Can anyone provide any information or point me to the relevant diaries (even if on the "old site," if you know of any diaries off the top of your head) that would give me as much color as possible regarding the tibia LL process. I am interested in doing a small amount on tibias (probably no more than 4cm to keep the risks in check), but Dr. Guichet (who did femurs on me) keeps advising me against tibias and saying that the recovery time (even for a small lengthening amount) would be very long.
I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because more on femurs would be easy, but would result in bad proportions (although my proportions look pretty good now, especially because I've bulked my thighs back up) and potentially biomechanic issues. I feel that tibias are a much more difficult choice, but overall better for the long-term.
Would it be possible to be walking unaided within 3 months for 4cm on tibias? Or is this completely out of the question?
Realistic/Conservative Recovery Time for Tibias
Yea im curious about this too, and which method would be the fastest for recovery
Yeah. Tibias really scare me. I know many people have done them and have been fine, but I don't know, they just scare me. And Dr. G warning me not to do them (although, he is super conservative and holds his patients to very high standards, so there's that too) is making me even more hesitant.
I might have to accept my current height, but I really don't want to. I feel like I'm so close to being at least a low average, but yet, so far. Very frustrating.
I am considering doing 4 cm with Dr. Mitkovic and I have read a lot of diaries of people doing tibias with him or tibias with other doctors. Unfortunately, most of the people did relatively large lengthening, 6+ so cannot really tell, I mean 6 is a lot more than 4, that ls like 50% more..., but from what I read, people returned to normal walking at the end of the 6th month and recovered completely towards the end of the 10th, meaning the had the frames removed then.
With that being said, I am pretty sure that with Dr. Guichet you would be able to walk normally, provided you do only 4 cm, towards the end of the 4th month, probably earlier but surely until the end of the 4th. Still, if he is so adamant that you shouldnt do it then it might be the case that he doesnt feel comfortable operating your tibias and you should go with another doctor.
I think Dr. G doesn't want to do tibias on me for the following reasons:
1. According to his (very high) standards, I "healed slowly" on my femurs (but I sort of attribute this to my fault - I didn't walk as much as I should have early on after clicking because I was afraid to, even though Gnail is weight-bearing
2. According to him as well, femurs are a good indicator of how tibias will go, and since I healed slower than he would have liked on femurs, he's worried tibias might be exponentially longer
I blame myself for healing relatively slowly (although, I still think I did well on average across all internal femur patients). I should have walked a lot more without crutches early on. What impeded me were the stairs in my apartment and also the fact that it was winter right after I finished clicking, and so the conditions weren't the best for walking. But this definitely played a big part in my slow-ish consolidation. And my left leg took a bit longer, but I think everyone has a good leg and a bad leg.
Does Dr G perform cosmetic tibia lengthening anymore? I don't recall anyone doing tibs with him, maybe I'm mistaken. I think you should contact some other surgeons who perform CLL, maybe even ones who prefer doing tibs like Dr Catagni in Italy, send in your x-rays, and see if you get a different response. One risk of you doing another round of femur lengthening is that although you may be rid of your height neurosis there's a possibility that you'll start to fret over disproportion between segments later on and it can weigh on you mentally.
Quote from: KiloKAHN on January 21, 2016, 10:23:34 PMDoes Dr G perform cosmetic tibia lengthening anymore? I don't recall anyone doing tibs with him, maybe I'm mistaken. I think you should contact some other surgeons who perform CLL, maybe even ones who prefer doing tibs like Dr Catagni in Italy, send in your x-rays, and see if you get a different response. One risk of you doing another round of femur lengthening is that although you may be rid of your height neurosis there's a possibility that you'll start to fret over disproportion between segments later on and it can weigh on you mentally.
Yeah, that's exactly my concern. I don't want to trade height neurosis for proportion neurosis. My proportions now are fine now (and look better lately, because my thighs are bulked back up), but I'm very borderline as to if I could pull off another inch proportion wise. I'm leaning towards no...but my proportions (or at least, the look of them) I think have improved due to regaining much of the lost muscle on my thighs. But regardless, this isn't even mentioning potential biomechanic issues down the road.
I'm going to start contacting other doctors regarding tibias and let them know that the doctor who did femurs on me (I'll try to withhold his name) really does not want me to do tibias.
I believe that Dr. G does do tibias, but in very rare circumstances. I don't know the method he uses, but my understanding is that while he does do tibias, he greatly prefers femurs.
why not to try catagni?
The more I think about this sh*t, the more it seems I may very well be stuck at 5'8". Which isn't the end of the world...just not where I'd personally prefer to be (5'9-5'10", which is at least average-ish). I'm a perfectionist, and just knowing that I really haven't done ALL that I can to fix my height issue (haven't done tibias) I'm sure will be a recurring thing I struggle with. But I will say therapy is helping a little bit.
I'm still somewhat considering 2cm max on my femurs just to get to 175cm evening height. Dr. G. sent me a picture of a patient (blurred his face) who did (no joke) 18cm on just his femurs from a starting height of I believe 162cm. The picture he sent me showed the guy in a shirt and shorts, and I could see his entire body. He actually looked totally fine in clothes...but nked with a woman, might be a very different story. And then I remember Leechlet actually didn't look bad after 10cm and he was like 160cm to start with. So maybe I can pull off another 2cm for 9cm in total, even if proportions won't be totally ideal. I'm very, very on the fence about this, obviously. My proportions now look really good because I've bulked my quads back up, which create the illusion of shorter quads (in earlier pictures that I shared with others, my proportions looked worse because my quads were very thin).
Maybe in my mid 30s after I've been working here longer and have bought property (looking to buy a place this year or next) and have some cash to burn, I'll be in a better position to do tibias. I think they're the overall better solution...but I also want to get on my with life and put LL/broken bones/surgery/height disphoria behind me as much as possible.
How much did you increase your Femurs ?
Man, it would be close to insane to break your femurs one more time to add 2 cm and pay Guichet 70k more. Are you crazy 
Just contact another top doctor, go to Betz or Monegal or Dr. Franz in South Affrica, they are at the same price range , you can comfortably get 4-5 cm on your tibias, look proportionate, pay less.....why would you pay 70k more for 2 cm and break your barely healed bones again
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