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

Edit Post

Quote from: Android on September 16, 2018, 03:04:07 PMThe amount of money doesn't really matter if you develop complications or face unexpected amount of pain. There are no guarantees in limb lengthening.

My point was if you decide to go for the best in the field, then wouldn't it be wise to go for the highest amount said best in the field recommends? IIRC Paley's amounts were femur: 8cm and tibia: 6cm so he could've gained total of 14cm instead of 10cm considering he's 5'5". Disregard my other post, I thought his intention was to lengthen to 7.5 cm.

Edit Post

first it's like android says in CLL money should be a secondary factor, can always make more $ it's super easy really

note:I'm not saying that mortgaging your homes is a good idea, know your capital and make a budget

second point, 7.5cm is a conservative amount but by no means small and doing an conservative amount  plus 2 segments has the advantages of maintaining the biomechanical ratio and less lengthening  equals better soft tissue adapation

if you do 14 cm  vs 10 cm the recovery increases non-linearly is years instead of months, yes it can be done but it's not worth it imo, you have diminished returns and greater possibilities of complcations

PS: doctor paley maximum for quadrilateral lengthening is 10 cm or 4 inches, to do more, the procedures must be 1 year or so apart, ej: like  tibia then a  year later femur  or quadrilateral then a  year or so later repeat osteotomies\rebreaking

Edit Post

Yep, the others covered pretty well the reasons why I stopped at ~3" total:

1. I developed nerve damage in the left shin. I still don't have normal sensation on the inside of my left shin.
2. I got very tight, despite the daily PT sessions at the Paley Institute (and twice a day throughout the last month of lengthening). PTs said they might need to have me stop lengthening. Thomas stretches were extremely painful (8/10).
3. I can still rebreak and lengthen in about 6 months if I want to pay the extra money and go through another recovery period.
4. I wanted to preserve function, so I'm not too disappointed, provided that I do recover to ~90% of pre-surgery functionality. Since I posted this, I made some more progress: now I can descend stairs without holding onto the rail. Yay!
5. My wingspan was already 2" shorter than my starting height, and is now 5" shorter. If I lengthen my legs even more, I'll look like a lowercase "t".

Edit Post

Quote from: OverrideYourGenetics on September 18, 2018, 10:39:31 PMYep, the others covered pretty well the reasons why I stopped at ~3" total:

1. I developed nerve damage in the left shin. I still don't have normal sensation on the inside of my left shin.
2. I got very tight, despite the daily PT sessions at the Paley Institute (and twice a day throughout the last month of lengthening). PTs said they might need to have me stop lengthening. Thomas stretches were extremely painful (8/10).
3. I can still rebreak and lengthen in about 6 months if I want to pay the extra money and go through another recovery period.
4. I wanted to preserve function, so I'm not too disappointed, provided that I do recover to ~90% of pre-surgery functionality. Since I posted this, I made some more progress: now I can descend stairs without holding onto the rail. Yay!
5. My wingspan was already 2" shorter than my starting height, and is now 5" shorter. If I lengthen my legs even more, I'll look like a lowercase "t".

You took the right decision aesthetically and functionally wise. Nerve damage is a bit concerning but surgery was only 6 months ago. Congratulations for 4. I can't yet.

Edit Post

Quote from: OverrideYourGenetics on September 18, 2018, 10:39:31 PMYep, the others covered pretty well the reasons why I stopped at ~3" total:

1. I developed nerve damage in the left shin. I still don't have normal sensation on the inside of my left shin.
2. I got very tight, despite the daily PT sessions at the Paley Institute (and twice a day throughout the last month of lengthening). PTs said they might need to have me stop lengthening. Thomas stretches were extremely painful (8/10).
3. I can still rebreak and lengthen in about 6 months if I want to pay the extra money and go through another recovery period.
4. I wanted to preserve function, so I'm not too disappointed, provided that I do recover to ~90% of pre-surgery functionality. Since I posted this, I made some more progress: now I can descend stairs without holding onto the rail. Yay!
5. My wingspan was already 2" shorter than my starting height, and is now 5" shorter. If I lengthen my legs even more, I'll look like a lowercase "t".

was the nerve damage from the surgery or lengthening post surgery?

Edit Post

Quote from: MirinHeight on September 19, 2018, 10:39:02 PMwas the nerve damage from the surgery or lengthening post surgery?

From lengthening. It appeared, I think, once I reached 3cm in the tibias. Dr. Paley said I could recover sensation, but it might take a year. I continued lengthening the tibias anyway, but this was concerning, and combined with getting very tight, I decided to stop for the time being.

Edit Post

Quote from: OverrideYourGenetics on September 20, 2018, 05:42:18 PMFrom lengthening. It appeared, I think, once I reached 3cm in the tibias. Dr. Paley said I could recover sensation, but it might take a year. I continued lengthening the tibias anyway, but this was concerning, and combined with getting very tight, I decided to stop for the time being.

thats interesting that nerve damage would happen with just 3 cm lengthened

Did you have sensation in that leg prior to hitting 3 cm?


Thanks

Edit Post

Quote from: MirinHeight on September 22, 2018, 02:28:06 AMthats interesting that nerve damage would happen with just 3 cm lengthened

Did you have sensation in that leg prior to hitting 3 cm?


Thanks

It actually doesnt surprise me. He was lengthening both tibia and femur at the same time. I had nerve damage on both sides and i lengthened separately. I ended up with drop foot on the left foot and decreased sensation on both front of my tibias. 

Edit Post

Quote from: TIBIKE200 on September 16, 2018, 06:51:01 AMit is pretty disheartening that your recovery has been so slow considering the very conservative amount you have gained...

How slow do you think my recovery has been? Here's a timeline:

• 2018-Mar-15 - tibias surgery
• Apr 05 - femurs
• Jun 08 - stop lengthening
• Early Jul - walk with canes (unassisted). Never used crutches.
• Early Aug - walk unassisted
• Late Aug / early Sep - walk unassisted at f'in Burning Man
• Mid Sep - unassisted squats, going up and down stairs

I'm at ~3.5 months after stopping lengthening. I've done very minimal leg exercise (<30 minutes total per week (e.g. Stairmaster, stationary bike or walkstation). Of course, I've been walking around at home and at my sedentary job, but that's not any sort of specific rehab training. I haven't jogged yet. Not proud of how little work I've put into my recovery, but I guess I serve as a baseline - even if you just go about your day, you'll still recover. So have faith, my post-op crippled friends.

I'm also in my late 30s and had all four segments broken.

For comparison, here's Puru, age 26, only femurs, and working out the legs much more often than me:

• 2017-Sep-26 - femurs surgery
• 2017-Dec-02 - stopped lengthening
• 2018-Jan-09 - mobile with crutches
• Jan-21 - walk without crutches
• Jan-30 - walk 1/3 miles (1/2km) without crutches ("swaying like hell towards the end as I was getting tired")
• Feb-08 - normal gait and going up/down stairs at only 2.25 months after stopping lengthening
• Feb-27 - jogging for 1 minute made legs sore
• Mar-03 - can't do body weight squats unassisted yet
• Mar-08 - walk for 3 miles without tiring
• Mar-25 - walk 6.5 miles/day, run up and down stairs easily. This was ~4 months after stopping lengthening.
• Mar-27 - can touch toes while bending with knees straight. Still can't squat unassisted.
• Aug-09 - can squat unassisted
• Aug-17 - jogged 2 miles, legs sore

Looks like Puru has recovered pretty much 100%, but let's see what he says.

He's also inspired me to try jogging next week!

Edit Post

Quote from: Jim_dabarber on September 22, 2018, 03:44:45 AMIt actually doesnt surprise me. He was lengthening both tibia and femur at the same time. I had nerve damage on both sides and i lengthened separately. I ended up with drop foot on the left foot and decreased sensation on both front of my tibias.

when you say nerve damage, how severe are you talking
can you still walk with normal gait and run normal?