I guess I'll start with a little about me:
- 23 years old, male
- Starting height 176cm
- From a tall European country
- Goal is for 5.5-6cm
I had my operation on the 18th of July, it lasted around 4 hours, everything went well seemingly. I won't talk much about the operation itself, all I will say is when you're lying on that stretcher in the OT you need to be 100% sure this is for you, not 99%; it's an extreme surgery. Dr Pradip had a very good/relaxed manner before/during the operation which helped calm me down (I was shaking like a leaf beforehand).
I'm currently still in hospital, going to guesthouse tomorrow. Not much to report everything seems to be going alright. Harry comes twice a day to help work on the flexion of my feet which is currently not too bad (I was worried about this because I had tight calves even before the surgery with not much foot flexion)
In terms of pain it's been fairly mixed; obviously the first couple of days after surgery the pain was extremely bad but we managed it with constant painkillers. Since then the pain has been on and off but not too bad for the most part, I still need a painkiller to sleep. I had the most extreme pain of my life when the took me for the Xray, they had to move my body onto two different stretchers and my god I thought I was going to pass out 
- but it's better now
Biggest negative for me is that I haven't been able to poop since my surgery, I've taken two doses of some syrup they said might help but I hasn't worked so now I'm going to get an enema. I've been eating well - 3 meals a day and a snack. Annoyingly I have started to have trouble peeing also, I used to be able to pee very well into the bottles they provide but the last 3 times I felt strong sensation to pee only a small amount came out and I felt like I was blocked up, the nurse say it's because I'm bed-bound.
The hospital I'm staying at is really very good, honestly on a par with decent European hospitals. The majority of the nurses speak English and those that don't I am still able to communicate with eventually. Harry and Dr Pradip speak perfect English - I've found them both to be excellent so far. I saw my incisions when my Dr changed my bandages and they looked much better then I expected; they were very small - and that was only 2 days after surgery. I will upload pictures of my frames and Xrays when I'm back at the guesthouse.
Last night Harry helped my bend and straighten my legs while I was sat over the side of the bed. My legs had been straight pretty much constantly for 3 days and I felt sooooo good - a little painful and sore but I felt amazing to stretch them out a bit and it took my mind off the other pain.
For anyone who's been through the surgery before - what do you recommend for pain management when I'm back at the guesthouse?
Thanks.
Thank you very much Akito,
I've heard a lot about you! Nurses at the hospital still talk about you - I hope your recovery is going well
I moved to the guesthouse yesterday. I beats being the in the hospital. The feeling of wheeling myself to the bathroom and having a shave/washing my hair was amazing!
Unfortunately, today I woke up with really bad pain in my calves, but my right one in particular. I thought it was tightness but Harry says they are not that tight, it feels like a massive extra painful bruise on the back of leg and really hurts where the pins go in (not the skin level pin site but the pin inside the leg).
Harry has me doing some new exercises to develop some strength in my femurs which feel good, he helps me with them twice a day - he also gave me sandals to combat my foot dropping which I'm finding really good, they really reduce my pain when lying down.
I start lengthening very soon which I'm excited about. Only other issue is that I have only managed one poop since surgery, with the assistance of an enema, and that was the day before yesterday. I hope I can again soon - I am taking some kind of laxative syrup and pills.
I have some pictures to post can someone tell me how to post them here?
I started lengthening a few days ago. After today I should be at 7mm total (including the small gap set during operation). Everything still seems to be going OK. I work hard with physiotherapy: twice a day with Harry, twice a day on my own doing exercises Harry has shown me. So far there is no sign of ballerina, but my feet are slowly kind of starting to face in - like the soles of my feet are turning towards each other, it's not bad yet but I'm a bit worried because I find it harder to combat than ballerina. Harry has given me some tips on preventing it.
Pain has been mostly low which is good. I did have one day of bad nerve pain in my left leg - it went from my lower back to my foot and was pretty bad, whenever I tried to lift my leg 1cm it was extremely painful. As I was doing a stretch with my band where I stretch my calf by pulling the upper part of my foot in I heard a massive click and had a very bad shooting pain in my back, but then after about 5 seconds it went away and I was totally pain free! I've had the nerve pain once since and I did the same thing and it cured it again.
As far as lengthening goes, I've had no pain during lengthening. The only thing I have noticed is a swelling on my skin where the gap in the bone is which is apparently slightly unusual but not a bad sign (I'm not worried about it). I do feel some pain in the gap only when I am wheeling myself around my room on my chair with my legs gently - I suppose it's the feeling of the gap pushing against the nail - I'm not worried about it damaging anything/interfering with my LL but I do worry that it is a sign that using my legs will be painful even long after I remove my fixator, but I'll have to wait and see.
But for the most part I am happy with how smooth my journey has started, I just hope it stays this way with no complications.
You find with this surgery that there is a 'baseline' level of pain and discomfort associated with wearing the fixators and having 2 broken legs which, after you get used to it, isn't that bad. All the little (and not so little) pains on top of that tough - like nerve pain, pain from physio, e.c.t which come and go are what you worry about. It's funny how good you feel to be at the 'baseline' level and how you long to get back there when you are experiencing an extra pain. I am extremely grateful for every day of 'basline' pain! After a while you don't notice it, you have no problem sleeping with it.
I will try and embed some images of my Xrays and a couple of images of my hospital room.
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Let's try that again..
https://imgur.com/a/5SVzrUs
https://imgur.com/a/8X36JNs
Had my second set of Xrays today. On paper I should have been at exactly 10.25mm on both legs. My Xrays showed 9.7mm on my right and 12.8mm on my left. The funny thing is, yesterday during physio Harry was feeling around my bone gently to inspect it and he said he thought there was a small discrepancy 'about 1.2cm on your left and just under 1 cm on your right'. - he was spot on. I'm happy with the Xrays; there is even a little bit of callous already which is good for this stage apparently. The only thing I notice about the Xrays is that my left leg (the 12.8mm one) seems slightly misaligned, although looking back at my Xrays immediately after surgery it was similar so hopefully if I increase the gap to about 5-5.5cm it will be OK. I will attach my Xrays below
I'm still lengthening at 1mm/day on both legs for now. Looking at my timeline - I really want to have my frames removed by 1st of October. That leaves 60 days after today for a further 4-4.5cm of lengthening. Doesn't leave me much slack considering I want to slow down to 0.66-0.75mm/day at some point, but it's doable if I don't encounter any complications, or if I am able to lengthen at 1mm/day until around 4cm. But I'll have to wait and see how my body reacts.
Not much else to report. Pain is still OK, but I'm finding it hard to to sleep. Harry has given me some tramadol, but I'm not sure I want to start taking it as I have heard it can be addictive; as long as I can bear the pain without it I will. The worst of the pain I get when trying to sleep is in my ankles, I would describe it as an ache but intense, still only about a 3-4 on the pain scale but it's annoying. I have pain during physio too actually, as you would expect.
https://imgur.com/k92hBQz
Thanks for your encouraging words guys - Adward thank you for your diary, it was one of the main reasons for me choosing Dr Pradip/Harry and so far I am very happy with my choice. I hope your recovery is going well 
I should be around 1.5cm by now, still no complications.
Right after my last post I had a fall. I was in my room by myself, wheeling myself to the bathroom on my 5 wheel chair and I must have shifted my weight or something but next thing I knew I was on the floor. I froze for a couple of seconds, fortunately I had one hand on the bed so not all the weight went on my legs. I pulled myself up onto my bed, took a painkiller immediately because the pain was bad and inspected my frames. I could tell nothing was wrong and this wouldn't be a major setback.
I'm pretty sure the fall did no damage. I haven't taken any painkiller since that night (so about 4 days) - in fact, since I've been in the guesthouse I haven't taken a painkiller stronger than a paracetamol ever, so I must be pretty lucky so far regarding pain.
The only negative is that since yesterday I have had pain in my right shin (in the gap in the bone) whenever i try to extend my right leg. When I'm not moving it's fine but it totally prevents me from doing some of the rehab with Harry on my right leg, I have no similar pain on my left. Harry suggested to take it easy on my right leg for a few days and see if that helps. We've also noticed that the right leg has a little bit of swelling over the gap whereas the left leg doesn't - so that maybe the cause, I'm icing it and elevating it as much as possible. I'm not very concerned about this because Harry says shin pain in normal and the pain you really want to watch out for is nerve pain/loss of sensation of which I have none.
Apart from that everything is still going smooth, I'm hoping it continues like this until at least 3cm. I'm already 1/5 of the way through my time in India and hopefully I have less than 2 months left in frames...
Day 24
Still lengthening at 1mm/day, no issues yet. On paper I hit 2cm tomorrow
The pain in the gap in my right leg has disappeared and the swelling is gone thanks to some anti-inflammatorys Harry gave me. I'm able to do all physiotherapy again. Been having a bad pain in my left ankle though, I think it's because I slept with my left leg on the side and the weight of my leg was on 2 of my pins. I think I'm starting to lose a little flexion in my left foot, nothing major when I sit my heels still touch the floor easily without me thinking about it/without any stretch in my calf.
Harry says I will have another Xray in 8 days which I'm looking forward to; I'm very curious to see if the gap is the same as on paper and my callus.
My max goal is definitely going to be 5.5cm I think, and my minimum 5.2cm as that is exactly 2 inches. The reasons are 2 fold:
1) It should mean a much quicker recovery
2) I'm worried about friends and family noticing the height change. I have told none of them and I don't intend in it, before the surgery my shoes added 1.5" I'm going to find the flattest shoes on earth to go back in so hopefully they won't notice the change - maybe I can slouch half an inch too lol?
Any vets reading this I would be really curious to know if your friends/family noticed the height change?
Day 31
It's exactly one month since my surgery. I've been lengthening my right leg at 1.25mm/day just for 4 days to try and catch up to my left since there was a 3mm difference. On paper I should be at 2.7cm on my right and 2.9cm on my left by the end of today. I am getting an Xray soon.
My condition is still fine, no ballerina yet - although my left foot is slightly worse than my right, it is starting to curl inwards just slightly - when I sit with my feet on the floor the outside of my left foot hits the floor and the inside takes a second to touch the floor too, but it's not bad.
I have a little bit of pin cutting which is slightly painful, but it's only a few mm - I have some vitamin C tablets that are supposed to help with my skin and my skin does seem to be healing quickly. Apart from that very little pain - my left ankle is still a bit painful at the pin.
I'm happy with how things have gone so far, I feel like this Xray is the big one; I'm quite nervous about it tbh. I feel like if it is good, insofar as the gap is >2.4cm and the callus/alligment looks ok, then I will probably reach my goal for frame removal. I think my body can easily handle 1mm/day for a bit longer, maybe even for the entire 5.2cm. I really want my frames removed by late September.
Quote from: Joker on August 18, 2019, 05:30:21 AMHi Bluehen ,what is your status now?
I am also want to do surgery in India so want to ask few questions if you don't mind?
Sure Joker, go ahead
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