Quote from: Wintersleep on July 31, 2015, 11:50:25 PMHi Kilo, I haven't posted before but I have read your diary from the start and I really appreciate it. It is the most useful Indian diary by a mile particularly the part where you posted about all the different doctors you met.
I have a question that I think I remember you answering but I want to see if your view has changed and that is why did you not opt for LON? I will be lengthening in India (maybe with Parihar) and I intend on LON so I can get out of frames in 3-4 months (I'm only doing 5cm). And also did you ever regret not going LON?
All the best with your recovery dude 
Hi, thanks Wintersleep.
As for why I didn't do LON, the risk of permanent knee pain was brought up on this forum and a doctor who offered CLL said something along the lines of "50% of people who get LON have knee pain after the procedure, and 25% of those 50% end up with chronic knee pain." MDOW also posted that he had discomfort in his knees, so I wanted to avoid it if possible.
When I consulted with Dr Dhawan and Dr Parihar, both admitted that knee pain is a possibility with LON, but Dr Parihar said that as of yet none of his patients have complained to him about knee pain. He said that either LON or externals would be appropriate and it was up to me to decide. When I pushed him for an answer though on what he thinks is better for recovery, he leaned very slightly toward exfix only.
MDOW did say his knees have been feeling better, and others who had nails put in have said that they have no knee issues. Also, being in external frames for an entire year was a total pain. So if I were to have started my journey to India now and was more realistic beforehand about how long I'd have to wear the Ilizarov frames, I'd probably opt for LON.
On the other hand, now that the cages are off I never have to worry about getting the nails taken out later and it was less trauma overall on my body, so that's one benefit of externals. I will say though that if I wasn't self-employed with a desk job, no way could I have survived with exfix only. It just takes far too long to recover and most people can't survive a year on no income.
