Dr. Giotikas - external tibia/Stryde - Diary 2018/2019

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You did 5 cm righty?

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Hi Great321
Congrats! Your bones looks much better!  I am so happy for you!  Hope you recover even faster!!
Best,

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Quote from: lucindaris on December 21, 2019, 01:57:53 AMYou did 5 cm righty?

Yes. (I hope I didn't lost anything after LATN surgery, I don't dare to check it yet)

I had initially lengthened only 4,3cm because I was afraid of getting too much ballerina foot but when my bone growth wasn't faster I lengthened 6 mm more after many months with a certain method by shortening and lengthening in a certain time span (with doctor's consent) I shortened 2mm again due to slow consolidation still, and before LATN I was allowed to lengthen again up until 5cm in total. It was stupid of me to stop at 4,3 in the beginning and it might have not been very wise to do the lengthening of 6mm as my consolidation was already slow but in the end I'm happy to have gained 5cm and not 4,3cm. The slow consolidation was worth it afterall.

Quote from: Ghostfish on December 21, 2019, 06:47:41 AMHi Great321
Congrats! Your bones looks much better!  I am so happy for you!  Hope you recover even faster!!
Best,

Thank you very much Ghostfish I appreciate it!

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I see. Thank you for the answer. Really appreciated, let me know about the final result after LATN surgery.

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Hi really impressed

How much did the surgery cost you?
What was your height before and after the surgery and did you do both femur and tibia or just one of them. I’m thinking of doing two surgeries as my goal is 10cm
Please let me know thank you !

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In the last days/weeks I made some improvements.

1. I can for example get into the car a lot easier. Before I needed the help of both of my hands while now I get into the car like normal people do.

2. I can sit on the floor (on my butt) by squatting a bit (one hand on the floor behind my back for support) and then lowering myself. With the same technique I can stand up again.

3. It's easier to get up from a lower seat

4. I can climb down stairs a bit faster (not 100% as before yet)

5. My "ballerina foot" is gone. At least to the extent that  I no more feel like standing on my toes a bit whenever I stand up after waking up or after a long time of sitting. I still stretch my calves though that still feel a bit tight in the mornings. (for the first couple of steps) If possible I want to stretch the calves/Achilles tendons even more since climbing down stairs will get better then.

Before LL standing was a passive activity. I was just standing wherever thinking about whatever. Now standing is something I do actively. I feel how my femur muscles work in order to let me stand straight and I think about whether I stand normally. When I look into the mirror I sometimes even tend to lean backwards because I'm still thinking that I have to compensate as I was used to leaning forward for the last year.

My muscles are definitely stronger than a few months ago but there is still a lot more potential. Because of christmas and new year I had to stop PT for more than 2 weeks. But next week I'll start again. (I only went to the gym) I was also able to increase the difficulty level of one of the machines I had troubles with for a longer time.

The areas at my lower knee and below are still very sensitive. If I accidentally walk into an object it hurts like 4 times more than it normally would.


Quote from: Gman23 on December 26, 2019, 05:03:37 PMHi really impressed

How much did the surgery cost you?
What was your height before and after the surgery and did you do both femur and tibia or just one of them. I’m thinking of doing two surgeries as my goal is 10cm
Please let me know thank you !

roughly above 30.000€ (externals, latn, accomodation)

before:1,60m
after: 1,65m
only tibia

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Quote from: Great321 on January 11, 2020, 01:43:53 PMIn the last days/weeks I made some improvements.

1. I can for example get into the car a lot easier. Before I needed the help of both of my hands while now I get into the car like normal people do.

2. I can sit on the floor (on my butt) by squatting a bit (one hand on the floor behind my back for support) and then lowering myself. With the same technique I can stand up again.

3. It's easier to get up from a lower seat

4. I can climb down stairs a bit faster (not 100% as before yet)

5. My "ballerina foot" is gone. At least to the extent that  I no more feel like standing on my toes a bit whenever I stand up after waking up or after a long time of sitting. I still stretch my calves though that still feel a bit tight in the mornings. (for the first couple of steps) If possible I want to stretch the calves/Achilles tendons even more since climbing down stairs will get better then.

Before LL standing was a passive activity. I was just standing wherever thinking about whatever. Now standing is something I do actively. I feel how my femur muscles work in order to let me stand straight and I think about whether I stand normally. When I look into the mirror I sometimes even tend to lean backwards because I'm still thinking that I have to compensate as I was used to leaning forward for the last year.

My muscles are definitely stronger than a few months ago but there is still a lot more potential. Because of christmas and new year I had to stop PT for more than 2 weeks. But next week I'll start again. (I only went to the gym) I was also able to increase the difficulty level of one of the machines I had troubles with for a longer time.

The areas at my lower knee and below are still very sensitive. If I accidentally walk into an object it hurts like 4 times more than it normally would.


roughly above 30.000€ (externals, latn, accomodation)

before:1,60m
after: 1,65m
only tibia

hey man great informative diary. Congrats on your recovery so far.
Just curious, how much do you weigh? I weight 175 so might decide to lose some weight if I want to do LATN with Giotikas in the future. Dont know how much weight bearing the nails are

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Sorry if this was already asked, but when do you plan on getting the Stryde part done?

How do the scars look like now?

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I noticed that my calves don't feel tight anymore after waking up. My PT told me that the stronger my femurs get and the more I practice standing straight, the easier it will get. I actually stand more straight now than before LL.


Quote from: MirinHeight on January 13, 2020, 08:24:28 AMhey man great informative diary. Congrats on your recovery so far.
Just curious, how much do you weigh? I weight 175 so might decide to lose some weight if I want to do LATN with Giotikas in the future. Dont know how much weight bearing the nails are

Not sure, maybe 58kg... I have gained weight since LL
Do you weigh 175kg? Dr. Giotikas actually only offers LON on his website. You should ask him if you can choose LATN instead. Can't remember anymore how much they weight bear, I'm sorry. But Dr. Giotikas/his staff usually replies within days.

Quote from: llj on January 16, 2020, 04:26:00 PMSorry if this was already asked, but when do you plan on getting the Stryde part done?

How do the scars look like now?

Regarding Stryde: not planned any time soon, most likely I won't do another surgery since my proportions now look good, it would look bad to do another LL

The LATN scars are barely visible. But the scars from the external method are quite visible, I assume they will look better with time but still not good enough. (in terms of: people will notice them right away when I wear short pants)

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Update - Squatting Video

This is me squatting: https://i.imgur.com/7RautxJ.mp4

Still not back to normal but I will definitely get close to it since I am able to do more and more, things that I couldn't imagine doing weeks ago.

The only big challenges that are left are:

- kneeling on hard surfaces
- walking for a longer time without getting tired or getting small pains here and there

(I still have to exercise squatting and stuff but it's not that difficult anymore)

Things that I haven't tried yet because Dr. Giotikas wanted me to wait:

- running
- jumping (only a little bit)

Soon I'll get new X-rays.