Day 65 Update:
So... Now that we don't have more childish comments (yet) we can go back to the main daily updates and stick to the main topic 
I thought about sharing some few things I have experienced so far, and I guess LL veterans have been through it and know all about it.
From 0 to 5 cm: It was not that challenging. Yes, there were some tension/pain here and there. There were some ups and downs but you just think: "Was it really it?"
From 5 to 7 cm: To be honest it is a fight now. I am not sure if it has to do with my age. This is where I am standing now.
I can already tell that reaching 8 cm as the ultimate goal is not going to be a walk in the park. That's for sure. If it ever happens 
Few things happened to my anatomy and musculature structure that I didn't see coming. Personally I am experiencing two major changes:
Bending knees: First of all, you will notice that your hamstrings become very tight and force you to bend your knees when you walk. Professional/Daily physio therapy and massage is a blessing and I strongly recommend it. It will not make your knees fall back to where they were before overnight, because you lengthen and increase the tension every day. It just relieves the muscles.
Sticking rear: Secondly, which I paid attention to by looking at the mirror lately, your rear starts to stick backwards. I was told that it is called "Duck ass". As I understood it has to do with your hips muscles in this case. Again, physio therapy and massage is a big relief but will not do miracles overnight.
My walking started to look like a robotic machine while using the walker. It doesn't look "linear" anymore. I started using the stepping machine rapidity for 2 or maximum 3 minutes at a time during the day. It keeps me always on the "run". If I sit and watch a movie and work on the computer by accident for 2 hours or more without breaks, my knees become tense.
I experience also the tension in my knees every time I wake up in the morning. It takes me 1 to 2 minutes to relief the tension before getting out of bed.
So far I eat healthy but my sleeping rhythm is not stable anymore. I sleep 1-2 hours at a time, multiple times during a full day. So all in all, my body gets the needed sleep but not in one shot. Its not because of pain, but due the tension in my hamstrings. They keep me occupied. By the way, I didn't experience all that while I was below 5 cm on my femur.
That was my personal experience so far. I hope it will enlighten some members in here.
My LL Journey - Dr. Jamal Abu Nemer, Kiev
Quote from: Rocky on June 25, 2018, 04:31:43 PMHello tlannister
We did a CT scan on day 59. That's why I knew exactly my height in my earlier update. We are going for another CT scan on 2nd of July.
But I didn't post it on purpose because I don't want my head to be filled with negative energy from some of the non qualified comments from some of the members in here. This is the last thing I need while I am fighting this LL fight. I need to keep my spirit high.
Life tought me to filter away any negative energy while aiming for a goal.
thats fine, but can you describe in words if there is any callous formation when you take x-rays?
Quote from: tlannister on June 26, 2018, 08:23:38 AMthats fine, but can you describe in words if there is any callous formation when you take x-rays?
Hello tlannister
Sure my pleasure. When we did X-Rays it was not clear enough. The CT Scans were way more clear. The formation of callous were moderate. I wouldn't say very rich formation, just fair enough. Maybe because of my age. My doctor is keeping a close eye on this.
Quote from: Rocky on June 25, 2018, 10:56:39 PMImportant
Dear members
I would kindly and sincerely ask you to not be sarcastic about others nationalities (not even religion or gender) in my diary and stick to facts within the Limb Lengthening topic. If you have something that adds value to others or myself, be my guest. If you want to ask a question for the sake of knowledge and experience sharing, you are most welcome to do so. We are here to help each others and learn from each others journey, rather than humiliating each others directly or indirectly based on our nationality or similar, etc.
There was an childish and sarcastic comment about Americans the other day, which I have ignored on purpose to not sink to a low level in the discussion. It just showed the level of immaturity of some members in here. Frankly speaking my wife who is following this diary is American and she was offended and hurt by this comment. The comment didn't add any value neither for the writer, other members or myself.
So please going forward, show some respect for other nations and be a bit mature if you want to be part of my diary and journey. Any childish behavior that is not suitable for this respectful forum and does not add any value to anyone will simply be ignored and left unanswered.
I can't force you to choose your language. But remember that your communication skills and wordings represent nothing else than your self as an individual. So for your own sake, be respectful to others to be respectful to your own individual person and as a human being.
With that said, I wish you all a successful LL journey and for those who are not there yet, I hope you will get a successful path in the future.
All respect for everyone regardless of their nationality, religion or gender from my family and myself.
May God protect and bless you all.
Are you referring to my post?
I'm not American, and this is an English language website. I don't know how things go over in the US. Maybe they use - colloquially - the technically wrong terms for certain things. My question was entirely due to medical reasons.
Quote from: myloginacc on June 26, 2018, 04:04:51 PMAre you referring to my post?
I'm not American, and this is an English language website. I don't know how things go over in the US. Maybe they use - colloquially - the technically wrong terms for certain things. My question was entirely due to medical reasons.
No worries myloginacc
I'm very polite in nature and show others respect, so I expect the same from others. If you have noticed, even when I get "stupid" comments sometimes for example about myself and my wife lately I don't sink low to the same level. I just think: "What an immature Kid" and move on.
I'm here to write about my diary so my family can follow my progress and enlighten other people who are considering same procedure. I get daily private messages from youngsters whom have questions. I have also spoken with several of them directly and they tell me that I'm giving them hope. I always encourage those who contact me. If a dad in my age can fight this fight, so can they.
As an X-boxer I'm physically tough and used to tolerate pain, but this journey has not been easy lately. Especially after crossing the 5 cm. Every day is a fight. Maybe daddy is getting old 
I'm really not here to discuss my nationality, religion or other personal issues. So I need peace in my head to fight the last few cm and not get into personal conflicts. I don't have capacity for it and I'm too old for that
So peace and love from here. May God protect you son
Day 66 Update:
We did the daily clicking today. We looked at the registered amount of clicks we have done so far and the doctor examined my legs. He thinks that I am either very close or have already passed 7 cm with few mm on right leg. But the scanning on the 2nd of July will give us a precious measurement.
I told Dr. Jamal that I don't feel that I have the same strength as earlier when I use the walker. To be honest I have been using the stepping machine actively but I was neglecting my walking a bit lately. We did a small test, where he gave me crutches and asked me to walk few steps. He was standing just beside me to support me, just in case. When I took the first step I felt that I lost my balance so he stepped in and supported me.
His advice was to walk more often in the apartment using the walker for now. We need to transform slowly to crutches, but it will not happen overnight.
He told me that it is a very critical moment right now. He doesn't want me to sit in a wheelchair when I finish the lengthening once I take my flight home. He wants me to get back home on crutches. We are probably close to or above 7 cm on right leg so it is very important to program the balance in my brain to adapt to this new height alongside with my leg muscles maintenance.
So we agreed about the following. I will put my mobile on a 1 hour alarm. I will walk just 3 times in my bedroom back and forth every 1 hour as long I am awake during the day. He told me to not overdue it and not exhaust my body. If I feel tired, I should listen to my body and relax. We will try this for some time and he will keep monitoring the progress. He will inform me later on about next step.
I just walked 3 times at 10 pm and I just repeated it at 11 pm. I guess I will do one more round before I go to sleep at 12 am.
To be honest, just those few rounds in the bedroom made me feel much better when I took a break afterwards.
Hey Rocky, been following and have a few questions for you.
So you mentioned that even as a guy with a good pain threshold, things are getting tough lately.
Would you attribute the tough lengthening more to the fact that it's painful? Or is it more mental and due to the lack of mobility that you're experiencing a tough time?
Also how is lengthening the last amounts different for you from your first amounts as far as difficulty, tightness and pain?
Quote from: Johnson1111 on June 27, 2018, 09:22:50 PMHey Rocky, been following and have a few questions for you.
So you mentioned that even as a guy with a good pain threshold, things are getting tough lately.
Would you attribute the tough lengthening more to the fact that it's painful? Or is it more mental and due to the lack of mobility that you're experiencing a tough time?
Also how is lengthening the last amounts different for you from your first amounts as far as difficulty, tightness and pain?
Hello Jonhson1111
Very good question. I guess it is a combination of multiple factors that can be linked together.
Since I started using the stepping machine more often, I neglected the daily walking a little bit. I guess I got too excited about breaking my time records and challenging my self on the machine. Which means my knees rotations were enhanced while enforcing full body weight loading decreased. That has weaken my legs to carry my body weight, while I was still clicking myself taller. Dr. Jamal was concerned about it today and asked me to pay attention to full body weight bearing from now on. He told me all this stepping machine bike excitement is fine and important, but I should keep the weight bearing duty on the top of my daily agenda, to avoid using a wheel chair one day. He kept saying: "Keep your self in a vertical position as much as possible and as long you are awake".
Pain comes with the fact that I sometimes forget to move from bed and lay down watching a movie or so for hours. The leg muscles will in this case try to relax back to their "actual" size and will pull on the muscle scenes and knees in return, which will eventually cause pain in your knees. This happens also when you wake up everyday from a few hours night sleep. To avoid that, one has to be constantly active as long one is awake. No need for heavy exercises in this case. Just move around in the room every here and then. This will tell your brain and muscles: "We need to adapt to the new height". The brain plays an important role here, because the balance comes from the back side of the brain. For every new mm you add, the brain has to be programmed to balance your body muscles to the new incremental height.
Then you have tightness from the hamstrings and hips. The hamstrings are trying to adapt to the new length too while you are pushing them to be taller every day. So they will keep pulling your standing position in a way that you are forced to bend your knees. The same applies to the hips muscles which will force you to stand in a "Duck Ass" bending position. Hips muscles are weaker than leg muscles so they will be the slowest muscles to adapt during your rehabilitation. It is not painful but I would rather describe it as annoying. Those anatomy changes will keep you occupied, especially at night/bed time. The tightness will sometimes make you feel an irritation and wake up in the middle of the night (like my case now). To avoid it, take a walk in the room on your flat feet (not toes) and try to keep your back straight. This will keep your hamstrings and hip muscles leaner. NOT lean enough but leaner than the starting position
All those changes never happened to me in my case when the lengthening was below 5 cm. The first 5 cm were seriously like having a vacation. It went fast and without major efforts. As mentioned earlier, I have been an x boxer earlier in my life. So I am used to pain and being knocked down on the floor during a fight while bleeding all over my face and still keep getting up to continue the fight. I have been into fights before with broken bones or twisted wrist but never told it to the judges to not be disqualified and lose a match. Anyway. So the first 5 cm "painless" experience might be different on another person. I guess it is individual. It is just my personal experience so far.
On the contrary, every mm above the 5 cm is a fight now. I guess that I have passed the 7 cm on my right leg. We will know for sure once we scan the legs next week.
Dr. Jamal joked today and said: "If you need to be taller than 7 cm, you need to roll your arms and fight. There is no other way around it. Once you pass the 7, you need to declare war"
I hope I have answered your questions. Otherwise please feel free to ask again.
Have a pleasant evening and may God bless you.
Day 67 Update:
I had a nice experience today.
One of Dr. Jamal's x patients came from UK to Ukraine to visit Kiev this week. This fellow has lengthen his femur legs 11 cm back in 2006. It was at the time when Dr. Dragan and Dr. Jamal were working together (before Dr. Dragan passed away).
I was very curious to meet that guy. So I asked Dr. Jamal if he could invite him to my apartment. To cut it short, both of them came to visit me just before.
I was told that his starting height was around my height. Maybe 1 cm taller if I remember correct. The guy was standing way taller than Dr. Jamal. He was around 182 cm.
We had a very nice chat about his journey and his recovery process. It was really interesting to listen to.
To be honest, and I also said it directly to him, his height was very impressive. But on the other hand I could tell that his femur was very long in proportion comparing to his tibia when he was sitting on the chair.
If I didn't know that he did LL surgery, I would have probably not noticed it. He told me the same thing. That people that don't know about his surgery have never questioned his proportions.
Regardless of that. 11 freaken cm!!! A real life example of a young man who is standing a head taller in front of my eyes. Not that I would go to 11 cm, but it gave me so much motivation.
I was telling this young man that I am considering femur this year and tibia next year. He actually advised me to not pass 7-8 cm on femur and throw additional 5 cm on tibia if I was looking for nice proportions. It would look better in his opinion. 12-13 cm in total wouldn't be bad at all. I guess he has a point.
We exchanged numbers and emails. He is going to join us on our CT Scan day on the 2nd of July.
Seriously, that was a nice experience
Day 68 Update:
I have given my right leg 5 days break, because it was very tense lately. The thing is, when the muscles are tight, clicking becomes difficult. When the muscles are relaxed, clicking is way easier.
I was walking on the walker this morning and I felt my right leg was relaxed and muscles were lean. So I gave it a try and started clicking it. It went very very smooth. So 1 mm is secured on right leg today.
On the other hand, I was putting a lot of load on left leg in the last 5 days, so I feel that left leg needs 1 or 2 days vacation to relax a bit 
I am trying to listen to my body and pay attention to my legs condition all the time. I do not want to overload my legs with lots of clicks when they in reality are asking for rest instead.
Tip: Hamstrings "Passive" stretching
One of the worst muscles in leg lengthening is the hamstrings muscles. As I explained in earlier updates that the hamstrings will push your knees to bend when you pass the 5 cm or more. So physio therapy is a good remedy. But you need to stretch the hamstrings all the time.
Cold stretching is not a good idea. So you have to warm up the muscle by using the stepping machine, bike or just walk a decent distance in advance.
Instead of applying active stretching (by forcing your self to stretch that nasty muscle), just warm up your muscles as described earlier, then lay down in your bed on your stomach. You will notice that your lower legs will be pointing upwards in the air and your toes are not touching the bed surface 
Just put some music on and relax. Let gravity do the work for you
You will notice that the muscle will start to stretch and your toes will get closer to the bed surface.
From time to time get up on your knees (in a doggy position ) to let the blood flow in your toes and repeat this passive stretching for few minutes again.
It does miracles
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