Bilateral Femur with Dr. Paley 11/2022

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Introduction
Hi everyone. I have been reading diaries on this forum since early 2018 when I first found out about this procedure. I have been thinking about this ever since 2018, and it's been almost 5 years now. I can say that I've read almost all the diaries of those who did the surgery in the US. After visiting Paley's institute at WPB last summer, I decided to do it this year. Surgery is scheduled in late Nov 2022. I will update here around the time I begin the procedure. BTW, I stole this formatting from a diary by "belowthemean", credit to him/her.

I am going to do bilateral femur lengthening with precice 2.2. My goal is to reach 8 cm, but would be happy as long as I got above 7 cm.

Basic Stats
Demographics: early 20s, male, Chinese
Starting Height: 174 cm (5'8.5")
Wingspan: about 6 feet
Lengthening Goal: 7-8 cm
Starting weight: 197 lbs (I am pretty fit. Weight mostly come from muscle)

Starting Height and Lengthening Goal
174 cm. Goal is to reach 182 cm.

Physical Shape
My weight is pretty high - 197lbs. I love benchlifting so I have big chest muscle. I also do snowboarding in winter, so my thigh is pretty bulky. I plan to do some cardio to bring my weight down a little, but not sure how much I could lose without losing some muscle as well. Will update my weight again before the surgery.

Sports
Nothing regularly. On-snow sports in winter.

Flexibility
I've been doing PT since June, twice a week. It is covered by my insurance because of my back injury. I just ask my PT trainer to include half an hour of hamstring and front-of-thigh stretch. He's happy to do it. My flexibility was rated "tight, like everyone else" when I visited last summer. We will see how it goes. Not sure if it will help.

Health Status
Overall healthy, other than I have herinated disc l5/s1. It's been a few years since the incident happened (from snowboarding). This is also the main reason why I visited last summer. Back then, Dr. Robbins told me that this injury shouldn't have any impact on my lengthening.

My Backstory
I've been thinking about this since around the end of high school. It's been so long that I am convinced that if I don't do it I would regret it for the rest of my life. Jeff Bezo mentioned this regret minimization framework in one of his early interviews:

I am pretty much a follower of this framework.

Who Knows About This
Every one in my family and my extended family (think of grandparents, parents' sibliings and their kids). All my close friends who are at least my height and my girlfriend. My mental health consoler (I've known her for years). I am pretty open about it. I just don't want my choice to have an impact on other people.

Cost of the Procedure
97.5k plus room and board and food (budget is 30k). If you stay in one of Paley's partner hotel, it will cost around 15k for the time I am doing the surgery because it's peak season in FL. All is in USD.

How I’m Paying
My parents pay for room and board. My savings can pay for the surgery.

Time Off Work
I work in tech so I can work remotely. Also for the past 1.5 years, I didn't use a single day of vacation or holidays or sick days, so that summed up to be around 50 days of PTO (unused PTO days roll over). My company also has very generous PTO policy for short-term disability, which I am waiting on the result of my application.

Why Dr. Paley?
Paley is widely recognized as the best. I also visited the hospital last summer and really liked it. At the end of the day, you pay premium for his experience. If everything goes well, maybe the experience and the result would be the same if I do it somewhere cheaper. The premium goes to the possibility where things don't go as planned, and I trust Paley's experience on dealing with these.

Next Steps
Just booked tickets to WPB yesterday and arranged my hotel stay at the SHS I95. I will update more as we get closer to the surgery date.

Some Motivation
Sometimes late at night I would get scared thinking about the procedure. I would watch this video:

Vader was my favourite Star Wars character when I was a kid. Picturing this procedure as Anakin's transformation to Darth Vader would give me strength to move forward.

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不错的佩利，有很中国人在别的国家做P针出了问题 尽管他们很便宜 其实我觉得韩国李东勋也不错 但他的手术预约日期很久

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betz 怎么样？ 我在法国，现在看看周围最靠谱的可能就是betz了，betz bone还可以负重。

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Quote from: tao on September 04, 2022, 10:06:39 AMbetz 怎么样？ 我在法国，现在看看周围最靠谱的可能就是betz了，betz bone还可以负重。
我的愿望也是betz，可靠，疤痕小，但是太贵了，负担不起

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betz现在算是便宜的了，千万别去土耳其做，容易断腿

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Good luck man. I recommend you do not exercise your legs any further. Best to have less muscle, in my experience. You will lose it all anyway and muscle gives extra tightness.

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Thanks dude! That's good advice. Do you think just stretching and all that help with the lengthening? Also would love to read your story if you decide to write it out someday. I will keep updating mine here.

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In the pre op room now. Kinda nervous but tired at the same time because I couldn’t fall asleep earlier. Will update here hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

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Quote from: erenyeager1 on November 29, 2022, 10:47:21 AMIn the pre op room now. Kinda nervous but tired at the same time because I couldn’t fall asleep earlier. Will update here hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

I wish you luck, health and a great recovery. Please keep us updated, your diary will be invaluable to me since I am in a similar position.

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Yeah man all the best keep us updated!