HelloThere's Precice 2.0 Femurs with Dr. Rozbruch (operation date 3/20/14)

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Hey HT,

How is it going? Are you home already? How is you pain management?

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Hi Sweatpants,

Things are going well.. I'm starting to move my legs without the help of my arms and my right leg is doing spectacularly. My left leg on the other hand is still hurting very badly. With spikes of 10/10 on the pain scale. Right leg is about a 0-5/10 max.

I'm now at this place we rented for the next 3 months and I'm taking 2 Norcos every 4 hours 7.5mg/325mg.

I'm going to post in your thread and see how you're doing.

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Tried going to the bathroom earlier with my brother's help... definitely one of the hardest/most painful things I've had to do so far. I'm going to try to see if I could just hold it in for a few more days, hopefully I'll be healed enough by then for it to not be as painful.

I've tried doing a little bit of weight bearing today, still painful even just standing there with the walker... however, my in-bed PT stretches are definitely paying off. My flexibility is coming back big time and I can now hug my thighs to my chest, with just a bit of pain. Legs also hurt unequally, with the left being quite painful and still a bit swollen, while my right one is barely hurting at all.

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Lengthened with the Precice 2.0 device yesterday for the first time. It wasn't painful or uncomfortable, in fact, I m couldn't tell whether the nails were lengthening or not. This morning however... Different story. All the lengthening yesterday (1.32mm) has my made legs incredibly sore today. I could barely get to the side of the bed to pee in the bottle, it was really bad. I'm laying here now, working on getting some stretches in. In about 1 hour I'll be taking my lovenox (blood thinner) and my prescribed vitamins.

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Hello,once again Hellothere
Congratulations on starting the distraction phase! How is your pain management, do you feel pain while on painkillers? I always read that the first two weeks is always the hardest so hang in there bro, days will go by quickly and you will be a taller man in no time  BTW how flexible were you pre CLL and update us on whether any prophylactic release surgeries were performed on you once you get the chance to meet Dr.Rozbruch.
Wish you all the best!!

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Hey HelloThere,

Almost a week, yeay! 

How is it going? How the lengthening, still have this soreness after?

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Thanks a lot for checking in RisingShort & Sweatpants! I really appreciate the kind words, you guys always my bring my spirits up!

Pain was really bad on the 3rd and 4th day post op. However, I emailed in and Dr. Rozbruch's assistant gave me a new prescription for Oxycontin, which I can take once every 12 hours and also combine with my Norcos. Ever since then, I've been fine and I seem to be getting a lot stronger/be able to do more things on my own.

I've been reading more diaries on old forum , as it seems that theirs are more in number and more established, since I'm thinking their forum has been around for a lot longer. I haven't really updated much here since there's nothing new going on for me.

Pain has been managed very well with the introduction of the new drug and the days are going by fairly quickly because I'm either reading, stretching, or sleeping most of the time. I'm only really sore in the mornings and after I lengthen with the Precice 2.0 device.

By end of today, I should have lengthened 4.96mm, about half a centimeter. My operation was on the 20th of this month and I started lengthening on the 24th at 1.32mm per day. Dr. Rozbruch said I'll be lengthening 1.32mm per day for four days, then dial it down to 1mm/day. I have an appt. to see him on the 3rd of April, so if things are going well, I will ask him if it'd be ok for me to continue lengthening more than 1mm like Dr. Donghoo Lee's patients are doing in Korea. If I could continue 1.32mm per day instead of 1mm per day, I'd get to finish my distracting in less than 50 days vs. 65 days.

My fear right now is that one leg my not be lengthening as much as the other or early consolidation of the bone... which would lead to another surgery. I'll keep you guys posted as anything new goes on, as well as after my appointment with the doctor on the 3rd of next month.

As for the release, I'm not sure whether he performed any on me, but I read that doing those would permanently hamper your athletic abilities by 10-15%? I'm not sure how valid it is, I only just read it in one of the old forum  diaries. I was flexible enough to keep both legs straight and touch the floor with the palm of my hand. I also did a lot of weightlifting and could squat 265lbs and do around 295lb dead lifts, so my legs were built pretty well. I'm making sure to press the Precice down down on my leg, in case my muscles are interfering with the magnet's ability to interact with the rod.

Let me know if you have any other questions! I'll be checking in on you guys in your threads as well (Rising, you won't be doing your surgery till later, right?)

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Hey,

Sounds like a normal recovery. I take oxycontin once in 12 hours as well since my first surgery, I agree it helps a lot.
I know by my first surgery and also by general statistics from all diaries and people's stories, first two weeks are really hard and pain is really strong, but after it is getting considerably better.
I was off the wheelchair by the end of the third week and was moving around with a walker. Now I am waiting for it to happen again.

Feel good!

Cheers

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Doctors are very divided on ITB releases.  Dr. Paley is a strong proponent of leg lengthening patients doing them while Guichet is very against the idea entirely.  Dr. Lee in South Korea is also against ITB releases (and the one who quoted the 10% - 15% reduction in athletic ability) but a few diaries from his patients here stated that they had lengthening complications with the a PRECICE 2.  I personally believe releases are a good thing because the soft tissues are going under immense strain when lengthening any amount.  But I'm curious to hear Dr. Rozbruch's take on it.

Btw thanks for keeping such an excellent an detailed diary so far!  Stay strong, you're in the thick of the pain right now but sooner than later the pain will seem a distant dream to you.

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@sweatpants thanks, same with you!!!

@bilateraldamage thanks for the kind words bud, I'm doing my best! I emailed him today, hopefully he'll get back to me with a detailed response, if not, I will ask him in person next week.

The pain has definitely gone down a lot on day 6 post op... I feel that by next week I should be walking around with the help of a walker. I hear a lot of people saying that weight training and stretching could increase the pain that you experience during the surgery... however, I saw that Dr. Guichet was so adamant about only taking on patients who have trained and met certain requirements that I felt that it must've been for good reason. Even if I did experience more pain, it was well worth it because I feel like I'm healing very fast, compared to a good amount of the diaries I've read. I'm also lengthening 1.32mm per day. If Dr. Rozbruch says it's ok, I'll be continuing to lengthen that amount, instead of going down to the standard 1mm that he normally recommends.

Once you do your surgery, I highly recommend asking for an extra prescription of pain killer that would complement the one that they prescribe you initially at the hospital... I think it's been a game changer for me because it allows me to really push the limits of how much I can stretch, allowing me to get back to full flexibility and build strength faster.

Please let me know if you have any questions, I can't wait to see you get started.

I apologize if my responses are redundant or don't fully make sense, I'm constantly on pain killers.