Bilateral Femurs - Dr. Becker/Betzbone December 2022.

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were you given a choice between spinal and general anesthesia ?

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How are you doing 30 days post op?

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Any updates?

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Post Op Week 6 Update

Hi everyone,

Haven't posted in a while, as I've gotten home 3 weeks ago and just wanted to focus on having some semblance of a normal life.

Overall, things have been going relatively well, as much as they can be for a major orthopedic procedure.  Currently I'm at 3.8 cm.

A big challenge for me was getting around the airport. Frankfurt was fairly helpful in getting me around, however, I had a very rough time in Toronto. That with a total of 13 hours of flying set me back a couple of days in terms of energy and pain.

Since then, I have noticed that my energy is very slowly returning. Sleep remains very difficult, as I will wake multiple times in the night due to stiffness, to the point where anything after 6 hours is impossible. I find that while napping is possible, after the nap, I have to deal with the consequence of extreme stiffness.

I try to stretch about 5 hours a day, and this is quite taxing, especially towards the end of the day. It's pretty tough physically and mentally to do 3 sets of 2 minute stretches in 6 muscle groups in 2 legs as you're exhausted at night. However, every time I wake up, I can feel my hip flexors try to pull my torso forward, and my legs attempt to widen in stance, so I'm pretty rigorous to try to prevent these complications.

My mobility is good on crutches, and I'm able to essentially be off crutches at home, but I find using them allows me to conserve energy.

My medications are pretty much the same as when I left, with the exception of increasing the muscle relaxant at night to improve sleep, and increasing my pregabalin as I'm starting to get minor nerve pain.

Aside from that, I'm able to do very light work now without issue, but am pretty exhausted afterwards. Definitely not able to do full time work at all.

To answer questions:

1) The anesthesiologists suggested general anesthesia for the procedure, which I happily accepted. I'm sure if I pushed, I could have had spinal, however, I would not want to have that experience myself.
2) The room and rehab past the 9 days paid by Dr. Becker was 211 Eur/d. I stayed at the hotel, which was more expensive, but the hotel is a much nicer experience than the rehab side (they're connected).

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Made it to 4 cm today - clicking has become quite easy. I was able to finish 15 clicks for both legs in 5 minutes today, however, Dr. Becker has instructed me to slow down to 14 clicks per day from now on. I'm okay with this, as I'm concerned about  nerve pain.

For those curious about what clicking is like, please see my video below, the angle isn't perfect, but it's the best that I could do without showing my face (much). A couple weeks ago this would have taken an hour or more, but after reaching about 3 cm it's been pretty easy. You'll notice that I complete the right leg extremely quickly, but the left takes a while. With the left leg, I have to maximally externally rotate my leg with my right hand or both hands, then lean my body to the left to complete the inward click. The outward click is thankfully easy and can be managed with my left hand only.  I also need to take short breaks with the left due to pain,  whereas I can just do the right rapidly.

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Quote from: mc623 on January 29, 2023, 02:55:27 PMMade it to 4 cm today - clicking has become quite easy. I was able to finish 15 clicks for both legs in 5 minutes today, however, Dr. Becker has instructed me to slow down to 14 clicks per day from now on. I'm okay with this, as I'm concerned about  nerve pain.

For those curious about what clicking is like, please see my video below, the angle isn't perfect, but it's the best that I could do without showing my face (much). A couple weeks ago this would have taken an hour or more, but after reaching about 3 cm it's been pretty easy. You'll notice that I complete the right leg extremely quickly, but the left takes a while. With the left leg, I have to maximally externally rotate my leg with my right hand or both hands, then lean my body to the left to complete the inward click. The outward click is thankfully easy and can be managed with my left hand only.  I also need to take short breaks with the left due to pain,  whereas I can just do the right rapidly.




Congrats on 4CM.  Its a huge relief to get this far because no matter what from now on you will get something substantial out of this surgery.  You are taller in a non-trivial way.

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Good luck on your journey

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Post op day 58 - 5cm

Hi everyone, thanks for reading my journal up  until now.

Today I've finally reached 5 cm. Dr. Becker has instructed me to slow down to 13 clicks per day (about 0.66mm/d) due to some neuropathic pain.

Overall, going from 4-5 cm was actually pretty easy compared to lengthening prior to this. Day to day stiffness isn't so bad, but that's probably because I'm still stretching 5 hours a day. Of note - sometimes holding stretches for 2 minutes each can be both incredibly boring and painful, it's just something that you have to get used to.

I'm not really feeling too much tightness from my IT bands, but my gait will spread a tiny bit if I'm not thinking about it when I walk. I think my hip flexors are the biggest issue right now, as I'm starting to get some anterior pelvic tilt, but nothing drastic. We'll see how well I hold up as I continue to lengthen.

Pain is pretty minimal at this point, unless I stay in the same position for more than 2 hours or so, but that can usually be resolved with some quick stretches.

The biggest issue for me is still sleep - despite sleeping aids I find that I will always wake up around 3-4 AM, and be unable to go back to sleep as I constantly have to shift positions. Doing moderately intense stretches does help, but you have to be motivated to get up in the middle of the night to do them

Another complication that I've been having is neuropathic pain on my anterior shin. This started with numbness, and has progressed to allodynia (extreme pain with light touch). It feels like you have a burn on your skin, an anything that just brushes against it feels like sandpaper. When it was really bad, even the motion of my hair follicles on my shin would trigger pain. Thankfully, this is improving with the slower distraction rate and change in medications.

I'm very slowly getting my normal life back together, but it's really hard to do anything else when you stretch for 5 hours and do cardio for 1 hour when you're barely able to sleep 5 hours a night.

That said, no regrets so far.

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Quote from: mc623 on February 12, 2023, 03:11:05 PMPost op day 58 - 5cm

Hi everyone, thanks for reading my journal up  until now.

Today I've finally reached 5 cm. Dr. Becker has instructed me to slow down to 13 clicks per day (about 0.66mm/d) due to some neuropathic pain.

Overall, going from 4-5 cm was actually pretty easy compared to lengthening prior to this. Day to day stiffness isn't so bad, but that's probably because I'm still stretching 5 hours a day. Of note - sometimes holding stretches for 2 minutes each can be both incredibly boring and painful, it's just something that you have to get used to.

I'm not really feeling too much tightness from my IT bands, but my gait will spread a tiny bit if I'm not thinking about it when I walk. I think my hip flexors are the biggest issue right now, as I'm starting to get some anterior pelvic tilt, but nothing drastic. We'll see how well I hold up as I continue to lengthen.

Pain is pretty minimal at this point, unless I stay in the same position for more than 2 hours or so, but that can usually be resolved with some quick stretches.

The biggest issue for me is still sleep - despite sleeping aids I find that I will always wake up around 3-4 AM, and be unable to go back to sleep as I constantly have to shift positions. Doing moderately intense stretches does help, but you have to be motivated to get up in the middle of the night to do them

Another complication that I've been having is neuropathic pain on my anterior shin. This started with numbness, and has progressed to allodynia (extreme pain with light touch). It feels like you have a burn on your skin, an anything that just brushes against it feels like sandpaper. When it was really bad, even the motion of my hair follicles on my shin would trigger pain. Thankfully, this is improving with the slower distraction rate and change in medications.

I'm very slowly getting my normal life back together, but it's really hard to do anything else when you stretch for 5 hours and do cardio for 1 hour when you're barely able to sleep 5 hours a night.

That said, no regrets so far.

Congrats to this achievement!

Are you on Gabapentin?

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Quote from: Limbfan2020 on February 12, 2023, 05:05:29 PMCongrats to this achievement!

Are you on Gabapentin?

Thanks!
I'm on pregabalin