Continuing to work with Ex-Fix (Tibia LL)

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Quote from: YellowSpike on February 04, 2016, 03:31:36 PMI don't want to sacrifice my career. Because if I quit/lose this job, it's going to be very hard to get a new job and at the same salary. I don't have the luxury of running my own business or being a rich kid out of college. So I need to consider this.

We are on the same boat, YellowSpike.

I also appreciate my job, I know that if I lose it, it wold be almost impossible to find another job comparable to it, and I'm confident I can get a promotion in 2-3 years if I keep putting effort.

So how to combine LL with my job has been my headache for the last months.

I had the idea of doing LON in tibias. Like you, I would be happy with 4 cm (maybe 3, but I'm afraid I would regret lately not having done 4 cm). LON for 3.5 - 4 cm means only 2 months or so in frames, with the advantage of being weight-bearing. But sadly, I think I should get rid of the idea. I don't think frames, even monolaterals, can be hidden, and obviously I don't want any of my colleagues to find what the hell is going on my legs. So, with LON, I should ask for a 2 month vacation, and I think it would be a disaster for my career.

I'm currently considering femoral lengthening in 2 stages (like yagen now). This means some time in crutches, but at least I don't have to "disappear" from my job for a lot of time.

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Quote from: Ozymandias on February 04, 2016, 10:00:56 PMWe are on the same boat, YellowSpike.

I also appreciate my job, I know that if I lose it, it wold be almost impossible to find another job comparable to it, and I'm confident I can get a promotion in 2-3 years if I keep putting effort.

So how to combine LL with my job has been my headache for the last months.

I had the idea of doing LON in tibias. Like you, I would be happy with 4 cm (maybe 3, but I'm afraid I would regret lately not having done 4 cm). LON for 3.5 - 4 cm means only 2 months or so in frames, with the advantage of being weight-bearing. But sadly, I think I should get rid of the idea. I don't think frames, even monolaterals, can be hidden, and obviously I don't want any of my colleagues to find what the hell is going on my legs. So, with LON, I should ask for a 2 month vacation, and I think it would be a disaster for my career.

I'm currently considering femoral lengthening in 2 stages (like yagen now). This means some time in crutches, but at least I don't have to "disappear" from my job for a lot of time.

I know. I mean, I wish I was like some of the superstars on here like DoingItForMe, Cooper and ProgramDude who run their own businesses. Or, that I was a rich spoiled kid who had his parents pay for it right outta college like Leechlet lol

But for us average Joes, it's much harder to pull off. I'm super lucky I was able to pull off the first surgery while keeping my previous job. But I'm only at my new firm for a short period of time. LON might be an option. I've heard pretty good things about it. I believe 3cm takes about 6-7 weeks to lengthen, and then you get a nail put in so you can weight bear (I believe). I too would like 4cm, but 3cm on tibias would make me quite happy (because I get to actually improve my proportions, while still making it to 5'9"+).

I'm honestly thinking at this point, what I'm going to do is...keep the femur rods in for now, but have Dr. Guichet (or maybe Rozbruch) fix the screw in my left hip (to get rid of that annoying pain, which has improved though). By keeping the rods in, I still have the option for more on femurs and can avoid any possibility of what happened to our boy ProgramDude.

This way, I can bide my time, work here for maybe another year, and then really start figuring out how to do 3cm on tibias. 176 would be quite a nice final height for me

The only negative to this is if I meet a great girl a) I may not be open to anything serious with her (self protection) or b) I get into relationship, and she leaves me for being true to myself and finishing an important goal of mine.

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I think that after I will lengthen 5-6cm I will continue to use the lifts.. Like this it would be as if I lengthened 7-8cm which is basically 3 inches which means I will be walking around as a 180 man (without counting the shoes I will put these lifts into)

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Dr. Paley told me that if I do internal tibias, depending on the nail that's used (and I think I'd get the larger one, that's what Guichet and Rozbruch told me too), I can weight bear up to 75lbs on each leg. Right now I'm about 170 lbs and lean, but that's with the G-Nails, so maybe I'm more like 165 ish? It's nice to know I might be able to at least somewhat get around on crutches if I do internal tibias.

But I'd go with Catagni...not paying Paley's crazy prices. No way Jose.

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Does anyone know any good doctors that do LON? I don't think Catagni seems to offer it (he seems to offer externals only or Precice). I'd rather not do a purely internal method, but can't be in externals for a century (like 6-8 months) for the last inch I need. LON might be the best option, but I'm not entirely opposed to internal tibias (though they do scare me a bit - have a few questions about them out to Paley right now).

LON seems like a good/fast option to get the inch and be walking unaided as fast as possible (even if I have to rely on crutches just to be safe, for a little while after finishing lengthening)

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Quote from: YellowSpike on February 05, 2016, 10:17:33 PMDoes anyone know any good doctors that do LON? I don't think Catagni seems to offer it (he seems to offer externals only or Precice). I'd rather not do a purely internal method, but can't be in externals for a century (like 6-8 months) for the last inch I need. LON might be the best option, but I'm not entirely opposed to internal tibias (though they do scare me a bit - have a few questions about them out to Paley right now).

LON seems like a good/fast option to get the inch and be walking unaided as fast as possible (even if I have to rely on crutches just to be safe, for a little while after finishing lengthening)

You can contact Monegal. He prefers internals, but for "modest" lengthenings (like your 3cm goal) he can offer LON. He uses monotubes that don't look as bulky as Ilizarovs (but still hard to hide, sadly  )

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Dr. Lee in south korea and birkholtz in south africa seem like good doctors that offer LON/LATN for tibias, but their prices are higher compared to catagni's price for externals

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Thanks goldenegg and ozymandias. Eh, I have nothing against Monegal, but the drama on here has sorta spooked me from going to him. But not entirely opposed.

Paley says that internal tibias are entirely safe and I could use crutches at least. And i know Catagni does Precicw for Tibias, so that's an option. But LON seems to be a faster way to get off crutches (or at least be able to safely rely on crutches) asap.

Do you risk losing some height in LON/LATN? I can't remember which version of externals you run the risk of losing height when they put the nail in. Since I'm only doing 3cm, can't afford to lose anything lol

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Quote from: YellowSpike on February 06, 2016, 02:54:45 PMThanks goldenegg and ozymandias. Eh, I have nothing against Monegal, but the drama on here has sorta spooked me from going to him. But not entirely opposed.

Paley says that internal tibias are entirely safe and I could use crutches at least. And i know Catagni does Precicw for Tibias, so that's an option. But LON seems to be a faster way to get off crutches (or at least be able to safely rely on crutches) asap.

Do you risk losing some height in LON/LATN? I can't remember which version of externals you run the risk of losing height when they put the nail in. Since I'm only doing 3cm, can't afford to lose anything lol

  I think that the loss is of the % gained. So le'ts say that the loss is 20% for example, 20% of 3cm is 0.6cm while of 6cm its 1.2cm. It wont be really noticable

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Quote from: TIBIKE200 on February 06, 2016, 02:58:57 PM  I think that the loss is of the % gained. So le'ts say that the loss is 20% for example, 20% of 3cm is 0.6cm while of 6cm its 1.2cm. It wont be really noticable

But is that for all external methods? I thought it was only for some.

If that's the case, I might just do Precice with Dr. Catagni. Can't afford to lose anything and I can't lengthen more to compensate because time is of the essence.