Quote from: Fireworks196 on November 22, 2022, 02:18:18 AMHello Stand Taller, your diary and your progress so far have been incredible, also having achieved those 12 cm in just one segment, admirable. Tell me, how are you doing so far in terms of your bone recovery, your athletic ability...etc?
and one last question, is it true that betz allows his patients to lengthen between 8 and 9 inches?
I took X-rays about two months ago, and will take new one in about a month. My last X-rays where good, with good bone healing. But because of my extreme lengthening I will have much longer bone recovery than most. I just stopped using crutches 6 das ago, so walking is still hard and tiresome without them. I am also a little stiff in my walk, and I have a slight limp in my left leg because of more stiffness in that leg. But I am seeing improvements everyday though.
Yesterday was the first time since before more surgery I did some shopping at the grocery store without even a shopping cart, 100% free-walking - and I was fine.
The Bezt bone is only capable of extending 12cm if I am not mistaken. With an initial gap of 0,6mm (like a had) plus the maximum of the bone, you cannot in theory gain more than 12,6cm. So 8-9 inches in one segment is impossible, but on two segments. Doing femurs, recovering and then doing tibias a year after recovery of femurs is totally possible. So if you did want to, had the money, the time and the will you could do 8-9 inches.
For me I had a goal of 177cm, so going 11,5cm was my original goal. Betz however was more conservative (which is a good thing) and wrote down 10cm in the papers i signed. He then said that based on my X-rays and the actual surgery he would be able to determine more precisely my limit. This has to do with your bone structure and also how and where he was able to physically place the Betz bone into my femurs. It was not before after surgery he was sure about my maximum height.
After surgery he told me that it all went fine ,and that I would be able to reach 11cm if everything goes well during my lengthening process. This meant if my body would cope with it fine, like muscles, pain, nerves and bone healing. I was then told if everything looked fine at 11cm I would be able to go the last 0,5cm. At around 10,5cm I reached out to Dr Becker (who had been my primary contact, I actually haven't had much contact with Dr Betz) because I was getting sick at tired about the whole lengthening process and I just wanted to start recovering. I was very stiff at this point and also was plagued by my bad duck ass. But Dr Becker said that everything else is fine and even though the last CM might mean an extra month or even two of recovery and if I feel I could take that, it would be worth it. And yes recovery has been long and hard, but I am REALLY glad I am 177cm tall, and not 176cm tall.
Before surgery I had this idea of becoming 180cm tall, or maybe even taller. I went into this surgery kind of like, let's do this and if everything is fine I'll do a second surgery later on to become 180cm +. The thing is, when you are 165cm tall is a country where the average male is around 179 - 180cm tall you are smaller than most and you are not used to looking anybody into their eyes. You actually HAVE NO IDEA what it feels like to look most other men into their eyes. You only have your lower perspective and in that sense height is just a number for you, a goal, a length your really can't relate to. In the same way taller people can't relate to being well below average, us short men CAN'T relate to being average.
Once I hit 177cm tall and started walking around with crutches and now without them all my desire to become any taller has disappeared completely. Yes, I may be 2 - 3 cm below average - but I can tell you that most people won't even notice or care. Heck I don't notice, and I feel the same height as people who are 180cm tall because I now look them straight into their eyes. That is for me what makes the whole difference, look other men that you think look tall (because your whole life they where tall from your perspective) are now the same height. Again, look at the photo of me and my physiotherapist, he is 180cm tall - but do you think you would really notice that if you met us casually and I didn't ask you to gauge our heights?
https://freeimage.host/i/141122seonsored.HHF9EWg
So I am done, I don't need any more surgery! I don't feel small anymore, well because I'm not - I am basically average which is good enough for me.
I was lucky because both my seating height and knee height was the same as friends between 178-180cm tall which meant my femurs where short. So lengthening my femurs meant my proportions would be normal. But my wingspan is only 173cm, so I do have slightly shorter arms than average for my height. So in reality if you care about proportions I really shouldn't lengthen much more, do I care about my shorter than average wingspan? No, doesn't affect me at all. But maybe if I did lengthen 2 - 3cm more I would notice it? Who knows and who cares right? As said I am done, and I feel I have very good proportions over all now.
Stand Taller diary - The first day of the rest of my life (Betz Bone 14.01.2022)
Quote from: Stand taller on November 21, 2022, 07:27:59 PMI also feel now that I don't have much or any pain in my lower back while walking, so I can now do normal shopping and walking around without lower back pain. I think this will also just improve more and more as time goes by.
Yeah, my PT has also told me that strong glutes and belly muscles will help against duck ass. So I do exercises daily. I live two flights of stairs up, so actually was able to walk up stairs without crutches a while back, and then down (I found walking down harder than walking up) shortly after that.
I totally understand what you mean, because I honestly didn't feel I had much or any height neurosis - or even any complex about my height. Honestly I feel I have tried to take as much of a logical and reasonable approach towards this whole thing. I feel I am a very confident and well spoken person, I dress nicely and I look reasonable handsome. I have had several long term relationships with very pretty women, all of them taller than me. My last girlfriend was 173cm tall, and It really never bothered me or her. I am also quite successful (as most here who can afford these surgeries) and have a sizable social media following.
So from a "stats" perspective I feel I have many boxes ticked off. I also have an enormous work capacity and I have worked my ass off for years to get here! For the most part I am happy with myself and my life. But with being said, I do know about the countless studies that show what a disadvantage being a short man is. I was 165cm tall in a nordic country, and that is very short. Studies show that short men will make less for the same amount of work, short men will have a harder time being promoted, shorter men earn less respect, shorter men are taken less seriously and woman find shorter men less attractive.
For me it was simple and logical. Knowing what I know, why would I want to live the rest of my life at a disadvantage? Knowing what I know, why would I want to work harder and get less success, less respect and less payment for the same amount of work as my piers? Knowing what i know, why would I not want to level the playing field if possbile. So that is pretty much the biggest reason I did what I did, so I could play on the same level as the rest of society. I no longer have a disadvantage in the work place, I no longer have a disadvantage at a social gathering and I no longer have a disadvantage with women.
There is a famous study that show women will reject men 85% of the time if you are 165cm tall. The same study shows the rejection rate is only 15% when you are 178cm tall. For my whole adult life I have gotten countless of compliments from women about my looks, heck I've had drop dead gorgeous women come up to me and say things like "you're hot" or "I am gonna marry you". I am not saying this to brag or tut my own horn, but to be real and honest. Almost none of those encounters with women even got me a date. For a long time this really fked with my head. How can I keep hearing these nice words from women so many times, but at the same time not getting much success? How can drop dead gorgeous women slide into my DMs, ask me out and when they meet me things change up completely? For years I could not make any sense of any of this.....
... until I one day became self-conscious about my height, then it all made sense. It doesn't matter how good looking you are if you are short, well to most women. I have a had success with women, don't get me wrong. But the amount of women I had to meet to so I could meet that one girl who didn't care about height was always very hard work. Again, I not trying to brag - and if I am coming across that way I do apologize. I understand I was, or am lucky. Short and good looking is not as bad as short and average, or even short and below average. But I do genuinely believe that if you are average looking and average height you will have good success with women - more so than short and good looking.
At the end of the day, there are many reasons for me doing this. But in general it has been to make life easier in as many ways as possible.
I'll end on a different note, to put what I am saying into a different perspective. A few years back I looked at buying a Range Rover, the big one. Loved the car, and really wanted one. But there was one issues, an issues I encountered many times in large cars. And that was the seat cushion being to long for my short femurs, and I could not if my life depended on it sit comfortably because my femurs where too short. In other words I was literally too short for a Range Rover. When the new one came to dealers this summer, I knew I was gonna love it! But the big questions was, would I now fit better? And yes, the answer is YES! I have no problems and my femurs are now more than long enough for the long cushion of the new Range Rover. It may sound like a small and trivial thing, but for me it is another huge improvement in life quality.
Well said Standtaller. Everyone has his own reasons for doing this. I have been feeling similar like you in terms of "why should I did not get the most out of my life". It is not that I was not successfull so far. I also have made a great career so far and had reasonable success with womens. Maybe precisely for this reason the pain to do this surgery wasn´t strong enough.
Finally, this has been changed after I moved to a new gym last year. It may sounds silly but unfortunately they had two things which have remind me allways that I am simply to small for a man... The one thing were their lockers. They have typically for a locker a storage compartment in the upper third for smaller things like a mobile, a wallet, basecaps etc. Of course this storage compartment has been constructed for an average size man, so I always had to jump, to check, if I have been leaving something of my stuff in this storage compartment. The other thing were their urinals which are as well made for an average sized man, so that people who are smaller need to stand on tenpeaks to pee. You might imagine how I have been feeling....
It might sound silly that neither the harder career path nor the higher hurdles to attract a women were able to motivate me to do this surgery in my twenties, so that it has been needed a new gym to get me to the conclusion to do it. But that is life and I am now happy that things has turned out like they are 
Finally, I think it is important to be happy in/with your life and to realize your own projects, dreams your are burning and working for. At least I personally don´t want to get ever in the position saying "If I had rather done that back then"
So, I am happy that you have realized your dreams as well and are now gonna fit into the new Range Rover 
. I am sure it will let you forget the whole incredible journey you (and we all others) have been getting through this surgery.
Day 353 (Day 195 Post clicking)
Happy new year everybody!
My last update was November 19th and things where looking really good then, and my progress until December 1st was speeding up..... but then....
I got the FLU virus and this one hit me like nothin before it. I was basically knocked out bed and sofa prone for three weeks! I can't remember ever being as sick as I was, and laying down for three weeks straight with not exercise or stretching felt like a huge step back.....
All in all I lost about a month where I did not have any progress, three weeks sick and about a week and a half to get back to where I was before I became sick. So the past month has been really hard and again I lost hope - which is so easy to loose during this process. My goal for walking normal on my one year anniversary of the surgery is not looking realistic, since that date is two weeks away. It is just really hard having lost a whole month when things where looking so good!
But on a positive note, my duck ass is still improving and it is the only reason I still can't walk normally. Here is pic from yesterday:
https://freeimage.host/i/HuVgvuj
It is still apparent under the mirror and when I walk, but standing with clothes it is hard to see. But I seen good progress lately with getting rid of it completely.
BUT NOW FOR A HUGE MILESTONE!
During the whole lengthening process and until yesterday I haven't had a drop of alcohol (or I had half a beer on Christmas) because I didn't want to drink while on crutches (which I stopped using November 16th). Though the Betz bone is strong and full weight bearing, you still feel very fragile before your bones start to consolidate. After having said no to almost every social event the past year which included drinking I was determined to be able to celebrate new years with my friends at this night club. Even though I have effectively been of the crutches for around three weeks (not including the time I was sick) I was still bound to my car while out and about shopping and doing errands. Yesterday though would be the first time leaving my car behind and also drinking alcohol.
I started the evening with drinking half a bottle of wine before taking an Uber down town to the night club. I was worried that my tolerance would be basically zero after a year without alcohol, but to my surprise I actually had not problem with my tolerance being low - and actually the opposite seemed to be true. I think it has to be down to the fact I have put on around 9-10kgs in weight (new bone, new muscle, etc) when growing 11,5cm.
I was able to get to the club, stand in the que, find my friends and party until the late morning - not getting home before around 06:00. Before taking a taxi home I even walked around 400m down this street. All in all, waking around the club, getting to and forth with some walking at the end was actually fine. Yes I am very tired and a little sore today, but everything went better than expected.
Now that was the practical bit, but now I wanna talk about what it felt like going to a night club and being normal height for the very first time in my whole life. First of, standing in the line to get in I suddenly wasn't a midget in an ocean of tall people - I felt normal and equal to everybody else. And my first experience of "normal privilege" (hoping to coin that phrase, haha) was when paying to get in this girl about two meters to my left shouted out "hey, I'm in front of you in the line", I then look over at here, smile, laugh and say "that doesn't even make sense, you are way over there, but nice try. Next time though I'll let you sneak in in front of me" She replied with smile "okay, that's a deal". It is not the first time girls have flirted with me like that, but I wasn't expecting it to happed within the first five minutes of getting there.
During the evening I had two beautiful women who where very interested in me, one of actually got quite a bit mad because I seemed rather casual about the whole thing. Again, it's not the first time two beautiful women have shown interest in one evening - last time was the time I met my ex for the very first time. But its not something I experience often, and again I wasn't expecting to happen the first time taking my new height out for a drive!
All in all I felt more positive vibes and responses from women in general getting more smiles than usual. Also walking around in the night club and on the dance floor being normal height was awesome, and being taller than most women even those in heels felt awesome. This was is of course just one night out, so the sample size is tiny - so I am very curious to see what my experience will be moving forward.
With that being said though, I have almost two decades of experience with going out and know what to expect - last night seemed to be one of the best in that regard. I've written here before about my appearance and my experience - and how those two have been further apart than what one would expect. There should be a direct correlation between your looks and how women respond, and in my case I have concluded that my old height was the missing variable that "messed" up the results. And yesterday what the first time in my life I felt that my experience finally matched my appearance.
I am not trying to brag or tut my own horn here, so again I do apologize if I come across that way. My whole life I have been told positives things about how I look, but that often hasn't matched my experience with women. In my experience only about 1-2 out of ten women have responded as expected, but this also fits well with studies done on the subject. My point here is that if you are an average looking man (which most are by definition) and you struggle with attracting women I truly believe most of than resistance comes from being short. It is too early to tell from personal experience yet, but there are many studies on this. I truly believe if you can get close to average height in your country and have average looks you will dramatically improve your success with women.
Even though I still walk kind of funny, am not in quite as good shape as before surgery, and haven't updated my wardrobe for my new height yet - yesterday was the first time out and about I felt like a complete human being. A normal person equal to most others, and it felt great.
Great to read about your experience at the night club (specialty that I have same starting heigh as you)!! We don’t get much of that on this forum.
Could you please share your latest femur x-rays?
Please keep updating us and thanks.
Day 365 (Day 207 Post clicking)
One year ago I was on my way to a hotel in Freiburg excited and scared. Tomorrow it is one year since I had my surgery, but I still remember it like if it was yesterday. It would be the last time I went to bed being the height I had been since I was 13 years old. It is strange to think about being one height for more than 20 years, and then suddenly growing almost 12cm in less than 6 months. When I walk around my apartment and look in the mirror, I see me - the same me I have seen for my whole life. I am starting to get used to my new height, at home at least. I am starting for forget how it was to be short - at the same time it strange to think that I may never be called short ever again. Maybe some tall person above 2 meters could call me at 177cm short, but I don't think the vast majority of people would. I've also started to re calibrate my brain when looking at other people. Before, I would look at most people at my brain would be calibrated so I could determine if they where taller or shorter than me. With the vast majority of people being shorter than me, that wasn't hard. Now though, I still struggle - and I still look at people my height and think they are "tall" or at least taller than me - but my brain is getting better with time, recalibrating itself.
It being almost a year since my surgery, I honestly thought I would be walking 100% normal and back to a normal life at this point. On the other hand I really didn't think I was gonna reach my goal of 176cm or even exceeding it at 177cm. I thought that maybe 173-173cm would be my limit and more realistic. But I did reach 177cm and I am glad I did push myself this far. I may not be walking 100% normal or 100% back to normal life, but I am 85-90% there. I still have a little duck ass, a little hip sway and a little stiffness when walking - but things have been improving more and more the past few weeks. I can walk more and longer without getting fatigued or stiff.
I have even gotten to the point I can go out and drink with my friends. I tried this the first time on New Years Eve, and again last weekend. I am still a bit away from being able to walk long distance on a night out and dance the whole night - but one step at a time, and in time I am 100% sure I will get there.
This has been a long journey, and there is still a long way to go. But I am more optimistic than ever at this point in time and I think I will be walking 100% normally within a few months. And even if it takes me another year (which I don't think it will), what is few years for another 40 - 50 years being normal in height.
I'll leave you guys with a photo of me out with friends last weekend. I am the one on the right. My friend in the middle is 178cm, and the one to the left is 191cm - though he is a little hunched over in this pic. In the second pic you see me next to the same friend who is 178cm, but when I was 165cm. Pretty insane to look at the difference.
https://freeimage.host/i/HYG6bix
https://freeimage.host/i/HYGPnlp
Wow, this is amazing. You were able to get the same if not more height than many quadrilateral patients but were also able to complete it within a very reasonable amount of time. Congratulations. May I ask, which home country are you from? Also, did you put a down payment on the entire cost of the surgery or did you finance it?
Quote from: Confidence on January 13, 2023, 11:34:20 PMWow, this is amazing. You were able to get the same if not more height than many quadrilateral patients but were also able to complete it within a very reasonable amount of time. Congratulations. May I ask, which home country are you from? Also, did you put a down payment on the entire cost of the surgery or did you finance it?
Well I am not fully recovered yet, but yes I was able to get the same length or more than most quadrilateral patients, but in one surgery. Even if my total recovery time is the same as a quadrilateral patient I've still saved money and risk of a second surgery. I would still not recommend doing this for everybody. I was lucky to have relatively short femurs, with a ratio of almost 1:1, after surgery my femur to tibia ratio is around 1:1,33 - 1:1,35, with the average being 1:1,28. So my femurs are a little longer than normal compared to my tibias, but nobody except me is going to care or notice. I also have a photo of me with my PT in an earlier post, and I have longer tibias than him - even though he is a little taller than me. So again, nobody's gonna notice or care.
I live in Northern Europe, but I don't want to be more specific than that. I payed for the whole surgery with cash, no finance. But if I didn't have the cash I would probably finance it - I mean it's worth it.
Love reading your updates and hope you're back to walking 100% soon!
Can you share a bit more on your recovery other than walking? PT / exercise you're doing?
How do you feel about your athletic abilities / biomechanics after this much lengthening in one segment?
Quote from: Stand taller on January 13, 2023, 06:29:55 PMDay 365 (Day 207 Post clicking)
One year ago I was on my way to a hotel in Freiburg excited and scared. Tomorrow it is one year since I had my surgery, but I still remember it like if it was yesterday. It would be the last time I went to bed being the height I had been since I was 13 years old. It is strange to think about being one height for more than 20 years, and then suddenly growing almost 12cm in less than 6 months. When I walk around my apartment and look in the mirror, I see me - the same me I have seen for my whole life. I am starting to get used to my new height, at home at least. I am starting for forget how it was to be short - at the same time it strange to think that I may never be called short ever again. Maybe some tall person above 2 meters could call me at 177cm short, but I don't think the vast majority of people would. I've also started to re calibrate my brain when looking at other people. Before, I would look at most people at my brain would be calibrated so I could determine if they where taller or shorter than me. With the vast majority of people being shorter than me, that wasn't hard. Now though, I still struggle - and I still look at people my height and think they are "tall" or at least taller than me - but my brain is getting better with time, recalibrating itself.
It being almost a year since my surgery, I honestly thought I would be walking 100% normal and back to a normal life at this point. On the other hand I really didn't think I was gonna reach my goal of 176cm or even exceeding it at 177cm. I thought that maybe 173-173cm would be my limit and more realistic. But I did reach 177cm and I am glad I did push myself this far. I may not be walking 100% normal or 100% back to normal life, but I am 85-90% there. I still have a little duck ass, a little hip sway and a little stiffness when walking - but things have been improving more and more the past few weeks. I can walk more and longer without getting fatigued or stiff.
I have even gotten to the point I can go out and drink with my friends. I tried this the first time on New Years Eve, and again last weekend. I am still a bit away from being able to walk long distance on a night out and dance the whole night - but one step at a time, and in time I am 100% sure I will get there.
This has been a long journey, and there is still a long way to go. But I am more optimistic than ever at this point in time and I think I will be walking 100% normally within a few months. And even if it takes me another year (which I don't think it will), what is few years for another 40 - 50 years being normal in height.
I'll leave you guys with a photo of me out with friends last weekend. I am the one on the right. My friend in the middle is 178cm, and the one to the left is 191cm - though he is a little hunched over in this pic. In the second pic you see me next to the same friend who is 178cm, but when I was 165cm. Pretty insane to look at the difference.
https://freeimage.host/i/HYG6bix
https://freeimage.host/i/HYGPnlp
I showed your picture with your friends to a friend of mine and asked if anything seemed off to him on this picture. He looked for 5 minutes and said "no, what would be off?". Passing the eye test I feel like is the ultimate goal with the surgery, so congrats on the success.
How is your gait atm and are your biomechanics good? I.e. can you squat to pick up stuff normally etc?
Quote from: hippo60 on January 14, 2023, 12:34:01 AMLove reading your updates and hope you're back to walking 100% soon!
Can you share a bit more on your recovery other than walking? PT / exercise you're doing?
How do you feel about your athletic abilities / biomechanics after this much lengthening in one segment?
Thanks, I am glad you enjoy my updates!
Walking is kind of the main metric for measurement of recovery, that's why I basically only write about it. Most of my recovery seems to be down to my hip and duck ass, that also determine how well I can walk. With that being said, general range of motion in my hip area as well as strength has been poor - but that is also improving daily. I've had very stiff muscles since day one and still wear compression tights during the day because it helps make everything softer. Stiffness has meant that walking is very tiresome. Imagine walking in a pool of water that is up to your waist, that's what walking has felt like for while. On New Years Eve I measured my heart rate to 120 after walking 400 meters, that the same heart rate I should have sprinting. But just in the weeks since New Years I am not as stiff and I don't have that high heart rate from just walking anymore.
I do cardio on a bike as well as trying to walk every day, but that been hard with the snowy and icy weather we've had the past month or so. I also do whole bunch of stretching exercises several times a day and I do other stretching exercises at my physiotherapist three times a week. My issues hasn't been that I don't do that enough during the day or week, but the issue has been than I do so much my body can't handle more and I fall a sleep during the day because my body is exhausted. This has been the hardest thing about this whole thing, I've been very strong mentally (which you have to be for this procedure) - but my body hasn't been as strong as my mind. I even tried going to my PT five times a week, but my body couldn't handle it.
I can only walk, and not very smoothly yet - but that is improving every day. So I basically don't have any athletic abilities other than walking atm, though I can jump. When I get my range of motion back, I'm pretty sure I will be able to run soon after. I hope I can run normally this summer.
I've done an extreme lengthening in my femurs, more than most. But that also means that my recovery will be longer than most. Compared to somebody who has done 6cm, my recovery will at least be more than twice the time if not more.
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