Hi,
A forum user has sent me a private email. I wish to say that I do not wish to correspond by email, but only via the forum (public record). However, as the user posts some interesting questions, I will answer them here.
Q. Hey antonio, I hope your recovery is going fine.
I wanted to ask you. You said that now your femurs look better proportionally according to you. did Monegal also state before you did the operation that your femurs are "shorter" than normal people your height, or was is your own feeling?
To be more specific, did you femurs were "scientifically" short or it was just your own view of them?
Thx in advance and best of luck with recovery 
A. Thank you. My recovery is going better than I expected. 11 months after my first operation (or 4 months post lengthening my second leg), I am now walking without problems, except the first few steps after getting up from the chair. I can walk upstairs without holding onto the bannister. I am back to doing squats in the gym and have recovered 95% of my quads, hamstrings and glutes.
Dr. Monegal did not say anything about the length of my femurs, except that his recommendation for lengthening for my age would be 5-6 cm. It was my own feeling, I think that femur length looks proportionate when the fingertips come down to the middle of the thigh (see my post on Reflections on ideal femur length in the Proportions section). The reason is that people concentrate on different segments of the body when they look at you - if they look at your face and upper body then they are not concentrating on the legs and vice versa. That's why I think that torso length and tibia length are not as important (especially as the illusion of torso length can be manipulated by the width and muscularity of the upper body) as compared to arm length.
As far as the actual femur measurements go, I never did the complete X-rays measurement. However, measuring from top of hip to middle of knee gave me pre-LL 41 cm and post LL 49 cm and from top of knee to floor while sitting 49 cm. Tibias are supposed to look shorter than femurs anyway.
Dr. Monegal - Two stage internal Femur - Sept 2015 - Antonio
Update Sept 2016
Had my X-rays done and check-up with Dr. M yesterday.
Link: http://imgur.com/a/UsdXx
Link: http://imgur.com/a/Y6rPR
Bone consolidation is well on the way, curiously (according to Dr. M) it is much better on the internal side of my L leg and on the external part of my R. It should have been better on the internal side of both legs. The vagaries of the human body...
Screws in place, flexibility L knee 150 deg, R 180 deg. No valgus or varus. Hips aligned.
During the radiography, the lab technician had to adjust the lead plates repeatedly to get the whole thigh in one X-ray as she said "you have such long femurs!" (she didn't know I had had LL). I just smiled, mostly inwardly, the smile of quiet contentment.
Hey Antonio, thanks for your update and X-rays. Is the right lower screw normally that bended?
your consolidation in one leg looks pretty light and not really connected from the lateral view, so I'd take it easy on the weight bearing just to be safe. best of luck with your recovery!
Yes man, no matter what this man says. This consolidation pattern is strange. Show your Xrays to another doctor.
Quote from: LLuser1 on September 21, 2016, 04:16:17 PMYes man, no matter what this man says. This consolidation pattern is strange. Show your Xrays to another doctor.
I didn't mean to imply that anything was strange. just that his consolidation seems slow, since his right leg is 1 year post op and still not fused all around (maybe due to older age?) and give a little more time for his other leg to heal before too much early weight bearing, which might lead to a bent or broken screw like Jessie Believer pointed out in his xrays. but that's just my non-professional opinion. hope everything is ok antonio!
YES one leg Is slower because It Is a 2 stage procedure. So one leg Is 4 months delayed When compared with The other. No worries in any thread where my name appears The noid Lluser will start To blah blah blah with his Medical degree at Stanford To show Us the ligth
Ha ha, no worries everyone, I may be old(er) but I'm not disappearing
I wouldn't worry too much about the consolidation, for now. The literature shows that femur consolidation can take from 45 up to 93 days / cm lengthened, so I have still up till next year before I need to press the panic button Regarding the pattern, it's not unusual as when I was younger I broke my left arm (not purposely 
), and the bone regeneration was similar.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27053972
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26874445 (Fitbone)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21729641 (also indicates that healing rate is independent of lengthening rate)
I'm still doing weights because I'm a firm believer in testing my limits, whilst also listening carefully to my body. For me the benefits of (controlled) weight training which include increased bone regeneration simply outweigh the risks.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27046087 (increased bone density and wider shape of tibia, in British Army recruits (21 years, average height 178cm only!!)
@Jessie: Yes, the right screw is bent because it came loose and that brute Dr. M just whacked it back in! @Dr. M: don't worry, I'm just joking, I'm very grateful to you, you know I'm still your model patient
On the good news side, I gained 2 cm of muscle in diameter on my ass and hips, so my sitting height is now 91 cm!
Thighs are still underdeveloped at 54 cm, but I'm getting there...
Have a beautiful day everyone!
How much lengthening shows your telemetry/xrays?
The telemetry and X-rays are not reliable to determine the amount lengthened because:
1. The angle of the femur and leg placement creates distortion when projected onto a 2-D plane.
2. It is very hard to determine the exact point of fracture as the cut is at an angle.
Measuring on the screen gives a result varying between 6,5 cm and 7,8 cm
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