Am I guinea pig lol..? Tibia with Precice 2 in Oct 2021 after femur with Stryde

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Quote from: silverlining on November 22, 2021, 12:53:11 AMHi SuchLL I'm interested in doing tibia lengthening in future but I heard rumors about long term or permanent knee pain associating with tibia lengthening. Can you comment on this?

Hi silverlining, I trust paley institute and they say it shouldn’t cause permanent knee pain. However I can imagine someone suffering from knee pain for many years after the surgery if they don’t listen to doctors during lengthening, they don’t work hard building leg strength back, they don’t go to PT, or simply the surgery itself isn’t done correctly. We can get knee pain from femur lengthening too because of the same reasons. In fact for non athlete knee pain is often caused by IT band, hip muscles (ex, gluteus medius) which are related to femur lengthening. Upper legs and hips also affect knee a lot.

When tibias are too long comparing to femurs, we can develop knee pain more easily than others because of long tibias, that’s why it’s usually best to do femur lengthening if we only want to lengthen one segment, unless we have long femurs to begin with.

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Quote from: SuchLL on November 22, 2021, 02:11:06 AMHi silverlining, I trust paley institute and they say it shouldn’t cause permanent knee pain. However I can imagine someone suffering from knee pain for many years after the surgery if they don’t listen to doctors during lengthening, they don’t work hard building leg strength back, they don’t go to PT, or simply the surgery itself isn’t done correctly. We can get knee pain from femur lengthening too because of the same reasons. In fact for non athlete knee pain is often caused by IT band, hip muscles (ex, gluteus medius) which are related to femur lengthening. Upper legs and hips also affect knee a lot.

When tibias are too long comparing to femurs, we can develop knee pain more easily than others because of long tibias, that’s why it’s usually best to do femur lengthening if we only want to lengthen one segment, unless we have long femurs to begin with.

Hi SuchLL,

Congrats on reaching the halfway mark!! Interesting to hear having long tibias in relation to femurs can be a culprit in the development of knee pain, is this something they told you at Paley Institute?

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Quote from: 6CMFemurs on November 22, 2021, 08:18:22 AMHi SuchLL,

Congrats on reaching the halfway mark!! Interesting to hear having long tibias in relation to femurs can be a culprit in the development of knee pain, is this something they told you at Paley Institute?

There’re studies showing significant correlation between increasing tibia femur ratio and knee arthritis.

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Quote from: silverlining on November 22, 2021, 12:53:11 AMHi SuchLL I'm interested in doing tibia lengthening in future but I heard rumors about long term or permanent knee pain associating with tibia lengthening. Can you comment on this?

I actually went over this briefly here:
http://www.limblengtheningforum.com/index.php?topic=68402.0
So there’s a few ways that LL can lead to arthritis. For example, if your legs aren’t aligned properly by the surgeon. If your surgeon does everything right, then there’s still a chance that the muscle tension caused by the lengthening itself can damage the cartilage which can lead to arthritis. That’s why it’s important to go slow and listen to your body. You need to lengthen at a rate that your body can catch up. So this is especially a risk for people that aren’t very flexible to start.

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Nov 22, 2021. Lengthening day 35:
I’m on antibiotics now because one of my incisions is infected. It doesn’t look very bad though and it’s already less painful. I also just discovered one area on the outside of my left lower leg is numb. I saw doctor today because of these two issues. Doctor said numbness is fine, but if I feel it’s getting harder to move my toes then I need to stop right away for at least 3, 4 days. He said my toes looked strong to him so I could keep lengthening 3 times a day. I just need to pay attention to my toes. He also said it’s up to me if I want to take gabapentin since the area is numb but not painful. I only feel sharp pain occasionally for a few seconds so I’ll hold off on gabapentin. My PT taught me how to stretch nerves. It’s painful to stretch nerves so I felt nerve pain during the first few reps. After the first few reps the nerves were stretched so the pain was gone. I want to share how I stretch nerves but it’s really hard to put it into words. Stretching the nerves on outside lower legs involves whole body movements from head to toes lol…

The good news is (well it may not be good news…), last year I had the same issues during femoral lengthening, got infection and nerve damages on the same left leg so I’m kinda used to these complications. Last year the numbness didn’t get worse so I hope it won’t get worse this year either. 

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Sorry to hear about the infection. I’m a bit surprised it got infected so far out from the surgery. How painful was it before the antibiotics? Nevertheless, glad to hear you’re feeling better!

Quote from: SuchLL on November 23, 2021, 04:55:10 AMI want to share how I stretch nerves but it’s really hard to put it into words. Stretching the nerves on outside lower legs involves whole body movements from head to toes lol…

I’m trying to imagine what this looks like .

I’m following this story closely haha. Hope it’s not too much. Cheering you on and sending you good vibes!

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Quote from: ask.me on November 24, 2021, 11:35:53 AMSorry to hear about the infection. I’m a bit surprised it got infected so far out from the surgery. How painful was it before the antibiotics? Nevertheless, glad to hear you’re feeling better!

I’m trying to imagine what this looks like .

I’m following this story closely haha. Hope it’s not too much. Cheering you on and sending you good vibes!

Thanks! The infection was from sutures and I think it can take weeks or months to dissolve the sutures. It was painful only when I touched it so it’s not bad. Antibiotics is working and pain is already gone (no pain even when I touch it). Unfortunately the scar from that incision will probably look worse 

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Nov 28, 2021. Lengthening day 41:
3cm today! (If I’m not pre consolidated.. my fibula is growing fast lol). I can still get my dorsiflexion to 20 degrees, but it takes a lot more force as I’m getting tighter. The numbness area didn’t progress. The occasional sharp pain I felt in that area was also gone. I do about 60-80 reps everyday to stretch nerves and it probably helped. The infection was also cleared. I’ll see doctor again in 3 days and hope my xray looks good!

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Dec 1, 2021. Lengthening day 44:
It’s already December  I’m at 3.2+ today. Just took xrays and had appointment with doctor. He said my bones were healing well and it probably wouldn’t take much time for me to walk unassisted after lengthening, but at the same time I’m still at risk of pre consolidation. He said I was tighter than last time but still ahead of the game. I’m thinking about stretching one more time a day. So far tibia lengthening is still a much easier process than femurs for me, but I have to admit it’s painful to stretch calf muscles because they are very strong muscles.

Right now I’m still relaxed everyday. Just play games, read books, watch shows, and have a good excuse to not do any work and just stay in bed almost all day lol… The only thing I don’t like is the splints… but I just have to wear them.

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Dec 6, 2021. Lengthening day 49:
I’m at 3.6+ cm today. Two days ago I started to hear click sound from the right nail while lengthening. It clicked about one time during each turn. Yesterday it clicked three times, and this morning it clicked four times. Click sound is a sign of pre consolidation so I let the doctor know and took xray today. He said both nails had the same lengthening distance and my bones weren’t pre consolidated. The nail wasn’t bent either. (sometimes bent nail makes click sound.) He told me to take xray again a week from now, or come back earlier if I start to hear more clicks. If both nails are still same then I won’t need to worry about the clicks. In the afternoon I put the lengthening machine to a different position next to my right leg and the nail didn’t make any click sound. I will try the new position again tonight and hope the sound will disappear.