Femurs with Dr. Shahab Mahboubian - July 2020

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wow I will try to strech by back as well since the beginning¡

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Quote from: Giotikas2021 on November 11, 2020, 04:40:13 PMwow I will try to strech by back as well since the beginning¡

Certainly. Stretching is going to be very helpful to make your life during distraction a lot easier. Also as we discussed here, it may help with limiting the temporary loss of height post-op.

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Quote from: StrydeNailChallenge on November 11, 2020, 12:51:00 AM Hey All!

 I would like to open a new discussion topic here about any height shrink possibility post-op.

 I was just at a clinic so they could measure my height accurately. I am measured at 179.7 mid-day around 3pm. Pre-surgery I was at least at 173.5 in the morning and 172.5 mid-day. That means I should be at 180.5 mid-day, given the 8cm distraction. 

Of course any discrepancy could be due to wrong height measurements. Also the 8cm distraction is measured using the x-rays. There is a chance the actual height increase may not be exactly 8cm.

Another reason I could think of is the slightly bent knees post-op.

Another could be weaker abs that may not allow you to stand straight as you used to, pre-surgery.

One more reason could be the considerable weight loss some of us experience; which may result in height loss as well. I am however not sure, cause there are online articles, etc. that argue weight loss would make people taller, while some resources claim that it would result in height loss, e.g., because of foot heel fat loss! 


I should say that my height was even lower post distraction phase. E.g., I remember right after the last day of distraction, I was definitely shorter than 179 mid-day. This means whatever the reason is, things are getting better; but I still have a gap of about 0.8~1 cm to fill in. It's not a big deal, but I am just curious.   


Any comments would be appreciated.

Hey Giotikas2021,   I would like to make a suggestion that you may later find very helpful. I did this for myself, but unfortunately not very accurately. The goal of it is to 1) have a much better estimate of the practical height gain from your surgery, 2) find out whether your right and left legs have a height discrepancy:


Pre-surgery: Right before the surgery, find an accurate height measurement setup, like those in the clinics. Do the following three measurements:
a) Normal height measurement with both of your feet on the floor.
b) Stand on your right foot, while using your left foot for support. You may move your left foot toes anywhere just to create a good support to be able to stand as tall as possible on your right foot.
c) Repeat for the left foot.

Post-surgery, especially after distraction is over. Also you may repeat this on different days post-op and note down the numbers:
Repeat measurements (a), (b) and (c) above.

If you do the measurements correctly your height while standing on each foot would be higher than when standing on both feet. Also if your right and left measure as equal, it's good. That means you don't have a right vs left height discrepancy.

My pre-surgery numbers:  Unfortunately I do not have the accurate numbers pre-surgery, but a rough estimate (early morning time pre-surgery) was: (a) normal height on both feet: 173 cm, (b) on right: 175 cm, and (c) on left: 174 cm.

The reason my right is taller, is that I had a height discrepancy with my right tibia about 8mm taller and right femur 5mm taller. Therefore overall my right leg was 1.3cm taller!! 
I knew this from an accurate x-ray based measurement right before my surgery.

I tried to fix the femur height difference aiming for distraction on right femur by 7.5cm and on left by 8cm. When I was done with the distraction phase, Dr. M. measured my right distraction as 7.8cm (3mm longer than what I had aimed for) and left at 8cm. This means my right leg is still about 1cm taller than my left leg, mostly cause of the tibia difference.

My post-surgery numbers: As an example, a few days ago I measured my three numbers (early morning time) roughly as (a) 180 cm, (b) 182 cm  (c) 181 cm. 

This means compared to pre-surgery I have grown by 7cm so far. There is a chance I can be a bit taller, when the bent knee problem, and other posture issues do to surgery impact get resolved, but as your doctor also noted, femur is not straight, therefore there is a chance a full 8cm femur growth, made me taller by as high as 7cm only.

I thought I should share this with you and others who have not yet done the surgery, so hopefully you guys achieve two goals: 1) You would find out if you have any height mismatch between right and left and then arrange with your doctor to do distraction on right and left accordingly. 2) You would know the practical height gain from your surgery.

I hope this helps.

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lol, it´s true im 175.5cm rigth leg only, 174.5 cm left leg only and 174cm both legs, i didn´t try that haha.

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Quote from: Bushguy on November 12, 2020, 12:29:59 PMlol, it´s true im 175.5cm rigth leg only, 174.5 cm left leg only and 174cm both legs, i didn´t try that haha.

Great you tried    

I tried it whole my life, cause I knew my left leg was shorter. I told Dr. M. about it on the first visit.  He referred me to a Radiology center where they do very accurate measurement; so right before surgery I knew my left femur was shorter than right by 5mm. For the tibia (left shorter by 8mm) there is nothing I can do, cause I don't plan to do tibia surgery.  This also means my femur adjustment brought the height discrepancy from 5 (femur) + 8 (tibia) mm = 1.3 cm down to about 1 cm now, cause I grew left femur by 8cm and right femur by 7.8cm.

One question is how would a height discrepancy of say 1cm to 1.3cm affect walking, knees, etc.?  Based on my personal experience, no one could tell the difference cause it was tiny, but I felt like my shorter leg (left) was mostly under pressure while walking, so there is a chance the left knee gets more pressured than the right.

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Sorry i can´t answer that properly but i think if you only have tibias discrepancy it can be easily corrected with shoes inserts to level the knees. Sorry my english mate.

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Quote from: Bushguy on November 12, 2020, 02:50:14 PMSorry i can´t answer that properly but i think if you only have tibias discrepancy it can be easily corrected with shoes inserts to level the knees. Sorry my english mate.

Thanks a lot Bushguy! This is a great reminder! I will talk to Dr. M. about it.

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Hey man, thanks for the advice¡ I will try the one leg measure, but I do know my "normal" height, as I measure myself all the time, always at night. My normal low is like 172.6, which is not bad at all. However, if I'm really tired (like after running for 1 hour) I go down to 171.5. My goal with this surgery is to be confortably over 175 (like 176). With worse posture right after the op I hope not to be less than 1.71, so 5.5 cm should be able to achieve my goal and guarantee good recovery. I do am afraid to go trought all of this to be only like 174 lol

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Quote from: Giotikas2021 on November 12, 2020, 08:00:32 PMHey man, thanks for the advice¡ I will try the one leg measure, but I do know my "normal" height, as I measure myself all the time, always at night. My normal low is like 172.6, which is not bad at all. However, if I'm really tired (like after running for 1 hour) I go down to 171.5. My goal with this surgery is to be confortably over 175 (like 176). With worse posture right after the op I hope not to be less than 1.71, so 5.5 cm should be able to achieve my goal and guarantee good recovery. I do am afraid to go trought all of this to be only like 174 lol

Hey Giotikas2021, You are welcome!  Looking forward to seeing your successful surgery and updates.

By the way, I think Dr. Giotikas does stryde, right? why not doing stryde on femurs and getting 8cm, like in my case? Your original height is similar to mine. You would be going through the hassles and the pain; why not aiming for 180 cm, like in my case?