Quote from: goldenegg on July 09, 2016, 04:55:46 PMHang in there dreamcatcher! It's great that you're sharing your experience here. clicking can be really difficult for some patients, which I think dr. G downplays a little and doesn't get mentioned as often in diaries as I saw firsthand.
have you tried taking a painkiller before clicking? that helped some of the other patients I saw who also had trouble clicking to relax their muscles, which like you said can be the cause. another cause can be fast consolidation, which is a good problem to have in the long run though it may not seem like it now. those same patients who had clicking problems returned to walking unaided much faster than me and seem very satisfied today with with their results
Yes, I tried paracetamol and paracetamol + codeine, but they don't seem to have any effect. I'll try Tramadol once Dr.G renewed my prescription for painkillers. As instructed by Dr.G, I increased my rate of clicks for the last few days and the pain had reduced a bit.
BTW, how much did you gain and how long did it take before you can walk unaided after stopping the clicks. goldenegg?
Dream_catcher: Dr. Guichet internal femur - summer 2016
For the last several days, I had a few new (bad) developments:
1. My calves especially left one started to have a feeling of tickling or chilling and sometimes burning. According to another patient Mr.M who had similar experience and talked with Dr.G a couple of days ago, this is an early warning of possible nerve damage 
I'll ask Dr.G what to do when I see him this afternoon.
2. The pain of starting the initial click for my left leg reduced a lot, but my left leg became so painful right after the initial click and I had to be very careful and move my left leg very slowly to do the return click. In the past, I had no problem doing return clicks either for my left leg or right leg.
3. A 0.5cmx0.5cm dark red or brown spot appeared on the outside of the rightmost toe of my right foot. I sent a picture of it to Dr.G, but he said he will have to take a look directly to figure out what it is.
4. The lymph at the back of the left side of my neck had a small swelling, which probably indicates some infections.
5. My lower back became tense. I had chronic back pain occasionally and I hope this won't get worse as a result of LL.
6. My appetite dropped sharply. I have my helper to prepare hot breakfast and lunch for me, but I can't finish the usual portion of them as before. And I have to force myself to eat some food for dinner as I don't really feel hungry at night.
Dream_catcher,
I love reading your diary. You're constantly evaluating the situation and potential problems. This is good in that future ll patients do not get the impression that they will simply lie down in bed for a few months and walk out the door 4 inches taller.
I hope everything turns out well, good luck
Quote from: dream_catcher on July 14, 2016, 09:42:40 AM
BTW, how much did you gain and how long did it take before you can walk unaided after stopping the clicks. goldenegg?
I did 8cms and it was about 2 months after lengthening until I was ok to walk unaided, but my consolidation was very slow compared to other patients. if dr. G told you to increase clicks you prob won't have the same issue and be walking much sooner than I did
sorry to hear about your other troubles. the pain and exhaustion of LL killed my appetite too. keep eating and stay strong!
Quote from: dream_catcher on July 14, 2016, 09:42:40 AM
Yes, I tried paracetamol and paracetamol + codeine, but they don't seem to have any effect. I'll try Tramadol once Dr.G renewed my prescription for painkillers. As instructed by Dr.G, I increased my rate of clicks for the last few days and the pain had reduced a bit.
BTW, how much did you gain and how long did it take before you can walk unaided after stopping the clicks. goldenegg?
I'm confused.
You increased the clicking amount, and pain was reduced?
any updates?
hope you're doing well
Quote from: CCMidwest on July 16, 2016, 02:45:49 PMI'm confused.
You increased the clicking amount, and pain was reduced?
Yes, I guess my pain was caused by fast healing which makes clickings difficult and thus increases the pain. Once the rate of clickings increases, the rate of healing slows down. As a consequence, clickings become easier and thus the pain reduces.
Quote from: Whereintheworld? on July 15, 2016, 02:44:38 PMDream_catcher,
I love reading your diary. You're constantly evaluating the situation and potential problems. This is good in that future ll patients do not get the impression that they will simply lie down in bed for a few months and walk out the door 4 inches taller.
I hope everything turns out well, good luck
Thank you, Whereintheworld. I made exactly the same mistake what you said that future patients can make. I was too eager to gain height before the surgery and as a result only listen to what I want to hear and treat potential problems as if they don't exist or won't happen to me.
As usual, Dr.G gave me two kinds of advice: 1) for pain in clickings, increasing the rate of clickings; 2) for other issues, doing more exercises, after he checked the x-rays and the flexibility of my legs. Well, I followed his advice and my problems either were gone or alleviated, if he considered they were related to LL, or remained the same, if he considered they were irrelevant, which luckily didn't get worse.
The last two weeks were at least unpleasant for me. There was almost always a new challenge or problem everyday, like some other current patients in Milan also had. Yesterday the difficulty of clicking my left leg came back again The 1st set of just three clicks took me 30 minutes. The 2nd set of three clicks took me 40 minutes. And the last set of four clicks took me over an hour to finish at 3am! I guess you might be able to imagine how stressful, frustrating, helpless, and last but not least painful I had...
Thankfully Dr.G noticed the problem from my online form and instructed me to take some unusual medicines and also increase the rate of clickings today, before I had the chance to consult him.
Today is a remarkable day: I have gained 5cm, which is my minimum goal for LL. From now on, I won't regret if I have to stop clicking due to any reasons. I'm satisfied with what I have already achieved. As always, I believe that people should not be too greedy in anything he or she pursues. "No matter what it is, say food or money, don't take more than you can handle." And actually I am planning stop clicking somewhat before 6cm, which is the gain that Dr.G has planned for me, as I want to be able to walk back home before or around the beginning of September, which is less than a month away. I think reducing my goal will have the two-fold effects of not only giving me more time to recovery but also reducing the recovery time.
The lengthening procedure has too many unpredictable risks from its beginning to its end. And today it was also the third time that I had intolerable difficulty clicking my left leg. In the morning, I attempted six times to click my left leg, but it didn't click even after I bent my leg to unusual large angles, which took more than ten minutes for each attempt and caused so much pain during my attempts and after my attempts. Frustrated, I recalled Dr.G's prescription for the last time when I had similar difficulty, which I finished just two days ago. So I took one pill of the prescribed medicine and retried to click my painful left leg. To my surprise, this time the pill didn't work and my leg still didn't click. After another three unsuccessful and painful attempts, I decided to ride 15 more minutes of bike before trying again. And you know what, my first pedaling with left leg resulted in a loud click! What a big relief for me! The only explanation is that I had already made the initial click after taking the pill, but somehow I didn't hear the click ;(
As you can see, not taking the pill for only one day started to give me this repeating problem. And the worse thing is unfortunately the pill has a severe side effect of stopping bone formation, as Dr.G told me. He said that some patient didn't know that and unexpectedly took the pill for a month due to misunderstanding of the prescription and without letting Dr.G knew. As the consequence, this increased the recovery time for him to walk unaided after stop clicking by at least a couple of months. Given that, I've decided that I'll not hesitate to stop clicking if it ever happens again. As the prescription of the pill requires to take it for 10 days, I think I have at most 10 days before stop clicking then.
Well, height is important but there are way many other things in life that are more or equally important than it, such as family, career, fun, etc. Yes, this anything but fun. I already start to miss so many good things that I had in my life and to expect many other good things that are coming my way. I'm ready to stop clicking and start recovering any time from now on.
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