My Vertical Push with Dr. Debiparshad (Strydes in Femurs)

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suuper awesome bro! congrats you're nearing the last stretch, you got this! as far as dating best wishes bro It's hard while on CLL I bet

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Valiant effort on dating! Haha. When I read you had been on dates I saluted you!  Understandable that some pause is had by the lady; however super cool that the one lady didn't make it a deal-breaker.  Once distraction is done; you'll be walking smoother each day.

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All, thanks for your great responses and the encouraging words of wisdom about dating! Just wanted to quickly point out that Dr. D. had a chance to review the x-rays and says things look good. He noted I'm not producing "a ton of new bone", but he's not worried. As long as that's not doctor talk for "you're really screwed!" then I feel good.

Quote from: SimonFuller on August 20, 2019, 07:19:58 AMI think the dating thing is to be expected. I wouldn't come to any dating conclusions until after you are walking like normal. Just because one girl is more accepting of limp than another doesn't give me enough to go by to say she is a guaranteed nicer person.

7cm and still going - good on you! I hope you get through this week with no problems - will we get another video?
Great point SimonFuller! You're right that everything will change once I'm walking like normal. For now, girls might think I'll permanently walk like this (and I can't blame them for thinking that), especially after I tell them I had leg surgery a few months ago. Probably best to not treat dating very seriously until I'm walking normal, but easier said than done!

Right now my walking is nothing I'm proud of. However, if there is demand for a new walking video I'll ask for my PT to take a video of me on Monday. I certainly intend to post some walking videos after distraction ends and my walking really does begin to improve!

Quote from: Movie on August 20, 2019, 07:56:10 AMsuuper awesome bro! congrats you're nearing the last stretch, you got this! as far as dating best wishes bro It's hard while on CLL I bet
Thank you my man Movie! I'm keeping up with your diary -- you are doing AWESOME! You must feel great at this point - you've made it far past the most difficult phases of the journey.

Quote from: InFullStryde on August 20, 2019, 08:49:14 PMValiant effort on dating! Haha. When I read you had been on dates I saluted you!  Understandable that some pause is had by the lady; however super cool that the one lady didn't make it a deal-breaker.  Once distraction is done; you'll be walking smoother each day.

Thank you brother, InFullStryde! It's a nice litmus test to see how genuine a girl is! If she'll stick with you during this (like Movie has in his girlfriend), then they are for certain a keeper. I said it before but I can't wait to be at your point, and reading how much better things got for you after distraction was over is the best motivation I could possibly have!!

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Everyone, very quick update. I officially stopped lengthening this past Monday at 7.5 cm's on each side -- but don't get excited for me yet.

I'm flying back to Vegas one week from Monday. I was fearing there is a discrepancy between my left and right femur. When I started, my right leg was slightly shorter than my left leg. Now, it seems pretty obvious to me my right leg is longer than my left leg. I asked my PT to measure both femurs, and she found the left femur was about 1cm shorter than my right femur. I contacted Dr. D.'s people and they scheduled me right away for another round of x-rays to precisely determine the measurements of each femur. According to his people, if they do find the left femur is 1cm shorter, they'll reset the machine and I'll start lengthening again to catch up to the right femur.

There's a bit of pain in my left femur but I think that's because I've walked so much more this past week than I have since the surgery. Walking is getting a *bit* closer to normal, but my gait is still far from normal. I'll keep everyone updated, especially after I meet with Dr. D. I will say I'm enjoying this window where I'm not lengthening!

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congrats bro! other than the minor inconvenience it's so cool you're pretty much wrapped up with lengthening! can't wait till I'm there

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What was your daily rate of distraction? Do you have a lot of callus?

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Quote from: Movie on August 31, 2019, 03:10:24 AMcongrats bro! other than the minor inconvenience it's so cool you're pretty much wrapped up with lengthening! can't wait till I'm there

Thanks Movie! It does feel incredible to be finished (for now at least) with lengthening. You forget how nice it is to go about your day without needing to remember to lengthen. Even if I do resume lengthening on my left femur, we're talking about 10 days maximum, and my other femur will continue to heal.

Quote from: wannagrowtaller on August 31, 2019, 07:30:27 AMWhat was your daily rate of distraction? Do you have a lot of callus?

Hey wannagrowtaller! Yes, there is a good amount of callus. The x-ray techs commented on that the last two times I had x-rays done locally. I'm hoping that's all normal and a good sign that my bone is growing.

I distracted 3x for the first 4 cms (so 1 mm/day). After that, I distracted 2x/day (so .66mm per day). The last two weeks of lengthening I went back to 3x/day with none of the side effects I had before. I stopped lengthening entirely after this past Monday morning, so if I resume lengthening my left femur after seeing Dr. D. there will have been exactly 2 weeks of not lengthening.

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Hello from Las Vegas everyone! I have quite an update today.

It's officially been two weeks since I stopped distraction. In that time, I grew increasingly concerned that my right femur was longer than my left femur. My physical therapist estimated it was about 1 CM longer. Today I had follow up with Dr. D. and we now officially know that my right femur is indeed 1cm longer than my left femur. He instructed me to resume lengthening my left femur almost 1cm.

Another unexpected twist is that my bones have consolidated very quickly since the last x-ray, and Dr. D. is a bit concerned that there might be pre-consolidation in my left femur, which is the one I'll need to start lengthening again. In his office, we ran a quick test. He had me lengthen the femur 2mm in one session (that's not a typo!) while I was there in his office, which felt like it took forever since I'm used to lengthening only .33mm per session. He then had Ronnie run another series of x-rays and fortunately the nail expanded as designed (if the bone was preconsolidated, then the nail would not be able to expand, as he explained). But that isn't a 100% guarantee that it won't preconsolidate.

I am to lengthen 3x/day for the next 7 days. The nuvasive rep will call me tomorrow to reprogram my ERC machine to allow that (remember, the ERC thinks I've already lengthened 7.5 cm on my left feur). Dr. D. wants me back in Las Vegas for another (hopefully final) set of measurements two weeks from now.  At that time, if my left femur did not lengthen as it should have, he will perform an outpatient surgery the same day to re-break the left femur. If that's needed, he said he will run it through my insurance, and he will charge me his exact cost. Although that is reassuring to hear, I really hope it lengthens as designs and it doesn't come to that!

The news was a little bittersweet. He confirmed what I thought, but it's a tough pill to swallow to resume lengthening the one (left) femur. He said the other option is to reverse the longer (right) femur, but I really don't want to do that on principle alone. I'm very much ready to be finished with this. I started the process in May, and I wasn't anticipating that I'd still be lengthening in September. My advice for everyone out there is to know things frequently don't go according to the plan. Having said that, we're talking about 7 days which in the grand scheme of things isn't that big of a deal.

Dr. D. and his staff is great. By the way, as far as I could tell I was his only patient this afternoon. I was literally in his office for over 3 hours! You definitely get the feeling that he cares. I'll keep everyone updated.

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Quote from: verticalpush on September 10, 2019, 06:27:00 AMHello from Las Vegas everyone! I have quite an update today.

It's officially been two weeks since I stopped distraction. In that time, I grew increasingly concerned that my right femur was longer than my left femur. My physical therapist estimated it was about 1 CM longer. Today I had follow up with Dr. D. and we now officially know that my right femur is indeed 1cm longer than my left femur. He instructed me to resume lengthening my left femur almost 1cm.

Another unexpected twist is that my bones have consolidated very quickly since the last x-ray, and Dr. D. is a bit concerned that there might be pre-consolidation in my left femur, which is the one I'll need to start lengthening again. In his office, we ran a quick test. He had me lengthen the femur 2mm in one session (that's not a typo!) while I was there in his office, which felt like it took forever since I'm used to lengthening only .33mm per session. He then had Ronnie run another series of x-rays and fortunately the nail expanded as designed (if the bone was preconsolidated, then the nail would not be able to expand, as he explained). But that isn't a 100% guarantee that it won't preconsolidate.

I am to lengthen 3x/day for the next 7 days. The nuvasive rep will call me tomorrow to reprogram my ERC machine to allow that (remember, the ERC thinks I've already lengthened 7.5 cm on my left feur). Dr. D. wants me back in Las Vegas for another (hopefully final) set of measurements two weeks from now.  At that time, if my left femur did not lengthen as it should have, he will perform an outpatient surgery the same day to re-break the left femur. If that's needed, he said he will run it through my insurance, and he will charge me his exact cost. Although that is reassuring to hear, I really hope it lengthens as designs and it doesn't come to that!

The news was a little bittersweet. He confirmed what I thought, but it's a tough pill to swallow to resume lengthening the one (left) femur. He said the other option is to reverse the longer (right) femur, but I really don't want to do that on principle alone. I'm very much ready to be finished with this. I started the process in May, and I wasn't anticipating that I'd still be lengthening in September. My advice for everyone out there is to know things frequently don't go according to the plan. Having said that, we're talking about 7 days which in the grand scheme of things isn't that big of a deal.

Dr. D. and his staff is great. By the way, as far as I could tell I was his only patient this afternoon. I was literally in his office for over 3 hours! You definitely get the feeling that he cares. I'll keep everyone updated.

Good luck bud - I really understand your frustration  - keep us posted.

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Quote from: verticalpush on September 10, 2019, 06:27:00 AMHello from Las Vegas everyone! I have quite an update today.

It's officially been two weeks since I stopped distraction. In that time, I grew increasingly concerned that my right femur was longer than my left femur. My physical therapist estimated it was about 1 CM longer. Today I had follow up with Dr. D. and we now officially know that my right femur is indeed 1cm longer than my left femur. He instructed me to resume lengthening my left femur almost 1cm.

Another unexpected twist is that my bones have consolidated very quickly since the last x-ray, and Dr. D. is a bit concerned that there might be pre-consolidation in my left femur, which is the one I'll need to start lengthening again. In his office, we ran a quick test. He had me lengthen the femur 2mm in one session (that's not a typo!) while I was there in his office, which felt like it took forever since I'm used to lengthening only .33mm per session. He then had Ronnie run another series of x-rays and fortunately the nail expanded as designed (if the bone was preconsolidated, then the nail would not be able to expand, as he explained). But that isn't a 100% guarantee that it won't preconsolidate.

I am to lengthen 3x/day for the next 7 days. The nuvasive rep will call me tomorrow to reprogram my ERC machine to allow that (remember, the ERC thinks I've already lengthened 7.5 cm on my left feur). Dr. D. wants me back in Las Vegas for another (hopefully final) set of measurements two weeks from now.  At that time, if my left femur did not lengthen as it should have, he will perform an outpatient surgery the same day to re-break the left femur. If that's needed, he said he will run it through my insurance, and he will charge me his exact cost. Although that is reassuring to hear, I really hope it lengthens as designs and it doesn't come to that!

The news was a little bittersweet. He confirmed what I thought, but it's a tough pill to swallow to resume lengthening the one (left) femur. He said the other option is to reverse the longer (right) femur, but I really don't want to do that on principle alone. I'm very much ready to be finished with this. I started the process in May, and I wasn't anticipating that I'd still be lengthening in September. My advice for everyone out there is to know things frequently don't go according to the plan. Having said that, we're talking about 7 days which in the grand scheme of things isn't that big of a deal.

Dr. D. and his staff is great. By the way, as far as I could tell I was his only patient this afternoon. I was literally in his office for over 3 hours! You definitely get the feeling that he cares. I'll keep everyone updated.

Wishing you all the best Verticalpush! 7 days is nothing in the grand scheme of things, excited to see you almost there at the finish line of distraction!

My surgery is booked in exactly 1 week, so as you finish I'll be starting haha. Your diary has been super helpful leading up to my big date, thank you for everything!