Vincent Freeman - Femur Lengthening w Becker/Betz - Nov 2022

Hello,

Feels surreal to be finally writing a diary. I remember reading these patient experience diaries nearly a decade ago and now here I am finally writing one.
I am writing this having just had my surgery a few days ago. with Dr Becker/Betz (I have primarily dealt with Dr. Becker throughout the experience).

Background prior to this:
- 171.5cm
- Mid 20s
- Goal (10cm+ Femurs) followed by Tibias once recovered (5-7cm)

My height has never matched my "residual self-image" to be trite. I started wearing shoe lifts in early high school once I stopped growing, and was obsessed with the idea of getting taller and general trying to overcome my genetic limitations in a number of areas. This weighed on me fairly heavily and consumed a lot of my thoughts until I saw a movie called Gattaca (I am sure many here have seen it), researched limb lengthening. As soon as I knew it was possible - I basically decided then and there when I was in my late teenage years that I would be getting LL surgery. Once I had a clear pathway forwards my height stopped bothering me, I effectively internalised that my height was post-LL height and focused on acquiring the resources and being in the right set of circumstances to get the surgery. I was basically nearly in a position to get the surgery around the start of 2019 but COVID travel restrictions and lockdowns threw a lot of things in my life up in the air both personally and with work and it's only now that I have been in a position to take the time off to do it.

Preparation:

Physical:
In the 6 months leading up to the surgery, I spent a lot of time getting physically in shape, consistent weight lifting, cardio, daily stretching, overall mobility work, quit smoking, lost almost 25kg of fat and put on a decent amount of muscle.

Obviously it's relative to my starting point but I am in the best shape I have ever been in my life.

Work: Taking a month of work/sick leave prior to Christmas period, then a month of annual leave. Told them I am getting an operation on my knees - didn't obviously specify what (nor did they ask). I will likely still be engaging in some amount of  work even while on leave (bits and pieces of comms and email) but being on leave means if I don't do any work at all for a few months there won't be any fallout

Mental:
In a sense I have been preparing mentally for this for almost a decade so my expectations with regards to the amount of pain, discomfort and overall suffering necessary to finish LL and make a decent recovery have set the bar really low. Anything better than absolute torturous amounts of pain and sleepless nights is basically going to exceed expectations.

Prior to the surgery for the last 6 months I have been practicing daily meditation to try and get a better overall focus/willpower/self-control and a more deliberate/'in the moment" thought process.

Financial: I work in the engineering sector, and have a very good salary, so while the cost of the surgery will definitely set me back, it's not going to damage my finances too much.


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Pre-flights:

In general it didn't really hit me that I was about to have an operation I had been wanting for years until I was lying down on the operating table.
Everything moved fairly quickly, I contacted the Betz institute in October, got a slot in November by asking for them to put me on the waiting list if anyone cancelled, took the November date when it became clear, had my initial consultation with Dr. Becker over Zoom - who I immediately felt comfortable with (he comes across as fairly intelligent/competent and seems to be quite well versed in every aspect of the surgery already).

I did blood work to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with my health before I flew out, which came back clear. Booked tickets to be in Freiburg a few days prior to the in-person consultation. Everything was so chaotic with work that I didn't have a moment to let any of it sink in, did a rushed job packing and basically landed in Germany and continued to work immediately.

Day -7:
In person consultation + X-Rays, I was amused at how invasive the x-rays are - you are basically in your underwear for about 3 minutes moving your junk around in that protective casing to avoid x-raying your crown jewels XD

Consultation with Dr. Becker was as expected - it was extremely detailed but almost all of the information was stuff I was already familiar with from prior research, forums etc.,

Dr. Becker comes across as knowledgable, professional/competent and fairly trustworthy as per the zoom call so this added to my level of comfort (again though I really barely had a moment to soak in that this was happening so it's not like I was nervous).

I get the express PCR and antigen test the day before and I sleep as if nothing of significance is happening the next day...
 
Day 0/Surgery day:
I wake up. I hurriedly check out of my hotel grab all my luggage and get a taxi to the clinic.

I am a little bit late. I shake hands with Dr. Becker, speak to the anaesthesiologist... finally a brief moment of realisation that it's really happening. I get into the surgery gown and they put me under.

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To be continued!

Good luck man, 10cm for femurs hella a lot... but if youre decided i wish you all the best!

What did Betz & Becker say to 10cm+ in your femur?

Quote from: TheDream on November 24, 2022, 04:30:18 PMWhat did Betz & Becker say to 10cm+ in your femur?

I only spoke with Dr Becker, the breakdown is basically the amount of lengthening you can do comfortably heavily varies per individual with everything from individual differences, stretching during the lengthening process adequately etc.

As far as proportions go, my arm span is ~185cm/6 foot 1 and my femurs are on the shorter side, so I have that going for me. Alot of recent Betz/Becker patients have been comfortably getting past 8cm and I think this is in part due to improvements like IT Band release being included in all surgeries helping femur patients get past the 8cm mark with less pain as well as a few of the current patients being very dedicated to rehab/stretching routine during lengthening.

Becker highlighted the key obstacle is maintaining a "balance" i.e. speed of lengthening versus soft & connective tissue stretching and to adjust clicking rate or stretching along the way to ensure you remain in a "balance" between the two. We discussed recovery, the various pain peaks that occur along the way why etc. he spent a few hours explaining differences between various devices, pros and cons of each etc. and recent patient experiences.

Basically Dr. Becker didn't really take a stance on how much lengthening I can do - it's a cosmetic operation so the only safe amount is no lengthening, but he said it's likely achievable if I can stick to the clicking program and stretching routine he provides and that a number of recent Betz/Becker patients have made it past 10cm femurs.

I don't have a magical number in mind to be clear, I want to get it as much out of it as I can, I will be guided by how my body responds, connective tissue and based on my conversations with a number of recent betz/becker patients it's definitely achievable if I am dedicated to the stretching/recovery program during lengthening. We will see how it plays out.

Recap of last few days:

Day 1-4:

Woke up from general anaesthesia. I immediately wiggled my toes - which was a pleasant confirmation that my legs still functioned! Dr. Becker let me know the surgery went well. Pain killers via drip I assume kept pain levels at a manageable 4/10. Things were a blur for the first few hours, I didn't fully recall what Dr.Becker had said so still was wanting some indication of how well the surgery had gone (even though he had already said this, my post anaesthesia brain was foggy).

Overall I was comfortable but dazed and and extremely hungry as well. Also in serious caffeine withdrawal.
 I got a falafel shawarma wrap delivery courtesy of Lieferando (German ubereats) - the hospital food was fine neither amazing nor terrible but in that state I needed something better taste bud wise

By the time the food arrived and I was fed, Dr. Becker came by, repeated details about how the operation went (i.e. success, no complications, 13mm nail) and with the help of another staff member they got me walking on crutches for about 5-10 metres just to show me that my legs are still functioning.

Most of day 1 was foggy, basically I did some light stretches in the bed every hour and got myself walking on crutches a few times and ate a lot while I still had my appetite. Slept fairly poorly, waking up every 30 mins to an hour, requested more pain killers from the nurse and that seemed to put me to sleep.

I definitely packed fairly poorly and found there were a number of items I needed such as power board/cable, more comfortable clothing (shorts), slippers etc. I also need to do something about nutrition here as I feel the food they provide is very high-carb, sugar etc. and  not enough protein.

Also I didn't mention this in previous post but the wifi is not amazing here (either in the hospital or the hotel) so I bought a 4g modem and this was one of the better decisions I made

Mood was quite good day 2, saw a lot of improvement in mobility and could now go for 500m+ walk on crutches. Feeling a lot better overall in terms of pain and tension, reduced swelling etc. - started to get some accidental clicking, day 1 it was just once while putting on shoes but by day 2 started to get about 5 clicks by accident throughout the day. At this point I started actually getting work done in a meaningful way, stopping every hour to do my stretches and then resume work.

This overall routine basically continued through to day 4, mood and pain levels would vary as painkillers wore off and came on, got 5 accidental clicks per day on my left leg until day 4 where I was shown how to click intentionally and given my post-op x-rays (which apparently look perfect according to Dr. Becker)

I clicked about another 5 times on my right leg to begin catching up to my left. Definitely can feel the increased tension after a total of 20 clicks on left leg, and now I just need to stretch all day to feel loose and mobile again. In general mood, energy and pain levels are a rollercoaster and I am have accepted this will likely remain the case for several months or even until the end of lengthening. In general I am being fairly productive, not having to deal with constant emails and calls has meant I can actually focus on the more cognitively challenging and difficult tasks I have on my plate and this has kept me preoccupied ( I am technically on leave but I will go crazy if I don't do something with my mind to stay busy).

To be continued

Best of luck buddy! I'll be in the same position as you next year

Great to hear everything went smoothly! For how long are you going to stay in the hotel? Until you're done lengthening?

Becker recommended I stay at least 4 weeks post-op as this is when the pain peak often is (as you approach maximum tension due to distraction). After that my plan is to head back home, but will assess how I am feeling and see if I stay longer.

Can something be done about the food?
I don’t know why but I always assumed they would be feeding you lots of good healthy stuff like ossobuco, bone broth soup lots of servings with high quality vitamin D3 & K2 etc.
Or is that a bad idea because they don’t want the bone consolidating too fast during lengthening?

Quote from: TheDream on November 25, 2022, 05:31:36 PMCan something be done about the food?
I don’t know why but I always assumed they would be feeding you lots of good healthy stuff like ossobuco, bone broth soup lots of servings with high quality vitamin D3 & K2 etc.
Or is that a bad idea because they don’t want the bone consolidating too fast during lengthening?

They do provide us with supplements - but I am still at the hospital not at the rehab centre (to be clear the food isn't terrible it's just not optimum nutrition wise). In the rehab centre there is more flexibility with food, you can ask for shopping to be done for you etc. so I will put together a proper diet once I move in there in a few days.