Quote from: DoingItForMe on August 27, 2015, 11:39:55 AMSo a new development is that my nails are slightly bent near the top. However, the distraction is still working, so they still have me to okay to go to 8 cm. they also told me that to get to 8 cm, I actually have to lengthen to 84 mm. So I'm staying a bit longer than expected.
In other news, I stopped taking OxyContin, because I'm running out of it. I plan on saving it for days that I would need it consistently, like if I went on a date. I now only take Oxycodone, which leaves gaps in my pain because they only last 3-4 hours. When I wake up in the morning, that is when I am at my peak pain. The oxy would be at its lowest in the morning. This is when I find out what is really aching in my body. And lately, it is the area around my knee. My knee cap is not aligned properly. It makes a clicking noise when I bend or move my legs sideways. The doctor told me that clicking noises happen to a lot of people and that it's nothing to worry about. I bet that I am grinding my knee caps right now against my knee joint and this is going to give me knee pain when I'm older. So my plan is to not do running any more in my future. I read that runners also develop knee problems from all the rubbing. Only swimming for aerobic activity for me from now on. Other than that, I'm in a very uplifting mood, because they gave me the okay to go to 8 cm and I am already at 6 cm. the next 25 days are going to be really tough, from what I heard. Wish me luck!
Isn't there an alternative to giving up running? Perhaps you could fix whatever bothers your knees with another surgery, or ask your doctor about it. I'm not sure I understand it fully but if it doesn't just go away, you shouldn't have to live with it.
All the best! You're more than 2 inches taller than you were before. 
DoingItForMe's Precice 2 Internal Femurs with Dr. Paley
I didn't do running before the surgery anyway. I do elliptical and swimming
Quote from: DoingItForMe on August 27, 2015, 12:11:32 PMI didn't do running before the surgery anyway. I do elliptical and swimming
But the knee cap and clicking problem is temporary, right? Plus the doctor said it's common, so what's the problem?
It's temporary hopefully. The reason is two things. One is that my knee caps are being pushed to the outside, because my femur is jamming into it and the tendons around the knee cap are holding it back from letting it stay in the middle. So it is grinding against my knee joints.
Another clicking noise is near the middle of my nail. They said that this is from the bone forming around the gap. The formation is not 100% smooth and narrow. It will be slightly larger than the rest of the femur. This causes the rough newly formed bone to scrap against the muscles.
I will report that with more stretching, I managed to get the clicking noise reduced. Other patients said that it goes away after a few weeks.
Does anyone know if LL patients are still on pain meds after 6 cm and heading to 8 cm? Dr. Packer told me that most people have been off pain meds by now. But half the patients at the hotel are on it still and half are off it. In general, it seems like those under 25 of age are off it, and those over it are still on it. But I'm curious to know if other LLs who have done it have aches and tightness while going from 6 cm to 8 cm.
I still have a lot of pain in my legs when I'm not on Oxy. The pain is like a lingering ache/soreness. And then there's also a sharp pain in my knee joints. I'm starting to get worried that the pain will be permanent. Though most seem to report that a week after the lengthening stops, the pain stops. I hope that is the case for me as well.
Don't worry about the pain being permanent. You're still in the process, damn it. Worry if it's there after the process.
Quote from: DoingItForMe on August 29, 2015, 06:40:00 PMDoes anyone know if LL patients are still on pain meds after 6 cm and heading to 8 cm? Dr. Packer told me that most people have been off pain meds by now. But half the patients at the hotel are on it still and half are off it. In general, it seems like those under 25 of age are off it, and those over it are still on it. But I'm curious to know if other LLs who have done it have aches and tightness while going from 6 cm to 8 cm.
I still have a lot of pain in my legs when I'm not on Oxy. The pain is like a lingering ache/soreness. And then there's also a sharp pain in my knee joints. I'm starting to get worried that the pain will be permanent. Though most seem to report that a week after the lengthening stops, the pain stops. I hope that is the case for me as well.
Most people in China while I was there took pain meds the entire time. I've never heard of people going off the pain meds once they get past a certain point. I had aches, soreness, and tightness the whole time I was lengthening. What you're going through sounds perfectly normal to me. Most likely all of your problems will go away once you're done.
Quote from: DoingItForMe on August 29, 2015, 06:40:00 PMDoes anyone know if LL patients are still on pain meds after 6 cm and heading to 8 cm? Dr. Packer told me that most people have been off pain meds by now. But half the patients at the hotel are on it still and half are off it. In general, it seems like those under 25 of age are off it, and those over it are still on it. But I'm curious to know if other LLs who have done it have aches and tightness while going from 6 cm to 8 cm.
I still have a lot of pain in my legs when I'm not on Oxy. The pain is like a lingering ache/soreness. And then there's also a sharp pain in my knee joints. I'm starting to get worried that the pain will be permanent. Though most seem to report that a week after the lengthening stops, the pain stops. I hope that is the case for me as well.
I experienced most of what you describe. I was on pain meds the entire time I was lengthening. After 5cm, I felt it got pretty hard. 6cm to 7cm was a real b*tch. I wanted to go to 8cm, but had to stop around 7cm or a little over that because the pain in my left leg (which I still have sometimes, though not nearly as bad) got almost unbearable.
Okay, thanks for the reassurance, guys. And yea, around 5 cm is when my thighs got tighter while bending them. Followed by my knee caps starting to click and hurt. I'm still aiming for 8 cm. Just wanted to make sure I don't mess up my legs by lengthening too much. My nail is slightly bent btw, since 5 cm. the doctors didn't mention it, but I can see it in the X-rays. It looks exactly like programdude's X-rays. The lengthening still works even though it's slightly bent, so I don't care. I looked at other patient's X-rays and they are also slightly bent. By the way, I have a lot of stories to tell about other patients who don't have diaries here. I will tell them when my process is over and when theirs are over, too.
For first time this morning, I woke up not so sore. And for the first time, I didn't wake up from the pain. I had a slight soreness in my knee joints, because I slept in a fetal position. Stretching out my legs straight immediately fixed that pain. Normally I'd wake up in agonizing pain and then rush to take pain meds. This morning and also yesterday, I was feeling less pain. I am at 6.1 cm right now, and should be 6.2 by the end of the day. They want me to lengthen to 8.4 cm, so I am literally counting down the days now. But the lack of pain now is very very promising. So what changed?
Tropical storm Erika is hitting us and the pool is constantly rained out. I only went to the pool for about 10 minutes before getting out. This is the first time I've done so little pool PT. Normally I walk for 3 hours, which is about 1 mile or so. If you look at my legs, they're still bulky, and my PTs don't even bother doing leg exercises much with me anymore, because of how much exercise I do already.
Anyway, I realize now that the pain I've been feeling is probably the soreness from all the stretching and walking I do in the pool and at the PT office - where I also tell them to push me to pain level 10 and hold it. My pain tolerance lets them flex me that much, and it was the only reason why I gained flexibility when normally people lose flexibility. However, I noticed on Friday that I let them stretch me too far each time, because for first time, they pulled a muscle. While doing a straight leg raise on my right leg, the tendon connecting my groin to my left inner thigh felt a very very sharp pain like something ripped. The PT immediately ran and grabbed an ice pack. It still hurt for the rest of Saturday, and I think it stopped and healed up now.
So to sum things up, I decided to use yesterday as my "rest day", which I don't normally do. Every day for the past two month had no rest days. And with the "rest day", most of my aches and soreness went away. I only took four Oxycodones yesterday without any OxyContin. This is the least amount of Oxy I've ever taken before. Before that I was on 5 for two days, and before that I was on 6 for two days, and before that I was on OxyContin with various amounts of Oxycodone (4-6).
So I conclude that the pains are gone because I either finally let my body have a rest day from all working out. Or I've been having withdrawal symptoms from Oxy and now no longer do. Yesterday was the only day I never took more then 5 mg of Oxy per 4-6 hours. Or my body just got lucky and healed all the problem areas. Either way, I am feeling in an upbeat mood this morning because now I know that none the pain I felt was permanent. Unless something happens in the next 23 days, I should be able to get to 8.4 cm without permanent damage to my body. I am so happy right now.
Of course, I was still on Oxy yesterday, but when I woke up this morning, it would have been over 8 hours since I last took one. And I know Oxy wears off after 3-4 hours. So each time I wake up, I know what I would feel like if I didn't take Oxy. I finally felt okay for the first time in a long time. I mean, I still feel pain when I flex my legs past its limits, but I no longer have that lingering aches and soreness all over. With this knowledge, I'm still going to do a lot of PT at home and at the hospital. Right now, my flexibility and getting to 8.4 cm is more important than not feeling pain. This would probably mean that I'd have to go back to taking more Oxy to battle the pain. I'm fine with that, because I just proved in the past month that I am capable of weaning myself off Oxy and resisting the temptation to take them just to get that "high". My rest day was for me to just find out if the pain would stop if I stopped working myself so hard. I'm an overachiever, so that explains why I've been doing more PT than most patients here.
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