I'm currently 5'5 (165cm) and 18 years old (still in 11th grade due to getting held back in the eighth grade) My only motivation to do good in school is that I might be able to get a good paying job in cyber security or something else tech related to eventually safe up for LL. Basically my question is, if I had enough money to afford two surgeries, what's the max total lengthening someone could get? Is it different for each person? I read that gaining 8cm in the first surgery on the femur and then another 8cm in the second surgery on the tibiae was possible but I've only seen people gaining 3-4inches here. I've even seen a little person gain a whole 12 inches but I'm guessing that it's easier for little people to gain more. Thanks in advance.
What's the most height I can gain with two surgeries?
You've got it right. It depends on the person, and little people's tissues can handle a lot more lengthening than non-little people's.
Do you know if there's anything I can do to increase how much my tissue can handle for when I get the surgery? If so, would it allow me to gain a few more centimeters or would it just make the process less painful? Thanks for the answer by the way
It's probably some combination of genetics and behavior. You can do pilates, yoga, stretching, etc and that will probably help somewhat, but it's hard to say how much. I think stretching won't just make it less painful; the more stretched out you are going in, the less your body will have to stretch in such a short amount of time as a lengthening phase. And once your bones are lengthened, just the act of standing and walking becomes a stretching exercise on those muscles and tendons: they're too short and have your body weight pushing on them to get longer.
A lot of people approach LL wanting to get back to normal ASAP, but only severe contracture won't go away eventually with enough stretching after the fact. I lengthened a lot, and it took me a long time to get back to normal, but I did.
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