Quadrilateral lengthening @ the Paley Institute - tibias 4cm + femurs 6cm

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Can you tell me your wingspan? Your ratio looks good.

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Thanks for the update, great photos. I hope Dr. Paley gets back to you soon about that femur wall.

Glad to hear that your strength is returning fast, good luck on walking!

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My wingspan is only 5'2". When I was 5'5", I already looked like a T-rex sometimes, and always had to shorten the sleeves of any shirts I'd buy. For this reason, I don't plan to do a rebreak and lengthen any more.

Not sure how you could tell the ratio, since I didn't spread my arms in that video

Anyway, my wingspan is very short.

UPDATE as of end of July

I've been getting back to a normal life, and haven't visited the forum much. Below is a video of me walking without crutches. I can now walk longer without crutches, though there's pain level 2-3 with each step. My hips sway, especially if I try to lessen the pain. If I focus on the steps and push through the pain, I can walk pretty straight. I can also carry 45lbs plates at the gym, and have accidentally rowed ~175lbs. Not a good idea.



Some thoughts in retrospect after this leg lengthening experience:

1. I haven't yet seen improvements in my life to justify the ~$220k total price tag for this surgery. I went from 5'5" to 5'8" so I'm still shorter than 70% of males. While I am taller than 75% of women, this isn't very useful as I already have a girlfriend. Nobody at work noticed that I was taller - not surprising, given we work at desks all the time. My friends were like "wow" the first day I came back home, but didn't care about it later (as they should). I haven't been to bars/clubs (not my scene) or social events yet, so hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

At work, some people (esp. women) are shorter than me. This makes *me* feel self-conscious so I prefer to sit, in order to not make them look up.

2. If I learned one "thing" from this experience, is to have a lot more patience. I'm doing things now that I might have been too impatient for earlier, or I'm at peace with making slow progress over a longer period of time. I also know that if I need to have some other surgery, I'll make it through.

3. Walking is the best PT. Walk as soon as possible. For me, it was far more effective for strength and flexibility than having PT done to me while I was in a wheelchair. Of course, the legs healing coincided with going home after finishing lengthening, but the takeaway is - don't pay for *extra* PT (after you stop lengthening) unless you have money to throw around. Also, pool PT is weak. Stay somewhere that has a good, accessible gym instead. An Airbnb instead of the hotels that have pools and free shuttles going to PT, but don't have good gyms. You should exercise your upper body to prevent muscle loss.

4. I switched directly from walker to using one cane. No crutches. This was a very good decision. Tried to use crutches the day I stopped lengthening and it was scary and they felt awkward and precarious. Resorted to walking with the walker, mimicking normal walking as much as I could, instead of hopping. During that time, strength and flexibility (calves, dorsiflexion) were improving from one day to the next. I recommend the https://www.hurrycane.com - it folds, it can stand on its own, has a very stable base, and doesn't slip. Crutches just felt silly, hard to maneuver (esp.two of them when you need to open doors), and inelegant compared to the cane. The underarm style also risks causing nerve damage. If you MUST use crutches for some reason, use forearm ones.

5. Ever since I got back to California from West Palm Beach, my legs have been swollen all the time.

I'll get the last set of X-rays next week and ask Dr. Paley about that.

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Looking great man! Are you sure you measured your winspan correctly at 5'2 as your proportions look alot better than a big difference of 6" should be. 

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Quote from: ShortLivesMatter on August 11, 2018, 05:30:48 AMLooking great man! Are you sure you measured your winspan correctly at 5'2 as your proportions look alot better than a big difference of 6" should be.

his proportions look great because he didn't just lengthen 7 cm femurs or 7 cm tibias.

he took proportions into account and lengthened both a very small amount each. So nothing will look off about him.

loving the diary @OverrideYourGenetics.

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Thanks for the kind words, Mirin.

I've noticed in your signature that you're already 179cm tall and want to gain 3-5cm. This is something I personally can't comprehend (being 5'10" is a dream), and you're already taller than 70% of men. I'm curious about your motives for getting a relatively small increase (3-5 cm). Is it the large wingspan?

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Your pain levels are the most interesting and alarming part of this. I expected the pain would be significant, as you are having your legs fractured as part of the process, but I thought nerve pain was rare? Also, I've heard descriptions of the pain from this surgery as being anywhere from a 2 to 6 out of 10, but your descriptions of it as 9-10/10 bring a whole new perspective. Very informative.

Did the Stryde patient appear to be in similar levels of discomfort/pain? One of my major concerns is the use of opioid painkillers. I've been prescribed them before for other pain but never used them and just toughed it out. Now I wish I remember what I was prescribed to get an idea of what level of pain my doctor thought I was in, because for me it was a 3-4/10 but he must have thought it was much worse.

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Quote from: OverrideYourGenetics on August 11, 2018, 05:22:34 AM
Some thoughts in retrospect after this leg lengthening experience:

1. I haven't yet seen improvements in my life to justify the ~$220k total price tag for this surgery.

$220k WTF???!! You'd have to be a multi-millionaire to justify spending that much on LL, so I hope you are? And even then, it's a ridiculous amount, particularly in your case, reading your post - sorry to say.

About the crutches, I would beg to differ. I used the underarm ones, you can mimic walking better with those, plus they keep you more upright with better posture. Make sure you adjust the length so that they fit snugly under your underarms when standing up straight.

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Instead of top 5 doctos in your signature, You should put top 5 delusional and lunatic users including yourself.  "Cosmetic LL for 3,5 cm" -> Instead of looking for numbers, please take a ruler and measure 3,5 cm to see for what You want to spend so much money and risk for possible complications. Unbelievable its so hard to see difference between trolls and lunatics on this forum nowadays.

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Quote from: OverrideYourGenetics on August 11, 2018, 05:22:34 AMMy wingspan is only 5'2". When I was 5'5", I already looked like a T-rex sometimes, and always had to shorten the sleeves of any shirts I'd buy. For this reason, I don't plan to do a rebreak and lengthen any more.

Not sure how you could tell the ratio, since I didn't spread my arms in that video

Anyway, my wingspan is very short.

UPDATE as of end of July

I've been getting back to a normal life, and haven't visited the forum much. Below is a video of me walking without crutches. I can now walk longer without crutches, though there's pain level 2-3 with each step. My hips sway, especially if I try to lessen the pain. If I focus on the steps and push through the pain, I can walk pretty straight. I can also carry 45lbs plates at the gym, and have accidentally rowed ~175lbs. Not a good idea.



Some thoughts in retrospect after this leg lengthening experience:

1. I haven't yet seen improvements in my life to justify the ~$220k total price tag for this surgery. I went from 5'5" to 5'8" so I'm still shorter than 70% of males. While I am taller than 75% of women, this isn't very useful as I already have a girlfriend. Nobody at work noticed that I was taller - not surprising, given we work at desks all the time. My friends were like "wow" the first day I came back home, but didn't care about it later (as they should). I haven't been to bars/clubs (not my scene) or social events yet, so hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

At work, some people (esp. women) are shorter than me. This makes *me* feel self-conscious so I prefer to sit, in order to not make them look up.

2. If I learned one "thing" from this experience, is to have a lot more patience. I'm doing things now that I might have been too impatient for earlier, or I'm at peace with making slow progress over a longer period of time. I also know that if I need to have some other surgery, I'll make it through.

3. Walking is the best PT. Walk as soon as possible. For me, it was far more effective for strength and flexibility than having PT done to me while I was in a wheelchair. Of course, the legs healing coincided with going home after finishing lengthening, but the takeaway is - don't pay for *extra* PT (after you stop lengthening) unless you have money to throw around. Also, pool PT is weak. Stay somewhere that has a good, accessible gym instead. An Airbnb instead of the hotels that have pools and free shuttles going to PT, but don't have good gyms. You should exercise your upper body to prevent muscle loss.

4. I switched directly from walker to using one cane. No crutches. This was a very good decision. Tried to use crutches the day I stopped lengthening and it was scary and they felt awkward and precarious. Resorted to walking with the walker, mimicking normal walking as much as I could, instead of hopping. During that time, strength and flexibility (calves, dorsiflexion) were improving from one day to the next. I recommend the https://www.hurrycane.com - it folds, it can stand on its own, has a very stable base, and doesn't slip. Crutches just felt silly, hard to maneuver (esp.two of them when you need to open doors), and inelegant compared to the cane. The underarm style also risks causing nerve damage. If you MUST use crutches for some reason, use forearm ones.

5. Ever since I got back to California from West Palm Beach, my legs have been swollen all the time.

I'll get the last set of X-rays next week and ask Dr. Paley about that.

@Overrideyourgenetics
Thank you for your honesty