My lengthening journey with Dr Hoondong Lee

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I know how you feel. Right after I started using my walker and seeing how heavy my steps were I missed being able to move quickly and easily. Taking 10 minutes to walk to the bathroom really makes one think about how fortunate they are to have a normally functioning pair of legs. Lying with you feet propped up in bed during the day seems to make time go slower too. And it takes forever to try and fall asleep these days.

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Hi classical,
Finally you made your surgery with doctor Lee, good luck. I think he is a very good option. I am planning my surgery with doctor salameh in september, but a lot of times i think to do LON with doctor Lee i Korea, but i have fear to get knee pain by the nail, and i think for my goal 5,5 cm, is better only external.
cheers paco.

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@Peco: Hey, how's it going! Congrats on doing your lengthening in Sep!! Dr. salameh sounds great. I'm sure he will do an excellent job with you I understand your concern with knee pain. But honestly  Dr Lee is so experienced and skilled, of all the patients I spoke to that did surgery with him, nobody has had any trouble with knee pain from him. Speaking from my own experience, my knees feel great so far, I am currently 1.5 months post op. I have of course pain from stretching the muscle, tendons, pin sites, etc... But my knee has been just as strong as pre-op, and no pain at all!

Ever since I followed Dr Lee's instruction and dressed my pin sites very tight, my holes from stretching at the pin sites have magically closed! Woo, he really knows his stuff

Yesterday I went to see Dr. Lee, and I am now officially 2.5cm, hooray!!! It's amazing how every two weeks, I get to grow 1cm, that's a lot! While waiting outside his office, I saw 5 or 6 patients that either are doing lengthening or did lengthening with him. The ones that did lengthening with him are coming back to get their rods removed. Man, they look good! Honestly, I can't tell at all that they did lengthening. All of them have excellent recovery! After talking with them, everybody was super happy with their results. I am so glad that I made the right choice to do my lengthening with Dr lee! He is truly the master of limb lengthening!!

One thing that bothered me from my appointment, Dr Lee said my callus formation was OK, but not good enough for him. He wants optimal callus formation, since in a long run, my consolidation would be faster, and as a whole, it shortens the process.  He suggested for me to turn only 0.5 per day, but I really didn't want to as I have such limited time to lengthen, if I don't turn 0.75 per day, I won't even reach 5cm when I leave... Oh gosh, he already gave me stem cell therapy during my first surgery. I can't imagine if I didn't have the therapy... I guess genetically my bone growth is very poor. What should I do to get better callus formations???

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Are you doing lots of weightbearing?  That's the natural way to stimulate callus formation.

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Hi classical, congratulations.
what is your lengthening goal?
Then you are in a hotel with your mother, near the hotel.
You have to pay the price for removal nail now or when the removal nail is made.
I am in doubt between doctor salameh and donghoolee.
cheers, paco

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How old are u?

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Medium drink,

Do you think you could have lengthened 8 cm. I am thinking about doing that. Originally it was 7,5 cm but now im thinking 8cm. What you think about that

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How long do you intend on staying in South Korea for?

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Quote from: Slim_tim on July 15, 2014, 02:05:52 PMMedium drink,

Do you think you could have lengthened 8 cm. I am thinking about doing that. Originally it was 7,5 cm but now im thinking 8cm. What you think about that

I think I could've done 10cm if I'd wanted to.  I wasn't having problems toward the end; all my problems happened in the first half of my lengthening.  I went with 7.5cm because it's 3 inches and, being an American, I think about height in feet and inches.  Also because I was running out of time and didn't want to pay extra money to change my flight.

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Quote from: Medium Drink Of Water on July 15, 2014, 08:08:02 PMI think I could've done 10cm if I'd wanted to.  I wasn't having problems toward the end; all my problems happened in the first half of my lengthening.  I went with 7.5cm because it's 3 inches and, being an American, I think about height in feet and inches.  Also because I was running out of time and didn't want to pay extra money to change my flight.

I just noticed if i put my foot up while sitting relaxed in a couch or even at the computer chair,
My Tibia is unproportioned long for my femur like it's a Tibia of a 5'11-6'0 guy.
And the femur of a under average guy. Maybe im seeing to much but putting your foot up is about 5 cm so adding another 2,25 cm on that would make it obvious no?

So i think i might go for femurs instead but that might look messed up when you walk.
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Also what was the mental part of this journey for you,

I mean the day you sat down and made that appointment from home to the doctor for visitation, Too actually being on the flight and then later on at the hospital talking to the doctor saying you want to pay large amount of money to lengthen/fk up, your legs? How was his reaction on that.

And did you feel anxiety the first 1-5 days of actuall lengthening? Like what to do, and if you should call the doctor with the smallest doubt of pain/panick.

Also lets say 3 months into lengthening what was you thinking about like you must have had the same 10 things pop into your head.

"what are the folks at home gonna think"
"is this worth it"

Stuff like that. Obviously you had a rather easy road compared to alot of the other lengtheners*.

And you was already on good ground at home but generally i want to know what it was to be you at that moment. ty-.