So I am basically able to walk with crutches pretty well.
My only concern is sitting down on lower objects (sofa, chair, beds). I really need some good tips on how to do it, would appreciate any help.
Standing up from an object using the crutches seems easier (I put one hand on the object and second hand on on crutch and stand up).
Quote from: WishMeLuck on January 29, 2023, 04:22:40 PMHi, I'll post the X-rays when I receive them digitally.
Basically, Guichet says that patients that go through his protocol might fuse very fast. He mentioned one patient that did 7.5cm and his bones were fused in 1 month! In addition, if you forget a couple of clicks you will get a phone call from Guichet himself yelling at you that your bones could fuse and that could become a pricy surgery, and that you must click as fast as he tells you too (Guichet is following everything you do, eat, breath using a one-drive spreadsheet, where you must enter all the data to yourself every day).
If you don't eat enough calories - he will call you. If you don't train enough - he will call you, if you are late for the gym - his secratery will call yelling at you.
He really believes in his protocol, so I just decided to blindly confide with it. That made be basically have 0 personal time (no tv, not fun, no nothing). I just train, eat, click, train, eat, click, train, train, stretch...
wow that sounds incredible. by fused you mean fully consolidated in 1 month? 7.5 cm should take about 1 year to consolidate properly, this is beyond human capabilities on theory
ditto on the xrays, ive never seen a guichet xray before so im interested to see his recent work. you do know how unicorn got screwed right? she had a hairline fracture on the femur in the initial surgery on her right leg which was too much trauma for the bone to unite and then she started getting accidental clicks 20 times a day because there was no callus to provide some resistance and extended the entire nail on its own without union so yeah basically a horror story
Quote from: WishMeLuck on January 29, 2023, 04:30:21 PM1 - 2 hours per session in the gym includes bike, eliptical, and about 10 excercises and stretching routines, each with 50 reps.
2 - Guichet want's you to go maximum with the bike. So we are talking about at least 5 in the resistance (he will yell at you that you can do more and must increase so you will not lose you muscles).
3- naturally I am a side sleeper and never slept on my back (holding a girl besides me is usually the best when I have one 
). Here, I am sleeping only on my back. If you train hard during the day until your eyes start to close on you - you will fall asleep this way.
4- side hurts because of the incisions, and also it is a big scary when you have a ratcheting nail because the leg could twist and this is something I am always afraid of.
5- I plan on going for 5cm because I just want to continue with my life and not walk around for months looking like a spider. I am not very short to begin with, that would take me to 181.5cm. I believe this is taller than Leonardo Dicaprio or Brad Pitt, and I don't think they suffer from height. So I think life is not just height and want to go back to focus on other things. I don't see investing an additional full month just for clicking to get to 6cm (more risk, more time off work, possible complications, harder recovery).
4. arent the incisions supposed to be small and its been 10 days? please let us know how your side sleeping goes, i couldnt side sleep for 2 months when i did tibia LON and it made me really unhappy during the process(other guys in the institute where i did it were able to side sleep with the frames on so it was my own problem overall).
5. are you shooting for 1 month to get to 5cm? and then about a month to "fuse"? what is your opinion on any potential nerve or tissue damage from faster than average of 1mm per day lengthening?
your diary might turb out to be the most interesting one we've seen in ages on here
Quote from: WishMeLuck on January 29, 2023, 04:40:57 PMMy only concern is sitting down on lower objects (sofa, chair, beds). I really need some good tips on how to do it, would appreciate any help.
Yes agreed, low objects can be annoying. When I was in pain, I would usually get a cushion/pillow on the corner of my bed, lower the walker leg lengths, sit on the pillow and then get up with the walker. And then once I was standing, I would grab the forearm crutches/crutches and switch to them in my room.
Someone gave me a tip for low surfaces: first grab the lower rungs of the walker, and then switch your hands to the usual handles. He used this strategy to get on / off these 1 foot high beds that were by a swimming pool
Since we're able to stand up, a forearm crutch user gave me the tip of shortening/lengthening the forearm crutches as need be when you're about to lower yourself onto a very low height surfaces. I am not exactly how that would work because for extremely low surfaces (ex: 1-1.5 feet high off the ground) I admit I just use a walker. However, I believe he most likely turns his back to the low surface. Then, while standing, he shortens his forearm crutches a bit. And then very slowly uses them to go from standing to sitting.
Shortening regular crutches while standing (right before lowering yourself onto a low height surface) also works but it's clunky and annoying if you drop a crutch. I wouldn't do it.
For regular crutches (not forearm crutches) in Athens, we generally form a triangle with the crutches two (soft armpit pad parts forming tip of top of triangle. The horizontal flat ground floor itself is the base of the triangle.) and then use that tip top part as a handle to help get up higher. This doesn't really work well on slippery surfaces since the crutches end up angled and just slide/messes with the triangle. I found a fist pushing up from my seat at the same time sometimes helps depending on how stable the surface is
I admit that if the surface is very very low on the ground and the ground is slippery, I just say screw it, and I get my walker to do the transfer
Hi WishMeLuck,
Can you ask Dr Guichet for his opinion on nerve damage? It's understandable he wants you to click faster because you will preconsolidate but what about nerve damage? 4cm in 21 days seems like a lot. There has got to be some reason why he thinks it's ok to do this as per protocol. Maybe he has some published research that we don't know of?
And congrats on almost reaching your goal already. It must feel great to put this behind you soon.
Thank you
Do you not feel much pain when clicking? I'm curious since you said you stopped using pain medication.
Also, why is 0 - 5cms so fast, but 5 - 6cm takes one month?
I can write a diary describing my trip to space just by writing. You have no pictures or videos. I think this diary is fake. Let me tell you before you write, with the leg picture and video, no one is exposed and who it is can never be found. Also, although this is a difficult operation, there are many people who share pictures and videos. I prefer to read video diaries with pictures rather than just reading articles. Good luck on your journey.
Quote from: ten on January 29, 2023, 06:08:11 PMHi WishMeLuck,
Can you ask Dr Guichet for his opinion on nerve damage? It's understandable he wants you to click faster because you will preconsolidate but what about nerve damage? 4cm in 21 days seems like a lot. There has got to be some reason why he thinks it's ok to do this as per protocol. Maybe he has some published research that we don't know of?
And congrats on almost reaching your goal already. It must feel great to put this behind you soon.
Thank you
So basically Dr Guichet recommends on different protocols to different patients (he aknowledges that caucasians have higher bone healing rate than asians - you can see he also answered that in one of his interviews in this forum). You basically start clicking from the first day of surgery! he distracts 1cm which is 150 clicks. Than in the same day you need to do 3 clicks after you wake up and another 3 at night. After that, you have another day of 3x3, another day of 5x3, and then you just continue with 7x3 per day for about 3 weeks. he will lower that afterwards to 5x3. and after 5cm to around 3x3.
Of course - that could change based on your comments (nerve pain, other pain etc.). For me I didn't feel any of these pains, I just felt it is harder for me to click (the click is harder to get and I use more force). So he said I might fuse and I need to increase.
Quote from: thankscience on January 30, 2023, 03:24:39 AMDo you not feel much pain when clicking? I'm curious since you said you stopped using pain medication.
Also, why is 0 - 5cms so fast, but 5 - 6cm takes one month?
Hi, see my above comment regarding clicking rates.
I do feel pain which I describe as 2-4 when clicking (out of 10). Guichet makes you describe on a spreadsheet every clicking session in terms of 1-10 for your pain and 1-10 for your stress, and also the time it took you to click. He monitors it all rigorously.
Regarding why the beginning is faster - Guichet said that your body can give more in the beginning.
So, Basically I'm at 2.3cm and I am now using a lot of force for my clicking - they don't come easy anymore.
Guichet said that it is because the bone is starting to fuse, and if I increase the clicking rate it will become easy afterwards again.
Did anyone experience with difficulty of clicking after some easy time?
Quote from: WishMeLuck on January 30, 2023, 08:37:40 PMSo basically Dr Guichet recommends on different protocols to different patients (he aknowledges that caucasians have higher bone healing rate than asians - you can see he also answered that in one of his interviews in this forum). You basically start clicking from the first day of surgery! he distracts 1cm which is 150 clicks. Than in the same day you need to do 3 clicks after you wake up and another 3 at night. After that, you have another day of 3x3, another day of 5x3, and then you just continue with 7x3 per day for about 3 weeks. he will lower that afterwards to 5x3. and after 5cm to around 3x3.
Of course - that could change based on your comments (nerve pain, other pain etc.). For me I didn't feel any of these pains, I just felt it is harder for me to click (the click is harder to get and I use more force). So he said I might fuse and I need to increase.
Thanks for the answer. I think it's clear his goal is to make LL as quick a process as possible. He wrote this paper called "The cosmetic dream and future of lengthening procedures" where he talks about where he wants LL to be and all the steps he takes to increase the rate of bone healing. I also get the feeling he is "experimenting" in this space.
My only qualm with all this is that he does not list nerve damage in his complication statistics. It would be surprising if it is 0% after his hundreds of cases.
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