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
G-Nail on femurs in Greece on Aug24th. Let's do this!!!
Thanks @ilovescience.
Yeah definitely not "the" shortest, but I'd say within the bottom 3-5 percentile.
Let's see if we can reach the dream of getting to somewhere around the 45th percentile at 173cm.
Hey Thankscience
It was 200 euro if I remember correct. This was after the free 15 mins consult.
We discussed pretty much everything I wanted to clarify. Dr. G gave me a thorough review of the process pre, during and post op. Explained the risks in details and answered all the questions I had. We also went through my background and lifestyle to assess potential habits to change before the ops.
About the Novotel, it is definitely more expensive than the Montaza, but I had the chance to pay it through my frequent flyer points (due to Covid I kept accumulating so many points that pretty much I spent 0 cash at Novotel for 2 months... Super sweet deal. They didn't have the Montaza as an option. The Hyatt instead was fully booked until Nov 10).
That was pretty much it
Hi Infinite.
Thank you man.
Yeah I would have definitely preferred staying at the Montaza and or the Hyatt (although this last one for this period is super expensive even with the discount offered).
But I had this deal that I can pay the hotel with frequent flyer points that I accumulated during Covid and the Montaza wasn't among the options. The Hyatt is fully booked until Sep10.
Regarding the non-union, I understood from him that is a rare circumstance in limb lengthening, and something a patient and his doctor need to be on top of (ahead of the game) through monitoring with x-rays, excercise, nutrition and supplementation. If non union starts to develop, the first option is to slow down the lengthening and if it becomes a chronic condition... Down the surgery path again you go.
The G-nail as we know is a non reversible nail so ... Not much you can do in terms of compression.
I haven't spoken directly to any other patient. And I believe by reading and watching pretty much any testimonial out there that
1- it is possible to go back to a perfectly normal life
2- I think you definitely will have reduced performance in sports activities with limitations that will most likely impact thongs like jumping, explosive burst from your legs and similar motions.
Me personally, I'm almost in my 40s. Not chasing any Olympic dream anymore, so as long as I can regain my mobility/flexibility (which now btw is definitely above average due to all the stretching I'm doing😂) to be able to perform simple sporting activities, I'd be super happy then.
Having to continue stretching forever... If that's a thong, it's definitely not a problem. I love this routine of stretching your body out and after you get somewhat good at it, you sort of crave it, it's a relaxing part of my day.
Last about Dr G. Splitting his time between Athens and the UK. Yeah there's that, but again from what I understand, most patients see their doctors every few weeks or even months. If some complications arise that require medical attentions, if it's life threatening I'm assuming it's not going to be dr G only to take care of it. There will be a team of professional within the Mediterraneo hospital that will take care of whatever comes up.
No problems at all.
Yeah I'm honestly not too sure about his schedule. I might have asked at the time of the consultation but can't remember now.
I looked quite a lot into travel insurances. I got myself one middle tier for about 300$, BUT they clearly state, like all other insurances, that they do not cover for any medical claim related to a condition that... It's the reason for the trip overseas. So I'm not really sure how useful it'll be. But for 300$, at least I'm covered if I damage my phone or laptop or for some delays and those usual things they cover.
Stretches... I followed these 2 channels on YouTube
- Tom Merrick
- Strength Side
I started doing their follow along routines and then adjusted and mixed up excercises with the ones I found most effective to me.
The routines from Tom are super relaxing. Nice music flowing in background and overall a nice Zen time before bed. Strength side added a few very intense stretches (hams and hip flexors) which are my favourite now.
Check the link here
They are pretty intense though! It takes a while to start enjoying them depending on your starting range of motion.
Yes that would be ideal, but there's always trade offs.
I am ok with it.
Regarding the "going down the surgery way again" that was related to the non union. Ultimately the worst case to fix that is to intervene surgically again.
Thank You! I'll keep my finger crossed (and legs too. It help with stretching the IT bands 
)
Quote from: SpeedDialer on August 18, 2022, 05:23:10 PMBy chance do you have the official website or email for Novotel? Having trouble finding their official website from a google search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=novotel+athens+greece&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS900US900&oq=novotel+athens+greece&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j0i22i30.2667j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Not sure how Novotel is and how it compares to Montaza. I'll let you know when I arrive there. It's definitely a higher tier and its an international chain with pretty decent standards so I'm expecting it to be good.
In regards to nursing I'm gonna have to pay extra I believe.. But since I sort of gotten the hotel with no cash expenditure, then it's ok for me.
Then from Novotel to the PT centre in Peristeri it's a 11min taxi or Uber ride. Uber gives me about 7-8 Euro per trip, so that's another expense to keep in mind.
Novotel website should be this one below
https://all.accor.com/hotel/0866/index.en.crapml#:~:text=The%204%2Dstar%2C%20Novotel%20Athens,%2C%20Monastiraki%2C%20Psiri%2C%20Acropolis.
I'll keep my fingers crossed I don't make that list.
Good luck with your betzbone. Keep updating like you did in your diary.
All the best
I haven't checked in a while. I think I paid around 51 or 52K euro if I remember correct. It was the exact amount advertised on the website a few months ago.
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