Femurs stryde with Giotikas (July 2020)

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Quote from: readyprecisestryde on October 29, 2020, 03:22:00 PMThe guy who trained me how to use the ERC machine @Paley institute told me he uses a magnet outside of the leg to locate the mark if he needs to locate the exact location of the mark. There must be a magnet inside the rod. You can also call Nuvasive directly and a rep will contact you. There was a phone number outside of my ERC machine for Nuvasive. I called that number once after hours and a Nuvasive rep called me back within couple of hours. Hope this helps

Good idea!! I’ll do that

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Quote from: m7liam on October 29, 2020, 04:42:07 PMThis is a 10mm

Do you mean the bend at the top? I thought that was normal, I believe it was there from day 1. Or are you talking about the very slight bend in the nail.

The reason it doesn’t look symmetrical is cos I was doing this one lying down. So it was shot slightly angular
the bend at the top, regardless of whether you mean the upper part of the nail or the alignment of the upper part of the femur, it's totally normal.
I'm talking about the straight part of the nail, as you can see now it is curve. At the beginning the nail was "I", not it is "(", expecially the right one.
Ok, if you were lying down i understand, your hip was crooked. Standing you can evaluate very well the limbs simmetry, obv everyone should do it at least at the end of the distraction.

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Quote from: m7liam on October 29, 2020, 04:45:52 PMGood idea!! I’ll do that

m7liam,   I am disappointed that you were not told by anyone after the surgery that you can use a compass (provided in the ERC package) to locate and mark the magnet! 

On a positive note, I think if you quickly figure how much each side must grow, you may be able to still go for it; this is because I don't think the bone is consolidated. Please talk to your doctor asap and if necessary fly there and be there for a few days if necessary. It's definitely worth all the costs you may face!

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Hey man, how are you doing?

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"compass (provided in the ERC package) to locate and mark the magnet!  "

Thanks for the post about the magnet. Can you please explain how this works? What was the mistake m7liam made by accident and what did he need to do with the compass to detect his uneven lengthening faster?

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Quote from: SpeedDialer on November 18, 2020, 02:38:49 AM"compass (provided in the ERC package) to locate and mark the magnet!  "

Thanks for the post about the magnet. Can you please explain how this works? What was the mistake m7liam made by accident and what did he need to do with the compass to detect his uneven lengthening faster?

Sure. The rod where the cut is has a strong magnet and that helps with locating where the ERC device should be positioned. You would be in a sitting position where your legs are bent. That's how the ERC guy and Dr. M. told me to mark. You would make sure nothing magnetic (like metal objects, etc.) would be around to disturb the marking.

You would keep the compass (which looks like a small compass with N and S and an arrow) at the outer side of your left thigh and then right, right and move up towards your butt and down towards your knees; to find where exactly the arrow points at your thigh, perpendicularly. I should emphasize that cause of the marks of the surgery you would have a rough idea where it is, so you don't need to browse through butt to knees area all. Thanks to the strong magnet in the rod, as you move the compass the arrow moves and tries to point at it. When the arrow is perpendicular to your thigh, you would draw a line aligned with that arrow on your thigh. So from the top view while you are looking at your thigh you would see a line going from outer side towards the inner side and perpendicular to your thigh.

The first time you'd be presented and given the ERC device in Dr.'s office, an ERC person shows up and explains how to use the ERC device including the marking. My doctor had also showed me that, so it was like a repetition. While showing the marking process, they would draw the line themselves. Since the marker does not easily erase, you would have it for a few days, especially if you don't take shower much during the first few distraction days. However for me, since I used how water as a way of pain management I had to redo the marking almost every one or two hot showers or hot bathtubs.

One more thing: While using the ERC device (there is a line on the ERC device and you'd make sure you'd put the line right on top of the line you drew) I kinda pushed the ERC device down onto my thighs. No one told me that, but I though if the magnet is supposed to make the rod move, I better keep the ERC closer to that rod magnet as much as I can, so I pushed it. I think that worked, cause my distraction and reaching 8 CM was not behind the schedule.

I also wanted to add that since the CLL doctors typically take x-rays of the patients every two to three weeks during the distraction phase, I they would notice any discrepancy between left and right early enough to get it fixed (e.g., by slowing down on the taller leg, so the shorter leg catches up)  or the potential for premature bone consolidation due to fast callus growth (e.g., in my case I had extreme growth and Dr. M. set me for two weeks of fast [1.3mm] daily distractions to avoid premature consolidation).

I hope this helps.

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Hi all, just wanted to give you an update.

As you might all know, I was in London and had an issue with finding the magnet location. This issue started at 5.5cm (before 5.5cm, I was lengthening as normal at 1mm per day) and was especially an issue on the left leg. I tried to find the magnet by myself by adjusting the location mark, but after 3 times of back and forth (i.e., adjusting the magnet, lengthening for 2 weeks, and then doing an x-ray), I failed to find the magnet. At that point, my left leg was 6.6cm and my right was at 7.6cm.

I then decided to fly to Greece and have Dr Giotikas help me find the magnet again. He does this by doing a special x-ray. This was about 2.5 weeks ago. And then I started lengthening again, thinking that I was now on target. However, what happened was the left leg was not lengthening like I thought it would. I didn't feel any pain at all, and so last week I was quite worried. I discussed with Dr Giotikas after doing an x-ray and confirming the left was not lengthening properly despite me putting the machine at the right magnet spot. He said that it was probably due to a combination of 1) slight bend in the nail, 2) tight muscles, and 3) I had good bone regrowth.

Fortunately for me, the left was still lengthening, just very slowly. Roughly 30% of the amount I was lengthening was being lengthened. So if I lengthened 1mm, the actual lengthening amount was 0.3mm. If it was not lengthening, then I would have had to 1) reduce the right leg to match the left, or 2) go back to surgery to fix it up. Thank the lords the left was still lengthening.

And so in the last week, I had the daily limit on the machine lifted and was for a few days doing 5mm per day on my left leg to quicken it up. I believe I am now finished (and I can tell my legs are now even again) but will confirm via x-ray tomorrow.

So unfortunately that was my complication which effectively meant that what was meant to be a 3 month distraction phrase turned out to be a 4.5 month distraction phase. To give you guys some stats - I actually lengthened 8cm, but if all my lengthenings had actually occurred, I would be at 12.5cms! This translated to ~0.64mm per day rather than 1mm per day, and roughly 0.36mm per day for the last 2.5 cms after 5.5cms. The flipside is that 1) I don't think it was that big of a complication, and 2) I generally had limited pain towards the end because I was lengthening so slow.

So now I am finally finished distraction and I can look forward to the next stage of recovery. I won't post a video because my walking gait is pretty much exactly like the previous video (no improvement and no getting worse) but will post videos as I recover over the next period.

So maybe time for some afterthoughts and wrap-up. And sorry guys my diary has been lacking in terms of personality - I've just been so busy (I'm working full time and studying full time at the same time) so it's taken a while to get to this.

Before the surgery, I was generally pretty successful in all parts of life. I have an amazing career where I am pretty much at the top of my field, I make a ridiculous amount of money for someone my age (I'm 27 and I make more than some CEO's), I dated a lot of girls including a few who were taller than me, I was blessed with copious intelligence, I have way more life and travel experience than those around me, and I had a lot of friends all around the world. It is definitely possible to succeed without being tall as long as you put the drive into it. Your height does not determine your worth. Although I was short, height was something that I thought about occasionally rather than on a continuous basis BECAUSE I made sure to make up for it with strengths in all my other parts of life.

Unlike a few people on this forum, I didn't plan this surgery much. Originally, I was in Korea in June, chilling during COVID and newly single, and I was debating about what to do with my life. I decided "fk it" and was going to do plastic surgery given I was in South Korea but the plastic surgery doctor told me that there wasn't anything he could really do for me as my face looked fine (!!). Then I remembered the leg lengthening forums, read the site for a few days, call Giotikas the next day, asked to book in for the next slot he had (in 2 weeks time) and then within the next week I arrived in Greece.

So why did I do it? It came down to a few things. First, I'm a pretty greedy person by nature and I want to be the best at everything and so I did not want my height holding me down - sad but true. Second, because of COVID, for the first time in my life, I didn't have to be somewhere on a Monday 9am (i.e., I could work remotely) + I had the money + I was single. Third, I was travelling during COVID and my tourist visa in Korea was ending and Greece was one of the few countries that was open with no border restrictions and no quarantine. Everything just magically fell into place.

Looking back on the whole experience, would I do it again? Absolutely. I no longer have to be afraid of a girl turning out to be taller than me, I no longer have to look up to people when talking, and I no longer think about "what if I was taller" anymore. This was one of the hardest things I've done in my life (and I've done a lot) and a crazy 4.5 months with a bunch of pain and tears throughout (especially the first 3 weeks or at any of the PT sessions), but in the end, I really do think it was all worth it. I feel like a new person. I'm moving to a new country this weekend - fingers crossed for the next phrase of the recovery and the next chapter of my life.

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What is your current height now? Do you like your proportion? And do you think it's worth it, and any plan on doing the tibia?

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Nice update. A bit of a roller coaster there at the end of your distraction phase, but I'm glad it's all done now.

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"...and they lived happily ever after!" ...Congratulations and my very best wishes for -what promises to be- a bright future in your life, well done!