Quote from: aditya23788 on February 05, 2018, 10:33:19 PMWow, I don't know what to even say. I have read diaries of so many people over the past few weeks as I am starting to consider LL. I had marked this post for later reading and had read the first two pages yesterday. The mood was so cheerful and I thought she will be another successful case with a happy ending. So, I skipped to the end and started reading posts from Pg 28 to 24 backwards - which has scared/saddened me that I can't even bear to read before Pg 24.
At this point I can only pray for you and hope you stay strong. I am pretty sure if you were a guy, you would have massive balls of steel or something.(Bad joke I know)
My only question is why didn't you go for Paley because I guess you were sound financially when you went for the surgery? Why risk it with Guichet? I know you cannot avoid complication with any form of surgery but I guess it would have been a much better/safer experience. I don't know why I am asking this question because what is done, is done. The only way to go is move forward.
Hi Aditya,
In restrospect, I definitely would have gone to PALEY 100%. I went to Guichet because I read the diaries and they were all SO SUCCESSFUL, EASY and FAST (Leechlet, ShyShy etc), and it was in London where I could be at home (which was important for me).
I had spent more than £155k on recovery and the costs continue to pile up as I continue being unemployed.
I would have done things completely differently, I would have used Precice for sure to avoid the trauma of clicking (as we speak, someone else is suffering from the inability to find clicks and crying everyday contorting themselves in weird positions trying to click 3x daily).
There has been an ex patient who contacted me (no names of course), who's had the financial privilege to offer us a rare glimpse of doing LL with a European doctor (manual nail) and Paley (Precice). She first went to the European doctor (no names also) and used an old fashioned manual clicking non-reversible weight-bearing nail and the same things happened to her (fracture during LL, non-union, runaway lengthening and even a shortening surgery to match her leg lengths). Years later, after recovering from the European doctor's botched up job where she didn't attain the height she wanted, she went to Paley.
And she said her experience was as different as night and day!!! Even though Precice is non weight-bearing, the remote control lengthening was a million times easier than manual clicking torture/trauma. It was safer because she could control her lengthening to match her callus growth/bridge.
In the US, there are better pain management compared to what we had which was mostly paracetamol, tramadol and codeine. It wasn't sufficient in the first few weeks post surgery as we all suffered plus the aggravation of manually clicking. And the super workouts that was required of us in restrospect are not only necessary for LL/bone consolidation and added further risk/pain to our journey 
So I think that's the long and short of what could have happened had I gone to Paley instead of Guichet. But here, I know someone who actually did both and there's actual testimony that one method might have been easier/safer than another.
Do I regret? I can't because the last 2 years have messed me up so much mentally, emotionally, financially = I cannot fathom a sunnier alternative life lest I get even more depressed.
