Why cannot patients sleep well during lengthening and recovery?

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Its hard to explain, You really have to experience it to understand. Its just these aches that wear on you.

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The pain was a huge issue for my sleep. Sleep aids were useless when the pain was above level 3. Pain meds I found both helped reduce pain and induce sleep. But the pain would return and woke me often. Additionally, I've always been a side sleeper and having to sleep on my back as they said to for internal femurs was nearly impossible even without pain. Hopefully you sleep on your back normally or are doing tibias. If not I suggest getting used to it ahead time.  Strangely enough I found warm heat packs or even a nice warm shower would help me fall asleep. Staying asleep more than an hour or two was generally difficult during lengthening. Sadly most people find weed doesn't help you sleep while lengthening the way it normally does. You get more aware of your aches and pains, almost like it amplifies them sadly. Stretching when I could not sleep both helped me to knock out one of my daily stretching sessions in the middle of the night and helped alleviate pain and stiffness which often helped me sleep some more.

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Quote from: EndGame on December 04, 2016, 05:26:52 PMThe pain was a huge issue for my sleep. Sleep aids were useless when the pain was above level 3. Pain meds I found both helped reduce pain and induce sleep. But the pain would return and woke me often. Additionally, I've always been a side sleeper and having to sleep on my back as they said to for internal femurs was nearly impossible even without pain. Hopefully you sleep on your back normally or are doing tibias. If not I suggest getting used to it ahead time.  Strangely enough I found warm heat packs or even a nice warm shower would help me fall asleep. Staying asleep more than an hour or two was generally difficult during lengthening. Sadly most people find weed doesn't help you sleep while lengthening the way it normally does. You get more aware of your aches and pains, almost like it amplifies them sadly. Stretching when I could not sleep both helped me to knock out one of my daily stretching sessions in the middle of the night and helped alleviate pain and stiffness which often helped me sleep some more.

Good thing I sleep on my back mostly, and I will definitely give the hot showers a try.

Which phase is the most painful would you say?

I hope I get prescribed some good pain killers from my doc ... I could see how sleeping pillls wouldn't do much but as far as pain goes you should be able to manage with high enough doses of good pain meds. I hope 😬

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Quote from: talldarkandhandsome on December 04, 2016, 08:48:48 PM

Good thing I sleep on my back mostly, and I will definitely give the hot showers a try.

Which phase is the most painful would you say?

I hope I get prescribed some good pain killers from my doc ... I could see how sleeping pillls wouldn't do much but as far as pain goes you should be able to manage with high enough doses of good pain meds. I hope 😬

After I was discharged from the hospital and dropped down to only Tylenol 3 and the next 3 weeks while legs recovering from trauma of initial surgery was most painful in general.

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In my case what bothers me is the discomfort and not so much the pain.

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Tylenol 3 is a very weak pain killer. I was prescribed it for a root canal once.

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Pain isn't the issue it's more discomfort or it was for me

Sleep basically forget about it especially if doing external fixators! Getting comfortable side ways with external foxators is a fkn nightmare! If you lie at a bad angle you will wake up with sore knee and hip joints. You cannot lie face down at all.

IMO if you cannot sleep on your back do not do external fixators unless you want a minimum of 3-6 months of insomnia. And I swear these things hurt ten times worse the moment you head to bed

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Is it really that bad?

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Quote from: notimportant on December 18, 2016, 11:32:44 PMIs it really that bad?

Ive still got my frames on and I dread night time. Yes its unpleasant, Ive had some unpleasant things in my life and this tops it. If you like sleep don't don't do external fixators. If you lead an active lifestyle and get bored easily don't do this either. And do not do this if you are muscular or have thick strong tendons!

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Oh god, I am not that Brave. Is there any kind of fixators that cannot be that uncomfortable.