I did 8.0 cm LATN on tibias in 2016......AM(a)A : Ask Me (almost) Anything

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Greetings to all. After much contemplation, I have decided to post my experience undergoing limb lengthening.

The reason why I've held back starting this thread was....well actually there are several reasons. Firstly, temporal factors; writing diaries take a lot of one's time which could be very much be spent doing myriad other things. Which is why I have the utmost respect for the veterans like Stripes, RGKey, Sweden etc. who have spent a significant amount of their time recovering to share their experiences with prospective LLers. With this in my mind, readers are kindly reminded not to be demanding; I'm doing this as a way to contribute back to the community, from which I managed to plan my journey and from which I have learnt so much.

Back to temporal factors, since I generally don't have much time (I'm hustling for online jobs currently) I won't be posting much of a diary. I will be answering questions related to my journey. So instead of me telling you A-Z about my journey, the community can ask questions which are relevant to them. I'd rather do this AM(a)A here instead of Reddit as I wouldn't be subjected to criticism from the r/short community.

Secondly, I was apprehensive about writing this diary for fear of derailment by the several "colourful" characters on this forum (i.e. doctor-fanboys, trolls, non-veterans-who-pretend-to-be-experts). Though I am sure that these users are a small minority and should not be representative of the community as a whole.

In this post, I'll be giving bits and pieces of my journey chronologically. It is a time consuming process, but I assure you I will be finishing the story I will be happy to answer questions for more details, except regarding the identity of my doctor; he would prefer not to have to entertain too many cosmetic limb lengtheners and he is not listed on this forum, hence is why I have titled this thread an Ask Me (almost) Anything

So with all that being said, lets begin with some details


Initial height at night : 176 cm
Age: 24
Lengthening method used:LATN on tibias bilaterally
Day of operation : 29 Dec 2016
Day of frame removal and nailing: 1 March 2017
Height gained: 8.0 cm
Final height: 184 cm

As you can see, I wasn't to short to begin with but undoubtedly I fully understood that being a tall man, you would have many benefits compared to being an average-height or short man especially from a social standpoint.

So where do we begin? I suppose we should start with the research process, which I highly recommend none of you to go through hastily. I was in college during the time I began research in 2013 but I have since graduated. I managed to save close to USD 10,000 at the time. With this in mind, I was certain I could get about USD 5000 more within 3 years to end up with a budget of USD 15000 and thus, be able to do the surgery in 2013.

With that budget, certainly the US and European doctors, as well as internal methods would be all but ruled out. This basically left me to consider India, China and Russia for the surgery, with the prospects of doing and external frames + internal nails being the most likely choice. In short, China= language barriers, India= English-speaking, but was concerned with the quality of care being sub-par, so eventually I settled with Russia as I am a speak Russian and it did seem an it safer than India

I managed to get hold of a reputable doctor through a Russian forum. He was willing to perform LATN for around what was USD 12,000 at the time in Vladivostok, Russia. With that I managed to plan 3-months of lengthening and 3 months after that for consolidation which is where I am now

15th Dec 2016-Arrival Day
Arrived in Vladivostok, called the Doctor as I arrived, who told me the address of the hospital. I hopped into a cab which brought me there. Had my first consultation which lasted just about 30 mins. Discussed about benefits of LON( cheaper, 1 major surgery + 1 minor frame removal surgery, no corrections possible at all) vs LATN (more expensive, 2 major surgeries, correction can be done before nailing) Eventually I settled for LATN and the surgery was scheduled a week later.

20th December- Bad News
I was told the the surgery would have to be postponed to the next week due to certain difficulties in staffing. This put a dent in my planning as I would only have 2 and a half months in Russia for lengthening (my initial goal was 5 cm btw). Nevertheless, I had faith things would be okay


29th December - Day 0: The Big Break(s)
I went to the hospital in the morning as there was thankfully no postponing of the surgery.
Given a room which was decent, it had a a TV, closet and a bed and was clean.
Surgery was in the evening, during which I was given spinal epidural and was put to sleep

Woke up at night, drowsy and dazed. Legs were cold, no pain at all. Just really cold and I wasn't able to move them. But when I touched them they were really warm and they were swelling. I was given a spinal painkiller which relieved some of the pain. Some of the pain...for a while.

Later that night at about 2 am, I woke up. Then I felt it. The pain. It felt  like my feet had been hit by a sledgehammer, with insects biting into me. Why weren't the painkillers working??? I called the nurse, who said she could increase the dosage slightly (which didn't work) but for a more potent painkiller I'd have to wait for the Doctor the next morning. She then left, leaving me with a thought still have to this day : What have I done?

Day 1-7: Bedridden

It was just the first 3 days where my leg hurt really, really badly, the latter 2 days being less painful as I had better painkillers than before.

Overall, I spent my days there staring at either my tablet screen or the ceiling; I was bedridden. I peed in through a catheter  and (strangely) never went to the toilet for number 2. Probably this was because I hated the food so bad , I only drank soup (more about this in tips)

The doctor taught me how to turn the nuts on the rods for lengthening on the 6th day in hospital. On the next day once the pain had subsided and my condition was stable, I was discharged. I stayed in a wheelchair-friendly apartment building (a rarity in these parts) just next to the hospital. I was told to come for X-rays once every two weeks.

And so it begins......

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Quote from: bander72 on April 07, 2017, 09:21:16 AMCongrats on your success. I had a couple of questions. It seems that you gained a lot of height in about two months. How much were you lengthening a day? Did it seem easier at first to lengthen bigger amounts? I want to do 4 cm if I do externals so I was thinking of doing a bit over a mm to get distraction done quicker. Do you mind sharing which doctor you had the procedure with?


I was lengthening 1.0 mm a day until I reached 1 cm. Then I turned between 1.5 mm to 2.0 mm a day. It actually wasn't painful to lengthen at this rate for me. But trust me, no one is the same so I wouldn't suggest that you plan your surgery as a whole based on rates higher than 1.0 mm. Also I developed knee contractures on both sides as a result of this, but have since gained full ROM. Slight ballerina at around 10 degrees on both sides, by my physio is confident it should go down to 0 in less than 2 weeks

Again, regarding the doctor, the he performed the surgery for me because conincidentally he was an old friend of my dad, who asked him to perform it as a favour. He is NOT very experienced nor keen on doing cosmetic limb lengthening, but does it for deformities and traumatic injuries. He He explicitly told me not to reveal any info about him when I told him I wanted to write a diary about my experience. So in due respect of his wishes, sorry, I can't.

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Quote from: IwannaBeTaller on April 07, 2017, 10:25:23 AMWhat were your motivations for doing it? Were you depressed about your height, did you have an inferiority complex? Or was the goal of having the social benefits of being taller your only reason, seeing as you must have known the possible lifelong consequences of doing such a procedure beforehand? I'm not criticizing you, just looking for an honest answer.

Good question. I think that anyone eager to do this surgery should deeply reflect on their motivations for doing it. Lack of motivation after you break your legs could lead you to not have good outcomes because you can't push yourself through the pain, physio, and immobility

In my case, nope,  I wasn't depressed about my height. I was considered average height in my country at 176 cm, even in the younger generation. Though in short, if a short man becomes average via this surgery, he would have liberated himself from the discrimination of being short, be it from women or other men. For an average-height man becoming tall the same way, he brings onto himself many social benefits i.e. naturally having an aura of dominance over shorter men, making women safer to be around with. No one can deny this.

Lower physical strength to run may or may not be a long term consequence, it may get better with time depending on many factors. Either way, I didn't play much sports or went to the gym to begin with, so I don't think it's too big of a deal

I think that a lifelong consequence would be the change in the natural biomechanics of walking; the femur is naturally longer than the tibia marginally, and this procedures disrupts this balance.

So I suppose yes, I did consider these beforehand, but it's too early to speculate how long it would take to recover to a satisfactory level.

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Quote from: doomsday on April 07, 2017, 01:36:37 PMGreat decision to do LATN rather than LON. Could you walk during the lengthening process?

I did walk between 0 to 5.5 cm for about an hour a day spread out twice to three times a day. The external frames were sturdy and I didn't feel like there was any pin bending or instability. What stopped me were the knee contractures, I felt unstable and was afraid I would fall. So I stopped walking, and am still not walking. Good news is I should be in crutches by May.

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Day 7: Home Alone

The doctor escorted me to my apartment. When we arrived, we talked about how to get around and groceries. Apparently in Russia, you can just stay in your own home and order groceries to be delivered by the supermarket chain. Wish my country had such a service. Anyway, this made the process much simpler and minimised the costs as it meant I didn't need to hire an assistant.

He then taught me a a set of stretches which he recommended that I do once every time I turned. So if I turned  4 times for 1.0 mm, I'd have to do 4 sets a day.

After a good 45 minutes talking, the kind doctor bid his goodbyes and left. And there I lay in my bed for what would be a lonely time ahead.

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Quote from: IwannaBeTaller on April 08, 2017, 10:24:24 PMOne user here (Sweden) lengthened less on his tibias than you did and he regrets his choice, he says he won't ever again be able to perform on the same athletic level, can't excercise without days of pain, can't really run despite 3 years of recovery. Just to put that into perspective of the risks you take. How long did you take to make the choice of having the surgery? What did you friends and family say about it?

I would say it took me about 2 years to decide on doing it as I was collecting money. The thing was I didn't have that much to lose. I know many users on this forum spend a great deal doing sports and going to the gym; they would have a lot to lose in terms of athleticism should they choose to do this surgery. In my case, I just wasn't the sporty type

My family in short didn't agree with my decision but accepted. They probably didn't feel comfortable with me having to go through all the pain and temporary disability, but they did understand why. I was as tall as my sister to begin with, while my brothers were 183 and 188 cm, so I guess they would understand why I would feel like the runt of the litter, having to settle for the short end of the stick genetically

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Quote from: Body Builder on April 09, 2017, 02:18:47 AM8cm are too much on tibias and it is for sure that the mechanics of the body won't be the same as before the tibia is way too longer than it used to.
At 1.76 initial height you should have stopped at 6cm max because you would have been tall with a small impact on your sport capabilities which are now much decreased for no real reason.

That said, Sweden has big problems with bone misalignment and thats the main reason for his problems that won't be improved if he doesn't do a new surgery to fix it, not the lengthened height.

So if you are lucky and everything went fine  I think that you'll live completely normal but with worse sport cababilities compared to a more sensible lengthening.
But it was your choice and I respect that.

Keep strong!

Thanks a lot for the support BodyBuilder All the best to your recovery as well

I'd have to disagree though with the general notion of "max lengthening should be X number of cm, on tibias and  Z number of cm on femurs...bla bla". I have consulted several orthopaedists before and after my journey and read abit of journals regarding this. And I think we should look at it in terms of RELATIVE length; relative to your initial bone lengths

The general consensus from the professionals( or at least the ones I've consulted) is that you can lengthen 10% of the initial length without complications, more than that there may be minor complications up until you reach more than 20%, more than 20% and you risk serious complications. So since the average tibia is 43 cm long the true "safe value" is closer to 4cm, and between 4 to 8cm is possible with minor problems

I can attest to this. I had no problems between 0 to 5 cm and after 5 rapidly developed the knee contracture. I probably would also have had bad ballerina if I hadn't worn my ankle splints 24/7, dodged that bullet *phew*. At it's worse, my knee contracture was at 45 degrees when I trained to make them as straight as possible. Also started having tingling after 6cm.

Nevertheless, the contractures have subsided significantly. My knees are both at the initial 0 degrees while my ankles are at about 10 and decreasing everyday with my physio therapy. To those who wish to understand comprehensively the complications of this surgery, I would suggest you read this study meticulously, as opposed to solely listening to the advice from fear-mongerers on the forum.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187705681200151X

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Quote from: LLSouthAmerica on April 09, 2017, 09:40:55 AMFor all the guys out there: this is a really dangerous surgery. Very imprecise with a lot of minor and major complications. Do not have unrealistic goals specially if you are already tall as in more than 1.75. If your ambition is too much. Lengthen 4-6 in femur and 4- 5 in tibia. Not more. Don fk up your life for vanity.

Very true. One would have to deeply consider all the risks and potential benefits of the few cms of height before embarking on this journey

The sad truth is that the taller your initial height, the more your body can tolerate the lengthening without developing complications. So paradoxically, the shorter you are, the more you would 'need' the surgery, yet the harder it would be compared to a taller person. Sad, but that's the reality guys...

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Quote from: Auron on April 09, 2017, 10:08:53 AMMay I know why you changed your initial goal of 5cm to 8cm?

Good question. My main plan was a generally agreed upon 'safe' plan: 5cm on tibias and 7 cm on femurs. That would put at about 188 cm, as tall as my brother. But I realised that that I would be spending a total of 1-2 years in either crutches or a wheelchair; it would just be far too long, not to mention the cost of internal femurs . So I decided to push myself for that extra 3 cm and reach a respectable 184 cm and not go through such a long time of my life recovering. I was a gymnast throughout my schooling years, I'm very flexible for a guy so I was quite sure my body could take more than the average person

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Quote from: vincenzocal on April 09, 2017, 11:12:06 AMthis whole story is scary, he said he got LL from an *inexperienced* doc who allowed him

- to lengthen 2 mm per day
- to lengthen 8 cm

my only request is to keep updating this journal for up to years after so we can see if irreparable damage has indeed occured

With regards to my doctor, I said he wasn't experienced with COSMETIC limb lengthening; he deals with lengthening for deformity regularly. Hes  actually a professor of orthopaedics in Vladivostok so I had full confidence in him. And actually if any of you have been reading medical journals, you would realise that 1.0 mm a day is the gold standard of lengthening, but but bones like the femur with good vascularity can go as high as 3.0 mm a day without serious bone issues. But then there are muscle contractures.....