Posted on Apr 17, 2020, 7:43 pm
#1
Currently in the consolidation phase and getting very restless, so I decided to share my experience to kill some time and also to help people out there to make more informed decisions.
More about myself:
From the wealthiest SEA country
Under 40 years old (don't wish to be too specific for privacy reasons)
pure external tibia 3~3.3cm
pre-LL height is between 5.4" to 5.7" (don't wish to be too specific for privacy reasons)
I got the surgery done in Russia early Jan this year and returned back to my country after one week in the hospital. Prior to the surgery, I got in contact with the Russian surgeon and discussed my goals, date of surgery and whatnot over a span of about 6 months. I also made sure that my local orthopaedic has experience in ilizarov and is agreeable to seeing me during my lengthening phase as I knew I would not be able to stay in Russia for the entire lengthening phase due to visa issues and the medical system back in my country is excellent.
In case anyone is wondering, my country's public hospitals do not do LL for cosmetic reasons, one would have to go to a private hospital to get it done, which would cost close to 100k USD.
I started lengthening around 10 days after the surgery at a rate of 1mm per day at the most and some days around 0.5-0.75mm just to give my body some time to catch up. Infections are hard to clear despite frequent pin site cleaning and oral antibiotics, but my local ortho does not seem to be too concerned by the infection as long as they do not spread to the bone and pain is still tolerable. One thing that people have to be prepared for is the swelling of the feet and ankles, I did my own stretching and was a little too aggressive and thus injured my tendons around the lower part of the tibia.
Even though the frames are fully weight bearing as tolerable, walking isn't easy as I thought it would be. The frames are supporting the fractured bones, but affecting the skin, muscles and tendons. I only lengthened 3 cm, but already I am unable to achieve more than 90 degrees of dorsiflexion; could be due to swelling of the ankles as well.
According to the 2 cm per month rule, my bones should be consolidated enough to remove the frames by july. I will only be seeing my ortho again in early June and he will decide a course of action based on the x-rays by then, which would be to either leave the frames on all the way until a safe consolidation amount if he deems the bone growth rate as satisfactory, or set me up for an operation to remove the frames and put plates together with bone grafting. For the plates to work, a good amount of consolidation must still be present since they are not really weight bearing. He prefers plating over nailing due to the higher risk and difficulty in treating infection if it happens.
That's about it for now, feel free to ask some questions.
More about myself:
From the wealthiest SEA country
Under 40 years old (don't wish to be too specific for privacy reasons)
pure external tibia 3~3.3cm
pre-LL height is between 5.4" to 5.7" (don't wish to be too specific for privacy reasons)
I got the surgery done in Russia early Jan this year and returned back to my country after one week in the hospital. Prior to the surgery, I got in contact with the Russian surgeon and discussed my goals, date of surgery and whatnot over a span of about 6 months. I also made sure that my local orthopaedic has experience in ilizarov and is agreeable to seeing me during my lengthening phase as I knew I would not be able to stay in Russia for the entire lengthening phase due to visa issues and the medical system back in my country is excellent.
In case anyone is wondering, my country's public hospitals do not do LL for cosmetic reasons, one would have to go to a private hospital to get it done, which would cost close to 100k USD.
I started lengthening around 10 days after the surgery at a rate of 1mm per day at the most and some days around 0.5-0.75mm just to give my body some time to catch up. Infections are hard to clear despite frequent pin site cleaning and oral antibiotics, but my local ortho does not seem to be too concerned by the infection as long as they do not spread to the bone and pain is still tolerable. One thing that people have to be prepared for is the swelling of the feet and ankles, I did my own stretching and was a little too aggressive and thus injured my tendons around the lower part of the tibia.
Even though the frames are fully weight bearing as tolerable, walking isn't easy as I thought it would be. The frames are supporting the fractured bones, but affecting the skin, muscles and tendons. I only lengthened 3 cm, but already I am unable to achieve more than 90 degrees of dorsiflexion; could be due to swelling of the ankles as well.
According to the 2 cm per month rule, my bones should be consolidated enough to remove the frames by july. I will only be seeing my ortho again in early June and he will decide a course of action based on the x-rays by then, which would be to either leave the frames on all the way until a safe consolidation amount if he deems the bone growth rate as satisfactory, or set me up for an operation to remove the frames and put plates together with bone grafting. For the plates to work, a good amount of consolidation must still be present since they are not really weight bearing. He prefers plating over nailing due to the higher risk and difficulty in treating infection if it happens.
That's about it for now, feel free to ask some questions.