Bilateral Femur with Dr. Paley 11/2022

The surgery went well. They were able to put the biggest mail in my femur because I have big bones. This means weight bearing is 75 lbs per leg.

Day 0:
I was wheeled in around 7 am and woke up in recovery room around 12 pm. It was a strange experience, but I remembered nothing. I tried to move my legs and they are heavy. The movement also hurts a little bit. They let my girlfriend in. I then passed out again and slept for another 2 hours probably because I didn’t sleep at all the night before. Around 3 pm, they wheeled me in my private room. So far all is good. The pain level was 3-4. The nurses came in regularly to check on me and gave me painkillers and also antibiotics injection. The pain increased steadily as anesthesia worn out. I was nauseous when eating the dinner they gave me. It was good food. I am just nauseous due to the anesthesia.

Day 1:
Nurses came in once a few hours at night to check my vitals. They also gave me the ice machine which really helped my femur pain. The painkiller is not as effective as it was yesterday. It is 12 pm as I am writing this post. I will be doing PT soon. I am in a lot of pain but I believe this is the worst it will get, so it’s only uphill from here.

The worst pain of the surgery is over and tolerable due to heavy narcotics.  The worst pain for me was toward the end of the lengthening phase.  Just a warning.  Never stop stretching.

Thanks for the tip! I haven’t started stretching yet as the PT is mainly focused on standing up. I think I will start stretching next week when lengthening starts.

Day 1-2:
Overall is great. I was able to stand up and sit in my wheelchair and tour the floor, but standing up and sitting up get me dizzy pretty soon. Also I feel nasty because I haven’t showered for a long time. I will probably just use wash clothes before wound check next week. I am scheduled to get discharged tomorrow or in two days.

Sorry about no updates. Has been busy with resting and tolerating the pain. Overall, all is well. I will post a few lessons I learnt around Christmas when my parents get here. I am excited to remove my wound patches tomorrow and lengthen for the very first time.

Did you manage to get your weight down before the surgery?

No I stayed the same weight going into the surgery. I think most of my weight comes from my leg though. I also got the biggest nails so I am not too worried. From time to time, I do wonder: what if the nails are broken and I just don’t know it. I am going to do a wound check and follow up today so we will see.

Woke up in the middle of the night probably because I slept too much in the day. Life is getting better and more routine every day. Now I don’t feel much pain because the surgery pain has mostly gone (sometimes no pain at all) and can move my legs without much pain. I can roll onto my belly, sit at the edge of the bed for an extended amount of time, etc. I still hire a caregiver for the day 8am to 8pm. PT is the one thing I look forward to every day. I’ve lengthened 8 mm so far. With the 1 mm that they did at the surgery, I will hit the 1cm mark tomorrow. I do 3-4 stretches a day, once before every turn. The only worry is bending the mail but statistically it’s very rare that the bending will impact lengthening. Some people will have some small degrees of bending to their nails but most of them still okay to continue lengthen. I asked the most experienced PT, and he can only recall 2-3 cases of nail bending where they had to do another surgery. If you do a search with keyword “bend” on this forum you’ll get the same impression.

希望你顺利 请问你怎么看待p针大小腿各做4.5厘米 这对于我们中国大部分人来说是容易的吗 还是需要很多拉伸才能完成

Quote from: Chinese Actor on December 17, 2022, 08:54:44 PM希望你顺利 请问你怎么看待p针大小腿各做4.5厘米 这对于我们中国大部分人来说是容易的吗 还是需要很多拉伸才能完成

4.5 can be reached with minimal stretching. I met one guy who didn‘t stretch at all and he reached around 4.5, but only under severe pain and extreme discomfort. He didn‘t want to stop but had to stop early because he refused to stretch (very bad idea). He was suffering and very miserable. Despite that 4.5 is reached quickly but I must add that most people I spoke to me included did not notice anything at that length.

Quote from: Chinese Actor on December 17, 2022, 08:54:44 PM希望你顺利 请问你怎么看待p针大小腿各做4.5厘米 这对于我们中国大部分人来说是容易的吗 还是需要很多拉伸才能完成

Little to no stretching is definitely a bad idea. I don’t think you can get very far with little stretching. For tibia 4.5cm + femur 4.5cm, I think it is a reachable goal. Most people I talked to that are doing both legs end up with more than 9 cm. I am only doing femur so I can’t give much info about tibia. Most people will have nerve pain at one point and then will be on gaba. As of myself, I am pretty confident that I can reach at least 6 cm and most likely 7.x cm.

I am on day 19 post op. Surgical pain is almost completely gone. I’ve lengthened 1.2 cm myself, and there’s the 1 mm they put in during the surgery. I just stopped taking oxy today. I was advised by other patients to save some oxy (at least 100 mg) for the later days when I get tight. I don’t feel much pain most of the time. I get shooting pains once in a while but they disappear in a few seconds. Sleeping is good. I just can’t get a full night of sleep because I need to do a turn every 6 hours, but my total sleep time is healthy. For flexibility, the key is to make sure that my knees can bend at least 90 degrees and that I can keep my legs straight when standing.