I'm a current patient from overseas in Beijing. My operation to put on the fixators was 27 November this year. That was day one. On day nine I commenced lengthening at .667mm per day and I have missed one day due to illness. At the weekend I was sent to the parent hospital for investigations due to my persistent diahorrhea, and I had vomiting a couple of nights before. I have a strong persistent cough and voice hoarseness. I walk slowly with a frame so that I was able to go across from my bed and into the bathroom yesterday.
Dr Peng Aimin was my operating surgeon. I have not seen Dr Xia or Dr Li except where there are pictured and listed on the staff directory. The international liaison Dr Wang Bei (Ronne) has a line of contact to Dr Xia.
There is another foreign patient here who has finished lengthening: a female who goes home to Europe later this month. I'm not sure there is a male, but two males are coming soon: an American, an Australian. Other patients come from at times far parts of China and they are correcting abnormalities of leg length and range of motion. Small kids, middle aged and between.
I'm waiting upon receiving protein isolate supplementation, glucosamine, calcium supplementation and the other things which consolidate the growth and expansion of new bone tissue, nerves and musculature.
Dr Xia Beijing - Surgeon Peng Aimin - External Tibias - November 2013 to 2014
Ronne is a permanent staff member and fluent in English. The closest person to you will be a maid and they will have no ability to communicate outside their own language. Dr Zhao is the one who has seen me most frequently since the operation and I have not had the need to employ translations to Chinese with him. The elder nurse is also able to ask questions in English. I'm able to bring up wifi access to use translate.google.com for English-to-Chinese, and fanyi.baidu.com can operate the other way.
The price is the advertised $EUR24000 and I was also quoted $US33000
I feel recovered from what had me squirting diahorrea, but I will still be taken to the parent hospital tomorrow for a followup investigation. Somehow cold temperament and uninspiring food worked together to hold up my progress and cost me some extra.
For patients, next week will see a couple less locals who are willing to say some things in English and a couple of foreigners that are yet to undergo surgery.
The apparatus is fixated with four penetrations at the rear of the heel, four just above the ankle, one into the lower shin and another in line with that an inch below the knee. There are four more at the same level as the top shin penetration
I don't know the answer to this question about the fibulae. There is another foreign patient coming next week Christmas Eve which is the day that the only other foreigner leaves. Two others will come in the new year.
Just this afternoon I demonstrated the frames to visiting specialists from Japan and Korea and Dr Zhao has removed the stitches in my shins. I saw Dr Xia for the first time. Another local doctor has come by who speaks to me in English. All the x-rays have shown unproblematic progress, but I am still hooked up each morning to an IV to combat digestive infection and persistent cough. I can remain standing unsupported and walk with a frame, but not take steps that put all of my weight on one leg.
January is the coldest month and this month is the second coldest. 5pm and -4 Celcius outside.
The international contact for this place is Dr Wang Bei (Ronne): [email protected]
+86 13621226277 (office)
+86 1083685806 (mobile)
Tonight's canteen dinner
As of 15 February I'm back home doing my last two months of lengthening. I go back to Beijing via Kuala Lumpur on 15 April and around 15 March will be sending back an x-ray. Just before I departed Beijing the doc (Dr Zhao) informed me that my growth was 4.5cm based upon x-rays of the day before which revealed no complications.
By early February, thanks to a lot of monitoring and medication (including IV drips) I saw off first the respiratory infection and then the diahorrea.
There are three foreign LL patients (two male, one female) currently at the hospital and I think there may be a couple more as well by the time you read this. There have been between two and five foreign patients on deck, including myself, over the time since I arrived there except for on Christmas Eve when I was the only one for several hours.
According to Ronne just before I left, they are going to be taking less foreign LL patients this year because of their anticipated influx of local patients. That is just for space considerations.
It is a little odd if someone is emailing to [email protected] and not getting acknowledgement or reply. I have used that address on a daily basis to correspond with Ronne. She was absent for a period of seven days starting from 31 January which corresponded with the Chinese New Year.
I wouldn't have left at all if it wasn't the rule of the Australian Government which stops payment of social welfare benefits to those who've been outside of the country for more than six weeks, extended temporarily in some medical circumstances. Once that came into play on about 4 February I could apply for a further extension which always takes them around 4 weeks to decide, but would be backdated, or moot the issue by returning onshore. There's also the sheer tedium of not achieving anything, day upon day and week upon week, other than 4 turns of the frame dials which is a daily advance of .667mm The other advantages of being at home are:
* less tedium but still inching along there at .667 without a complication
* eating better
* being with family and pets. Staying at my home rather than a hospital
* facebook, bbc.co.uk and youtube are not blocked here, as they are in China
* daily temperature here is minimum 22 Celcius, whereas in Beijing it's still low single digits. Snow was covering the ground on the day I left
* removing the environmental factors which disposed me to respiratory infection and diahorrea while I was at the Hospital
* now if I want or need an abnormally long period for postlengthening rehabilitation under medical supervision in Beijing there's no risk of it costing me extra
It's atypical for a patient to request to do it this way, but the doc has excused my absence through to April. I'll be returning there 16 April, expecting to undergo investigative xray same day or very soon after. I had to undertake a course of antibiotics and herbal medication (called Sanqi Shangyao Pian, aiding healing of periostium bruising) as prophylaxis of the risks of travelling with legs unelevated for so long on the airline flight and airport transfers. The ideal and recommended posture of the legs for lengthening is to have them level and stretched out ahead with no bending at the knee. So having 24 hours with my feet on the ground and knees bent was trying and constantly distracting as far as the degrees of pain around the pin sites, but I will be doing it again on my return journey. Not looking forward to that. It felt so good as soon as I was able to have my legs raised and straight out level again in the wheelchair designed for that purpose which I have brought with me (cost covered by the inclusive surgical and rehabilitation treatment fee).
I'm still here at home and still lengthening at .667mm/day, as I have every day from December 4th (5th?) except for one. I'm going to keep doing so up to 16 April which is my arrival back in Beijing. Then I'll listen to what Doc has to say. There's only the two male foreign patients in Beijing now. The last height measurement I've had was 177cm lying along the floor, so I would be less than that standing but maybe more than that when this is all finished.
Beijing has seen my March x-rays which are aOK with true alignment.
One complication is apparent. My go a mottled purple colour when I stand or let them dangle to the ground. Sonogram doppler examination determined the absence of any blood clot in my legs as a cause.
It's Sunday night Australian Eastern Standard time. Tuesday morning about 11am I depart and arrive Beijing airport at 1:05am on Wednesday.
I've just measured myself standing as 178.3 My feet were flat on the ground but my heels were 6-8cm out from the base of the wall
Clearly this is more than 10cm extension from my start of 167 which boggles my mind because I stuck to what I've been told many times is .667mm daily, and I can't see how there's been enough days since December 4 to get up that high. 130 days * .667 = less than 9cm; not 11.5 or so 
Clearly the doc will direct me to cease lengthening once I've had my xray on Wednesday. Then there will 20 days of passive consolidation until the operation to remove these leg frames. After that will be 20 days recommended (14 days minimum) of postoperative observation of the limb function. Maybe early June or very end of May is when I can return home for the task of final recuperation: consolidation without the frames over several months.
I do wonder if any leg length discrepancy will be found that requires finetuning. I don't sense it.
Somehow I neglected to specify that my FEET were the body part experiencing bad circulation symptoms. Well that's alleviated at least some. They still go a deeper colour, with mottled appearance, than the rest of my leg when I stand. I take slow steps in the walking frame.
Two foreign patients remain in Beijing. The first has stopped his lengthening at 6.5cm to go back to college in Canada and would be flying homewards in just two weeks time. The other, an American who started at 5'3 during January, must be nearing to his goal of 9cm. Him being left all alone during June may be a possibility due to the lack of urgency to recruit other foreign patients. Their hands are full as it is with the number of local patients they are dealing with from the many regions of China that have a genuine need for skeletal correction and extension.
There is a very good promotional video which shows what they have done to alleviate various patients (child and adult) of their ambulatory problems. I've seen it playing on a wallmounted plasma screen but it's not on the internet - which would be a good idea. The extra $ foreign elective patients pay really isn't for the financial benefit of the directors and senior medics of that place: it funds the expansion of the accommodation and treatment facilities which serve genuinely disabled people and their supporting family members who may come from distant provinces. See, I had one of the rooms with a complete view of the internal car park and I didn't count any BMWs.
They really need a pet cat or feral cat or pet something there because it's beneficial to those who may stay and work there, and for the animal itself. I've been told they used to years before but they don't now. There were cats who would come inside and pace down the corridors and enter peoples' rooms. Every hospital and nursing home anywhere should have at least one pet animal.
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