Update 2,1cm
Problems
1.The last time I mentioned sleeping problems because of the feeling of having to bend my knee.
In the beginning that feeling was only troubling me in the evening and during night. But it developed to a more annoying problem. Because it was annoying me during the day too sometime after. It was obviously my muscles of my upper left leg because when I massaged them it felt good. But it didn’t solve the problem. The muscle discomfort (not pain) changed from time to time between upper leg and gluteus/butt muscle.
It might sound harmless but not only was it keeping me from sleeping but the discomfort level even raised to a 10 out of 10. I was really desperate. No position, no massage, nothing seemed to be helpful. But then I asked my sister to darken the room and leave me alone. I closed my eyes and listened to loud music. Wow…and suddenly the discomfort disappeared like magic. For one night and one day relaxing for about 10 minutes removed the problem. The next evening just relaxing didn’t help anymore. For almost the whole night I was trying to fall asleep but the muscle discomfort in my butt was too bad.
I messaged Dr. Giotikas that night and he sent Dr. Giannakos. I was told by him and my PT to do certain muscle training.
Anyways I can’t remember that I had the same discomfort since that night again. With every following day I felt better. While it was still annoying me yesterday afternoon, it improved a lot since yesterday evening. Right now it’s a 1/10.
2. Out of one pin yellowish fluid was discharging. I had to clean the pin site normally and put a gauze on it. When Dr. Giannakos was visiting, I told him that whenever I pull the gauze away to change it, it takes the crust away, he recommended to just leave it by itself without a gauze even. The result was that the yellowish fluid dried and turned red becoming a tent looking like crust around the pin site. But sometimes the yellow fluid was still discharging from some hole. Yesterday I noticed that the fluid looked like pulsating. I sent pictures and a video to Dr. Giotikas who called me and advised to clean the pin site completely, so I had to remove that ugly crust, the fluid and my skin, then put a gauze around. At this pin site something weird pimple looking like something developed. Dr. Giotikas said that it is a small hypetrophic granulation tissue that will disappear when the frame is removed. Yesterday evening I e-mailed him again, telling him that the pin site hurts when I walk. Today he said that he will talk with Dr. Giannakos if antibiotic tablets for a few days will be needed. But today it didn’t hurt anymore. I messaged him that. I don’t know if that changes anything.
3. I can pull both of my legs towards me (by bending my knees of course) when I lie on my bed. But I can only stretch my right leg back to its original position without much difficulty. My left leg is too weak for that, it needs assistance.
4. The nerves of my left foot or ankle of right foot don’t bother me that much any more when I walk a bit longer.
Walking
Some days I felt like not walking at all, I still try to walk a bit. But the last days I noticed some progress. I was able to walk the distance which I walked in the beginning now 4 times in one day.
Side Note
I very often look at my calendar wishing time to pass faster. I will definitely wait until my frames come off…enjoy life with healthy legs before I do Stryde. Once you’re at this point you value healthy legs so much.
I pass my time by reading (already finished an over 1200 page book), playing PS4, listening to music, watching Netflix and following the news. Only on those few days where the muscle discomfort was very high I couldn’t do much of my activities.
Dr. Giotikas - external tibia/Stryde - Diary 2018/2019
Quote from: wants2growtaller on November 13, 2018, 07:56:30 PMOh my goodness! Does it hurt? This looks so painful. What about all of those scars? Are the scars going to heal? Are you black or just dark skinned?
No it doesn't hurt. Only in the beginning the pin sites around my right knee were hurting a lot when I bent my knee. Now only the one where the pin site is inflammed sometimes hurt a little bit when I walk, but nothing serious.
I don't care about the scars at all... I have other bigger scars from medical surgeries. Yes, I saw pictures from other LLers. The scars won't be too big. Only small brownish dots. I have a brown skin color.
Update 2,5
Height difference
I had already noticed a change of my height when I was close to 2cm. Because with someone I know whose shoulders were higher than mine were now lower. Also, my sister was taller than me. Before our eyes weren’t the same level. Now they are.
Duck ass
It is inevitable to walk kind of like a duck. I can’t stand straight without help. A doctor of the PT center told me to lie on my belly with my frames outside of the bed for several minutes a day…I tried it and it’s very difficult and kind of painful as the frames are too heavy, that stresses my knees. Does someone know about this exercise? How does it go exactly…? I don’t know if it makes sense or will help at all but I turned around my walker. Now it’s behind me when I walk. Like that my body isn’t leaned forward the whole time. Maybe it helps. ? What else could help against duck ass?
Muscle Discomfort
It got worse again at night and kept me awake. I was able too fall asleep but after every 2 hours I woke up and had to fall asleep again. At least I don’t feel tired during the day, probably because I stay in bed until 10AM to 1PM.
Weaker left leg
It got weak probably because I used it less out of fear of getting more muscle discomfort. Also when I walked I always made the first step with my right leg. I should have mixed it up more because I put more weight on the leg that makes the first step and that makes it stronger. Now I force myself to do more with the weaker leg. I regret that I didn't prevent this by working out more.
Weightbearing
Dr. Giannakos always says that the most important thing is to walk, walk and walk…. Also the people on this forum wrote that weightbearing is one of the most important things. I noticed that in the past I supported myself too much with the walker out of fear as the last time my ankle got swollen.
Food supplement
Dr. Giannakos said I don’t need anything except for Vitamin D and meat (every day). He said that like 1000 times. So far I only take Calcium (every second day), Vitamin D (prescribed by the doctor), sometimes Magnesium (too laxative for me), additional Protein, just recently Vitamin C. When the consolidation phase begins I want to take collagen, too.
Pain killers and Lyrica
Some LLers report about not lengthening sometimes when the pain is too much. Or some say that after walking they are more in pain. So far I have none of those problems. Lengthening or walking (and resting afterwards) is painless for me. But I make those lengthening clicks very slowly to avoid a feeling of pressure or nerve pain that might appear. Tramal, one of the painkillers that is prescribed doesn’t seem to work for me I think. I never felt any difference when I took it but the real pain I had so far was never lasting. So I just stopped taking painkillers. But when I told Dr. Giannakos about that he insisted that I should take at least one Tramal pill a day and 2 Lyrica (against nerve pain) a day. That actually improved my muscle problem.
4cm vs. 5cm
I am thinking about stopping after 4cm. And the pros outweigh the cons for me…What do you think?
Pros: That would mean getting rid of the awful frames maybe 1,5months earlier, getting healthy earlier, looks more proportionate for my body, every cm bears more risks like ballerina foot or else, with Stryde I will gain my target height anyways…
Cons: If I do Stryde a year later..I will have only 4cm for another year instead of 5…but it’s only 1cm difference…. Is so much money worth 4cm?
Contact
One of the reasons why I chose Dr. Giotikas was his responsiveness. He always answers per mail or by a call. No matter if it’s Sunday.
Head fell asleep
A scary experience I made from sleeping too much on my back was that part of my head (skin) fell asleep for 1-2 minutes…never want to experience the same again. I try to sleep on my side now and it works but I wake up every 2 hours.
Haircut
For the first time I got out of the apartment for something else than my PT. Not every street in Athens is perfectly suitable for a wheelchair but it worked out and we reached a hair salon very close by. And I feel a lot better now since I’m not used to “long” hair. I was wearing like XL sweatpants which were covering my frames.
Inflammation
The one pin site is still inflamed. Yellowish fluid is still coming out of it and forming itself to a crust. It's 2 weeks ago since I first saw the yellow fluid. Weird..that it didn't heal by itself. On Monday I have my next appointment with Dr. Giotikas. Then I will probably get antibiotics.
Rozburch claims in one of his papers that low 4cm is the average at which contracture can occur. Somewhere between 4 - 4.5cm is safest from that point of view
so does the Dr. have Stryde already or still "soon"?
Wow, I only noticed your diary now.
Wishing you the best of luck, Great!!
Quote from: HeightGain on November 17, 2018, 02:13:17 PMRozburch claims in one of his papers that low 4cm is the average at which contracture can occur. Somewhere between 4 - 4.5cm is safest from that point of view
Thanks for the information. I will talk to Dr. G about that.
Quote from: TinyTL on November 17, 2018, 02:41:00 PMso does the Dr. have Stryde already or still "soon"?
I haven't talk to him about that yet but I think it's already there..you should just mail him.
Quote from: myloginacc on November 17, 2018, 02:43:06 PMWow, I only noticed your diary now.
Wishing you the best of luck, Great!!
Thank you! 
Well....something happened to me 2 hours ago that every LLer with externals would be afraid of..I lost my balance and fell forwards onto the externals. Greatest shock of my life. Luckily I wasn't alone at home. One second after I fell my mother and sister were running into my room (they heard my cry for help) and helped me to get on top of my bed.
There was great pressure on many of the pins and out of some of them tiny bits of new blood came out but dried soon after. My left knee hurt a bit more. And some of the pin sites still feel a bit sore. But other than that nothing serious happened. I'm able to stand and walk. (only made a few steps since then)
I e-mailed Dr. Giotikas who just called me to check how I feel. He assured me that the frames are stable enough as I asked him if my bones could be discplaced. He wanted to know how it happened and I explained him how I walk now ...with the walker behind me to avoid duck ass and he said that duck ass is something I don't have to worry about. Duck ass is not a problem with the tibia surgery. So I asked him if I'll walk straight again after the frames get taken off and he said yes.
If my PT and the doctor at that PT place wouldn't have told me all the time to sleep on my belly to avoid duck ass I wouldn't have come to the idea to walk with my walker behind my body... and I wouldn't have fallen down... 
Anyways I'm lucky that nothing more serious happened.
Update 2,775
Lengthening
New X-rays were taken yesterday. We already saw callus formation. Dr. Giotikas was indecisive if I should continue 1mm/day but then he decided for 3 clicks per day instead of 4 clicks. So now I will lengthen 0,75mm each day. On one hand it’s annoying since it will delay the lengthening phase for 1-2 weeks. On the other hand, it might be easier for the body, also it’s better for the callus. (I wanted to post my X-rays, but Dr. G gave the X-rays via a CD. My laptop doesn’t have a CD player though.) What surprised me was that the X-rays showed less distraction length than I had clicked so far. I should have been at 2,7 but instead sth like 2,5 and less was shown. This means I have to lengthen a couple of days more in the end. Dr. G mentioned that the first clicks in the first days didn't lengthen my bones because of some compression.
Muscle Discomfort
Dr. G said it doesn’t have to do with the surgery, but it might come from the muscle atrophy. The last days were rough again at day and night time. Today I feel better. I try to solve it through PT. I would suggest to future tibia LLers to work out those upper leg muscles and gluteus muscles before. They are really important. Maybe I have that problem because my left leg was a bit shorter than the right one. This might have caused an inbalance of weight, I probably used my left leg muscles more this way.
Weaker left leg
I noticed some progress. Before, when I sat on the side of my bed and wanted to lift both of my legs onto the bed, my left leg needed assistance. Now I can lift both of my legs without help. Also cycling in the air with that leg became easier.
Weightbearing
I feel like Dr. G expects a lot. Whenever we take X-rays I have to get on top of a table. For getting there someone put stairs in front of it. Dr. G asked me if I can climb on it, they would help me. But climbing those stairs felt impossible for me. So, in the end he and another man had to lift me up. Later he told me to walk as much as possible.
Inflammation
Dr. Giotikas saw that pin site and said that on the pictures it looked worse. I didn’t get antibiotics. I still have to clean it just normally and put a gauze around it. Around the pin site my skin doesn’t hurt as much as in the beginning any more.
Numbness
There are several numb places around my tibias and as mentioned before around my left foot. I wonder if they are going to be normal again. Forgot to ask.
Update 3,3
Muscle problem
I noticed that when I sit 90° with my legs stretched out on my bed the muscle problem isn’t as annoying. Still it bothers me at night. I tried a hot devil’s claw balm. I applied it on my butt and upper left leg. It helps for 1-3 hours. The burning sensation distracts me from the discomfort letting me fall asleep. One of the physiotherapists explained again that it comes from the immobility. When I wake up in the middle of the night with the same problem, I apply some devil’s claw again.
Pain
After the last PT session I developed a new pain somewhere above my right heel. I told my PT to stretch that foot again, so he did. As I didn’t felt any pain or discomfort he stretched it very firmly. Maybe that was too much in the end. In general my feet always look a bit swollen.
Stiffness
When I sat or lay too long in bed (after sleeping) my left leg feels stiffer as if the muscles there are shorter and I need to stretch that leg more. My right foot is a bit less stretchable than the left one. When I stand straight (which is only possible with the help of my walker) I can’t immediately touch the floor with both of my heels. It needs some time. So I will definitely stop at 4cm to not worsen the situation too much. I also don’t want to extend the recovery process too much.
Walking
Walking didn’t become easier. It’s still exhausting but doable. Didn’t notice any improvement. It’s very annoying to be so slow with the walker. Very short distances feel far away. The day I will be able to walk again normally, make myself comfortable by sitting however I want on the sofa, will be one of the luckiest days.
Mental health
I’ve lost energy. The first three weeks felt easy. The days passed by fast and I was able to sleep without much disturbance. My mood changes depending how tired I am. Yesterday I slept several hours during the day because I was very tired. I don’t know why. Tiredness on top of being almost immobile depresses me a lot. But again, I don’t even want to imagine how it would have been If I was alone here with only a caretaker who would only come for a few hours a day. I need my family for almost the whole day for many little things (we take for granted). And their company is the most important thing for me. A few days ago when the weather was better we spent some time at the seaside. It’s nice to see something else.
You and I are almost at the same spot in our lengthening, I'm doing externals ilizarov, same problems. I would say the previous 2 weeks had some awful depression and pain, where I didn't even lengthen, sometimes 1 turn a day. It's all turned around, I'm training a lot in bed and doing hours of PT, and lessening pain killers as well. Keep strong man, every week it's a new struggle. Just keep smashing down walls until you get there.
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