Quote from: uponly on February 15, 2023, 06:29:45 PMIn day 9 post-surgery (Precise 2.2), here are my thoughts on pain.
Yes, it is absolutely painful to the point of excruciating. I passed out from the pain once in the hospital. I know others who have. The first week is absolute hell in terms of pain. I have been severely injured before, with high levels of pain. Nothing like this. The second and third day after surgery are the worst, when the anesthesia and/or nerve block wear off. There aren't enough opioids in the world that second day for you to not feel pain, the best you can hope for is a pain level that's tolerable enough so you can make it through.
No Dr. worth their salt will lie to you about this. Every Dr. I consulted with said there would be a lot of pain at the beginning. They also said the pain can be managed. I am also finding this to be true. Thus far, during the second week, the pain hovers at about 4-6 for me, with some exceptions, and it can be managed with prescription meds, the proper amount of rest, PT to strengthen muscles and regain motion, etc.
Sleep is your absolute best friend for pain, and everything else during this procedure. I'm cutting my days in half, napping during the day, trying to get 10 hours of sleep at night, etc. When it works, I get a natural 2 digit drop in pain the next day.
Thus far, I have found this video by cyborg4life to be a dead to rights accurate representation of my own experience with pain. I hope you find it useful.
Good video.
Yeah if you ask the Drs. about pain they usually say something around the lines of "its painful but manageable with meds"
During the first week or so, what percent of the time would you consider the pain manageable? When you were lying still, staring at the ceiling was the pain bad or manageable then, or only when you tried to move or do PT? And I'd assume the pain would be much worse at night, would you agree?
Is this surgery really excruciatingly painful?
Quote from: stretched on February 14, 2023, 11:36:40 PMHello lads,
So probably one of the most debated topics here is how painful this procedure is. Pain is of course going to vary from individual, but at the end of the day if all other factors are equal (Dr skill, meds, etc) there should at least be some agreement on how much pain one can expect from this procedure.
Now first, I think everyone can agree that externals are more painful, especially on femurs. You gotta really hate yourself to do LON on your femurs.
I have a few friends who work in emergency medicine and they all say that there's no way a controlled breakage of the bone by a Dr. is going to cause excruciating pain (but it will still of course hurt), and not nearly as much pain as breaking a bone due to a car accident, and even so, once you get a ton of pain meds the pain becomes manageable after a while. What they did say though was PT and having to sit in bed for weeks is going to suck.
Anyways, to those who did internal nails with a reputable Dr, was this procedure more or less painful than you expected? Was it really painful to the point to where you were passing out as some users on the forum have suggested or was it more moderate and annoying? And how long was everyone on opioids for.
NOT really if u lengthen slow tbh, i did LON and didnt have much pain in my right leg bc i lengthened v slow, but my butcher dr made me lengthen my left leg at 1.25 mm / day so i still have nerve pain from that , not to mention he also cut a subcutaneous nerve during achilles lengthening, i had to get nerve repair surgery. nerve pain is the worst. not the bone breaking pain. just lengthen slow and ull breeze through.
QuoteGood video.
Yeah if you ask the Drs. about pain they usually say something around the lines of "its painful but manageable with meds"
During the first week or so, what percent of the time would you consider the pain manageable? When you were lying still, staring at the ceiling was the pain bad or manageable then, or only when you tried to move or do PT? And I'd assume the pain would be much worse at night, would you agree?
Day after surgery there was some pain no matter what I did. Everyone in the hospital unilaterally told (warned me) that day after surgery would be the worst. As I immediately went to Dilaudid 4 mg and muscle relaxers, I brought it under control in a day.
During the first week, the pain is absolutely worse when you move. If you lie still for too long, you just get stiff and sore, you can stretch out a bit and you're fine. Pivoting out of bed and transitioning to the wheelchair, for instance, takes the pain from a balmy 3 to a pretty sh*tty 7. Transitioning from wheelchair to the toilet shoots it up to a 9. Going back to wheelchair and getting back in bed can spike it to a 10 but by that point you're too exhausted to care.
(the action sequence above took me 30 minutes total to perform in the hospital, and by the time I got in bed I didn't have an ounce of strength left).
I think the pain was/is manageable pretty much most of the time with the exception of the first and second day after surgery. You are just going to hurt. In my case, I wanted nothing to do with opioids going in, and labored under the happy delusion that the Tylenol and muscle relaxers would be enough. They could not give me Dilaudid fast enough.
At this point, pain is still worse with movement, which is why the doctor doesn't really want you moving. I'm managing it with a prescription NSAID from the hospital, Tylenol, Turmeric gummies and muscle relaxer as needed. I haven't taken opioids in two days. I added IcyHot to the mix and that's helping a lot.
Ease into PT. Aggressive PT makes it worse. I worked up to what I'm doing now and it's probably short of the full hour, but I'm listening to my body and what I'm doing is working.
At night: Pain isn't worse at night, but I wake up from muscles getting sore. I move around a bit and go back to sleep.
Yea it’s pretty painful and also extremely exhausting. Sleep deprivation will make you feel how it was like living in a labourer camp 
.
First off all there are two types of pain associated with LL:
1. surgery trauma pain: maxes out at 2-3 days after surgery and residually goes down till 2-3 weeks post surgery
2. lengthening pain: usually after a couple of cms
My experience: I had 3 separate ll surgeries (precise 2) in total, so I have a decent representation of what the pain was like.
- First few days were a 6/10, with pain medication not too bad.
- After 1-2 weeks I was able to sleep decently (5-6 hours).
- After 3 weeks barely no pain anymore.
- After 4 weeks no more pain meds were needed
Lengthening pain is pretty mild if you lengthen conservatively and slowly.
Honestly I think a lot of people here tend to exaggerate their pain experience for some reasons. If youre on opiods for the first 1-3 weeks, its usually not THAT bad.
Quote from: oklama on February 16, 2023, 06:05:51 AMI really think people on here play it up a bit but im sure it could be incredibly painful at times especially toward the beginning. but I dont expect it to be something you couldn't deal with unless your doing something stupid like LON femur.
People on here play most things down. Let me tell you this. When I did it I realised this forum was so wrong in almost all aspects.
Pure pain may be low for the most parts but the exhaustion is extremely painful and I mean physically, not mentally.
Quote from: RealLostSoul on February 16, 2023, 12:30:30 PMPeople on here play most things down. Let me tell you this. When I did it I realised this forum was so wrong in almost all aspects.
Pure pain may be low for the most parts but the exhaustion is extremely painful and I mean physically, not mentally.
Which part was the forum wrong on?
Quote from: oklama on February 16, 2023, 06:05:51 AMI really think people on here play it up a bit but im sure it could be incredibly painful at times especially toward the beginning. but I dont expect it to be something you couldn't deal with unless your doing something stupid like LON femur.
Having documented my pain thoroughly here, and having slept for 2 hours last night due to pain, I'm pretty damn certain I'm not playing anything up.
Unless you've had both legs broken and have done this surgery or are undergoing it, you have absolutely zero right to question the pain and suffering of any member of this forum that has done the surgery. If you ever do the surgery, you can come back and tell us about your own experience. So please show some respect and don't.
Quote from: RealLostSoul on February 16, 2023, 12:30:30 PMPeople on here play most things down. Let me tell you this. When I did it I realised this forum was so wrong in almost all aspects.
Pure pain may be low for the most parts but the exhaustion is extremely painful and I mean physically, not mentally.
I completely agree. I've seen diaries here that were borderline cavalier towards pain and exhaustion, and essentially focused on "lengthened to x, things are fine, etc." That's just not reality.
Exhaustion is not something I've seen covered. It's as big of a factor as pain when it comes to the surgery, especially early stages. Right now, one hour of PT, several steps and bed/couch to walker/wheelchair transfers are absolutely knocking me on my ass.
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