LON Method on tibia with Dr Halil Buldu through Wannabetaller

Hi all, I had my limb lengthening surgery a little over a month ago and have kept a diary of how I felt each day and what was going on and thought I’d share it with everyone.
So I went through the wannabetaller company and it wasn’t until a week before the surgery that I saw some negative reviews on this forum about them and I started freaking out a little, however I decided I’d at least meet them and ask about these reviews/patients and hear their side of the story. I can’t remember what was said but I know that they answered all my questions and they showed me videos of other patients of theirs and how they went with their surgeries and it was enough to satisfy me and I decided to go through with the surgery.
I felt that the wannabetaller team were very helpful to me and listened/respected any decisions I made. That being said it doesn’t magically make the surgery easy by any means and personally I would recommend to people not to do it as it’s a brutal mental battle the entire time especially if you’re doing it in secret and don’t tell anyone what you’re doing as you don’t have their support. I’d done a lot of research but there were still plenty of surprises and nothing can fully prepare you for it. If you decide to do it then I think wannabetaller is a safe choice but of course you shouldn’t just take my word for it and I strongly recommend you look into plenty of options before making a decision.
I paid 17000 euros for the surgery + 650 for fixator removal + 2700 for 7-8 weeks of hotel stay, physio, food etc. So it is by no means cheap but money was never an issue to me.
I think that’s everything I wanted to mention in my little introduction here, I’ll start posting how I felt each day tomorrow.

Day 1 - Landed in Istanbul feeling very nervous and wondering if I should back out or not.
Met the team who did make me feel a bit better and we went and had dinner with another guy who is having his surgery a week after me so it was nice to see someone else is doing this.
Going to sleep now, then I have my legs x-rayed in the morning and then surgery tomorrow, it does feel very rushed but I’d also rather have it all done as fast as possible.

Day 2 - I was given some things to sign which I assume is just standard hospital legal things but it’s a bit annoying that it’s all written in Turkish.
I’m waiting in my hospital room with my translator for my surgery at 2pm, my translator keeps telling me I’m going to be crying all night and in pain, I don’t know if he’s trying to be funny but it’s something I could do without.
I know this is something I want to do, I want to be taller but I can’t help feel so nervous and wonder if I should back out, I’ve already made my mind up that I’m going through with it but I hope I’m not making a mistake.
I was originally planning on doing 4cm but I’ve decided I’m just going with 3, lots of people will think that’s not worth it but I’d be happy with it I think it’s a noticeable amount to make me feel better.
Hopefully the pain when I wake up isn’t as agonising as I expect, I’ve accepted that this will likely be some of the worse pain I’ll ever go through.
I’ll be spending 5 days in hospital and then 30 days lengthening so I’m hopeful that the whole thing will be over in a little over a month.
Just came out of surgery at 6pm, I’m told surgery took 4 hours for me and when I came too I was shaking quite uncontrollably and it felt pretty scary though I wasn’t in a lot of pain at this point I could just tell something was wrong with my body. They’ve hooked me up to a drip with pain killers so I don’t really feel any pain, apparently the shaking I experienced is a normal side effect from surgery and putting your body through that sort of trauma.
For the last seven hours I’ve been in and out of sleep and under a few different pain killers, I’ve been able to flex my toes backwards and forwards, slightly bend and lift my legs and will try walking tomorrow.
My main problem at the moment is that I have a catheter in my penis so when I piss it really stings and has made me nervous to try go since the first time. I would describe the pain in my legs as a dull ache at the joints where the pins are going into my ankles and knees.
The pain might get worse but I’m told I’ll be hooked up to different pain killers for the five days I’m in hospital. After that I’ll be given a whole heap of different medicines to take and they’ll explain how and when to take them.

Day 3 - It’s 9am now, it hurts slightly more than earlier but it still isn’t bad it still just aches a bit.
I’m still too nervous to pee but I’m hoping they take the catheter out soon.
1pm now and it’s just been me and my translator in the room, I might ask him if he can find my doctor soon so I can have help taking a few steps. I’m glad the lain hasn’t been too bad so I’ve been able to prove the translator wrong, he seems like an alright guy and under different circumstances I’d probably get along with him but he’s been talking   about the wannabetaller team and saying they won’t help me that for 4000 euros I could stay with him for a month so I told him that was way too much and he stopped asking about it.
Pain is still just a dull ache which is fine, sort of managing to pee through the catheter as well but it more just drips out bit by bit.
2:30pm I had some people come in and change the bandages which took about 15 minutes. Still not much pain but I’m nervously waiting for it to start. 3pm I took a few steps with a walker, it was very uncomfortable and unpleasant, I wouldn’t say super painful but there were times when I felt like my leg was going to twist around which scared me.
5:30pm pain is still just a dull ache but feels a little worse so I might need more painkillers to get to sleep.
Stood up again after dinner at about 7:45 but couldn’t walk as my left leg was hurting too much, I just stood up as straight and tall as I could while using the walker to steady myself and did some light marching on the spot.
Trying to sleep now but painkillers have worn off it’s 8:40, the pain isn’t terrible but it’s enough to keep me awake.
Right after I typed that a nurse came in and gave me painkillers so I’ll try get some sleep.
The painkillers didn’t do much and I’ve been in little bits of pain but still nothing to make me cry out or anything.
My translator had a falling out with the Wannabetaller company and he left me so someone from Wannabetaller came and stayed with me for the night. I wasn’t too bothered by it, they told me that was only the second time they’d hired him and won’t be doing so again.

Doctor Halil Buldu I think is not any more in wannabetaller, he is livelifetaller

I was confused when I was told he was my doctor because I set everything up through the wannabetaller website but I was glad to have him because of the negative things I’d heard about the other doctors. I think the doctors and the various companies like wannabetaller must all be in some sort of contact.

FAKE DIARY. only wannabe taller always put their services in to their diaries     .....   (I paid 17000 euros for the surgery + 650 for fixator removal + 2700 for 7-8 weeks of hotel stay, physio, food etc)

my diary on how i was almost crippled by wannabe tallers doctors http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=64740.0

the good news is i have been contacted by several other patients who have been injured by wannabetallers doctors who are in consultations with my lawyers and are about to sue wannabe taller and their doctors as well. wannabe taller stop advertising through fake diaries, you still are using the same doctors after you know they are seriously damaging people. you have no morals

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Man it isn’t a fake diary if you read the whole thing you’ll see I’m advising people not to go through with this. Just thought I’d put the price in because there’s always people who are going to do it anyway and they always want to know what it’s going to cost them.

Day 4 - Only managed a few hours sleep last night and my legs feel very stiff and sore. I hope walking is a bit easier today so I can go to the toilet by myself and they take the catheter out. I still feel quite scared and afraid, I don’t even want to lengthen much anymore as I just want to get it over with. I am exactly 177.3cm tall so I might only lengthen 2.7 cm getting me to 180cm.
I’m sure this won’t seem worth it too anyone but if this surgery has shown me anything it’s that I could actually be happy with whatever height now so at least I can confidently say that I won’t feel insecure about my height regardless of how much I lengthen.
Legs are mostly aching where the pins go into my legs which I always assumed would be the most uncomfortable part, I was able raise my legs up and down though it did hurt quite a lot.
I really need to take a  .
Walked a bit more at 9:30 probably only for about 10-15 minutes but it has made me feel a lot better to know that I’m capable of some walking this early on.
Finally had the catheter taken out at about 12 o’clock and that was probably the most uncomfortable I’ve felt so far, wasn’t overly painful but still not pleasant and my penis stings a little bit, I didn’t realise how far in the catheter went.
Walking is definitely getting easier already but I can really feel where the pins are inside my ankles and knees. My right ankle is pretty sore and when I stand I can’t put my right foot flat on the ground, I plan on talking to my doctor about it.
I was given a new translator and this guy has been awesome he let me play South Park games on his laptop and he was really good to talk to about anything.

Day 5 - Slept a lot better last night and was shown my x-rays and saw the my bones are still kept straight and was assured that it’s normal to have some pain putting a foot down.
I was able to get up with a walker by myself this morning and walk to the toilet and do everything by myself.
I was able to stand and use the tap to wash myself a bit which felt great as I’ve been feeling really unclean.
I was also able to walk a bit more normally and put my right foot flatter on ground so I think it will get better each day.
Less than 24 hours since I had the catheter out and it all feels normal again down there.
I walked around again and the doctors said they’re impressed with how well I’m able to walk so maybe I’m lucky and am coping better than previous patients, I hope I can walk normally once the lengthening is done and external fixators are taken off.
6pm now and nothing hurts when laying down, when I walk with the walker I feel tension in my right ankle and can’t step properly, it makes me feel scared and I can’t believe I’ve actually done this too my body.
Even if everything works out I can’t say I’d recommend doing something like this for purely cosmetic reasons, it’s quite terrifying thinking you’re potentially going to be crippled and it’s your own fault.
It’s 7.30pm and I walked maybe 50m (with a walker) and got a bit of a better understanding of walking normally with my right foot. I also feel I could walk with crutches but I’d probably neglect my right leg too much which would end up making it weaker.
I slept from about 12am - 2am but now I’ve woken up sweating which hasn’t happened before and my legs are hurting worse than they ever have.
Also my translator snores which can be a bit maddening but I still love the guy.

Day 6 - I played some music through my earphones to block out the snoring and managed some restless sleep for about 5 hours, I really hope I’m over reacting and that everything turns out fine.
I keep having to remind myself that plenty of people have done this and lengthened more and still recovered and that of course it’s going to be uncomfortable walking on broken legs with metal going through them. I’d say as of right now I regret doing this however if I can recover fully then I think I will feel indifferent about it and just try forget and move on with my life.
I think I feel confident about only lengthening a small amount and then having the external fixator removed but I’m worried that I’ll feel the internal nail the whole time during the consolidation process which will prevent me from bending my ankles and knees and walking normally.
1pm and I’ve just been shown how I’ll do the lengthening along with some more physio exercises which has already made me feel better when walking on my right foot.
They’ve also assured me that should I do everything right then I’ll be able to walk properly within two weeks of having external fixators removed and I won’t notice the nails in the bones during the consolidation phase. Two weeks does sound a bit fast and they might just be saying that to make me feel better but I guess at this point all I can do is wait and see.
It’s the external fixators that put the tension on your ankle and knees so that will likely be an issue the entire time they’re in.
I’m still scared of course and I’m sure I will be until I’m back to normal but I do feel better.
Every 3 days I’ll have a nurse come and help me change my bandages and keep them clean as well as do physio and I can do physio myself for the other 2 days and every 2 weeks I will go get an X-ray.
The physio I’ve been shown involves lying down with my legs straight and having a band go around my foot and pull my foot towards me to help stretch the calves. And the other exercise is to lie down and bend my knee and bring it as close to my chest as I can. I do 25 on each leg 4 times a day.

You have lucky that Halil made you surgery, he is not i wannabetaller he is livelifetaller and he is only doctor there, others doctors like Uzgur, they have bad reputation, only Dr Halil made his  job serious

Yo dude oliie170....i am following ur journey and as far as i can see..its notable that u ran into something u dont know what it is..at 177cm i dnt think u understand what height dysphoria really is..u said u r overreacting and i say u r 200% r8..coz ur suggesting people stay out of these..i think before getting into this u shldv known this is a process beneficial for the shorter folks who want to be at least average height more or less..but at 177 ur like..oh this is something i should do..i wanna try and see wht it feels like..and if any1 offers it for free at my height 171 for only 2.5cm i wld tell him i rather go to jail rather then do it..n ur being so childish here after all this   ur only going for 2.5 dude i dnt know wht to say to u..all this crap for that gain ....i am also gonna do it for 10(both segment) but unlike u i am up for 5cm each segment..and i think thts d best for me....and i think u shld have researched more thoroughly before getting into this..i dnt think u r a r8 fit for this surgery..if u r going only for 2.5cm then god bless u for wasting ur valuable time and money and of course 2 working legs..but i dnt think u gave it much of a thought before acting childish..anyways i hope everything turns out well for u after this..i will be praying for u mate..good luck for ur further journey.