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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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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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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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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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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Fingers crossed 

Apparently I am on the waiting list now, so will see how that plays out. For me it's more about work than family time as I can skip that this year, but Oct - Dec is the best time for me to be able to take 4 weeks off completely then operate at like 50% performance for a few months as we are currently in a massive transition phase. By Jan work will start to pickup again and I will need to be around at least on some level.

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I own like a large portion of the company so I can't resign haha. I have told everyone I am having a leg operation (kinda alluded to bow leg/knee problems) and will be on crutches for many months so won't be any surprises. I am more concerned about my brain being too addled to actually have any output, but if I can function well enough to manage other people/delegate it won't be an issue. No one is really going to ask too many questions tbh or complain if I underperform for a little bit as I have been working 80+ hours a week for the last year and a half here now.

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Quote from: lessthanavg8300 on September 22, 2022, 05:58:55 PMHoping you get something.  Makes sense on the work note.  Just dont create expectations that cant be attained because you will panic half way through.  I cant imagine showing up to an office walking like I have a stick in my ass for all to see.  If I were doing this surgery and I had savings I would honestly just resign and enter the work force 6 months later.  You would get a fresh start with new colleagues as well.  Theres always employment opportunities.  Easier said than done though and I'm biased because I'm pretty well off and work for myself.

^ btw this is good advice and when I was in my early 20s that was my LL plan. Basically start over completely, now it's just not an option.

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I honestly think it doesn't make sense to not simply lengthen to whatever your desire height is. I understanding not wanting to lengthen too much to increase recovery outcome, but other people's reactions are so brief and minimal. No one really knows LL is a thing, no one really considers it too hard. Your answers/excuses don't have to make sense. You can say you corrected your posture, corrected bow leg etc.

 Reality is if you look healthy and you look better, family won't press too hard as long as you have some semblance of an explanation if they even bring it up. It's 50/50 whether anyone will even say anything. You will be shocked at how unobservant the vast majority of people are. I had shoes made with custom lifts years ago that add about 2.5 inches to height, and no one said anything except one comment that I looked like I had lost a lot of weight/looked slimmer. Within the parameters of safety, how your family reacts will be more about your dynamic with them so if they are going to notice at 2 inches they are going to notice at 3 or 4. Just say while you were studying interstate you thought it would be a good opportunity to correct bow leg so you wore the brace and it added a bit of height.

I think the only downside to people knowing is cosmetic operations generally are viewed negatively/as seen as frivolous so you want to have some non-cosmetic BS reason there is a slight change. But don't limit your LL just because you think an extra inch is the difference between no one saying anything at all and interrogating you about it because it won't be.