Quote from: theuprising on November 30, 2015, 06:30:03 AMWow just asking a question don't rage on me. yellowspike mentioned he got 0.5cm less so I was just curious. Most people usually use mid day height as well.
I'm going to go by what Dr. Paley told me: When lengthening, you lose about 1 mm every 2 weeks. So if Yellowspike lengthened for 10 weeks (7 cm), he lost about 0.5 cm. And the reason is because the machine for lengthening is not 100%. However, Dr. Paley made sure that I got the full 8 cm, because I used the machine for 8.5+ cm of lengthening, just to make sure I squeezed every last bit of the rod. Finally, Dr. Paley uses the X-Rays to measure each femur up to the nearest mm. And he confirmed with me that I got the full 8 cm after 85-90 days of lengthening. I also knew that I reached the limits of the nail inside me, because I heard a clicking noise during the last few lengthening turns. That clicking noise as Dr. Paley told me is the sound of the clutch preventing the nail from turning further.
Anyway, I did the math, and you really only lose 2 mm out of the 8 cm due to the angle of your femur.
DoingItForMe's Precice 2 Internal Femurs with Dr. Paley
Interesting info it's good to read those in depth answers. Do you own a measuring tape? Typically height decreases 1.5cm from morning till evening and personally I've found that to be the case.
Quote from: DoingItForMe on November 30, 2015, 06:40:47 AMYea, the feeling is great, man. I wear some thick soled sneakers, so I'm closer to 5'10" than 5'9" with shoes on. And let me tell that it feels awesome to not have every male look down on you in the literal sense. I also now get to see how a 5'10" would view a 5'5" or 5'6" guy. And... I have to say, I get it. I get why tall guys discriminate against short males. Short males just look less intimidating.
Also, I see how it's so unfair it is for short guys to try to get girls. Even though I'm in crutches, girls talk to me more than when I was 5'6". Oh man, the difference is so significant. It reminds me of the difference between when a girl doesn't know I'm a millionaire and when they find out. Girls are just more chatty and interested in getting to know me more. Now that I'm average height and a millionaire as well, it's like playing the dating game on easy mode. Now I just need to get jacked up again. Muscle atrophy sucks when you're not allowed to go to the gym for half a year. The only muscle group I think that stayed the same or got bigger are my shoulders and traps, because of all the crutch/walker walking I had to do.
You can work out your upper body though right?? I can't go that long with out training.
Quote from: theuprising on November 30, 2015, 07:55:47 AMInteresting info it's good to read those in depth answers. Do you own a measuring tape? Typically height decreases 1.5cm from morning till evening and personally I've found that to be the case.
I do own a measuring tape. But I don't care enough to measure. I'm not caught up in the numbers game. I just know that I'm no longer considered short, which is a great feeling.
Quote from: Deads on November 30, 2015, 01:20:07 PMYou can work out your upper body though right?? I can't go that long with out training.
You can, though getting around in a gym with crutches is difficult. I do dips on my walker, even though they told me not to. My upper body strength is fine. My friends even noticed that my upper body looks bigger. My legs are really weak, though. I have trouble even getting up off my bed with just my legs. I have to push up with my arms to get off the bed.
Thanks for keeping this journal and glad to hear of your progress! I just had my consultation with Dr. Paley today, I'll include more in my own journal I will start soon, but I had a few questions for you.
1.) Did you/are you having to deal with isolation/loneliness? I don't think I want to involve friends/family because they would not be supportive, do you think its possible to go through LL mostly by yourself with just a caretaker at the beginning?
2.)Do you think it would be better to have this surgery when Paley's office is busiest (summer vs winter)? If one chooses the winter, you may be able to get more attention from the Drs, but at the cost of less CLLs to spend time with...
I can imagine you might be eager to put all this behind you and never look back and it sounds like you are happy with your decision to go through with this so far.
Heard back from Dr. Paley after he received my 2-month post-op x-rays. He said that my left legs almost fully healed, but my right one is still slowly healing. I doubt that I will be able to walk this year without crutches. That sucks. That means that my recovery time will be 3+ months after I stopped lengthening. From the lack of response I get when I ask him what my expected healing time would be, it sounds like I will not be walking for another 2 months (4 months total consolidation time). This would put me towards the slowest ones to consolidate when the range is from 1 month to 5 months. Judging by the x-rays, it looks like my left leg will be done healing by the end of the year (3 month total consolidation). But the right leg is really really slow to heal. After a whole month, I think it only got 1 mm thicker in the gap. I'm going to go ahead and get the Zometa injection next week to try to speed up the process. It's going to cost me over $1,000 to get it, but if a $1,000 will save me a whole month of consolidation, then it's worth it.
My x-rays only cost around $150 each time without insurance, if anyone's curious. It costs several hundred when you do it with Dr. Paley.
Quote from: bigdreams55 on December 02, 2015, 03:33:10 AMThanks for keeping this journal and glad to hear of your progress! I just had my consultation with Dr. Paley today, I'll include more in my own journal I will start soon, but I had a few questions for you.
1.) Did you/are you having to deal with isolation/loneliness? I don't think I want to involve friends/family because they would not be supportive, do you think its possible to go through LL mostly by yourself with just a caretaker at the beginning?
2.)Do you think it would be better to have this surgery when Paley's office is busiest (summer vs winter)? If one chooses the winter, you may be able to get more attention from the Drs, but at the cost of less CLLs to spend time with...
I can imagine you might be eager to put all this behind you and never look back and it sounds like you are happy with your decision to go through with this so far.
1) It helps a lot to have friends/family around to take care of you instead of a caretaker. Not all caretakers are that great. But it's possible to only have a caretaker in the beginning. You don't have trouble with isolation and loneliness if you hang out with the other patients. There will always be other patients staying at the nearby hotels.
2) The time you spend with the doctors will be at most 15-30 minutes per 2 weeks anyway. They're not going to give you more attention than you need despite how busy the offices are. So no, I don't think it makes a difference.
Zometa injection???
Quote from: Deads on December 02, 2015, 02:24:50 PMZometa injection???
It's a drug that they inject into you. It's meant for treating osteoporosis and reducing the risk of hip fractures in certain patients. But Dr. Paley said that it'd be useful for me as well. The way it works is that it prevents the body from reabsorbing the bone back into the blood stream. The way people's bones work is that bones are constantly being absorbed into the blood and then rebuilt again. This slows down consolidation, because you lose bone as you're growing bone. By stopping the body from absorbing the bone back into the blood, then you only grow bone without losing any. Therefore, the consolidation is sped up. I put off the drug not because of the $1,000+ price tag, but because I'm worried about putting more drugs into me that could potentially have serious side effects. The risk of serious side effects of Zometa are very low, though. Most likely I'll just end up with flu-like symptoms for a day or two. The only serious side effect is permanent jaw pain. But those cases usually only happen to cancer patients who take the drug long term, and also to people who have dental surgery after taking the drug.
does it feel weird having longer femurs while your tibias are not longer? How do you look sitting down?
I want to update you guys and let you know that my flexibility is still increasing to my surprise. The gains are slower now than before, but I am still getting more and more flexible. I am now able to touch the entire length of my thighs and shins together. Before I could only touch the sole of my foot to my thigh, and even then, it felt painful. Now when I bend my legs all the way, they just feel uncomfortable rather than painful. My hope is that eventually, it will feel comfortable again to bend my legs all the way. This would mean that I'd be able to squat all the way down comfortably. I have no reason to believe that I will not achieve that after a month or two.
Quote from: Chocolate Milk on December 03, 2015, 07:48:09 AMdoes it feel weird having longer femurs while your tibias are not longer? How do you look sitting down?
Not weird at all. My thighs used to look short and stumpy when I looked down as I was sitting. They look normal now - like how I imagine a thigh should look like. Nobody has ever commented that I look weird sitting - not even by family members who know I got LL. As long as you're not slouching, you'll look fine sitting down.
By wearing certain clothes, you can change the illusion of your proportions a bit. For example, you can lower your pants a bit so that your legs don't appear as long. And you can wear thick soled shoes and maybe even shoe lifts so that your tibias appear longer to match your longer femurs. Having said that, I don't look weird at all. I looked weird with short legs before the surgery. But now I look normal.
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