Quote from: YellowSpike on March 31, 2016, 02:25:35 PMKinda sucks to have to break my ankles for an inch, but hey, at least my recovery shouldn't be that bad.
Huh?
Do you just mean from the abuse of LL on the ankle and Achilles?
Quote from: YellowSpike on January 21, 2016, 06:34:53 PMI think Dr. G doesn't want to do tibias on me for the following reasons:
1. According to his (very high) standards, I "healed slowly" on my femurs (but I sort of attribute this to my fault - I didn't walk as much as I should have early on after clicking because I was afraid to, even though Gnail is weight-bearing
2. According to him as well, femurs are a good indicator of how tibias will go, and since I healed slower than he would have liked on femurs, he's worried tibias might be exponentially longer
I blame myself for healing relatively slowly (although, I still think I did well on average across all internal femur patients). I should have walked a lot more without crutches early on. What impeded me were the stairs in my apartment and also the fact that it was winter right after I finished clicking, and so the conditions weren't the best for walking. But this definitely played a big part in my slow-ish consolidation. And my left leg took a bit longer, but I think everyone has a good leg and a bad leg.
I think Dr. Guichet is probably right in his assessment. I doubt the problem with your slow healing was mainly lack of walking. Rate of healing from bone injury/surgery/distraction is more likely genetic and physiological than lifestyle related, as long as you were doing some physio and weightbearing.
We see an enormous variety in rate of callus formation on this site from one person to another. I imagine it has a lot to do with bone diameter, density, and vascularization, which should definitely be comparable going from femurs to tibias.
If I were you doing tibias, I would go external. But you'll have to plan a lot of time off for that.
So if you had a slow femur consolidation, you should probably expect to have an equally slow tibia consolidation.
Quote from: maximize on April 05, 2016, 03:00:55 AMI think Dr. Guichet is probably right in his assessment. I doubt the problem with your slow healing was mainly lack of walking. Rate of healing from bone injury/surgery/distraction is more likely genetic and physiological than lifestyle related, as long as you were doing some physio and weightbearing.
We see an enormous variety in rate of callus formation on this site from one person to another. I imagine it has a lot to do with bone diameter, density, and vascularization, which should definitely be comparable going from femurs to tibias.
If I were you doing tibias, I would go external. But you'll have to plan a lot of time off for that.
So if you had a slow femur consolidation, you should probably expect to have an equally slow tibia consolidation.
The skeptic in me agrees with what you're saying. My consolation in my left leg was slow. I also was a light smoker (I stopped pre-op, but went back to it over the summer and fall). I've quit now. Dr. Rozbruch said femurs aren't necessarily an indication of how tibias will go, and said ratcheting rods can be rough on healing. Dr. Paley said something similar. But yeah, tibias concern me for this reason. I just want 3cm more though.
TIbias are more complicated than femurs. Expect a healing time twice as long as with them
Quote from: Lgazer on April 05, 2016, 10:54:57 PMTIbias are more complicated than femurs. Expect a healing time twice as long as with them
I actually read that femurs heal 25% faster than tibias, so twice as long is a little exaggerated.
I agree that tibias take longer, but I'm only looking for like 2.5-3cm more to make me a strong 5'9". That's all that I want. Dr. Rozbruch and Dr. Paley said, even with Dr. Guichet telling me (which I challenged them both on) I shouldn't do tibias, that I will almost surely be fine for such a small amount (especially now that I've quit smoking entirely at this point for 2 months now). They also both said that ratcheting rods can sometimes cause slower healing as it is, and Dr. Guichet somewhat admitted this (without saying it) because he told me that his patients keep the rods in sometimes for 2 years or more (whereas Precice patients get them out earlier for similar lengthening amounts).
My only issue now is choosing between internal tibias (because I won't be in frames for 6 months) or external (which lets me walk right away, but I'm stuck in frames for probably too long given my career). That's my main dilemma.
Internal tibs (Precice) - non-weight bearing, slight (according to Roz/Paley) chance of knee pain, but could be weight-bearing within 3 months for just 2.5/3cm
Ex-Fix - only drawback is that I'd be stuck in frames for like 4-5 months
Quote from: YellowSpike on April 06, 2016, 02:22:03 PMI agree that tibias take longer, but I'm only looking for like 2.5-3cm more to make me a strong 5'9". That's all that I want. Dr. Rozbruch and Dr. Paley said, even with Dr. Guichet telling me (which I challenged them both on) I shouldn't do tibias, that I will almost surely be fine for such a small amount (especially now that I've quit smoking entirely at this point for 2 months now). They also both said that ratcheting rods can sometimes cause slower healing as it is, and Dr. Guichet somewhat admitted this (without saying it) because he told me that his patients keep the rods in sometimes for 2 years or more (whereas Precice patients get them out earlier for similar lengthening amounts).
My only issue now is choosing between internal tibias (because I won't be in frames for 6 months) or external (which lets me walk right away, but I'm stuck in frames for probably too long given my career). That's my main dilemma.
Internal tibs (Precice) - non-weight bearing, slight (according to Roz/Paley) chance of knee pain, but could be weight-bearing within 3 months for just 2.5/3cm
Ex-Fix - only drawback is that I'd be stuck in frames for like 4-5 months
Let do it
I am follwing your path
lol I'm no "trailblazer" that's for damn sure. My inspirations were really ShyShy, OBG, PD and ChrisIsaak.
I have to post a video of me running soon. If I had taken more time off from work, I could have recovered much sooner, but I wanted to financially recover (which I have, I'm back to where I was pre-op financially) and keep banking money (house, second LL, etc.). Shy told me he was able to fully focus on LL during the recovery/post-clicking phase whereas I was not. Too much sitting in an office job makes recovery take a lot longer. And I had the left screw issue too which made my life much harder. For just over 7cm, I could have been closer to ShyShy, but a lot of it is luck/genetics too.
Also...goodlucktomylegs...you're 5'10". LOL...all you 5'10" guys thinking you're short...wow...but "good luck to your legs" lol
Quote from: YellowSpike on April 06, 2016, 02:22:03 PMI agree that tibias take longer, but I'm only looking for like 2.5-3cm more to make me a strong 5'9". That's all that I want. Dr. Rozbruch and Dr. Paley said, even with Dr. Guichet telling me (which I challenged them both on) I shouldn't do tibias, that I will almost surely be fine for such a small amount (especially now that I've quit smoking entirely at this point for 2 months now). They also both said that ratcheting rods can sometimes cause slower healing as it is, and Dr. Guichet somewhat admitted this (without saying it) because he told me that his patients keep the rods in sometimes for 2 years or more (whereas Precice patients get them out earlier for similar lengthening amounts).
My only issue now is choosing between internal tibias (because I won't be in frames for 6 months) or external (which lets me walk right away, but I'm stuck in frames for probably too long given my career). That's my main dilemma.
Internal tibs (Precice) - non-weight bearing, slight (according to Roz/Paley) chance of knee pain, but could be weight-bearing within 3 months for just 2.5/3cm
Ex-Fix - only drawback is that I'd be stuck in frames for like 4-5 months
Are you sure you want to split your patella twice for a little more than an inch? Externals are annoying and have to be worn for a long time but otherwise you might end up with permanent knee pain for the rest of your life. In case of just 2,5cm's you will probably wear them for not longer than 4 months. You'd also be wheight bearing from the start.
Not to talk about the financial aspect of externals compared to precise.
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