Growth.Journey - Femur lengthening w Betz - Sep 2022

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Growth.Journey:
I read another discussion about mechanical nail like Betzbone. Before doing the clicking, the guy covered himself with hot water in a bath tub, it takes him 10 minutes for the muscles to loosen in order to make the click.

See the video at 1:19

"I wonder if it’s something wrong with the nail". If you don't mind, Could you upload your x-ray

Sorry for my bad English. It's not my first language

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Thank you Lim lengthening warrior this is great advice I think the bath is a great tip I’m at I’m still at the hospital so there is no bath available but when I get back to my home country I will definitely be having a lot of baths to get around this at the hospital I’ve been having a lot of showers like three or four per day because the warm water really loosens up the muscles I always have a warm shower before I do my my clicks.

As an update on my clicking I think I’ve found a technique that works for me finally after so much trial and error the bad technique that Danny teaches it’s okay but it didn’t work super well for me because I had to try so many different positions and twist my knee a lot and shift my body weight around that it didn’t hurt in of itself but the fact that I had to try semi positions to find the click which was really difficult for me meant that my muscles were sore my knee was sore etc so I found a much better technique for me was the one that gets his straight to the motion that you need for the click and for me that is the one in Betz videos which is the one where you are lying down you have your foot in the air and you’re holding one your left hand is holding your ankle or your shin and your right hand is holding any and then you slowly twist the lower leg outward  until you feel a click.

I thought this motion would be very uncomfortable and it is it feels quite a natural but as I said before I get you to the the the motion straight away so if you don’t feel pain from your muscles then it’s a great technique now I did this and I have my left leg I was able to get a click really really easy and then I did 20 clicks in like less than five minutes it was amazing I was so happy so relieved unfortunately my right leg I was still having a lot of problems the technique originally didn’t work for me on my right leg I couldn’t get the bed technique to work on my right leg I had done 10 clicks today using the Danny method on the bed but it was now 3 pm and I hadn’t finished the rest of my 10 clicks cause I’ve been busy at like the gym and getting x-rays and other things and I was feeling very stressed out.

The issue is for whatever reason my right leg in order to get the click requires almost a 90° twist where is my left leg only requires like a 45 or 50 maybe 60° twist which is much easier I can twist my right leg 6070° but as soon as you start going more than that it becomes my muscles my muscles start feeling stretched in fact I pulled my quad trying to get the click it was very difficult painful frustrating and scary. What if I couldn’t click. So then in desperation I tried a slightly different technique I put the bed all the way down so I was lying on my back and I put my stretch band around my knee and held up my leg so it was dangling in the air so that way I could just focus on the twisting motion this is a great tip it really allows you to focus on the angle arm  and I finally did it I got to the point of basically pain or uncomfort and I kept pushing and pushing and pushing and finally I got the click I was such a big relief it’s really uncomfortable process but at least I know I can do it now and I have a technique that works which is a huge huge relief for me but yeah clicking is a really really unpleasant process I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone but unfortunately we have to do it magnetism causes corrosion as we know from other devices so if you want to live in length and this is what you have to do  the whole time I was doing it I was thinking of my girlfriend at home I said I’m doing this for you I don’t wanna be stuck here in this other country I want to come home to you I’m gonna fight through this I’m gonna do it for you and I did it so this is a huge relief for me to end the day and gives me confidence that I finally have a solution.

Apologies for any spelling mistakes above I am using my voice typing tool.

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Your journey is so Inspiring!

I am so glad you found the right technique! How do you know if you're not pushing too much to bend / break something? But what a relief it must be. Where is the pain coming from exactly, and how bad is it out of ten?

Did you get an ITB release with Dr Betz? Was this ITB release the same as any other ITB release? I heard ITB release should cause major relief of any pain.

You are already doing so well. My Surgery will be sometime next year, and i am so nervous, but Dr Betz is a good man, and i trust him personally. He is utterly passionate in what he does, and the team around him are fantastic.

His stadiometer i think might be 1-2cm less in measuring. If you are 173cm and measured 171, it's likely the stadiometer. I also had a bit of a shock as i have obsessively measured and hit at least 174/174.5cm evening height (12 hours after waking/walking around etc) but it measured me at 173cm!

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Hi Growthjourney,

Great to hear that you find that twisting technique working. I had a very similar story with clicking where with the initial "conventional" technique it was hard to find the click.

One piece of advice that helped me tremendously to achieve a super easy clicking.

So, when I started this technique with the leg dangling, I was still having to twist one leg (the left one for me) almost 90 degrees before the click. It was doable but that put some strain on my knee.

Since then, because the right leg instead required perhaps 30degrees to click, I thought... These nails aren't dissimilar in design. If one is 30 degrees the other must be the same.

So i actually noticed that because of the angle of the lower part of my leg, the 90 degree rotation of the lower leg weren't translating to a 90 degree rotation of the "lower part of the quad" leg  which is the one that twists. Do you get what I mean?

My lower leg was yes twisting a lot, but because the angle compared to my lower leg was big (like 100 or 110 degrees i estimate), and because I wasn't actually squared to the portion of the leg above the knee which is the one attached to the rotator part of the nail, it then required the much angle in order to click.

If you want t try something, next time you click, look at your femur, hold your lower leg at about 90 degrees and start twisting gently.

Notice how the quad rotates. Picture the nail inside your femur and make sure that "the portion of leg right above the knee" is actually rotating around the femur axis. You can get a sense of that if you look at the quad while doing it. Adjust both segments of your leg as you see (feel) necessary

See if it works. It helped me basically bring back the rotation to soemthing that looks like 30 degrees. Not even 45.

Cheers

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Six foot and a half:

- good luck for your surgery next year
- I was worried like you at the beginning of breaking the nail or a screw but once you are actually walking around on it and you see how strong it is I’m not really worried. When you are stretching at extreme angles I think the main concern is pulling a muscle but fortunately i have only done that once so far, it clicks before you get there (but past the point of comfort)
- betz does soft iT band release which is basically making small cuts in itb. He does this for all new patients , I think it is a new thing, because every patient asked him for it. I’m glad I got it but not sure it is the same as a full it band release or not.
- betz is very passionate and good but he will appear very caring in the interview but you won’t hear from him much after that. You will get responses from Dani and Becker (thouhh I still haven’t met Becker)
- you might be right about stadiometer, or alternatively maybe other measures are overstating height. Either way there are too many caveats like night / morning, shoes no shoes, whether you are standing up straight, how close your legs are together and how the user is measuring the height ie are they pushing it down on your head.
- it has been a tough process so far, hope you are mentally ready.

OZboy:
- hope your journey is going well for you. How many cm now?
- thanks for your advice on clicking, it is much appreciated. I think I kind of understand but just to make sure, are you saying that the extreme rotation of the tibia is because I am not rotating the knee/ lower femur enough? For example on the right leg I should focus on trying to gently pull the knee inwards at the same time as the tibia rotation and therefore this will mean less rotation of tibia is actually required to achieve the click?
- thanks for your help
-

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Quote from: Growth.journey on October 06, 2022, 02:15:32 PM
OZboy:
- hope your journey is going well for you. How many cm now?
- thanks for your advice on clicking, it is much appreciated. I think I kind of understand but just to make sure, are you saying that the extreme rotation of the tibia is because I am not rotating the knee/ lower femur enough? For example on the right leg I should focus on trying to gently pull the knee inwards at the same time as the tibia rotation and therefore this will mean less rotation of tibia is actually required to achieve the click?
- thanks for your help
-

Hey GrowthJourney,
All good overall here through many ups and downs. I'm today at 4cms.

Regarding your question. Yes, exactly as you said. I use the knee as a reference.. as a pivot.point and yes I use my opposite leg ony knew to try and keep that pivot point "aligned" with the femur to achieve proper rotation. Harder to explain in words than doing it but I think you got the gist. Try it out see if it helps.
And yes to me it meant much less rotation. I eyeball 30ndegrees roughly.

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Fully agree that hell on earth is called clicking. It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, no exaggeration. I'm 2 and a half months post op and I truly regret it. Everyday is a horror movie because I know I have to click. Clicking hasn't given me a day's rest since August. On top of that, I have wide legs, my walk is  , my sleep is  , my mood is  , all my other stuff on the side are suffering because of this too (work and etc). Not to mention I'm 70k poorer too. If this clicking hell and the horrible walk aren't enough, don't forget you have to stretch 3-5 hours a day. I thought it would be terrible but not this terrible. Everytime I go outside, I'm hoping a car smashes me on the pavement to save me from all of this. To anyone reading this and contemplating LL, don't do it. Height insoles, boots, whatever. Don't put yourself through this medieval torture where every second is hell. Before doing it, I was seeing these people advising others it's not worth it and thinking to myself ''yeah whatever as if I can't endure a few months of pain''. Now I'm being punished for my stupidity. Good luck to the poster and hope he has it better than me because even as the pessimist I am, I could have never imagined it going so badly.

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Keep going man!  I went with Betz in June

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Quote from: djimbo9 on October 09, 2022, 08:59:33 PMFully agree that hell on earth is called clicking. It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, no exaggeration. I'm 2 and a half months post op and I truly regret it. Everyday is a horror movie because I know I have to click. Clicking hasn't given me a day's rest since August. On top of that, I have wide legs, my walk is  , my sleep is  , my mood is  , all my other stuff on the side are suffering because of this too (work and etc). Not to mention I'm 70k poorer too. If this clicking hell and the horrible walk aren't enough, don't forget you have to stretch 3-5 hours a day. I thought it would be terrible but not this terrible. Everytime I go outside, I'm hoping a car smashes me on the pavement to save me from all of this. To anyone reading this and contemplating LL, don't do it. Height insoles, boots, whatever. Don't put yourself through this medieval torture where every second is hell. Before doing it, I was seeing these people advising others it's not worth it and thinking to myself ''yeah whatever as if I can't endure a few months of pain''. Now I'm being punished for my stupidity. Good luck to the poster and hope he has it better than me because even as the pessimist I am, I could have never imagined it going so badly.
I believe you went home early though during the lengthening period, so it would be more difficult for you

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Quote from: djimbo9 on October 09, 2022, 08:59:33 PMFully agree that hell on earth is called clicking. It's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, no exaggeration. I'm 2 and a half months post op and I truly regret it. Everyday is a horror movie because I know I have to click. Clicking hasn't given me a day's rest since August. On top of that, I have wide legs, my walk is  , my sleep is  , my mood is  , all my other stuff on the side are suffering because of this too (work and etc). Not to mention I'm 70k poorer too. If this clicking hell and the horrible walk aren't enough, don't forget you have to stretch 3-5 hours a day. I thought it would be terrible but not this terrible. Everytime I go outside, I'm hoping a car smashes me on the pavement to save me from all of this. To anyone reading this and contemplating LL, don't do it. Height insoles, boots, whatever. Don't put yourself through this medieval torture where every second is hell. Before doing it, I was seeing these people advising others it's not worth it and thinking to myself ''yeah whatever as if I can't endure a few months of pain''. Now I'm being punished for my stupidity. Good luck to the poster and hope he has it better than me because even as the pessimist I am, I could have never imagined it going so badly.

Did you get a soft , or a proper ITB release?