Nice Tiggy! Awesome progress- must feel amazing to be well past the halfway mark and moving closer and closer day by day.
I read earlier that you stopped taking pain meds. Do you think that if you continued with them they would help manage the burn and allow you to keep at it with 4 sessions/day? Also, how is your sleep going?
Quote from: TheAlchemist on July 14, 2019, 10:21:36 PMNice Tiggy! Awesome progress- must feel amazing to be well past the halfway mark and moving closer and closer day by day.
I read earlier that you stopped taking pain meds. Do you think that if you continued with them they would help manage the burn and allow you to keep at it with 4 sessions/day? Also, how is your sleep going?
Yes it absolutely does feel great to know I'm getting closer to finish line. I think once the half way mark is done, the other half is easier to get past, mentally at least.
Good question re the pain meds. In My experience the pain meds don't help with the pins and needles sensation I had in the past with my right leg, and that sensation was also accompanied with the burning sensation. I found that none of those symptoms improved. Besides dr R tries to get his patients off pain meds asap and I've tried to get off them in similar fashion. I also think he had me lengthen the left 3 times because I was lengthening the right only twice. I'm of the opinion that he lowered my left leg so that the discrepancy between them doesn't get too large. But again this is my assumption because I didn't actually ask why I didn't lengthen 4 times on the left leg. During my last follow up, my left leg was doing fine but I'm sure that now after I tell him my left leg is numb and burns, it's unlikely that he will have me do 4 sessions unless my callus is forming extremely fast. My hope is that at least he increases my right leg sessions if the callus is forming better.
As to sleep, actually my sleep is worse now than it was the first couple of weeks after surgery. I've tried laying off Tylenol pm and sleeping naturally but I find that I keep tossing from side to side and the discomfort doesn't allow me to sleep. It's as if my body is too awake to sleep without it. Even when I fall asleep, I turn at night and that wakes me up and then I can no longer sleep. I hate relying on any type of pills in general, especially to fall asleep. I know that Tylenol pm isn't addictive but I'm still concerned that taking it won't lead to anything good. At the same time I know this is a difficult time and I need to get past the lengthening phase, and so I'm conflicted. So to answer your question, I can only sleep well when I take it. Without it I'm half awake all night. I hope this improves soon because I hate taking pills!
Hey everyone,
Latest update after my follow up with Dr R:
I'm 10 weeks post op, left leg is at around 54mm, the right is at 50mm as of today. The X-rays don't show much change in my right leg in terms of callus formation, so things are moving slow. Dr R hasn't raised any alarms yet even though I am personally concerned. If you recall, before my follow up I was lengthening the left leg 3 times a day and the right was alternating between 2 and 3 lengthening sessions. During my visit I expressed to him that my left leg is now experiencing almost the same symptoms as my right leg in the past, albeit not as intense. The symptoms in my right leg have calmed down and that remains true still. However as Ive described before, the left shin had burning and numbness, accompanied by occasional sharp needle pain if standing on that leg for too long. As a result of these symptoms, he decided to drop the left leg lengthening sessions to alternating between 2 and 3 times, just like we did with the right leg when I experienced those symptoms. I am sure this will greatly alleviate the current discomfort with my left shin. Dr R was going to leave the right leg at the same pace (alternating), however because of my concern for the slow callus formation, I thought it would be a better idea to drop the right leg by a session, meaning I will be lengthening only 2 times a day without alternating. He agreed to allow me to do this since the callus formation is slow. I believe this is the best route for me at this time because rushing to lengthen while leaving a big gap of unhealed space in my legs is certainly not what I want. First and foremost I prioritize callus formation and I hope that lowering to twice a day will give it more time to fill in. By my calculations, I will be done with my right leg at the end of September which puts me at 4 months of right leg lengthening. That is far from ideal but like I said, safety first. I really don't understand why the callus is forming so slow. I'm starting to think that maybe Tylenol pm may play a part. I didn't bring this up to him but will do so on my next visit. Just to be safe, I've cut my use of Tylenol pm and I am now training myself to sleep without it.
In other news, I've displayed my bravery for walking unassisted to dr R lol. He was very surprised that I was walking unassisted pretty much full time but he cautioned me against doing this again because of the right leg having little callus. While my weight is within the nail's specifications for full weight baring, he still advised that I continue walking with some type of device to not put full weight on the nails. This just takes me back to my previous point, meaning it makes no sense to lengthen quickly when your bone isn't forming fast enough because you will continue walking with an assisted device (for safety reasons) even if you are capable to walk on your own. Safety is priority.
So I think that's about it for updates. What remains now is slow lengthening until I hit those 8cms. I will be seeing him again in 3 weeks and will update again regarding the callus formation at that time. Feel free to send questions and be well.
Thanks for the update Tiggy! In the grand scheme of things 4 months / September isn't that long relative to being taller for the rest of your life, rooting for you man!
In terms of slow callus forming, were there any indications as to the cause other than the possibility of it being Tylenol PM? I know you mentioned you were 30, but could it be lack of movement or not enough movement? Genetics/ ethnicity? Low Vitamin D levels?
Quote from: TheAlchemist on July 22, 2019, 03:21:41 PMThanks for the update Tiggy! In the grand scheme of things 4 months / September isn't that long relative to being taller for the rest of your life, rooting for you man!
In terms of slow callus forming, were there any indications as to the cause other than the possibility of it being Tylenol PM? I know you mentioned you were 30, but could it be lack of movement or not enough movement? Genetics/ ethnicity? Low Vitamin D levels?
Hey Alchemist,
Thanks for the support. Actually no there were no indications. We went over the medications and vitamins I was taking (I mentioned everything but Tylenol pm since I forgot) including the doses of vitamin D and all seemed in order according to him. Im taking over 5000 ious of vitamin d per day. I think that's the norm. I'm Caucasian for what it's worth and in terms of walking, I walk a lot and stretch regularly. As I've said before, I was walking unassisted and putting full weight on the legs to hopefully promote growth but to no avail it seems. Perhaps I just simply need to give it time since my bones are healing slowly. Let's hope that the further downgrade in lengthening sessions helps on that front. In fact I asked dr R whether continuing to lengthen will increase the likelihood of bones not fusing and he said no. He said the condition of the healing hasn't worsened since my last visit, and so he took that as a good sign and I think that is why he said it's fine to proceed. Only time will tell though
Hey Tiggy,
Sorry to hear about your callus issue. I hope it will get better with time.
Can I ask if you smoked before surgery? If so, for how long, how often, how long before surgery did you stop etc?
Keep a positive mindset, listen to your body and doctor's advice and all should be well. I'm glad you're taking the lengthening slowly as safety is extremely important as you've highlighted.
Routing for you my man!
Quote from: BeYourBest on July 23, 2019, 03:56:32 PMHey Tiggy,
Sorry to hear about your callus issue. I hope it will get better with time.
Can I ask if you smoked before surgery? If so, for how long, how often, how long before surgery did you stop etc?
Keep a positive mindset, listen to your body and doctor's advice and all should be well. I'm glad you're taking the lengthening slowly as safety is extremely important as you've highlighted.
Routing for you my man!
Hey BYB,
No I have never smoked in my life. There are also no other prior illnesses/conditions that I have had which could adversely impact bone growth. It is all just luck, you could never predict how your body is going to respond to this or any other surgery even if you do everything right. I think I just need more time than others in my age group to get past the callus formation stage. Thanks for your post.
Hi Tiggy can you post your latest x-rays?
Quote from: cena on July 23, 2019, 06:47:23 PMHi Tiggy can you post your latest x-rays?
Hey, I haven't taken a photo of the X-rays but will try to do so during my next visit.
Quote from: tiggy on July 23, 2019, 06:20:10 PMHey BYB,
No I have never smoked in my life. There are also no other prior illnesses/conditions that I have had which could adversely impact bone growth. It is all just luck, you could never predict how your body is going to respond to this or any other surgery even if you do everything right. I think I just need more time than others in my age group to get past the callus formation stage. Thanks for your post.
That's fair - thanks for your response. I hope everything gets better very soon!
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