onemorefoot- I didn't ask about that nail, he just brought up this info to me. I'll try to remember to ask next time.
Peaceout-
I had a gut feeling early on, but I gave it time to become educated on the process and to make sure I was making the right decision.
Dr. Paley understands. He is totally fine with doing AL, and is confident enough to allow me to continue at home.
Up to 8cm is ok but of course i'm much more conservative with my goal. Ultimately, the nail that lengthens 5cm would fit in my humerus.
The first week it's exactly what you would expect a broken arm to feel like; I can only explain it as "fk." My experience with hospital pain management has been less than stellar so I decided to forgo use of the PCA pump and painkillers during my 2 day stay. I am however using light painkillers at the moment. It's still extremely painful and hurts whenever I move it sharply or try to exert any strength. Most of the time I have a pulsing pain from the osteotomy site. It's more difficult than I expected. The reality: none of this is easy. Lengthening is relatively painless though. I assume most of my pain is left over from the trauma caused to the bone and muscles from the bone osteotomy and nail insertion. Physical therapy hurts quite a bit. I can write just fine and using the computer is becoming easier everyday. Hence my sudden posting- I was in lurker mode for a while.
I understand people thought I looked normal in my pictures and in real life and I agree I looked surprisingly good next to a natural 5 10 but I don't think it's unreasonable for someone who grew 4.5 inches in their legs to want to balance it out by lengthening their arms. Ultimately, I gave it a lot of thought and I am confident I made the right decision.
I am at 1.6 cm right now and if everything goes well and looks well I will go to 4cm.
Finally, I don't regret lengthening the amount I did, but I do think I was naive for me to do so without giving thought to my arm length. I was going to keep this surgery to myself but I was disappointed to find that Apo's diary was deleted and I was left with very little information to guide me. The least I can do is be honest with you guys and I hope in return you guys can respect my decision to go through with this lengthening.
