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

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Quote from: vincentfreeman on November 27, 2022, 07:17:04 AMNow at 50 clicks on both legs - that's 2.6mm + 6mm initial gap - crazy to think I am almost 1cm taller!

So far clicking has been fairly painless, just a dull ache in my legs that is unpleasant/distracting but not unbearable. The lyrica has worked really well for me - have been able to sleep every night and seems to reduce pain quite well. I am checking out of the hospital today and moving to the physio/rehab centre because my recovery has been so quick. Excited to use the gym and go hard on stretching/training routine as well and get some better nutrition (higher protein intake, less sugar etc.)

So far have you found it best to take lyrica an hour or so before bed?

I've usually taken the lyrica uh lets see.. I guess in the morning if I am feeling stiff and sore. Or if I have physio, I take it 1-2 hours-ish before physio, but I haven't thought about the best time to take it

I haven't had sharp nerve pain in a while (used to get some nerve pain on my left lower leg shin oddly enough when I stretched my left hip flexors) but I'm assuming (not sure) that the lyrica helps for clicking and physio

I'm not exactly sure how nerves work and how a stretch of the hip flexors during femur lengthening could result in nerve pain in the lower leg shin but evidently this is a thing

I've sort of settled on taking my pain meds/lyrica either right before physio or at kind of random times, sometimes a bit before clicking

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Quote from: vincentfreeman on November 27, 2022, 07:17:04 AMNow at 50 clicks on both legs - that's 2.6mm + 6mm initial gap - crazy to think I am almost 1cm taller!

So far clicking has been fairly painless, just a dull ache in my legs that is unpleasant/distracting but not unbearable.

Congrats on finishing the first cm of your journey!

Something I'm curious about- is clicking harder for your right leg than the left?

With gnail, every patient I've talked to and myself also have noticed that the big click of the right leg is the hardest and most painful click by far (though often it is painless, not always). Based on Betz's official youtube videos though, it looks like clicking on betzbone 2.0 looks as if it is easier than gnail

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Quote from: SpeedDialer on November 27, 2022, 05:36:17 PMCongrats on finishing the first cm of your journey!

Something I'm curious about- is clicking harder for your right leg than the left?

With gnail, every patient I've talked to and myself also have noticed that the big click of the right leg is the hardest and most painful click by far (though often it is painless, not always). Based on Betz's official youtube videos though, it looks like clicking on betzbone 2.0 looks as if it is easier than gnail

It is the same for me with betz bone but could be a coincidence

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Vincent, have you talked to Dr. Becker about the alignment of your legs? I know that this is a  tricky thing about limb lengthening, which is not perfected by every doctor. Would be awesome if you can share his take on this subject.


Many commercial doctors can’t preserve the alignment of their patients which can cause issues down the line.

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Curious about this....what do you mean by alignment and how does LL change it?

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Quote from: lessthanavg8300 on November 27, 2022, 11:36:42 PMCurious about this....what do you mean by alignment and how does LL change it?

If I’m not mistaken, excessive lengthening or if  surgery is not done properly one could end up with bow legs or knock knees.

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it will result non-union issue beside bow leg or knee lock

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Quote from: SpeedDialer on November 27, 2022, 05:30:52 PMSo far have you found it best to take lyrica an hour or so before bed?

I've usually taken the lyrica uh lets see.. I guess in the morning if I am feeling stiff and sore. Or if I have physio, I take it 1-2 hours-ish before physio, but I haven't thought about the best time to take it

I haven't had sharp nerve pain in a while (used to get some nerve pain on my left lower leg shin oddly enough when I stretched my left hip flexors) but I'm assuming (not sure) that the lyrica helps for clicking and physio

I'm not exactly sure how nerves work and how a stretch of the hip flexors during femur lengthening could result in nerve pain in the lower leg shin but evidently this is a thing

I've sort of settled on taking my pain meds/lyrica either right before physio or at kind of random times, sometimes a bit before clicking

You are such a influence!! Just one thing... I researched but didn't find anything about the click system. How does the system work?

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I don't know if its possible to have knock knees with femur lengthening... as far as I know, you can get knock knees with tibia lengthening and bowl leg with femur lengthening. It isn't like that?

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So the last few months have been an absolute whirlwind, and I have had very little time or mental clarity to update this dairy.

 I returned to work pretty much 4-5 weeks after the surgery and the last few months flew by. Overall this has been a formative and singular life experience which hasn't felt completely real since the day of the operation. I feel like once I am done lengthening at some point it will hit me that I really did take this crazy step that I have contemplated for so long.

I am doing quite well, I honestly expected the surgery to be significantly more difficult in terms of pain levels, clicking, lack of mobility etc. but frankly my biggest issue has been forgetting that my bones are broken... and being a bit too careless constantly (walking without crutches, going up and down stairs quickly etc.). Back when I was in the rehab clinic I could see that I had far more mobility and flexibility than the other patients with a lot less pain either because I had extremely good flexibility to start with or simply because of my bone structure.

Because of my very high mobility I returned to a fairly normal, carless routine pretty quickly and this led to a minor complication (one of the screws bent, which is being fixed free of charge) which I will detail in my next few posts but nothing that led to too much set back.

I am nearly at 7cm now which is also hard to believe! everything looks normal on my x-ray, clicking technique was eventually perfected to become extremely painless (although I had a lot of trouble with my left leg for a while) and I am optimistic things won't deteriorate from here to my target. I am going to post a recap in more detail of the last few months in the coming weeks and some of the insight I learnt a long the way.