Femurs in Athens with Giotikas mid Jan 23

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Quote from: oldiebuttbaddie on December 11, 2022, 02:51:37 PMThanks for the advice. When you say go slow on the lengthening, do you mean less clicks? 
Have you noticed people with lack of flexibility having a significantly harder time or just not being able to complete it?

People less flexibility may have clicking issue and need time to adjust and manage.
Be calm and get help from Nurse and Doctor.

People less flexibility may experience pains during clicking and after clicking.
That's why it is good to go slow (less clicks) for your muscles and nerves to catch up.

Most completed the extension but take longer time.
You can also fly back home after 2 months to continue the extension yourself.
This is advantage of Gnail, no ERC machine requires.

I started to experience pain at 5.5cm as my flexibility is considered good.
Others got it at 3cm or less, dun be shocked to hear the curse & swear from some patients at PT center!

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Quote from: Bagga on December 12, 2022, 03:52:18 PMPeople less flexibility may have clicking issue and need time to adjust and manage.
Be calm and get help from Nurse and Doctor.

People less flexibility may experience pains during clicking and after clicking.
That's why it is good to go slow (less clicks) for your muscles and nerves to catch up.

Most completed the extension but take longer time.
You can also fly back home after 2 months to continue the extension yourself.
This is advantage of Gnail, no ERC machine requires.

I started to experience pain at 5.5cm as my flexibility is considered good.
Others got it at 3cm or less, dun be shocked to hear the curse & swear from some patients at PT center!


[/quote


How long after do patients do the clicks without any assistance?

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Quote from: Bagga on December 12, 2022, 03:34:36 PMClimbing up is easy
Going down the stair is a challenge, need to be careful not to fall.
I did the stairs the next day after surgery, together with Doc.

Yeah actually I wonder if the PT's at Athens would be willing to help me train walking on stairs now that I'm done lengthening (my math was wrong, I'm actually done now already and am at 7cm). The stairs are really close to their door at PT so I assume they would be willing to help, should only take a few minutes

I have only done up/down stairs using the rail + one crutch, I haven't attempted it with just the rail or with no assistance

Ozboy was a cool dude to meet in Athens and was really chill/helpful

Unrelated to that, recently I have seen a guy living at Hyatt hotel at around 3 cm with gnail who can already walk pmuch normally and its amazing

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what other hotels would you recommend? Hyatt hotel seems expensive for me.
and it appears staying at hotels longer than a month has difference prices? is it by seasonality due to travelling?

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Quote from: Mini0510 on December 16, 2022, 04:26:44 AMwhat other hotels would you recommend? Hyatt hotel seems expensive for me.
and it appears staying at hotels longer than a month has difference prices? is it by seasonality due to travelling?

I think if Hyatt isn't a realistic option, Novotel is the next best option. It's breakfast is alot better than Montaza's. It's not as nice as Hyatt but its still nicer than Montaza. There used to be alot at Montaza but there's just 2 now and more and more people are switching to Novotel instead

But actually I wonder-- is Novotel really the next best hotel option budget wise?

Hyatt I feel is significantly better in the colder months October-March because it has an indoor pool to train in. I visited each of the three and Hyatt is definitely the nicest/most luxurious, has a better pool than Novotel that is indoors, has a nice indoor jacuzzi, sauna

I sort of wonder how much of the Hyatt stay can be covered with credit card points alone. I know that some other patients used credit card points to cover alot of their stay

https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/en/rewards/hyatt-credit-card.html

I can't get the Hyatt hotel card right now because the card is partnered with Chase and they have a rule that you can't have more than 5 new credit cards within 24 months (so I have to wait a bit, I grabbed a few other small credit card signup bonuses with those).

Looks like the Hyatt credit card has a 60000 point signup bonus. Google says each point is worth about 2.8 cents per point. So about 60000*2.8/100 = 1680 USD worth of the cost can be covered with the signup bonus. Also you get a free night after each year anniversary of owning the card which more than cancels out the annual fee.

"Already a Cardmember? Refer a friend and you can earn up to 25,000 Bonus Points per year for friends who get the card. Invite now."

I can't get the card now or participate--but if you guys refer each other, you can sort of all mutually get 25000*2.8/100= about 700 more USD towards the cost covered with points.

And then lets see, it looks it says you get 9 points per dollar spent on Hyatt hotels (5 of those from being a World of Hyatt member but I don't believe there is an annual fee or any difficult application for that), and if each point is about 2.8 cents its like.. 0.09*2.8= 0.252 or about 25% percent off the cost of the Hyatt hotel (each week you pay helps alot to pay for the next week). Which makes it more comparable to Novotel's price

"9 points total per $1 spent for Hyatt stays and experiences including restaurants and spas. That's:

4 Bonus Points per $1 you spend with your card**
5 Base Points per $1 you can earn as a World of Hyatt member
 

2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for getting around with local transit and commuting**

 

2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for dining out at restaurants, cafes and coffee shops**


2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for taking off with flights purchased directly from the airline**

 

2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for staying healthy with fitness club and gym memberships**

 
1 Bonus Point per $1 spent for wherever life takes you**"

I mean these are better bonus point multipliers than they look because if google says that each Hyatt point is worth about 2.8 cents, actually these multipliers are like double than what they look like

So it feels like depending on what you do, you can cover like 2000-4000 USD of the cost with Hyatt hotel credit card points.

At least in the USA, its also a good idea to get the charles schwab debit card because you'll need to get physical cash from the hospital ATM in Athens (ex: we pay for the Dr. Giotikas's arranged travel by cash now) and charles schwab will reimburse you for the ATM fees

I regret not getting the Hyatt credit card. Around the time, I got a different credit card that is not nearly as good (smaller bonus, worse point multipliers)

If you have any extra Hyatt credit card points after you finish, you can use them when you come back to Athens to do nail removal (say if you do gnail, Dr. Giotikas has a good price for nail removal, I believe he is significantly cheaper than Dr. Jean-March Guichet for nail removal)

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Quote from: SpeedDialer on December 19, 2022, 06:13:28 AMI think if Hyatt isn't a realistic option, Novotel is the next best option. It's breakfast is alot better than Montaza's. It's not as nice as Hyatt but its still nicer than Montaza. There used to be alot at Montaza but there's just 2 now and more and more people are switching to Novotel instead

But actually I wonder-- is Novotel really the next best hotel option budget wise?

Hyatt I feel is significantly better in the colder months October-March because it has an indoor pool to train in. I visited each of the three and Hyatt is definitely the nicest/most luxurious, has a better pool than Novotel that is indoors, has a nice indoor jacuzzi, sauna

I sort of wonder how much of the Hyatt stay can be covered with credit card points alone. I know that some other patients used credit card points to cover alot of their stay

https://world.hyatt.com/content/gp/en/rewards/hyatt-credit-card.html

I can't get the Hyatt hotel card right now because the card is partnered with Chase and they have a rule that you can't have more than 5 new credit cards within 24 months (so I have to wait a bit, I grabbed a few other small credit card signup bonuses with those).

Looks like the Hyatt credit card has a 60000 point signup bonus. Google says each point is worth about 2.8 cents per point. So about 60000*2.8/100 = 1680 USD worth of the cost can be covered with the signup bonus. Also you get a free night after each year anniversary of owning the card which more than cancels out the annual fee.

"Already a Cardmember? Refer a friend and you can earn up to 25,000 Bonus Points per year for friends who get the card. Invite now."

I can't get the card now or participate--but if you guys refer each other, you can sort of all mutually get 25000*2.8/100= about 700 more USD towards the cost covered with points.

And then lets see, it looks it says you get 9 points per dollar spent on Hyatt hotels (5 of those from being a World of Hyatt member but I don't believe there is an annual fee or any difficult application for that), and if each point is about 2.8 cents its like.. 0.09*2.8= 0.252 or about 25% percent off the cost of the Hyatt hotel (each week you pay helps alot to pay for the next week). Which makes it more comparable to Novotel's price

"9 points total per $1 spent for Hyatt stays and experiences including restaurants and spas. That's:

4 Bonus Points per $1 you spend with your card**
5 Base Points per $1 you can earn as a World of Hyatt member
 

2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for getting around with local transit and commuting**

 

2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for dining out at restaurants, cafes and coffee shops**


2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for taking off with flights purchased directly from the airline**

 

2 Bonus Points per $1 spent for staying healthy with fitness club and gym memberships**

 
1 Bonus Point per $1 spent for wherever life takes you**"

I mean these are better bonus point multipliers than they look because if google says that each Hyatt point is worth about 2.8 cents, actually these multipliers are like double than what they look like

So it feels like depending on what you do, you can cover like 2000-4000 USD of the cost covered with credit card points.

At least in the USA, its also a good idea to get the charles schwab debit card because you'll need to get physical cash from the hospital ATM in Athens (ex: we pay for the Dr. Giotikas's arranged travel by cash now) and charles schwab will reimburse you for the ATM fees

Holy   we have a credit card churner 

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Quote from: shortisnotfun on December 19, 2022, 06:20:25 AMHoly   we have a credit card churner 

Yeah pretty much. Aside from Hyatt's credit card, I think it might be good to get a second no foreign transaction fee credit card right before you go to Athens to grab yet another signup bonus. Another Athens patient suggested this to me. Plenty of cards of those types where you spend 1000 USD on stuff you woulda bought anyway and grab a 150-200 USD signup bonus.

You'll still have other expenses aside from Hyatt/hotels like ordering food from Wolt (food delivery app) and occasional Uber/Freenow app rides when Dr. Giotikas's arranged travel SUV cannot accomodate every single trip of every patient (ex: recently I paid an uber ride from the hospital back to the hotel because the arranged travel SUV was busy with other patients). Might as well get another signup bonus out of it if you are forced to pay for these things.

For food in Athens, you can eat pretty cheaply in Athens if you want to. Plenty of 0 to 1 Euro delivery fee options on the Wolt app. Common fruits and seeds are very cheap per unit. Can get a pretty filling gyro for 3.50 euros on Wolt and you can choose what they put in it on the app (though on the app you probably have to order two of them to meet the minimum amount for delivery).

When you come, use the Wolt app as soon as you can to get familiar with it -- don't get the overpriced and worse hotel food tbh unless you can't get out of bed from pain early on and want the hotel staff to bring the food to you in bed. At Montaza Hotel I know they don't put a lid on the hotel food as they bring it to you so the chances are high in colder months that the food will arrive cold / room temperature. So ya just use Wolt, pick a restaurant/store nearby and the delivery fee will be like 0-1 euros if its close, meet the delivery guy at the entrance with your wheelchair

Compared to other credit cards, I think that the Hyatt credit card has one of the best effective point multipliers for our purposes -- because their points are worth more than 1 cent and can be applied to hotel costs efficiently

Dr. Donghoon Lee in Korea put up several swimming pool exercise videos to help speed up the recovery and exercise muscles that you wouldn't use very often otherwise

These exercises are good to do in Hyatt's indoor swimming pool ('walking forwards' you'll already do at physio with the antigravity treadmill but check out the other exercises in this vids)

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Hyatt Hotel implemented a rule that if you are not staying at Hyatt Hotel, you have to pay 40 euros per visit to use their pool (ex: so if you are staying at a different hotel and then you come to Hyatt as a guest, you must pay 40 euros). So you cannot just be invited by a friend and use the pool for free.

So that's another pretty good reason to stay at Hyatt Hotel, especially in the colder months October-March. If you are staying at Hyatt Hotel, you can just use their elevator-accessible indoor pleasantly warm pool without worrying about paying the 40 euros

I think there is also an argument if you're using precise nails (femur precise, tibia precise, or quadrilateral precise) then access to a pool means you can get in alot more walking practice (in the water) than you would have otherwise since precise is not weight bearing

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Quote from: SpeedDialer on December 19, 2022, 06:13:28 AM

Looks like the Hyatt credit card has a 60000 point signup bonus. Google says each point is worth about 2.8 cents per point. So about 60000*2.8/100 = 1680 USD worth of the cost can be covered with the signup bonus. Also you get a free night after each year anniversary of owning the card which more than cancels out the annual fee.


I would highly doubt that a Hyatt point is worth anywhere close to 2.8 cents. 

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Quote from: oldiebuttbaddie on December 20, 2022, 10:32:02 PMI would highly doubt that a Hyatt point is worth anywhere close to 2.8 cents.

Yeah it seems nerdwallet's website's estimate of 2.8 just ended up as the first google result but then below it are a bunch of other lower estimates, my b

Seems like a big range of different estimates below from google:

What are Hyatt Points Worth? - NerdWallethttps://www.nerdwallet.com › Travel
Hyatt points are worth on average 2.8 cents each when redeemed for award stays. Sam Kemmis. By ...

https://frequentmiler.com › what-are-hyatt-points-worth
Dec 7, 2022 — Based on the latest analysis, the Hyatt Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) has jumped to 2.1 cents per point (from 1.6 previously). That's a huge ...

How to calculate the value of Hyatt points | Million Mile Secretcraptps://millionmilesecrets.com › guides › hyatt-points-v...
Short and subjective answer: A typical Hyatt point is worth is 1.5 cents each (yes, it's possible to get way more from them). There are some downsides, too, ...

How much are Hyatt points worth? - CreditCards.comhttps://www.creditcards.com › card-advice › hyatt-point...
Oct 5, 2022 — Hyatt standard room rewards ; 1, 5,000, 2.2 cents ; 2, 8,000, 3.6 cents ; 3, 12,000, 2.9 cents ; 4, 15,000, 2 cents.