Hello LL friends,
Just another case of limb lengthening here. I'm doing tibias + femurs at the Paley institutes. Dr. Robbins & Paley will perform on me. My tibia surgery already happened on the 01/18/2022. I've been super busy setting up the logistics for this journey. Therefore I wasn't able to post this diary earlier. I'll go back in the correct timeline to share with you guys what I've done to prepare for this. As also, any feedback/suggestion is much appreciated.
A little about me:
- Asian male, not married
- Age: 30 - 36
- Night height: 163cm, weight ~135 lbs
Background: I work in IT industry. Covid & working from home made this procedure an easy possibility.
Logistics: I reside in the west coast. I made a move to West Palm Beach (WPB) just for this journey. Yep you heard it right. I signed a 1-year lease for a 2d2ba apartment. My apartment is very close to their recommended extended hotels. I also work with 2 wheelchair taxi companies to assist with my commute. My reasoning for the move: I've spent hours reading previous patients' experiences, read the Paley's paper thoroughly, pretty much did my homework. I think the environmental support is also important for recovery. So I moved my whole life package here to ensure that. I had what I need every day to maintain an uplifting life: Sonos speakers, 55" TV, sofa, dining table, well setup living room, standup desk, work laptop + 2 monitors, etc you get the point.
Help: I was very very very lucky to have my older sister here with me. She flew here from Asia on a B2 visa and will be staying with me for about 3mo. She cooks plenty delicious food and is very caring - a great emotional support for me.
That's about it for intro. Let me know if I miss any info that could be useful for other LL patients or anyone wondering about this sophisticated adventure.
Quadrilateral lengthening - Dr. Paley & Robbins
testing..
OK, here is the timeline of how my journey started.
Several years ago, I got to know about LL. At that point it was just a vague idea in my head and I wasn't sure I want to do it. I did a lot of readings about different doctors in the world. I concluded the top 3 in my researches: Dr Rozbruch NY, Shahab Mahboubian in CA, and the Paley Institutes.
End of summer 2021, I decided to have consultancy with Dr. R & Paley. I called both places to setup appt. The thing standing out with Paley's is that the process seemed well organized. They even sent potential patient a couple of research papers. Being an engineer myself, a process with thorough documentation stood out to me.
10/20/2021: I flew to NY to talk to Dr. R. My appt was at 1pm but I waited until 5pm to get to meet him. I was hungry and tired. I was glad to meet him in person and asked him the story about Sam (a pretty famous patient of R who did 8cm femur lengthening at the age of 25). Sam was recovering fine according to R. I think he is over 30yo now. Here I had my x-ray taken.
10/26/2021: Consultancy with Dr. Robbins at the Paley's institutes. I was given a tour of the area where all LL patients were being treated. I also got to talk to a guy who was lengthening his tibias. He did femurs a year before, and came back to do tibias. The institutes look nice and people seemed caring here. I felt that LL procedure has been engineered to be a mature program here. So I made the decision to go to Paley's.
--------------- IMPORTANT : STRETCHING PREPARATION FOR THE BIG SURGERY -------------------------
In my 1st consultant day with Dr. Robbins, he said I'm quite tight, that everybody's tight. He suggested me to do running stretches before surgery. I was doing it at least 30min every day from then until my surgery.
This is an example of my exercise: https://www.purewow.com/wellness/best-hamstring-stretches. But in each move, I pushed myself to the limit. At the end of the 2mo, I was able to perform these:
1. STANDING TOE TOUCH: my whole palm touched the ground and elbow almost touched the ground also. I.e. I can sniff my knee
6. SEATED HAMSTRING STRETCH: back straight, I can sniff my knee
8. SEATED WIDE-LEG HAMSTRING STRETCH: leaned a lot forward with my elbow touching the ground. I can sniff the floor.
10. LYING HAMSTRING STRETCH WITH BAND: leg on the ground is straight, raising leg formed a >90 degree angle with the other leg.
Just so you get the idea, just push more than the limit visualized in those pictures. My personal story, 2-3 weeks into stretching, my legs hurt a lot especially the hamstrings. I even developed drop-foot symptoms on my left leg, i.e. when I walk, the left foot drops more and even makes noticeable sound with my shoe lace. That went away later as it seemed the foot got used to the new looseness. 1+ mo into stretching, I got a feeling that I torn my left hamstring (like a sound you could hear/feel when you tear a piece of meat). This went together with a dark blue bruise at the back of my left thigh. Was a bit worried so I went to zoomcare to checkup, but it was OK. They advice me to go easy on myself (lol). Then fast forward 2mo into stretching, I was able to perform all those moves at ease. I could even hold each position for 45s instead of 30s. Then I knew that my hamstrings were much loosen.
01/10/2022 when I had pre-surgery talk with Dr. Robbins, he examined me and said that I'm very loose compared to other people.
I was scheduled to have tibias surgery on 01/11/2022 and femurs on 02/01/2022 (3 weeks apart)
12/27/2021: Me & my sister flew to WPB. We had to stay in a temp airbnb place for 2 weeks before our apartment is ready for move-in.
01/07/2022: Moved in the new apt, rushing to setup things.
01/10/2022: Pre-surgery administration & PCR covid test
01/11/2022: Came in for surgery at 6am to find out my covid test was positive. They called me few hours later asked that I need to be quarantined for 7 day. My tibias surgery would be delayed to 01/18/2022. But my femur's stay the same. So it's only 2 week apart now.
01/18/2022: Came in at 6am. They prepped me for a pretty long time. MAKE SURE you revise everything you read before signing. My 1st surgery is tibias, but somehow the prepped paper was saying femurs which is wrong. I spotted it & alerted the nurses, explaining to them how my procedure works: tibias first, then 2-3 weeks later femurs. The nurse who composed the paper was called in to print another paper for me to sign. Things are good then at this point. Just a bit of confusion, no big deal. They also drew my blood again because the one done a week ago was no longer valid (they said those are only valid for 72h)
The anesthesia doctor came in to give me a consent before pumping the drug. I remember saying goodbye to my sister around 9-10am. Then they rolled me to a room with lots of bright white lights when I lost consciousness soon after. When I woke up it's already 3-4pm. They let my sister come in seeing me, and I knew the surgery was done. They rolled me to my care room.
Thanks Highest & yin. I'm discharged today. I'll post details of my 1st hospital stay when I get home.
Quote from: GodsGrace on January 23, 2022, 03:22:52 AMHey buddy, I know who you are :-). PM me when you get a chance!
Hey just PM you 
. But not sure if it went through. It's been a while since I used any forum like this.
Quote from: GodsGrace on January 24, 2022, 02:08:01 PMHey buddy, your first outpatient PT is today at 7 AM right? How did it go?
Also, forgot to ask you, did you get your braces already? Have you been using them already? If yes can you share your experience with that?
1st world of advice: if you're out for early AM PT, wear warm. I wasn't prepared & wear a short. The morning cold worsened my pain.
Thanks man for the tips using the ice pack.
Yes I got my braces from Falk Prosthetics looks like they partnered with Paley. The boosts are customized for each patient now. They were heated to expand a bit to anticipate the swollen leg size when I came pick them up, so they weren't too bad to me. Experiences: wearing a long socks will probably help. When I didn't wear socks, the area close to my toes pushed against the base, so it hurts and woke me up at night. A long socks should help your legs "breath" better. I wear short socks so the back of my tibias kinda "sticky" against the boosts, but wasn't too bothering me.
1st PT was OK with basic stretches of the calf & hamstring. My left leg is fine but the right one has a weird annoying pain: a tiny twist of my foot would radiate a sharp lev-8 pain to my tibia bone (I think) where the breakage is. So it's annoyingly sensitive if someone/something collides with my ankle or foot front even just softly. Do you have any similar symptom? I'll ask for an x-ray taken tomorrow if they let me.
Quote from: SuchLL on January 24, 2022, 11:47:39 PMYou can ask your PT to give you pairs of compression socks. They are free and I probably got 6 pairs.
Thanks SuchLL, I'll ask the PT.
I think I'm in an OK state now. I've been focusing on PT, surviving pain period, logging my pain meds etc. My pain is currently manageable >2w after femur surgery. I'll add details soon.
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