Quote from: Chenboy on July 20, 2015, 02:53:14 PMWhy do not consider Dr. Guichet .
I exchanged lot of emails with Dr. Guichet prior going to dr. Paley. He is very focused and result oriented doctor. I really like him and his patients are doing phenomenal recovery.
But, his physical therapy regiment worries me a lot. Leechlet mentioned that he had to sit on stationary bicycle for 20 minutes on second day. That is too much when your body is going through so much trauma. Eventually he stopped going to therapy. On a bright side his patients are doing very well. He can be good choice but not for me.
I also do not like the clicking mechanism for distraction. I am already on some kind of pain and stifneess. If I have to click for distraction it sure will add more frustration.
Fitbone Stage Right Tibia Lenghtening (Dr. Monegal), Barcelona, Spain
July 20th: I was discharged from hospital. Dr. Monegal texted me if I need ride to MIC. He has surgery schedule at nearby Barcelona hospital. I respectfully accepted it.
Came to MIC. There are three other patients. Musicmaker, a male from US and teenager male from Spain. I talked to all of them and feel good. We have so much in common. The best part is we can talk everything about height, pain, fake stories we are telling to our friends and family to be here. It is awesome!!! Telling you guys having community while doing this process helps a lot. If I were all alone I will have gone loco (crazy) by now.
I slept about few hours and then went to Italian restaurant across from MIC. I was so happy to be outside hospital and wanted to give myself a treat. I had nice steak and few beers and had a good night sleep. I slept about 8 hours FIRST TIME after the surgery. Few stiffness and had to change the position but it was mostly interrupted. However, I had to go bathroom four or five times. The beer and water belly up my bladder pretty well 
I also give a list of item to buy from supermarket. I have some snacks, milk, fruits in refrigerator. Also asked them to fill the prescription for me. Everything taking care of!
I will do my FIRST DISTRACTION today. Dr. Monegal will drop by later and we are planning on doing together.
Quote from: Cooper on July 21, 2015, 09:28:13 AMI exchanged lot of emails with Dr. Guichet prior going to dr. Paley. He is very focused and result oriented doctor. I really like him and his patients are doing phenomenal recovery.
But, his physical therapy regiment worries me a lot. Leechlet mentioned that he had to sit on stationary bicycle for 20 minutes on second day. That is too much when your body is going through so much trauma. Eventually he stopped going to therapy. On a bright side his patients are doing very well. He can be good choice but not for me.
I also do not like the clicking mechanism for distraction. I am already on some kind of pain and stifneess. If I have to click for distraction it sure will add more frustration.
Please don't look at Leechlet as an example. He was a terrible patient. Guichet had me on the bike literally as I was waking up from the surgery. The first thing I remember when I came to, I was on the bike, and Guichet was yelling "Get him a coke, he neegs sugar!" Guichet is definitely tough, but that's actually one of the reasons I chose him. I wanted a drill sargeant as my doctor to keep me in line. He's also very conservative, and had me stop at 7cm when I actually wanted a bit more.
Clicking does blow (especially towards the end, it gets ultra painful!), but at least clicking guarantees that you're actually lengthening. I think Precice and Fitbone are great, but I think they sometimes don't always give you what you're lengthening due to muscles (especially for muscular guys) providing a ton of resistance. I've only heard of a few instances of this, but it does seem to happen.
Quote from: YellowSpike on July 21, 2015, 01:58:05 PMPlease don't look at Leechlet as an example. He was a terrible patient. Guichet had me on the bike literally as I was waking up from the surgery. The first thing I remember when I came to, I was on the bike, and Guichet was yelling "Get him a coke, he neegs sugar!" Guichet is definitely tough, but that's actually one of the reasons I chose him. I wanted a drill sargeant as my doctor to keep me in line. He's also very conservative, and had me stop at 7cm when I actually wanted a bit more.
Clicking does blow (especially towards the end, it gets ultra painful!), but at least clicking guarantees that you're actually lengthening. I think Precice and Fitbone are great, but I think they sometimes don't always give you what you're lengthening due to muscles (especially for muscular guys) providing a ton of resistance. I've only heard of a few instances of this, but it does seem to happen.
I agree dr. Guichet is top LL surgeon. No doubt. Patients are doing remarkably well with him. He is been in the industry for long time.
I am not fan of clicking and see lot of patients of dr. Betz struggling with clicking. Read some of the patient even had to go anesthetic clicking. I waited for precise2 to come out so I can have painless distraction. It's a choice I made. I still prefer non clicking mechanism for distraction. It is just the matter of preference. We can agree to disagree 
You are also correct either precise or fitbone may not able to distract due to muscle tightness. These devices can only withhold some level of resistence and can give up after 6.5/7cm. My left leg did not distract after 6.5cm. I wanted to go 7cm but we did not push it. I could have tried and may have worded out but again I accepted what I gained. Another patient wanted to go 8cm but did not buzz after 7cm.
Just to reiterate I have nothing but highest respect to dr. Guichet. We need more conservative doctor like him 
.
Here is the x-ray taken in second day. The nail and screw looks solid. Dr. Monegal also fixated tibia/fibula in angular like dr. Paley or dr. Rozbruch.
http://www.turboimagehost.com/p/23633217/X-Ray_Post_Op_Second_Day.jpg.html
Quote from: Cooper on July 21, 2015, 09:15:14 AMI recommend doing internal if possible. But if the budget issue than LON will be fine. The hardest part of this surgery is keeping secret and not telling anyone. I need to make up story when I get home so folks does not flip out when they see me in crutches. In addition, I need to come back here 3 months and do another leg. I am looking for compelling story so I can shut everyone with one story. If you guys have any idea please pitch in.
Hi Cooper, regarding your Topic about what to tell your friends etc I wanted to share my thoughts and recent experience.
I hesitated to do LL for a long time also because I was afraid to tell anyone, friends, parents,...
I almost didnt do it for that reason.
Now that I have the Situation is much different than I thought. I decided not to tell anyone before but be honest afterwards. So I told my Friends that I had this big Dream for a Long Time, Wartung to be taller, and that I now fuLL Forumill this dream and that I am very happy about it.
People are confused at First but get used to it very quickly, ask questions about LL and offer their help if needed.
10 out of 10 positive reactions. I think its Important to be honest first with yourself and then with the people who matter around you. Who cares what others think or talk als long als you have your Important friends and family behind you.
I hated to lie for so many months and it feels Great not to have the need now. I Talk about LL with everbody as if it would be a normal knee surgery or something like that. Its just the news that shocks People not the surgery or the LL itself I feel.
So my idea would be not to lie at all. Its easier than you might think or feel at the Moment...
Hey cooper I am curious to know what Dr Monegal thinks of your femur lengthening with Paley. There were a few topics on the forum a couple of months ago talking about how internal femur by lengthening along the anatomical axis caused malalignment. Dr Monegal then wrote that his reverse planning method avoiding this malalignment particularly when using fitbone.
I assume that the device isn't important and that the reverse planning of femurs could have been done with Precise.
Hi Aturro- thanks for some food for thoughts. My friends and family are very close tight and some of them not open minded. I particularly not worried what other think. I might tell the the exact truth as you suggested. Having that discussion is so personal I have not told my siblings either. The difficult part is opening the dialogue.
I think this time there will not be any easy escape. All of sudden I am much teller again. On the first one I told them I was hitting gym and lost lot of weights. Some of them were raising eyebrows when the see first time after the surgery.
Quote from: theuprising on July 22, 2015, 06:41:21 AMHey cooper I am curious to know what Dr Monegal thinks of your femur lengthening with Paley. There were a few topics on the forum a couple of months ago talking about how internal femur by lengthening along the anatomical axis caused malalignment. Dr Monegal then wrote that his reverse planning method avoiding this malalignment particularly when using fitbone.
I assume that the device isn't important and that the reverse planning of femurs could have been done with Precise.
I will check with him and get back to you.
Day 8:
I had little trouble sleeping last night. Wake up at 3am with stiffness and took paracetamol and that put me sleep till 7:30. Doctor prescribed me 3 pain level medicine: 1) Tramadol (strongest) 2) Nolotil (second strongest) 3) Paracetamol (mild).
First PT Session:
I had PT session at 8am. All the good schedule were taken so I took only available slot at 8am. Claudio (Physical Therapist) came to my room and we took elevator to little gym. This was the first time I really had a nice stretch after the surgery. My god I felt AWESOME! It was huge turning point 
He joked he got magic hands and I said you have million dollar hands . He is really good and I really like him. PT is the single most important stuff after the surgery. In West Palm Beach, they used to say anyone can do the surgery but post care is what makes difference. That is physical therapy, complication, pain management and care.
I came to my room felt really good. I took Nolotil and slept till 12PM. Took a nice shower and ready to start my day. Overall feeling better today. I think Claudio made my day
You must be logged in to post a reply.