Stand Taller diary - The first day of the rest of my life (Betz Bone 14.01.2022)

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. After first finding out about this procedure back in 2016, I knew this was something I wanted to do. But like other things "life just happened" and time passed by. And then there is the whole saving up the funds that takes some time. Here we are though, six years later and I am about to change my life forever.

I currently stand at 165cm tall, and my X-rays look very good. If possible we will 11-12cm. If everything works out fine, and my body copes with lengthening well I may stand at as much as 176-177cm tall in four to five months. Wish me luck!

I'm now just sitting here waiting for Dr Betz to bring me into the surgery room.

Day 2

Good morning!

Yesterday was surgery, and everything went well. Two hous after surgery I was rolled into my own room, and after another two hours Dr Betz came with some colleagues. With assistance from them I walked out of the room and around 5-6 meters down the hallway before I started to get nauseous. I am amazed that I could actually walk this soon after surgery.

Most of the evening and during the night I've slept. Pain levels have been close to none existent while laying bed  and totally manageable while walking on crutches to the toilet with help from the nurse. I only had to ask for one extra painmed around 02:30 form the nurse dude to pain (paintlevel around 3-4/10) so I could sleep.

This morning though I actually got out of bed, walked to the toilet on crutches, stod upright and peed (instead of sitting) washed my hands, walked back on crutches and got into bed all by myself! Pain is very manageable, and it is actually worse while moving on and out of bed - and NOT while walking. This is also the hardest  thing to do because to stiffness in my legs.

My only "issues" so far has been nauseousness while the general anesthesia was leaving my system around 18:00-22:00 yesterday. Today I am totally fine.

Dr Betx told me yesterday that the total length I can go because of my bones and anatomy is 11cm. When I actually get to 11cm there is a possibility to got an extra 0,5cm if everything is 100% fine. After surgery I already stand 0,5cm taller due to get bone separation while inserting the nail, and  this was the first thing I noticed while standing up. In my head I want to be 177cm tall because I will only be around 2cm below average where I live, but I think I will be more than fine standing at 176cm.

Either way the journey has begun and if everything goes as planned it should take me around four and a halg months to get there!

Stand Taller

Quote from: TheGambitKing on January 15, 2022, 04:51:45 AMHow much Betz costs?

Betz is is 53700 Euros all included.

Quote from: bloggerdude on January 15, 2022, 06:40:56 AMplease think about how you will look with 11cm longer femurs while sitting on a chair or in an airplane

I actually measured how much room I would have with 11cm more on an airplane seat on my to Germany. I should have plenty. Luckily I have very short femurs, much shorter than my tibias. My proportions know are very poor and after going 11cm it will be very good and darn close to ideal.

Day Three

Yesterday I was a bit nauseous and actually threw up. The doctors said this was because of the general anesthesia from the surgery leaving my system. I also walked three times down the hallway and back on crutches, I'm guessing around 60-70m back and forth. I also accidentally clicked yesterday as well, one full click. It did not hurt or feel uncomfortable. In general I have very little pain. It was worst this morning before taking my morning dose of painkillers. The Doctor has also said that the pain is at its worse two to three days after surgery.

I seen people commenting this and that about what height I should go, and I will not engage in any discussions. I am not a doctor, you guys are not doctors so I'll let the professionals handle this. And so far it has been smooth sailing. If people get to negative or toxic here I will just delete this thread since my diary is meant to be something positive for me to share. If it gets negative, I will not continue.

On tuesday I will look at he X-rays with the doctor to measure the exact ratio. When it comes to body ratio I am not at all worried about this. When I sit next to friends who are around 177-178cm tall we have the same sitting height and also same tibia height. So adding 11cm to my femurs will improve my proportions dramatically.

Quote from: LegendKiller on January 16, 2022, 12:03:12 PMYes this was me lol. I lengthened 10,5cm with betz back last year. I had way longer Tibias than femurs so I could pull it off. If your femurs are already quite long compared to your Tibias it will look really weird once you go over a certain amount of length.

Don't remember but isn't normal tibia to femur ratio around 0,84? This means if your femurs and tibia are the same length you can lengthen femurs quite a bit before moving outside of this ratio.

How was you lengthening? How quickly were you able to walk about without crutches? What levels of paint did you have after surgery and while lengthening? For me while laying in bed its been from a 0/10 to around 2/10. And when walking with crutches around 0/10 to around 3/10.

Day 7

It's now been a week since surgery and things are improving every day. I checked out of the hospital today and moved into a large and luxurious flat provided by Dr Betz and his colleagues. There is something exhausting mentally about living in a hospital that makes you feel "sick". Most of the days in the hospital have been exactly the same, so not much to write about. Been doing physio twice a day, which has been good. The worst thing has been the food at the hospital in Freiburg. One warm meal a day, and the rest of the meals with dry and lifeless bread... Now I have a stocked fridge and can order meals from Lieverando (Just eat) that Dr Betz pays for.

Me and one of the doctors also went into town today so I could shop some more sweat pants. I walked around 1km on crutches. Was really nice to get outside and breathe some fresh air. But after that distance I was pretty exhausted.

Pain levels have mostly been very low, but I have experienced some local pain here and there for shorter periods of time though. Nothing much to complain about. I am looking forward to spend the next week in this lovely and spacious flat, it's so serene here compared to the hospital. My mental health is much improved after just an hour here.

I have had around six accidental clicks so far, and we should start clicking tomorrow or Sunday. Hope that goes well!

Day 8

The first night in the flat provided by Dr Betz and his colleagues was great. I had the best night of sleep since the surgery, and the peace and quiet here alongside the better food has improved the way I feel immensely. I have very little to no pain, and I am just much more relaxed. Apparently I am the first patient using this accommodation, so I feel very lucky indeed. I've actually had the mental strength to do some work, and that says a lot.

Tomorrow we start clicking, so I can't wait to start the actual lengthening procedure!

Day 9

Today I did my first scheduled clicks, 6 on the left leg and 6 on the right leg. After understanding the technique is was fairly easy, and all click except the first on the right leg "hurt". Let me clarify, the movement to click stretches your inner thigh muscles - so when this muscles isn't stretched enough you'll feel the pain. So stretching this muscle for around 7-8 minutes resolved the issue. Total time with the stretching and clicks was 20 minutes. The plan is to do another 7-8 clicks later today.

Yesterday we started reducing my pain medication, and probably too much. Last night I had a little bit of pain and muscle aches, enough to disrupt my sleep. We have now changed the dosage, so sleeping should be without any discomforts.

Things in general are getting easier and easier for every that passes by, I just hope things stay like this in the future.

Day 29

Haven't written anything here in a while because I've been so busy getting back to normal life with work and all. After two weeks in Freiburg I travelled back home, and have now been home for a little more than two weeks. The first day home was quite hard with a lot pain probably because the travel home was long and tiresome. After settling down home things have been much better and I've found a very good rutine for clicking. I do 15 clicks a day with seems to be a nice balance with stretching and over all comfort. I did to 20 clicks a day for a few days but I had more pain (growing pains) and clicking was also a bit harder. So 15 clicks seem to be a nice balance, and the plan is to do 15 clicks throughout the lengthening process. According to te initial distraction and the amount now lengthened I am at around 167cm now! I both feel and look taller, it is such an insane feeling - and I still have around 9cm to go! WOW!

Pain levels are different from day to day, some days are good and others are harder. But there is correlation between the amount of activity and pain, the more active I am the more paint I usually have the day after. So I am trying not to overdo it, but some days it's hard to stay calm. Also driving is pain when done for longer periods and after a few hours I do become very stiff.

Over all though, things are going very well and I hope keeping up with the daily stretching (3-5 times a day), being active (walking and ergometer) and going to physio keeps things balanced throughout the lengthening period.

Stand taller