Quote from: KiloKAHN on February 10, 2015, 07:57:31 PMPeople who do internal femurs seem to recover significantly quicker in terms of being able to walk pretty normally compared to those who get their tibias lengthened. That's great you're walking with a walking stick already.
Also noticed this, could it have something to do with muscle tightness?
I think that has something to do with it. Although I can get both feet on the ground now my calves are still very tight. It might have something to do with balance, too. I'm able to stand as long as I want with my back against the wall but otherwise I constantly feel like I'm going to fall over and hit the ground if I don't hold on to my walker firmly.
Does your balance feel similar to, say, standing on your toes or wearing platform shoes (if you ever did)?
Yep. It feels as though I'm tiptoeing forward even when my feet are completely neutral.
Quote from: KiloKAHN on February 10, 2015, 08:42:31 PMYep. It feels as though I'm tiptoeing forward even when my feet are completely neutral.
Right, well that's to be expected honestly as you've gained height in the lowest part of your body while not gaining width anywhere else. I don't know if it'll pass or not, you'll probably adapt but MDoW said he still can feel a bit wingly sometimes.
I get the same kind of muscle tightness you describe when I go hiking in the spring, because my muscles are stale from not being used as much during winter. It always goes away after exercises and stretches, sometimes it only takes a day and sometimes it takes months but it always goes away, don't worry about it.
I think it's probably true that femurs are better for post-surgical balance and faster recovery. You've got a lot of muscles up there completely surrounding the femur that can stretch and support the new length, compared to the few smaller ones on the lower part of the leg.
I think if you can afford it you should probably go for internal femurs. But I would've been middle aged before I could've afforded it, and this way I've been enjoying being 5'10 since I was 25. This was actually one of the arguments Dr. Roger Li made when addressing concerns about the run-down Guang Ji Hospital - that they wanted to make the surgery affordable for young people and had to make sacrifices. He used himself as an example, saying he was already established in his career and married, so there was no reason for him to get LL at his age.
MDoW If the cons of having longer tibias is bad balance and muscle tightness, what are the drawbacks of having relatively long femurs?
Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing. I just know my experience with elongated tibiae. Maybe there are drawbacks of doing femurs that I'm not aware of, but no femur patients seem to be talking about any of it on here.
Its actually been like 6 months for me. I think the combination of going there alone and therefore not having as ideal stretching and whatever the pain in my left leg was, set me back a little.
Quote from: programdude on February 11, 2015, 01:07:06 AMIts actually been like 6 months for me. I think the combination of going there alone and therefore not having as ideal stretching and whatever the pain in my left leg was, set me back a little.
There's a lesson for all of us, then.
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