DALRI and Dr Lee in South Korea

Hey everyone I will be having surgery with Dr. Lee next month, I am very excited about this new chapter in my life. I will make sure to post often after my surgery to keep everyone up to date with how the recovery is going and so you know what to expect if you have the surgery as well. I am starting out on the taller side of people having this surgery, as I am 5'11'' now, but I think that will just make the recovery that much easier because I am proportionally adding a smaller amount of length to my legs.

I went back and forth between Dr. Maboubian and Paley, as well as Dr. Lee for various reasons. I live about 30 min from Dr. Maboubian and Dr. Paley is considered to the be #1 surgeon around, but ultimately I decided on Dr. Lee for several reasons. I have had the unique ability to sample South Korea before having the surgery next month. I flew out last month to check out the facilities and meet the staff, but I also wanted to see if I could realistically live in Korea for 3 months while I recover. I spent a week out there, even though all the preop stuff took only a few hours. I will say that Korea is a very nice place and the people are very nice. I was also surprised by how many people speak english. The food is really good, and most of the shops and restaurants have a menu in english as well. The accommodations are just as nice as they are in America, I will say to make sure you check the weather! I dont know why I assumed Korea to be a warm and tropical place, but it was very chilly when I arrived last month.

On the surgical side, I chose Dr. Lee because everything I researched suggested he was just under Dr. Paley in terms of experience and sheer volume of cases performed. Once I met the team in person and felt that the facility and the staff along with Dr. Lee were on par with the American quality of healthcare, the choice was easy.

I originally was going to do the Precise nail, but I ultimatly decided on doing LON tibia. At the end of the day money is a very important factor for all of us, when you compare LON tibia with Dr. Lee to Tibias with Precice with Dr. Paley, its a $70,000 difference. To be fair, I have the flexibility to stay overseas for a few months, which I understand not everyone can do. But to receive the same level of care for $70,000 less is somethign too good to pass up.

The Dalri facility was state of the art, and while I was there I saw dozens of patients in different stages of their recovery. Clearly their practice is booming and they really know what they are doing. The staff is very professional and there were several PT's on duty during the day while I was there.

I will make sure to post my entire journey from my arrival in Korea to have the surgery up until I am 100% healed up. I am excited for this journey and excited to share the experience with everyone here.

Are you going to stay at the hospital or a hotel? How much you lengthening?

What is the current price for LON Tibia with Dr Lee? How much time before you are able to walk a bit with LON after surgery? Or is that gonna be mostly wheelchair for 3 month...

As of now it will be 10-14 days at the hospital, then I am staying at the Miltopia Hotel, which they have a contract with. Its something like $50-60 US dollars per night. I am only planning on doing 6CM, 6.5CM at the most. I am already a little taller than most people that do the surgery, so I dont think its worth it to try and max out the gains.

It was $39,000 and some change in US Dollars. Its another reason I decided to do Korea, they have the same quality of care as we do here in America, but for much less. Walking is allowed because the LON is weight bearing, but for longer distances like the 10 min walk to the clinic from the hotel, Ill use a wheelchair.