Betz patients and swapping dates

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Hi all - long time lurker, I remember this forum from many years ago when I decided I wanted to do LL and now finally in a financial and work position to be able to!

I am looking to do Femurs with Betz, ideally this year given it will be much harder for me to take a few months off next year but they have no availability until March 2023.  They have put me in on a waiting list but I am just wondering if there any 2022 patients that would be open to swapping dates or how common it is that availability opens up.

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Have you considered booking with Giotikas or Guichet instead?

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Preference is to be able to head back and finish lengthening at home rather than stay in Athens for 2-3 months, but I would consider Giotikas. I am hoping some Betz patient cancels/delays for this year, or I can convince someone to swap because that works a lot better.

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You're going from 5'7 to 6'1 in one lengthening process?  Plan on a lot longer than 2-3 months.  2months of lengthening is like 5CM (2 inches).  You dont run at 1mm per day after 3CM is hit.  That said, I have LL in early January with Betz.  If you end up going around that time let me know, maybe well be buddies.

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Yes I understand it won't be 2-3 months (typo). Regardless preference for betz is so I finish lengthening at home, go back to work which will be 90% working from home etc.

Also it will definitely not be in one lengthening process - going to do ~8-10cm femurs and then 6 months+ later 5-7 cm tibias (been stretching religiously for the last year, so my flexibility is quite good)

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My fault, it actually says right there that you are doing both femurs and tibias.  Glanced over that.  Makes sense on the work note.  Thats good you've been stretching (I'm doing the same).

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It actually didn't haha I just added it to my summary after your comment to make it clearer.

Interesting re: the stretches, I have read lots of different opinions on this, to me it seems logical flexibility would help to some extent in terms of recovery. Regardless even a minor boost in recovery is worthwhile.

How long ago did you call to get January slot?

I am optimistic a slot will open up for late this year or Jan, seemed like a fair few number of patients delay/cancel, so I am hoping someone decides to push it out. It would be frustrating to wait till March - feeling kind of stupid for not contacting them earlier this year now.

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Oh gotchya, I was like how did I miss that haha.  Yeah I took that stretching part out of my comment just because I didnt want to be responsible for you like not stretching enough and being crippled or something lol.  But yeah they did say that.  I got a Jan cancellation actually about a couple weeks ago.  You have a good shot at a cancellation and earlier date, maybe even december.  I think the rate is quite high.  Its a terrifying surgery, people get cold feet for obvious reasons.

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Yeah the lady on the phone implied there was a decent chance something would open up so I am hoping it will. I really want to lock in dates so I can plan flights, accommodation etc. and make plans for work but we will see how it plays out. In an ideal world something would open for like October/Nov lol. I would have contacted them earlier, but I was waiting to receive a small windfall that gave me the funds to pay for it, and didn't want to book until I actually had the funds comfortably

They should have an option to offer to pay another patient to delay their date and swap lmao

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Im surprised you want to get into this right as the holidays roll in.  I specifically avoided this and chose Jan because thats when family time is over.  Honestly I would just put yourself down for a date and then tell them you have a strong preference for the soonest available drop-out and you'll probably get something you're happy with.  They had 2 drop-outs come up for me; one was too early for me to take.