helped though, because while less of something that’s tolerable is helpful, it may or may not be necessary. It is definitely helpful that both my left shin and left inner thigh hurt less than they did before, so I suppose slowing down has definitely helped with potential nerve issues.

I returned to work for the rest of the morning all the way until it was time to leave for PT. I headed over quite early since I needed to leave PT early and hoped that they would allow me to get started early so I wouldn’t miss out on too many exercises. Right when I drove out of the garage I realized that I had forgotten to take Norco before leaving, but it was too late already. However, since I had gone through PT a couple of times without any painkillers in the past it would probably be fine. I arrived at PT about 15 minutes early and they were ready to get me started, so I rode the stationary bike for 10 minutes. I got 1.32 miles at resistance level 3, so a bit of an improvement over last time, especially since I wasn’t trying very hard today. Although the PT I had been working with most of last week was present, I actually had a different PT working with me today. She had me lay down on the table and rolled out my hamstrings, then my IT bands. I felt a bit sore wherever the roller touched, but it was not the painful kind of sore, more like the sore feeling you get after working out. The roller was also relieving the soreness at the same time it was causing it, so maybe the soreness was already there. For some reason I got very ticklish when she rolled over my upper femur screws, I flinched but managed to stifle my laugh. After that I did a series of PT exercises on the table, and then a bunch of standing exercises and stretches. I finished up the last exercise right when I needed to leave, bid farewell to everyone at the PT facility, and rushed out to my car.

I immediately drove back to my place after PT and while I was in the building elevator I subconsciously leaned back onto the handrail (which I have been avoiding since the start of the pandemic) and suddenly realized that I had grown relative to the handrail. The handrail used to touch me at the hip level so it felt like it was just in the way when I leaned against it. Now it felt like I could almost sit on it and I’m sure once I’m done lengthening, it’ll actually be at a sitting height for me. It’s always good to get these tiny reminders that I’m taller, because I don’t really have that huge perspective shift yet (the one where I feel like everything looks lower than before because I’m taller.) I really hope to get that shift in perspective at some point during the distraction phase, because I think that’s what makes everyone so adamant that CLL is worth every penny. Anyway, I got home and called into a meeting and then after that continued to work for a bit. I ate the remaining leftovers in the fridge while I was working. I initially felt okay after PT, though as my legs got stiffer over time they were not as comfortable as before. Eventually, I had to take a Norco and I planned to keep working while I waited for it to kick in. However, right after I sat down I got distracted by a message from a friend and we talked for a while and I didn’t even notice when the Norco kicked in. It was already early evening so I just signed off my work computer and started my workout.

It was much easier to do PT exercises with a painkiller. Even though I was able to do them at the PT facility without a painkiller, I would not be able to do them all over again pain-free just 2-3 hours later without taking a painkiller. I got through a full set of everything since I wasn’t sure how much stretching I was going to do later in the night. Then I lengthened each side with minimal aftereffects (slight pain in the left knee.) I have felt pretty good physically while lengthening at 0.66 mm/day so I did some quick math on lengthening rates. Even if I stuck with 0.66 mm/day all the way to 8cm, I would still be done before the end of February 2021. If I lengthened at 1 mm/day every day, I still wouldn’t be done until the second week of February. The difference is less than 3 weeks, so if nothing goes wrong with my nails, I’m going to be done with distraction at some point in February no matter what speed I go at! Of course, I suppose things could get so bad that I would have to slow down to 0.33 mm/day, but let’s not think about that for now (or hopefully at all lol.)

After lengthening, I had a couple of TV shows to catch up on. I ate lunch pretty late so I wasn’t hungry yet, but I planned to cook dinner later. While I was watching TV I reminded myself again that even though I was suffering and bored every day, my life is actually not worse off than most people during the pandemic. The timing of everything should work out too, since I should be decently recovered by the time all the vaccines are massively available. I did some light stretching as well while I was watching TV, though I’m a bit lazy so I always have to remind myself to stretch when I’m doing passive activities. Time passed by pretty quickly and it was about time to cook dinner. I made a delicious meal out of my giant stash of frozen and canned food and ate it along with my CBD sleep aid. I quickly took a shower before the edible kicked in, and then got ready to go to sleep. Everything worked out perfectly timing-wise and I got into bed and browsed the web for a bit on my laptop. Once I got the smallest hint of being sleepy I immediately turned off the lights and passed out.

Surgery Day +43, Lengthening Day 40 (+1mm, 38.96mm total)

I guess going to bed early has its perks. I slept for 7.6 hours out of 8.6 hours spent in bed. However I woke up 9 times split up pretty evenly throughout the night, so I didn’t get any single block of sleep over 90 minutes. Still, I’m not too tired today, so I guess that counts for something. I got up pretty early in the morning and I did my morning routine and took my meds. I might need a refill of Xarelto before my next visit to the doctor, so I probably need to count the pills when I get a chance. I sat in bed trying to be productive for a while, but realized that I was very hungry. I always forget to eat breakfast when I wake up until I suddenly realize I'm hungry. I went to the kitchen to make and eat breakfast, which made me feel much better. I actually needed to lengthen early in the day today since I’m back to three sessions a day. I am bad at timing my lengthenings since I’m a hardcore procrastinator, so I had to just start for the first one. I did a set of PT exercises and stretches and then it was time to run the ERC. While it was quite early in the morning, it was more than half a day after the last lengthening so I didn’t expect it to be too difficult and it wasn’t.

After lengthening I got busy with work all the way until it was time for PT. While working I was in just enough pain that I had to sit in bed instead of at my desk and my focus was not really that great. I managed to get a bit of work done though. When it was time to leave for PT I remembered to take Norco today. I drove over to PT, which was pretty packed today, though most of the people present were there for OT. I started on the bike and did 1.66 miles in 10 minutes at resistance level 3, which is nearly a 90 watt output (not bad at all.) I think I will be able to score much higher on the Peloton when I get a chance to try again. Next I got onto one of the tables and the same PT as yesterday worked with me. She rolled my hamstrings and IT bands, then manually stretched my hip and quads. Since I took a painkiller earlier, none of the movements generated any pain at all (though I don't think it would hurt even if I didn't take a painkiller.) After that I did all my PT exercises, with additional weights, bands, and reps on each one. I feel like the PT can tell when I am able to do an exercise easily and just makes it harder. I don’t mind though, because the harder I train, the better my legs will get.

After the last exercise I left PT and went to a supplement store that was in the same strip mall. I had seen a sign on their door earlier that they sold CBD, so I thought they might have some CBD pills without THC that I could try for sleep, but it turns out that they only had topical products. They did have quite a variety of sleep aids though, so I picked one up that seems to help with staying asleep. I left and went home and then realized that I should probably check with the doctor before taking anything new, even if it's not a prescription drug. I’m planning to get X-rays tomorrow, so maybe I can bring it up when I send those over. On the other hand, I actually feel like my sleep is tolerable right now, so if it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it, right? No reason to try a new sleep aid if what I have works. After I got home I ate a bunch of snacks, though I didn’t have a proper lunch so I would need to eat a big dinner tonight. As soon as I got the chance, I ran the ERC on both legs. Since I was already 100% loose and still on Norco it was the best time of the day to get my middle lengthening session in. After lengthening, I felt no negative aftereffects, so I got back to work as I had a lot to do. I also remembered that I recently got a bill from a radiologist contracted by the hospital I had my surgery in for $70. I checked with Dr. D’s office and it is indeed not covered by the hospital fee, because the biller is not affiliated with the hospital. I still think it’s kind of ridiculous how that works, but that’s the U.S. healthcare system for you.

I wrapped up at work and started going through my personal to do list and the next thing I knew it was dark outside. My legs were feeling a little more in pain, but still at a tolerable level. I decided to cook dinner next. After eating and watching TV I took a shower and started doing my laundry. At this point I figured it was late enough at night to lengthen. I did another set of PT exercises, though these were the hardest of the day since my legs were tired and I had already done so many. I finished the exercises and stretched as well, then ran the ERC. I have no issues yet from going back to 1mm/day yet, but this is only the first day. I took a sleep aid (non-CBD) edible and went to bed.

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Thanks for the update, BTM. Good to hear the lengthening adjustment is helping with the pain side effects.  February will be here before you know it! 👍

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LoL I feel the same "Captain American treatment" while I was doing lengthening .

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Quote from: L8GrowthSpurt on December 30, 2020, 03:22:59 PMThanks for the update, BTM. Good to hear the lengthening adjustment is helping with the pain side effects.  February will be here before you know it!
Yeah, all I can do is take it one day at a time!

Quote from: DreamerLL on January 02, 2021, 12:11:42 AMLoL I feel the same "Captain American treatment" while I was doing lengthening .
He probably lengthened 20cm in a minute! Definitely worth it even at 10/10 pain the whole time

Surgery Day +44, Lengthening Day 41 (+0.66mm, 39.62mm total)

I slept well last night. I woke up at 3:30 and took a Norco pill, but aside from that I was asleep for most of the night. I got 7.8 hours of sleep out of 8.8 hours in bed. I woke up 5 times total and got some pretty big blocks of sleep. I don’t remember dreaming though. I was sleeping so well that I actually hit the snooze button for the first time in weeks. Normally I can’t fall asleep after dawn and I get up and turn off my alarm before it even goes off, but today I slept until my alarm went off. I got up after one snooze though, since I needed to be efficient today with a lot of stuff to do. While walking around first thing in the morning, I actually didn’t feel that stiff and my legs were only in 1/10 pain, which are both very good signs. I did my morning routine and took Xarelto, but didn’t take Tylenol since I didn’t need it at all. I made breakfast before I got hungry and ate it. Then I started doing PT exercises in preparation for lengthening. Lengthening itself went smoothly with no aftereffects so I ended up working all morning until it was time for PT.

I forgot to take Norco before leaving for PT again, but this time I was only 10 steps out the door when I realized it, so I went back inside to take one. Then I drove over to the PT facility. Everything was pretty standard today. In my 10 minutes on the bike I did 1.42 miles at resistance level 3, but I wasn’t pushing that hard (nor did I have the energy to) so I definitely was feeling a bit more tired than yesterday, but I had enough energy to get through PT. I started with standing PT exercises and stretches, then exercises where I was laying on the table. Finally, the PT wanted to roll my quads. I thought she was going to get the foam roller, but instead she got this small rod that looked like a metal rolling pin and started rolling it up and down my quads. At first it was a little ticklish, but that quickly turned to severe pain, like easily 7/10 pain (on Norco!) I’m pretty sure it hurt more than any LL related pain I’ve experienced since surgery. It took all I could muster to not shout out in pain. I told the PT that it hurt two times on each leg, but even with her reducing the pressure it was still terrible. Afterwards I had a couple more degrees of flexibility when bending my knee, but I don’t think it was worth it at all.

Fortunately the pain didn’t last beyond the rolling session. I left PT without any additional pain and got into my car. I drove straight to the hospital to get my two-week X-ray. I had Dr. D’s orders with me so hopefully everything would go smoothly. When I arrived at the hospital and parked, I realized that the hospital was huge so I would be walking around a lot today. I asked for directions to radiology and headed over there. I talked to a receptionist and handed her the X-ray orders. She grabbed my ID and insurance and told me to sit down while she filled out some paperwork. That took at least 30 minutes, but eventually she called me back and gave me a waiting number. A few minutes later a hospital worker called my number and I went into the waiting room. I sat in here for a good 15 minutes twiddling my thumbs and finally an X-ray technician came and brought me to the X-ray room. We discussed the orders and I made sure that she did the front and lateral femur shots. I’m not sure if they would be able to do the floor to pelvis shot. Actually taking the X-rays was quick, though I had to pose in eight different positions. After that they tried to get in contact with Dr. D regarding the optional X-ray, but the receptionist said he was in surgery, so I said to forget it and just give me the disk with the images they already took. That took another 30 minutes while I was just laying on the X-ray bed waiting. I finally got the disks, which were literally CD-ROMs. I was hoping that I would be able to see the X-rays myself, but I don’t own any computers old enough to have a CD drive in them. In total I spent almost two hours at the hospital, and I left quickly once everything was ready. I didn’t have to pay anything on the spot, but I expect a hefty bill from them in my mailbox in a month or two.

I figured I should send out the disks to Dr. D’s office as soon as possible, so when I got home I printed out a shipping label and boxed everything up. I planned to drop it off at the post office after PT tomorrow. I was hoping to do my second lengthening session for the day while I was still warmed up from PT, but my legs had gotten stiff from sitting around at the hospital for so long. After a couple of stretches I was a bit warmed up and I just ran the ERC on each leg. One note of concern is while I was doing stretches I noticed that my left shin was just a tiny bit numb. It is hardly noticeable, but if I rub both my left and right shin at the same time, my left shin clearly has a little less sensation. I reached out to Dr. D’s team about it, and tried to mentally prepare myself for 0.66mm/day until the end of February. Even though I keep saying that I’m okay with slowing down, I really really don’t want another eight weeks of being stuck in the distraction phase if I can get done in five and I was really hoping that my body could tolerate 1mm/day for a longer period of time. I also don’t know how my callus has been growing over the last two weeks and wouldn’t know until Dr. D’s team gets the X-ray CDs in hand.

At this point it was almost time to sign off work, but since I had been outside pretty much all afternoon, I felt bad and tried to get some more work done. It didn’t last long though. I had no focus since I was worried about having to slow down lengthening again, worried about premature consolidation, and worried about nerve issues showing up only one day after I returned to a 1mm/day lengthening rate. I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and I was starving. Fortunately I had done the dishes last night, so I could start cooking right away. I made a ton of food and then sat down on the couch to eat, watch TV, and try to forget about all my troubles. Unfortunately, after I finished eating I realized that my legs were getting more and more uncomfortable. I wasn’t feeling great in my right shin or my legs in general. It was getting kind of late, so I figured I needed a painkiller. I didn’t want to take Norco since I would probably have to take it in the middle of the night so I took a CBD gummy. I was tired and I figured I’d lay in the tub and soak for a bit. Clearly I had forgotten how painful it was to sit on my tailbone and couldn’t wait one more day for my bath mattress to arrive.

I figured since I took the edible on a very full stomach it wouldn’t kick in for a while. I was quite wrong as it kicked in after 30 minutes and I fell asleep in the tub again. I woke up shivering and got out quickly and dried myself. I stumbled over to my bed and lay down. At this point I checked my left shin and it still had a little bit less sensation than my right shin. I had the ERC right next to my bed and I wanted to run it, but I was not feeling very good at all. I was totally out of it and had no energy or focus to stretch or do any PT exercises. All I could really do was lay back, so I ultimately decided to just go to sleep. I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.

Surgery Day +45, Lengthening Day 42 (+1mm, 40.62mm total)

I woke up a couple of times at night, but was able to fall back asleep relatively quickly. My sleep data showed that I got 8.1 hours of sleep out of 9.2 hours in bed, woke up 7 times, and had one solid 3-hour block of sleep. I suppose the first time I slept for over 8 hours since surgery is an achievement in itself. I got up to take my pills and make breakfast. My legs were in 2-3/10 pain but it was tolerable. After eating, I sat down in bed with my laptop for a while to work on things. I noticed at some point that both of my shins felt about the same sensation when I ran my hands up and down them. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like both were normal, but rather it felt like both were slightly desensitized to touch. Now I’m wondering if that painful rolling on my quad that the PT did yesterday somehow impacted my femoral nerve and stretched it out too quickly or something. I suppose all I can do for now is continue monitoring my shins.

Next, it was time to do my exercises and stretches. I got in a decent 20 minute pre-lengthening workout. After running the ERC on each leg I’m happy to say that I’m now at the halfway mark (well technically I’m still 0.05mm short but we can round up.) I’m glad that I’ve made it to this point and even though I’ve been tight and stiff on many days, frequently uncomfortable in the legs, and often lacking sleep, this milestone still feels bigger than any of the earlier ones that I’ve achieved. Although I still don’t have that shift in perspective yet, I hope that it comes soon. After all, I can’t just keep growing and not feel any taller, right? That just wouldn’t make any sense, regardless of whether the growth was natural or artificial! I’m also glad that I reached this point before the end of 2020, so that I can say that half my lengthening journey was in 2020 and half will be in 2021.

After lengthening, I had to work all the way until PT. My shins were feeling okay, but not flawless like they were just a few days ago. Dr. D got back to me on the shin numbness and told me to keep an eye on it but to keep lengthening at 1mm/day. Maybe the numbness is not a big deal or maybe he doesn’t want me to slow down until he can see my bone growth from my latest X-rays. Unfortunately those X-ray discs are still sitting in my room and I wouldn’t get a chance to drop them off until after PT today. Dr. D’s office probably wouldn’t get them until early next week as well, so it looks like I have no choice but to keep lengthening at 1mm/day and hope for the best with nerve pain over the next few days. Finally, it was time for PT. I took a Norco and headed over to the facility.

The PT center was packed today, with around 15 patients when I arrived. I think there were only 4 or 5 PTs working as well. There was someone on the bike that I normally use so I had to use an upright bike (like the Peloton in my gym) but on first glance it had a wide and soft looking seat so I wasn’t too concerned. However, the second I got on the bike I realized that no matter how soft the seat was, putting my entire body weight on my perineum when I have no butt fat or glutes is not going to be a good time. Fortunately it was a lot more tolerable than the Peloton, and I only had to ride for 10 minutes. The PT assistant made me go up to 3.5 resistance level and I only got 1.34 miles. I think it’s mostly because I was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t ride fast at all. I wonder if that’s the reason I did poorly on the Peloton as well last week. I suppose tomorrow I’ll get a chance to try the Peloton again with the biking shorts to see if that makes a difference. After riding the stationary bike, I did a ton of different standing and walking exercises and stretches for the next 45 minutes. The PT didn’t have me do any table or sitting exercise today. After all my exercises I was actually quite tired. The PT had me lay on the table and manually stretched out my hip and quads, then rolled my IT band (with the foam roller fortunately.)

After that I headed out and went to pick up a chicken sandwich at a nearby spot in the same strip mall. It took almost 20 minutes for them to make the sandwich, which is really sad, and they also didn’t have any indoor seating due to the pandemic, so I had to stand the whole time, which was quite tiring right after PT. After getting my sandwich, I went to the post office to mail my X-ray CDs to Dr. D’s office. Somehow I don’t think the discs are going to arrive until next week even though I shipped via 2-day Priority Mail since packages often get delayed at this time of the year. After that I went home and ate my chicken sandwich. Then I stretched for about 10 minutes since we had skipped all those stretches at PT today, and then ran the ERC on each leg. About 15 minutes after lengthening, my left shin was numb, and quite a bit more so than yesterday. This was slightly surprising to me since it seemed like my shins were doing okay the whole morning. This feeling lasted for almost two hours, at which point my left shin became only slightly numb like it was this morning. It’s not a great sign, but I’ll continue to lengthen at 1mm/day and see what happens. I’m not too concerned if it doesn’t get any worse than this, but if it does get worse than this, then we’re going to have some problems. I really hope that my callus growth in the X-rays I sent out today is slow enough that I can slow down lengthening if needed.

At this point I was already off work and I got a notification that my bath mattress had arrived. I went down to the lobby to pick it up and figured now was as good of a time as any to try it out. It was shorter than I thought, but long enough to cover most of the tub. I set it up, filled the tub, then got in. It was at least half an inch thick so more than padding to comfortably sit on. I noticed that I still had to change my leg position every few minutes though, since keeping my legs straight or keeping them bent for too long would make them uncomfortable. I soaked for a while and the water was probably too hot since I was sweating, so I drained it and got out. I wasn’t hungry yet (usually not hungry at night) so I decided to watch some TV and stretch. If I stretched well enough I could just lengthen right away and if I didn’t then I could turn off the TV and do a focused stretching session. Fortunately I was able to concentrate pretty well on stretching while watching TV, in fact probably too well because I was more distracted by how numb my left shin was getting when I was doing quad stretches than what was on TV. I spent the entire hour stretching, though my stretches were relatively light and long in duration. At this point I felt like my shins were very numb and that they would get even more numb if I lengthened and I wasn’t sure if I could even lengthen. However, I got out the ERC and forced myself to do the lengthening process and got through it with no problem.

After lengthening my shins were actually not any more numb than they were before. In fact, after a while the numbness went down a bit as I was walking around. I was far too lazy to do the dishes and cook dinner, so I made a quick and easy meal instead. I still think anyone who is going through the process should order out as much as possible if no one else is cooking because you never know how much energy or motivation you’ll have at any given point to get things done. I took a sleep aid edible as well once I finished eating. After my late dinner, I got into bed and suddenly I was very sleepy. Maybe it was the edible or maybe it was food coma, but regardless I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Even though I was still concerned about numbness and constantly checking my shins, I passed out pretty quickly.

Surgery Day +46, Lengthening Day 43 (+1mm, 41.62mm total)

I woke up once in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. It was nearly 6am though, so I didn’t take a Norco since I didn’t expect to sleep for that much longer. I was correct and woke up not too long after that. I’m using a new sleep tracking app called AutoSleep that GHKid recommended. It should be more accurate than the default sleep app. Out of 8.2 hours in bed, the default app shows that I got 7.7 hours of sleep, but the AutoSleep app shows that I got 7.2 hours of sleep. The default app shows that I got a 4 hour block of continuous sleep, but the AutoSleep app shows that I got zero minutes of deep sleep. Either way, sleeping is still about the same as the last few days - not as good as before the surgery, but more than enough to keep me going. I got up for my morning routine, walked around in 2-3/10 pain for a bit, and then sat back down in bed.

It was barely light out and a cloudy day, so quite dreary. I figured I should probably get my first lengthening of the day done as soon as possible, but I didn’t have any energy to do it yet. I watched YouTube videos and distracted myself for a while, and suddenly it was almost noon. I had to lengthen soon, otherwise there would be no way to get three sessions in today. By the time I finished all my PT exercises and stretched it was already past noon and I finally lengthened. I felt like my shin was more numb while stretching my quads than after lengthening, which makes sense to me since lengthening is only stretching my nerve by 0.33mm (albeit permanently) while the act of stretching is going to stretch the nerve for much more than that temporarily. I think as long as I don’t feel extreme pain during the stretching session, then I should be able to run the ERC afterwards with no problem. After lengthening I felt a bit of pain on my left shin, maybe in the muscle or bone area, while simultaneously being numb on the skin above it. LL is truly a weird beast.

Now I had a few hours to spare, so I did the dishes and some other errands around the house while waiting for the time slot I signed up for at the gym. Before going down to the gym I changed into padded biking shorts (then wore my gym shorts over those so I’d have pockets) and took a Norco pill. I headed to the gym ready to bump up my score on the Peloton and defeat more “able legged people” and hoping that the gym wouldn’t be full of New Years resolutioners. When I arrived the gym was completely empty so I had everything to myself. I got on the bike and noticed the extra padding immediately. Unfortunately it was still a little bit uncomfortable, which goes to show just how flat my butt is right now. I did the same 20 minute workout as last time to see how much I’ve improved in one week, and boy did I improve. I increased my output from 40kJ last weekend to 60kJ today! I also realized that the 14th percentile I calculated last week was for the general population, not males 30-39. With this ride I climbed up to the 24th percentile of the general population and 13th percentile for males 30-39. Some of the top guys in my age bracket are outputting 150+kJ in 20 minutes, so I still have a long way to go to catch up. I feel like I’m operating near my personal peak capacity in my current condition though. My heart rate went all the way up to 167 during the ride and my leg power was being limited by the lactic acid that my quadriceps were producing (and of course my limited mobility.) It still feels good to be riding faster than nearly a quarter of all Peloton users with two broken femurs though

After the bike ride I found that my perineum was a bit numb again, so I think while the extra padding helps, I need to somehow put more weight on my feet while riding rather than my butt if possible. I haven’t decided if I want to ride the Peloton again tomorrow or take a break for my legs since I’m already signed up to ride two days from now. I’m also slightly afraid of my quads recovering too fast and getting too strong and thus increasing the difficulty of lengthening. After the bike ride I did a couple of sets of arm and shoulder exercises with my remaining allotted time. Right before leaving the gym I also wanted to see how many proper pull-ups I could still do, and the answer is sadly only three. When I touched the pull-up bar though, I noticed again that I was taller than before, because I could easily grip the pull-up bar with my feet flat on the ground, whereas before lengthening if my feet were flat I could barely touch it with the tip of my fingers. When I got home I was feeling great. I didn’t notice my left shin numbness at all (though it was definitely there) and I had 0/10 pain walking around or doing anything, really. I wanted to lengthen right away, but I decided to give it another 30 minutes since my first lengthening of the day was less than three hours ago. I sat on my bed to take a rest and browsed the web for a while. I didn’t want to sit around too long though, so I went to stretch for a bit before running the ERC.

It’s always easier to stretch after riding a bike, which is probably why riding the stationary bike is the first thing I’m supposed to do at PT every day. I got through all my major stretches and just ignored my left shin numbness. Afterwards I ran the ERC and continued my day with no additional aftereffects. I sat in bed for quite a while and watched random mindless stuff on YouTube and eventually I noticed it was dark out and I remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so I made a pretty big meal and devoured it. At this point it wasn’t even that early anymore and it had been a few hours since my last lengthening, so I decided to start a long stretching session since I was watching TV anyway. Then I could lengthen at the end of it. This worked out pretty well and I stretched quite efficiently as well, hitting all the big and small muscle groups for the full target duration. I ran the ERC on each leg with no immediate issues, and afterwards I did two additional hip stretches that I couldn’t do on the couch - a standing TFL stretch and a hip flexor stretch laying on my stomach. Although my quadriceps started hurting a little bit afterwards, it wasn’t anything intolerable. My left shin has not increased in numbness at all today so I feel much better about continuing to lengthen at 1mm/day.

After lengthening, I took a strong CBD gummy since I hadn’t had any painkillers since my early afternoon Norco before biking. I drank some water and ate some snacks, then got ready to go to bed. I hopped into bed with my laptop and rushed to finish this post before the edible kicked in and it looks like I have succeeded. It is time to pass out now. Good night, forum. Happy New Year! I hope that 2021 will be a great year for everyone.

Edit Post

Surgery Day +47, Lengthening Day 44 (+0.66mm, 42.28mm total)

I remember either having some trouble falling asleep or waking up early in the night from pain in my right shin. I don’t remember exactly how painful it was, but I do remember it was not only numb but I think I had shooting pains as well. I also remember waking up at 6am to go to the bathroom and drink some water. I managed to fall asleep after that all the way until my alarm went off. The new app showed that I slept for 7.9 hours out of 8.8 hours in bed, with about 30 minutes of deep sleep. I got up and did my morning routine, ate my pills and breakfast, having 3/10 pain the whole time as most mornings. It took quite a while for my legs to warm up this morning but they eventually did as I sat in bed resting. Eventually I noticed that my legs were finally in 0/10 pain while sitting, so I decided to get started with my first lengthening session of the day. Hopefully the issue with my right shin was just a one-off or I was dreaming about the pain because I didn’t feel anything when I woke up or at any point in the morning.

I started a stretching session making sure to hit my quads hard so I could see what the effect on my shin nerves would be. As I was stretching I noticed that the skin on the inner side of my left calf was a bit numb as well as sometimes feeling small shooting pains underneath the skin there, most notably when I was sitting with my legs dangling over the side of the couch but not touching the floor with my feet. I didn’t really notice anything with the numb part of my right shin though. I stretched pretty thoroughly for over 30 minutes and then ran the ERC. I didn’t feel anything from lengthening and I did a couple of additional hip stretches afterwards. I’m not really sure if it’s better to go at 1mm/day or 0.66mm/day at this point, and I really hope Dr. D can review my X-rays early next week and let me know if I at least have the option of slowing down. Looking at the tracking info on my package the X-ray CDs have left my city and are heading toward Las Vegas now.

While I was stretching I also noticed that my thighs were swollen again. I’ve been measuring the amount of swelling by wrapping my thumb and middle finger on both hands around my thigh near the knee to see how tight it feels. If I can barely close the circle then it’s swollen. If I can close the circle with some slack then it’s not that swollen. I would not be surprised at all if my swelling today was because I pushed myself too hard on the bike yesterday. Therefore, I planned to skip the bike ride today and just use my allotted gym time on upper body lifts. I also planned to take a cold water bath after working out to hopefully reduce some of the swelling.

It was almost lunchtime so I ordered takeout from a nearby restaurant. Last time they prepared it very fast, so I changed and got ready to go outside right away. Sure enough, by the time I was ready to head out I already got a text saying my food was ready for pickup. I drove over to the restaurant and realized that all the roads and sidewalks were icy. I parked in a relatively clean spot and carefully walked over and got the food and then went straight home. Fortunately I did not slip or fall. I ate my lunch while multitasking some other things I wanted to get done before it was time to go to the gym. I ordered enough food to have leftovers for the rest of the weekend so I wouldn’t have to cook. I put all the remaining food in the refrigerator, then went back to my computer and stayed busy until it was about time to go to the gym. I had texted Dr. D’s team earlier in the day about the shooting nerve pain in my left shin and Dr. D said I could go back to 0.66mm/day, which was a huge relief to me. Right now I can handle two sessions a day much better than three. Hopefully the bone callus growth in my X-rays supports slowing down because I don’t think my nerves are doing a very good job stretching beyond the 4cm mark. I think I need to psychologically prepare for the end of February as my target date for finishing the consolidation phase. If I somehow manage to get in a few more 1mm days and finish early, then that’s great, but I need to think of that as a bonus and not a given.

I then headed to the gym without taking any Norco. Since I wasn’t doing any leg exercises I didn’t think I needed a painkiller and I wasn’t going to lengthen after getting back from the gym now that I’m only doing two sessions a day. I’m still taking that ice bath when I get back though, because slowing down isn’t going to impact my swelling. One thing I need to get better at now is stretching three or more times a day even though I’m only doing two lengthening sessions. I still need the extra stretching even though I’m slowing down because my flexibility won’t improve if I reduce my stretching at the same time as slowing down lengthening. I’m glad that I’m doing PT at a facility and not just training at home because I personally feel like I am more productive in my hour at PT than I would be stretching for an hour at home.

Once I entered the gym I actually wanted to try a five minute bike ride to see if I could make the seat more comfortable if I lowered it. It didn’t really feel more comfortable since I didn’t have biking shorts on, but I think it actually was since I was able to ride fairly easily for five minutes. After the quick bike ride I worked out my upper body for over half an hour and then left the gym. Once I got home I didn’t have much to do so I decided to take that ice bath. I snuck in a pain-killing edible to see if I could get away with taking no Norco today. The ice bath felt pretty cold since I hadn’t taken one in a while, but I lasted the whole 15 minutes I set on the timer. After that I warmed up the water and soaked for a while and of course I fell asleep. I didn’t nap for too long though since the water wasn’t cold when I woke up. Surprisingly I don’t think the edible actually hit me at any point. I got out of the tub and dried off. As I was sitting on the edge of my bed putting clothes on, I made some wrong move with my left leg while it was off the ground and immediately got hit by multiple shooting pains in my left shin and on the inside of my left calf. It hurt very badly (7/10) and is definitely an indication that I should probably slow down lengthening. I will need to be a lot more careful when sitting down and moving my left leg around.

At this point I was hungry so I got up and heated my dinner up. I ate quickly and then went back to sit in bed because I was tired and my left lower leg was still in pain. However, I think even though the edible never kicked in, the CBD was making me quite sleepy, and I fell asleep while sitting in bed. I actually slept for a few hours until almost bedtime and then I realized I would have to get up and lengthen soon if I wanted to complete a second session today. I did a decent 20+ minute stretch routine which hit every muscle group a few times and then ran the ERC. I felt no aftereffects from lengthening but wouldn’t be surprised if I felt something later. I was now being careful not to trigger the shooting pains in my left leg when possible, but it’s difficult to avoid it 100% when moving my legs around to get up. I hopped back into bed and I still felt a little tired. While sitting, I was in 0/10 pain, though my left leg felt like it could “go off” at any time, which made me nervous anytime I changed positions. I got ready to sleep again and I’m guessing I’ll probably wake up pretty early in the morning.

Surgery Day +48, Lengthening Day 45 (+0.66mm, 42.94mm total)

After I went to bed last night I had trouble sleeping for about two hours. I drifted in and out of sleep, but kept triggering the shooting nerve pain in my left leg. At about 1:30am I got up and took a Norco and went back to bed. After that I slept well until about 5am, when I woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep. I checked my sleep data at this point and it showed that I slept for 5.4 hours last night out of 6 hours in bed, with over 60 minutes of deep sleep. I remembered having a couple of strange dreams as well. I had slept for about 2.5 hours during the evening yesterday, but it counted as yesterday’s sleep in the sleep tracker. It was also very shallow sleep, but technically I had slept for 8 hours so I stopped trying to fall asleep again. I think that overall my sleep efficiency has gone up in the last week, but I still need chemical assistance to sleep properly. CBD definitely helps me sleep for hours past when I take the edible, but doesn’t get me any deep sleep. Norco helps me sleep as well and doesn’t prevent me from getting deep sleep, but it doesn’t last very long.

I sat in bed with my laptop for a while since I was awake but pretty bored. So far my legs were in 0/10 pain as long as I didn’t move them and I was being extra careful not to trigger any nerve pain in my left leg. Finally, the sun came up and it was time to get out of bed and start my morning routine. I was walking around in 0/10 pain since I had already been awake for awhile and constantly adjusted my legs while I was sitting in bed. However, my left leg kept feeling like I was going to get nerve pains as I was walking around and sitting in a chair, but I never did. Still, it was very distracting since nerve pain is very uncomfortable (like worse than sharp pain imo) and I kept thinking it was going to hit me. After eating breakfast and using the computer all morning, I remembered that I still had to lengthen. I started exercising and got distracted by messages from a friend. I ended up stretching half heartedly while doing other stuff for almost 90 minutes, and kept accidentally triggering the nerve pain in my left leg. Finally, I finished stretching and ran the ERC. I haven’t had any issues from running the ERC lately, but I’m too distracted by the nerve pain in my left leg to notice any problems anyway.

After lengthening I heated up my lunch and ate it. I had a bit of time until it was time to go to the gym, and I had a couple of things to do, so I stayed busy. When it was time to head to the gym I took Norco and changed into biking shorts since I planned to ride the Peloton today. The gym was empty again when I arrived and I hopped onto the bike after wiping it down. I planned to do the 10 minute “easy ride” but after I started I quickly found out that “easy” was actually much harder than “beginner”. I struggled to keep up on the ride, but I did manage to output 42kJ of energy in 10 minutes, which is more than I output in 20 minutes just one week ago. It’s always good to see an improvement, though I only scored in the bottom 22nd percentile for the general population. Unfortunately even though it was only 10 minutes, the bike ride drained me and I was only able to half-heartedly do a couple of sets of upper body exercises. I had been hitting the same muscles with the dumbbells for 3 days in a row, so they were kind of sore already as well.

After I got back from the gym, I put on a football game and started stretching on the couch. Although I had done a bike ride and taken Norco, I feel like by the time I had started stretching all of that had worn off already, so it was like starting to stretch with stiff legs. The game was long though, so I had plenty of time to do light stretches the whole time. If I sat with my left leg at certain angles though, the shooting nerve pain would trigger, which was very unpleasant. Fortunately I figured out that if I wrapped my left calf tightly in a towel (which I was using to help with certain stretches) it would prevent the pain from being triggered. The towel wasn’t tight to the point where it was cutting off circulation, but it was tight enough to feel tight against my leg. With this newfound knowledge, I was able to enjoy watching the rest of the game without any nerve pain.

After the game ended I went to take an ice bath as I had planned. However, since I had long cooled down after returning from the gym, I decided to take only a short ice bath. I didn’t set a timer, but I’ve done this enough times to know that the skin on my thighs gets red after about 5 minutes in the water. I figured this was long enough for my blood vessels and lymph nodes to constrict. I ended up sitting in the cold water for 5-10 minutes, massaging my thighs. Then I replaced the cold water with hot water so my blood vessels and lymph nodes would expand and continued to massage my thighs toward my body while my legs were elevated above my heart level. I sat in the hot bath briefly, then took a shower. When I got back to my room, I decided to try wearing compression pants to see if that would provide enough pressure on my left lower leg to stop the nerve pain. Unfortunately it was not enough, so I would have to continue the towel wrapping strategy.

I made dinner and ate it quickly, and then spent a bit of time preparing for the following work week. I wanted to go to bed early, but I also didn’t want to lengthen too early. It was late enough to start stretching for the second lengthening session though. I spent about 20 minutes stretching and then ran the ERC on each leg. After that I took a CBD edible and now I'm getting ready to go to bed.

Edit Post

I want to let everyone know that I’ve decided to take a break from journaling. I’m writing this post so people don’t think I just disappeared or something. This newfound nerve pain and the idea of drastically slowing down lengthening are hitting me pretty hard. Although I’ve lengthened over half the maximum of the nail, I’m almost certain that I’m less than halfway to hitting 8cm in terms of time spent, and I’m not very confident I can even hit 8cm.

It takes a lot of energy and motivation to write and I just don’t have much of either to spare anymore. Work is going to get a bit busier for me with the new year and I have other stuff to deal with too. Just stretching a few times a day and doing two lengthening sessions feels like a lot to me right now. Time is passing by incredibly slowly in my head and I can’t see or feel the end of lengthening as I’m nowhere near it. Lengthening is definitely a process with ups and downs and I’m feeling pretty down right now.

I can definitely see why people disappear and leave the forum entirely at various stages of the LL process. Reading any section of this forum except patient experiences is the opposite of therapeutic for anyone going through this process or having completed it. I’m glad there are those who have the patience to stay on here to answer questions even after they are completely done with LL, but I know I’m not one of those people. Best of luck, everyone.

Edit Post

Stay strong man, it's a very tough journey but will be worth it in the end. I'll be praying that you reach your goal. Thanks a lot for actually explaining your situation rather than just vanishing which would've left us all wondering what happened. I'm sure it's tough documenting every step of the process on this forum along with balancing everything else going on in life. Especially since your journal is very detailed. If you do decide to come back you can always provide quick updates instead of long detailed posts since I'm sure they can take a lot of time and effort. Quick updates would still be very helpful. Good luck on the rest of this journey and work as well!