It's interesting and encouraging that you report your pain as contestant but manageable, exilde. Everyone else that I've talked to, who did external femurs (although there aren't many such people on the forums, so small sample size) reported that external femoral lengthening caused excruciating pain for nearly the whole duration of lengthening.
On another note, how bad/deep are the scars of other patients who have lengthened their femurs with your doctor and had their frames removed? Do you know if anyone has been successful on completely or almost completely removing their scars? My understanding is that the scars from external femurs are worse and deeper than those from external tibiae, and much harder to remove through scar removal surgery. Often, silicone must be injected into the scar from what I've read.
How is the PT there?
Can you walk or stand with the frames?
How long do you expect to wear frames for the ~8CM you did on your femurs? Do you know the typical consolidation rate per CM using external femurs?
Do the pins go through any muscles, or can key muscle groups be avoided?
How is the athletic recovery of past patients for this doctor who you've seen, met, or heard of?
I wish you the very best of luck with your lengthening, and hope that your new height helps you live you a very nice life. I perosnally live most of my daily life at 183CM with the aid of shoe lifts, and can say that I feel very, very comfortable in most social environments when I am that height. I've never felt short or small at 183 and hope that you'll feel the same.
Dr Leonid N.Solomin (St. Petersburg, Russia)
Quote from: exclide on August 21, 2014, 01:43:20 PMThe internal lengthening devices cost too much for our patients to afford and that's why they aren't widely used in Russia - that's how he explained it.
But would he use them on patients who can afford the internal nails?
It just seems that his surgery and hospital stay prices are really competitive and I wouldn't mind adding the cost of Precice nails to that.
If my calculations are not too off, one could get Precice for around 40k USD:
Nails (25,000*) + stay for 90 days in 6 person ward (90 x 30 = 2,700) + surgery (1,500 ??) = 29,200 USD
*On Dr Lyall Ashberg's page he states that each Precice nail costs 130,000 ZAR which is aproximately 12,500 USD, so it would be more like 25,000 for both Precice nails.
Quote from: Taller on August 21, 2014, 01:58:00 PMreported that external femoral lengthening caused excruciating pain for nearly the whole duration of lengthening.
That makes no sense to me. My pin sites never really hurt, it was general pain from legnthening and I actually didn't have any pain at all at the start (expect first 3-4 days after surgery), when I was lengthening at a smaller rate.
QuoteOn another note, how bad/deep are the scars of other patients who have lengthened their femurs with your doctor and had their frames removed?Can't comment much on this one, his patients mostly do tibias for obvious reasons. Personally, I don't care about the scars.
QuoteHow is the PT there?
Can you walk or stand with the frames?PT is not there, lol, well it is, but it's pretty poor. You have to take care of it yourself. Of course I can walk and stand with the frames, externals can weight bear a lot and I weight like nothing.
QuoteHow long do you expect to wear frames for the ~8CM you did on your femurs? Do you know the typical consolidation rate per CM using external femurs?Well different sources have different opinions. I know western Drs. say you need at least 1 month for every cm lengthened. It's different at Ilizarov's centre with 2 month for 5cm and a month for every cm extra. I had a faster than usual consolidation rate, so it's been estimated for me to wear the frames for 2 months. Not sure about that though, I'll see soon.
QuoteDo the pins go through any muscles, or can key muscle groups be avoided?Yes it goes through vastus lateralis muscle I think, yea that's for sure. Most likely.
QuoteHow is the athletic recovery of past patients for this doctor who you've seen, met, or heard of?
Quote from: Dingo on August 21, 2014, 02:05:22 PMBut would he use them on patients who can afford the internal nails?
You should ask him, if you think it's a good idea.
how about external tibia , I plan to do the surgery and go back home how much will that cost me ?
Wow exclude that's great.If there are small frames for femurs I will definately go for them. Cause I am 5'8 have 42cm tibia and 47-48 femurs which is pretty small so with 3 inches on femurs I wil look pretty good.
If Dr. Solomin has done external femur lengthening many times, each time ensuring proper alignment and physical recovery, then he could be the long sought after cheap but reliable femur option that CLL'ers have been trying to find for years now. However, I'd be a bit worried about my femurs looking like this afterwards:
The fact that Dr. Solomin fixates the fibula on both ends in cases of tibial lengthening seems to suggest that he is a very competent doctor.
Quote from: Taller on August 27, 2014, 01:11:11 PMI'd be a bit worried about my femurs looking like this afterwards:
The pin site scars will always be there (and they may also tear). But the surgery cut scars they're very small, unlike the ones on the pic (if they're surgery cuts, not sure).
You're right. It's part the price to pay for getting cheap external femurs, I suppose. Femur scars will almost certainly be deeper and worse than tibia scars, I presume, due to the femur's thickness and amount of soft tissue. I do wonder if the pin site scars can be removed surgically, though.
When do you get your femoral frame removed, Exilde?
Quote from: Taller on August 27, 2014, 01:11:11 PMIf Dr. Solomin has done external femur lengthening many times, each time ensuring proper alignment and physical recovery, then he could be the long sought after cheap but reliable femur option that CLL'ers have been trying to find for years now. However, I'd be a bit worried about my femurs looking like this afterwards:
The fact that Dr. Solomin fixates the fibula on both ends in cases of tibial lengthening seems to suggest that he is a very competent doctor.
this is tibia righ ? I think if the the leg is skiny the scars cant be seen especially if a hairy leg
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