Posted on Aug 13, 2022, 10:17 am
#1
Hi Everyone,
I've been reading pretty much all of you in this forum since I decided to jump in and book my surgery and I must thank each and everyone of you who posted their experiences, the details of PT, surgery, hospitals, doctors. You've been an incredible source of information.
Also a big shout out to Vic from @Cyborg4Life. He is th hero among us and deserves all the success he can get.
In about 2 weeks time (Aug 24th) I'll go for a bilateral femoral lengthening through G-Nail with Dr. Giotikas in Athens.
I have explored various options before this but the combination of being a weight bearing nail (although with a gruesome ratcheting mechanism lol), the package that Dr. G. offers (they include full PT in the cost... that's quite good), his reputation and overall the "vibe" of competence that I got in my 1 hour consultation with him convinced me that he is the right option. Ah.. and the location. You can't beat Greece in summertime.
I'll be staying at the Novotel in Athens, which is the closest hotel to the PT centre with all the amenities i was looking for (gym, pool, various restaurants...big breakfast...). If anyone is staying there too, please reach out and we can grab a few drinks together.
I thought I start this diary to share my experience, the goods, the bads... the ugly (hopefully not) and the achievements and get in return some much needed support from people that understand what most of us are driven from when going through this.
A bit of background. 38 years old, 164cm, 64Kg caucasian male. Live in Australia with my wife and an amazing kid (the real pain here is to leave him for about 2 months but my wife has been supportive of this from day one. Nobody else knows about this. Not my family not my friends. This is a solo journey and I'm lucky I can actually afford it (money and time).
About my current build... I'm fairly athletic and in good shape. Use to go hard-core to crossfit gym until 6-7 months ago when I literally stopped doing lower body hypertrophy sessions and only concentrated on stretching.
I still kept my upper body routine somewhat but just in order to.. maintain. I believe that will help heaps during lengthening to be able to move around. I did lose a lot of cardio stamina though as i havent been going to classes sonce then.
On the other hand, my flexibility gains have been quite satisfying. I'm at a point where as far as hamstrings go, I can easily go palms to ground with my elbow bended somewhat. On the hip flexor side, I can't quite gauge how flexible they are but I've been concentrating most of my efforts on those recently as I understand and I feel they will be key to success and are notoriously harder to stretch than the hammies.
What are my goals?
Well, I set myself a 3 tiered goal. I'd like to aim at a minimum of 7cm as tier1, which will make me happy as ill get closer to average (and with shoes i should reach close to 175cm), but if I feel good the ideal goal would be between 8-9cm.
If then things progress better than I expect (Im not holding my breadth here) I would venture the double digit goal as my ultimate target. Yes I understand this is risky and all that and I do appreciate everyone providing comments to other patient to don't risk a healthy body for an extra cm. I'll see how thing go and follow the Doctor's and PT's advise when I'm there.
Other than this, I hope I can manage to squeeze in some trip around Athens as I believe this time of the year the weather should be awesome (I like hot sweaty climates).
Anyway, hope to be able to provide insights that will help other prospective patients, do don't shy away from questions.
Cheers
OzBoy
I've been reading pretty much all of you in this forum since I decided to jump in and book my surgery and I must thank each and everyone of you who posted their experiences, the details of PT, surgery, hospitals, doctors. You've been an incredible source of information.
Also a big shout out to Vic from @Cyborg4Life. He is th hero among us and deserves all the success he can get.
In about 2 weeks time (Aug 24th) I'll go for a bilateral femoral lengthening through G-Nail with Dr. Giotikas in Athens.
I have explored various options before this but the combination of being a weight bearing nail (although with a gruesome ratcheting mechanism lol), the package that Dr. G. offers (they include full PT in the cost... that's quite good), his reputation and overall the "vibe" of competence that I got in my 1 hour consultation with him convinced me that he is the right option. Ah.. and the location. You can't beat Greece in summertime.
I'll be staying at the Novotel in Athens, which is the closest hotel to the PT centre with all the amenities i was looking for (gym, pool, various restaurants...big breakfast...). If anyone is staying there too, please reach out and we can grab a few drinks together.
I thought I start this diary to share my experience, the goods, the bads... the ugly (hopefully not) and the achievements and get in return some much needed support from people that understand what most of us are driven from when going through this.
A bit of background. 38 years old, 164cm, 64Kg caucasian male. Live in Australia with my wife and an amazing kid (the real pain here is to leave him for about 2 months but my wife has been supportive of this from day one. Nobody else knows about this. Not my family not my friends. This is a solo journey and I'm lucky I can actually afford it (money and time).
About my current build... I'm fairly athletic and in good shape. Use to go hard-core to crossfit gym until 6-7 months ago when I literally stopped doing lower body hypertrophy sessions and only concentrated on stretching.
I still kept my upper body routine somewhat but just in order to.. maintain. I believe that will help heaps during lengthening to be able to move around. I did lose a lot of cardio stamina though as i havent been going to classes sonce then.
On the other hand, my flexibility gains have been quite satisfying. I'm at a point where as far as hamstrings go, I can easily go palms to ground with my elbow bended somewhat. On the hip flexor side, I can't quite gauge how flexible they are but I've been concentrating most of my efforts on those recently as I understand and I feel they will be key to success and are notoriously harder to stretch than the hammies.
What are my goals?
Well, I set myself a 3 tiered goal. I'd like to aim at a minimum of 7cm as tier1, which will make me happy as ill get closer to average (and with shoes i should reach close to 175cm), but if I feel good the ideal goal would be between 8-9cm.
If then things progress better than I expect (Im not holding my breadth here) I would venture the double digit goal as my ultimate target. Yes I understand this is risky and all that and I do appreciate everyone providing comments to other patient to don't risk a healthy body for an extra cm. I'll see how thing go and follow the Doctor's and PT's advise when I'm there.
Other than this, I hope I can manage to squeeze in some trip around Athens as I believe this time of the year the weather should be awesome (I like hot sweaty climates).
Anyway, hope to be able to provide insights that will help other prospective patients, do don't shy away from questions.
Cheers
OzBoy