Hey Everyone,
In Athens and had my CLL surgery, meet another Dr. Giotikas patient that did the same surgery and it turn out we became good friends, Planning. Each day we push and encourage each other, plus getting into mischief with the staff at the Theseus.
I’m not planning to load my dairy till my lengthening is complete, but I’m keeping a personal daily dairy of my experience and might post the whole thing all at once when I’m complete.
There are a few rumors going around about the PT not be good at Theseus, not true.
Planning is the first dairy on this forum for Stryde and as I too were worry on Dr. Giotikas experience with Stryde since there was no dairy, all the worries went away after meeting a couple of current Dr. Giotikas Stryde patients prior to my surgery.
Have met another Dr. Giotikas Stryde chinese girl patient at the Theseus during PT and she is doing good after 6cm of lengthening.
The moment before the surgery, before you are wheel into the OR, just remember that you were able to walk, run, jump, sit up, and sit down just to name a few. The moment someone tap you on your shoulder and say your surgery was a success, but you have no idea that it already happened. Remember about being able to walk, run, jump, sit up, and sit down, all that goes away, but not forever depending on the success of surgery and recovery. Just have to retrain your body to do it all over again, cause your mind remember and know just 6 hours before you were able to and now your lower body won’t allow you to.
Overall the experience is awesome and the recovery is better than expected. Well I’ll 99% focus on lengthening and recovery, so I will not be posting till my lengthening is done.
My dairy will mainly be on my experience since no matter what you read on pain level, recovery and complications, it will never be 100% of what you will experience if you have this surgery, cause this surgery is NOT for the weak, but can be worth it!!!
Bi-Femurs w/Stryde Dr. Giotikas Sept ‘19
Sorry I think you are referring to my friend Planning, he has an IG set up and if you look at one of his video I’m in it when we were both at the hospital. We are both doing great, just very busy with PT, lengthening 4x per day, and etc. You can reply to his IG or on his diary.
Hi All,
A quick update.
Today is the 1/2 way point of our lengthening journey and we are at 4cm and 40mm to go!!!
Will post another update at the end of my 8cm goal lengthening journey.
Quote from: Movie on October 17, 2019, 07:42:11 PMCongrats azman! brace yourself for 5cms+ some nerve pains and soft tissue stretching pains might appear lol keep going bro
Thanks Movie
Thank you for all your advises and yea it’s surreal that just in July we were talking about doing LL and now we’re both in lengthening phase.
Quote from: Andy on October 18, 2019, 07:19:15 AMHi Azman and congrats on your progress !!! How has it been, difficulties,problems etc?... Is it harder than what you believed before surgery or not?...Would you do it again or not?
Hang in there and tell us more when you can.
Hey Andy,
It’s been good for both me and Planning. We both just so busy with PTs 5x a week and lengthening 4x per day. No major problems, knock on wood, just minor pain here and there. Dr. Giotikas and Dr. Giannakos are awesome. We have follow up appointments every 2 weeks and X-ray to see our progress.
Oh sleep is probably the hardest things for me. My legs get restless and does not like being in one position for longer than an hour and I toss and turn all night, but it’s getting better with each passing night. My body get tired after PT due to walking to the Theseus from my AirBnb apartment about 400m away so I walk about 800m per day on crutches M-F.
Well it’s not harder than I believe before the surgery but I was not totally ready for everything but I guess who can be.
Knowing what I know now, I will totally do it again but I’ll be more prepared.
Hope this help.
Quote from: Nestor on October 21, 2019, 07:52:35 PMHi Azman, congrats on your progress! What sort of things would you advise to be more prepared for?
Well it really depends if you are planning to stay at home or stay away from home during the lengthening phase. I wished I would have read IFS dairy completely before doing LL, his dairy is really complete and has a lot of good information. So to answer your question, I refer you to IFS dairy.
From your posts, I had the same feelings about Dr. G prior to during the LL. I did a lot of research on him and have contacted Nuvasive directly on Dr. G certification. I’m really glad I chose him and the surgery was a success. There are currently 3 others patients that have done femurs with Stryde and all of us are doing PTs at the Theseus. Please don’t not take this as a suggestion, just information and please do your own research before picking your surgeon. This is a big surgery and a life changing one.
Hope this help.
Quote from: dreamingtall on October 21, 2019, 11:57:50 PMAzman,
I know you are waiting to post your journal, but I do think you should give us some more updates as you go because its not only informative for us but it'll be cathartic for you.... Personally I'm only 23 and planning to complete this with Dr. G in a few years... my goal and hope is to travel to athens and stay in the country for 3 months... I am planning to get to 8cm but think I may want to finish the end of the lengthening/consolidation in the states... I think 3 months is an ample amount of time to get the 3 inches I want to get and potentially have a few more lengthening sessions back in the states mainly to get back to my career... I want to know if this type of plan is acceptable with Dr. G and if you're experience is similar... for example I don't know if you're from Europe or from USA.. I think the price and the skill of Dr. G is unbeatable and it seems to me that 1 inch = 33 days of lengthening ... atleast at .75 mm/day.... 26 days lengthening per inch at 1mm/day.
Dreamingtall
It’s nice to know other user can tell other user what to do or post without them asking for their suggestion. “but it'll be cathartic for you” really Dr. Dreamingtall
Not to sound rude or anything, but to answer your question...
Quote from: TwinMusicom on October 22, 2019, 06:50:27 AMThanks for making this!
1. What is Theseus in "There are a few rumors going around about the PT not be good at Theseus, not true." I googled it, seems to be the name of a Greek hero. Is Theseus the name of the hospital location he uses? === No, the Theseus is where we do PT
2. What are the most negative things out doing leg lengthening with Dr. Giotikas and doing lengthening in Greece (I guess you are staying in Athens)? === being alone in my apartment
3. Did you find a caretaker on your own or did you use a facility that has caretakers? What did you use? === not using any caretaker
4. Is the internet very slow there in general in Athens? (Small point, but just curious)
=== no it’s good enough for videos and gaming.
Quote from: dreamingtall on October 25, 2019, 12:50:54 AMdamn ok
Dreamingtall
To answer your question, Dr. Giotikas informed me during one of our online consultation that 3months is enough time to lengthen 8cm prior to my surgery unless there is a complication. He has us lengthening 4x per day at 0.25mm each time for 1mm per day. If your bone consolidation is good he will prescribe 5x per day for 1.25mm. If you are coming from the US, he will not allow you to lengthen at home maybe due to the fact that he want to have his patients to stay in Athens so they are close by so he can better mentor them or if complications happen plus the ERC unit is a rental so you’ll have to return it once lengthening is complete.
There was a guy from Mexico that did 8cm within 3 months with Dr. Giotikas and I’m shooting for the same time frame.
Hope this help.
Hey
Life is good despite the lock down. My walk are back to 💯 normal and I’m able to run lightly but the mechanics are still off. I guess my recovery is similar to Movies.
This is the best decision I ever made in my life. Wished I would have done it sooner.
Planning to get my rods out in Jan or Feb of next year and maybe heading back to Dr. G to do my Tibias in August, but it’s really depends on my living situation at that time.
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