They did some blood tests, urine test, poo test and check up. I had to get an Ultrasound Testing test outside because one of the blood test was a bit off the first time.
I have been trying to post my pictures here. I got like 30 of them. I would like to post them at different parts of the diary. But the forum will not let me. So, i guess I have to post my diary with the pictures. I know pictures would be a lot better.
On July18, 2014, I was admitted to Russian Ilizarov Scientific Centre. I have meet three guys and one girl that are patients here that speak fluent English. All four of them are getting Leg Lengthening surgery here. There are many other Russia patients, but most of them are not here to get Leg Lengthening surgery but to having bone correction or repairing bone problems.
I have talked with the guys a lot the past few days before my surgery. They have told me what they are going though, everything I should expect, things I need to buy and what should do. After trying the food here the past few days I would say the food is mostly eatable but not good at all. I am small and do not eat much but they do not give you enough during the meals. You will have to buy extra food outside are you will still be hungry.
On July 23, 2014, today was my surgery day. I went in at 2:00pm. I could not eat the day before after 8:00pm. I was not allowed to eat or drink anything before my surgery. Before the surgery they give me a spinal tap on my back bone. They then give be meds to knock me out. When I woke up it was past 5:00pm. I have no memories of what happen during the surgery, just waking up in bed. I do not feel any pain at all after the surgery, the pain killer has not worn off yet.
When I went to sleep that night, I woke up around 3.00am because of pain was starting getting bad. After, an hour it got much worst. I was in real pain, it felt like a 9 of 10. So, I call the nurse for the first time of pain killer. It take an hour for the pain to go down after taking it.
On July 30, 2014, this is just a report for the week. On Friday, July 25,2014, was the day I took my first steps. I use crutches but I could only take five steps. Every steps were very painful and did not have much energy afterwards.
They told me the gym is only open Monday thru Friday and our department patients only have a hour a day set time that we can use it. So, you can not go when you want or stay as long as you want. You can walk inside or outside the building or even leave, but have to be back in the Center before 8:00pm. If you do not get back on time they can kick you out. Then you will have to stay at a hotel or an apartment and come to the Center to get treatment You need to be in your room at 10:00pm by you can sleep anytime you want.
I know a Russian patient here that was kick out of the Center because he came back very drunk. He stay at an apartment now but comes to the Center for treatment. He come to visit other patient here but can not stay very long.
On Monday, it was my first time to the gym. They just showed me some easy work out to get my leg strength back. Tuesday and Wednesday, I walking a little with the walker in the gym. So, it has been a week. I feel much stronger now then after the surgery but I still can not walk very far.
I think there are a few major difference between Russian Ilizarov Scientific Centre and other places that use external fixator leg surgery. The first one is that they make you get a half ring around your feet if you are doing more then 4 cm.. That half ring is much more painful then the rings around your leg. It is about three to four times more painful then the leg frame when you walk. They told me reason why we need it was to prevent getting ballerina foot.
The second difference is that they do two breaks on each bone instead of one if you are getting more then 4cm. The reason is so they can lengthen faster and spread the lengthen to two area and not just one. And, also when you are healing you will healing in two area. So, the healing will be more faster.
The third difference is when they remove the frames they will put a cast on your entire legs for 2 weeks. They will do one leg at a time. They say it will help you have less scars, prevent things like bow leg and make your leg stay straight. Because of these reasons the full treatment for 5cm - 7cm should be 4 - 6 months.
I just read what happened to Rgkey at last week. Damn, after all that hard work and after returning home he later got bow leg. He is one of the main reason I made Dr. Alexander Barinov, RUSCOM (Volgograd, Russia) my first choice. I do not know if it is his faint or Dr. Alexander Barinov, RUSCOM faint for letting him go home so soon. I know 9 cm is a lot. But, if it was RUSCOM faint I am so glad they fked up my invite letter to Russia twice.
On August 5, 2014, it has been a week since my legs has started lengthening. Saturday and Sunday lengthening was very bad. I was having 6-7 pain in my right leg and it would not go away. There was bad electric shock that keep running through my right leg. If i move it wrong, workout, or touch it i feel a bad shock. The foot of that leg get very hot if something touch it. When that foot get hot anything that touches it there is a 8-10 pain. It was very bad. I got scared. Just 1.5 cm into the surgery and my right leg was in great pain how was i going to take it when to get to 5, 6, or 7 cm.
Tuesday, I had my first X-ray and my bandage change again this morning. After the doctor looked at my x-ray he made 3 big movements to the nuts on my leg frames, One major correction on the left leg and two major correction on the right one. I am still having the problems on my right legs but it is much less and the constant pain on it went down to a 3. I hope the problems with my right legs do not come back after i start lengthening again. That is my greatest fear now.
The doctor will give me a two day break from lengthening. This is so I can rest a little to get my energy back and so I will have the strength to walk more. I have walk two 30 feet distance today any will try for another one after writing this. Wish me the best of luck because know I will need it.
On August 11, 2014, it has been a long week it is still painful when I walk. I try to walk three time a day and do about an hour of workout in my bed everyday. We have gotten a Russian that could speech some English to order us some take out food on days with real bad food. The restaurant at do take out has pasta, sushi, pizza and burgers. The food is good but not as good as in the United States of America. The price is about the same or a little higher then back home.
One guy that is that was doing Leg Lengthening was having high blood pressure problem and was not walking but he was still lengthening everyday. Now he can not bend his leg. He had to pay 1200 usd to get more ring on his legs to straight them. I think he has to have it on for around three weeks to fix the problems.
The girl that is doing Leg Lengthening surgery here going to be staying at a hotel near here. She has two months of healing until she can go home. If you go to stay at the hotel it is much better then here but if you come in for x rays or bandage change they will charge you like double price because you are an out patient.
The guys here that are doing Leg Lengthening try to get along and become friends. We all talk with each other when we can. One guys give me his bottle of olive oil so i can put it on my feet because it was drying out very badly. Another guy lend me has walk because he was not using it. And another guy give me his extra sandal because my sandal was not going to be soft enough. He told me i can have his walker in nine more days when he is done and returns home.
On August 28, 2014, it has been a having a rough time with lengthening. I has been a while since my last x ray but i just got one today. Dr Roman told me that i have only lengthen my legs by 3.5 cm and they are just going to lengthen the top half of my leg. It was disappointing news I thought I have length a bit more like almost 4 cm. It will now be lengthening my top half of my leg at 1 mm a day. I ask if he can go at .8 or .7 a day he told me I can not if I do my top right leg will consolidate.
My left leg is fine but my right leg is in bad shape. I can not only walk like 15 steps on my walker before I have to return to my bed. The right leg has very bad nerve pain because of that I get shock running up my legs and it stings when i stretch or walk. My right leg foot is also badly swollen. Because of the swelling in my right foot when that foot is not relax or moving to much it will get painful at the lights tough or presser to it. That is why I am trying to slow down the daily lengthening rate.
It take a lot of painful work to keep walking on that leg. I am also afraid of long term nerve damage to that leg if the doctor makes me keep going so fast. I am still have problem with dry and cranking skin on my foot. The olive oil do help but not total.
Because of the problem that i am having with my nerve in my right leg I have lower the bar. I am trying for another cm to 1.5 cm. So, if the nerve problem gets very bad that I feel like I may have long term nerve problems I will stop. I do not want to be in pain for the rest of my life for just one cm. My mother want me to stop now, but i feel 3.5 cm is to little for all the time I will need to heal and the money I put down to get taller.
I also had a problem with water running up and down my feet and legs. When your legs are full of water your leg get very heavy and you can not walk. When your feet is full of water it is painful. To get the water out you have to raise you legs higher than your body. You have to do it for an hour and it is painful. When you walk or sleep the water slowly run back down. It will also be painful. After about two week of this and trying out thing I found out that if you drink as little water as possible it will stop this problem. So, I drink about only 10oz of water a day and it stopped the water problem.
A girl from the USA here that is also doing lengthen to increase her height is also had a lot of the problems that I had. She is almost done. She has gotten one of here frame off and is about to get the other frame of in a few days. Even after the frame were remove she is still having nerve pain now. She said if she know about all the problems she was going to have she would have never have done external Leg Lengthening. She had water running in her leg problem, problem with her nerves in both legs, feel like your feet is on fire and else. She was going for 6 to 7 cm but the pain was so bad at 4.3 cm that she had to stop. She work very hard walking everyday and can really take pain. I am afraid I will have the same problems with my nerves if I pass 4 cm in my bad leg.
It is September 15, I have gain 4 cm. I feel like I should stop at that height on September 7. I am afraid if I lengthen another half cm that I may get some problems with my nerves on my right leg. I think it is better to be safe then to have nerve problem for the rest of my life. I am already having a lot of problem with my right legs.
I have gotten two x ray on my legs and a correction on legs last week. The doctor told me on my last x ray my right leg way not straight and I need to do another correction and then any x ray tomorrow. I hope it will be my last one. When the doctor make a correction on my left leg it is not painful but if it is on my right leg it is painful. The first correction it took half an hour each legs.
For August 24 to September 7, the doctor has been giving me muscle relax. That is two weeks. After, I stop taking the drug for a week it is still in my system and still get the side effects. Muscle relax has some benefits, but it also has side effects. The benefits are it help you stretch your legs with little or no pain. So, you will have less nerve pain when you stretch you muscles. The side effects is after you start taking it for a week you will get dizzy and throw up air. Your throw up but nothing come up. When you take tramadol, narcotic-like pain reliever used to treat moderate to severe pain, you will get the dizzy and throw up air side effect.
I ask the doctor today if I can get sometime that will help me with the swelling in my feet. He told me he will start giving me something tomorrow. He told me that the medicine may or not help. Some people it will work on but other people it does nothing. He said the swelling will really go down when they take off the frames. The girl that was here told me it took her three weeks into fixation until the swelling went down for her. I just hope the swelling will go down for me soon.
It is September 17, two days ago, on one of my everyday walks one of the cuts from the top frame pins tear totally open. So, I now have a big one inch wound on my leg. It still is very painful every time I move that leg. I told the doctor about it. After he looked at the wound all he did was tell the nurse to put some disinfection and change the bandage. I could not even get any painkiller until an hour after the bandage change. He told me after two days they will change it again. That was all.
It was hoping that they could have done more. I was hoping to get suture or stitch the wound, If not somehow cover the wound better and give me something that will help me not get an infection.
The wound has been very painful. When I just lay in bed there is always some pain. But, if I move it or walk it can get very painful. So, I am trying to stay in bed more so it can heal faster, less painful, not get infection and not make the cut tear bigger. The doctor told me that i need to walk as usual.
I should be getting the bandage change today. I know it will be painful again and I will try to get painkiller before the change this time. I just hope this do not get any worst. I have heard bad story about infection and I am really nerve.
It is October 15, I am not doing ok. Everybody told me when I get to fixation it will be all down hill from there. After my last update it had not gotten much better for me. The big tear on the top frame has almost healed up on my left leg.
I am having other problems now. A week after my wound open and I was walking and I put all my weight on my left leg so the cutting would finish and I would walk normally in a few days. When I went to bed that night my other leg started hurting too. I did not know why. Maybe I was all the stretching I did in bed. O well, both my legs will be fine in a few days I though.
The next day my temperature when up past 38 and stay up there for three days. I left leg got better but my right leg got worst. It has no energy and has a lot of pain on the foot ring and the top ring. The center has been changing my bandage everyday over a week now. It is a bit painful but I do think it is helping me heal faster.
I ask the head doctor if I could take off my right foot ring because it was so painful. I only got 4 cm and do not think I will have ballerina on it. He told me I needed and X ray because my last one was to old. I got one the next day. I do not think it is a problem with the foot ring now because they will not remove it.
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