13 days post-surgery --- 1.07 cm lengthened
Since the last update, things have been improving at a steady rate. I am now able to fully fold my knee and bring my leg to touch the butt while in sleeping position. Also, walking medium distances without break (around 1 km with crutches) is possible now.
Also, I have been discharged from the hospital. I have traveled to my home, instead of going to caretaker Elke's house. The reason being I did not get my extension at my job for vacations and also I believe I would be able to manage everything on my own. The return journey from the hospital to my home was intense since I was traveling alone with my rucksack and I did feel tiring at the end of the day.
Also, a very strange thing is happening to me: The skin on my face and my lips has become very very dry and is starting to peel. I need to moisturize like 5 times a day to avoid peeling. I wonder if I have any reactions to the medicaments or is it due to the change of weather. Do let me know if anyone knows about this...
The pain is still relatively low (around 1,2 out of 10). Also, now I am doing 20 clicks (1.04 mm) per day. It takes me around 30-40 minutes to do 20 clicks on both of my legs. The 1st click is a little bit uncomfortable, but post that the subsequent clicks are easy to do.
I am doing stretches at my home. Before surgery, I had set up my apartment with all the necessary types of equipment for stretching. I had bought a workout bicycle, wood wall bars (for deep stretching), foam rollers, a stretching band and a yoga mat. These items are definitely helping me now.
I have an appointment with a professional physiotherapist from 15th June and I am looking forward to it.
Here is the link to my X-rays at around 1 cm: https://imgur.com/a/qRRQMCz
Femur lengthening with Dr. Betz - 2021
Quote from: chasing_higher_dream on June 13, 2021, 10:30:05 AM13 days post-surgery --- 1.07 cm lengthened
Since the last update, things have been improving at a steady rate. I am now able to fully fold my knee and bring my leg to touch the butt while in seating position. Also, walking medium distances without break (around 1 km with crutches) is possible now.
Also, I have been discharged from the hospital. I have traveled to my home, instead of going to caretaker Elke's house. The reason being I did not get my extension at my job for vacations and also I believe I would be able to manage everything on my own. The return journey from the hospital to my home was intense since I was traveling alone with my rucksack and I did feel tiring at the end of the day.
Also, a very strange thing is happening to me: My face on my skin and my lips have become very very dry and is starting to peel. I need to moisturize like 5 times a day to avoid peeling. I wonder if I have any reactions to the medicaments or is it due to the change of weather. Do let me know if anyone knows about this...
The pain is still relatively low (around 1,2 out of 10). Also, now I am doing 20 clicks (1.04 mm) per day. It takes me around 30-40 minutes to do 20 clicks on both of my legs. The 1st click is a little bit uncomfortable, but post that the subsequent clicks are easy to do.
I am doing stretches at my home. Before surgery, I had set up my apartment with all the necessary types of equipment for stretching. I had bought a workout bicycle, wood wall bars (for deep stretching), foam rollers, and a stretching band. These items are definitely helping me now.
I have an appointment with a professional physiotherapist from 15th June and I am looking forward to it.
Here is the link to my X-rays at around 1 cm: https://imgur.com/a/qRRQMCz
So you are located in Germany too?
@leoth2: Yes
23 days post-surgery --- 2.04 cm lengthened
Today I crossed the 2 cm mark. Every day I wake up exactly at 5 am, not because of alarm, but because of stiffness in my legs! I then walk and stretch to loosen up my legs. Stretching in fact makes my legs feel light and release the tension which is built up throughout the night.
I have now started to feel a little bit of tightness in my IT bands. To prevent/delay the onset of wide legs and duck ass, I am specifically focussing on IT bands and hip flexor muscles.
I have been doing physiotherapy with a professional physiotherapist for 60 minutes per day for 7 days a week. I am also stretching on my own 3 times in a day for 30 minutes per session. During this session, each stretch is held for 30 seconds to 1 minute with 3 repetitions.
Going to the physiotherapist is my highlight of the day since this is the only time I get out of my apartment. Her office resides around 1 km away from my apartment and is located on the 5th floor (without an elevator), so this is a good exercise for me to reach to her physio-practice with my crutches and practice my walking gait.
Also, my physiotherapist is in sync with Peter Woll. He has been kind enough to share his experience and answer any doubts of my physiotherapist so that she can leverage Peter's experience to treat me. I am too in contact with Peter via video call whenever necessary. In our last video call by looking at my walking gait, Peter did say that my right IT band looks tighter than my left and has advised me to intensify IT band stretches and to walk with proper form every 1 hour.
Talking about the negative, my left leg has been giving problems with clicking, it has become stiff, so it's harder for me to pull my leg with the required force in the clicking direction. Luckily my physiotherapist is helping me to click on my left leg! The pain due to clicking is the same, almost non-existent.
Currently, I am lengthening at a rate of 1.04 mm per day. Some of the days, I reduce it to 0.78 mm per day, when I feel tightness building up. This reduction definitely helps to loosen up the stiffness.
The overall pain is generally low, maybe 1-2 out of 10. But if I stay sedentary for long periods of time, my legs start to get stiff and uncomfortable. I am still taking the prescribed pain killers, just to be on the safer side.
It seems like the time is going on very much slow for me. There is still a long road ahead, I wish if I had a time-skip-machine, where I could directly be teleported to the end of the lengthening phase 
Also, in the next message, I have attached the video of my walking gait.
Here is a video of my walking gait at 2 cm of lengthening: https://imgur.com/a/9G7OEin
Walk looks good indeed! And your legs look athletic! Very inspiring
@ DonBones: Thanks, I am trying to walk my best in the video.
@ Johnp86: Thanks. But I must say I am not that athletic as a person.
Quote from: chasing_higher_dream on June 23, 2021, 12:44:41 PMHere is a video of my walking gait at 2 cm of lengthening: https://imgur.com/a/9G7OEin
Hello mate!
I'm glad you can walk so well right now. Keep stretching as you are doing and do not stop walking as long as your legs allow you ...
I lost a lot of muscle mass for fear of walking too far and overloading my legs or straining the rods when I was in the second half of the distraction process. I think that was the reason why I lost so much muscle in my legs ... I concentrated a lot on working on flexibility and was not constant working on maintaining strength ...
Afterwards, it is a great effort to recover the muscles of your legs and buttocks ...
Good luck!
You are doing very well😉
Simply amazing!
Following your journey so far makes me feel less scared of the process. Still contemplating if to do it or not considering the immense pain I've read in others journal.
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