Body Builder - External Tibias - Doctor Withheld - 2011 - Building upwards!

[crazy+6]

lol !   yet to be known as LL warrior. Sysop need to change my status and probably credibility  

You can reach 7 cm by tricking lengthening. I would suggest you if you have time and you are not in hurry to complete lengthening. Keep tricking and stretching.

After you finish lengthening - It will be hell lot of easy to down ballerina by this way.

Also, Achilles tendon surgery is needed in extreme cases. Even in my case- Dr. Sarin don't want to do surgery and saying it will be fine by weight bearing. It will just take more time.

So my plan is to finish femur lengthening - appoint a physiotherapist on daily basis and do rigorous therapy, cycling, swimming and walking (help of crutch and braces).

If I complete my lengthening by march - I am expecting to walk without crutch by July and jogging by December 2012.

It will be total 2 years of journey for me and complete life changing - Rebirth of crazy  

Lets hope for best.

Crazy+6

[Body Builder]

Lets hope for best.

Crazy+6

Lets hope dude!
And I strongly believe we'll gonna make it!

I wish you the best for your second battle.
I hope that your experience with monorails will be as good as mine (at least till now).

[Body Builder]

4cm

Today I reached 4cm and at the end of the day I'll be 4,05 cm.
My distraction rate is 2,5 turns per day (0,625mm) but some times I turn 2 times to let my foot relax.

My achilles tendon after a lot and hard exercises is much much better and I can stand up with my heels touching the ground instantly or at 10 seconds max!
Also, I can walk (always with stepper) much better than yesterday and the last week when I needed someone to push me from my back for the first 2-3 steps.

However, I started to have some pains between my upper pins when I stand up.
Of course this is normal because this is from the bone gap which is now big enough (and I hope it will be 3cm bigger  ).

Finally, today I've taken new X rays. The consolidation is pretty fast, but my doctor said I don't face any serious danger of premature healing and generally, everything is ok.
I hope he is right.

I'll post my X rays in the next few days.
Everything until now is under control and much easier than I have expected.
I wish I'll continue to be in a good condition until I finish lengthening and then everything will be easier.

To every LL'er, stay strong!

[plastikman]

Congratulations for reaching the 4 cm mark!
Slow and stady you will get to your goal..
 
Keep fighting against that balerina foot.

Best wishes!

[crazy+6]

4cm

Today I reached 4cm and at the end of the day I'll be 4,05 cm.
My distraction rate is 2,5 turns per day (0,625mm) but some times I turn 2 times to let my foot relax.

My achilles tendon after a lot and hard exercises is much much better and I can stand up with my heels touching the ground instantly or at 10 seconds max!
Also, I can walk (always with stepper) much better than yesterday and the last week when I needed someone to push me from my back for the first 2-3 steps.

However, I started to have some pains between my upper pins when I stand up.
Of course this is normal because this is from the bone gap which is now big enough (and I hope it will be 3cm bigger  ).

Finally, today I've taken new X rays. The consolidation is pretty fast, but my doctor said I don't face any serious danger of premature healing and generally, everything is ok.
I hope he is right.

I'll post my X rays in the next few days.
Everything until now is under control and much easier than I have expected.
I wish I'll continue to be in a good condition until I finish lengthening and then everything will be easier.

To every LL'er, stay strong!

Congrats BB

Looking forward to see your X rays. 4 cm is great achievement. 3 more to go 

Crazy+6

[Body Builder]

Thank you guys!

Crazy, keep strong man!
I hope you'll have the same, good, experience as me with monorails!

[Arche]

Hey Bodybuilder how stable are the monorail "frames" compares to the traditional Ilizarov? What are the pros and cons of the Monorail system if you had to make a list?

Thanks!

[Body Builder]

Hey Bodybuilder how stable are the monorail "frames" compares to the traditional Ilizarov? What are the pros and cons of the Monorail system if you had to make a list?

Thanks!

I can't be 100% sure about Ilizarov, because I haven't tried it.

But from what I read about other LL'ers experiences, I'd try to summarize some things.
I'll write only pros, because if for instance I say monorails are much more comfortable this means that Illizarov are not comfortable enough.
I hope you caught my point.

monorails

1)much more comfortable than Illizarov, makes sleeping easy enough and also you can do sex in most positions without major problems, something with Illizarov is impossible (except girl on top). This isn't significant for most of you, but if you have girlfriend it would be very important.
Generally, you can lay in bed and touch with the back of your leg the bed, whereas with Ilizarov you have always a frame between your leg and everything else.

2)less pins which means

-less possibilities of infections
-less dangers of nerve damaging
-less scars after you finish LL

3)stronger pins which are nearly impossible to bend

4)less pain
I've reached more than 4cm until now and I rarely have any pain and this isn't more than 2-3 (1-10 scale).

5)much lighter, about 1kg each. This makes exercises much easier.

Ilizarov

more stable.
You can walk unaided (without stepper etc) from the first month, whereas with monorails it is impossible to walk without aid until you finish lengthening.
This is very important, especially if you don't have another person to help you with your daily program (cooking, bath, exercises etc). Also, walking helps to have your feet strong and the reduce of achilles tendon problem.
 

Of course there would be more pros of every device that I forgot to mention, but I think that these are the most important.
Personally, I am very happy with my choice of monorails.
It makes LL really easy and although I can't walk unaided, I can do easily all the other exercises and have my feet in a good condition.
If monorails made walking possible, then I think it would be the perfect method of LL in tibias, even better than internal methods (especially if you think the cost).
Even though, If I'd have the chance to do LL from the beginning, I'll choose again monorails.

I hope I helped.

[Roc]

4cm

Today I reached 4cm and at the end of the day I'll be 4,05 cm.
My distraction rate is 2,5 turns per day (0,625mm) but some times I turn 2 times to let my foot relax.

My achilles tendon after a lot and hard exercises is much much better and I can stand up with my heels touching the ground instantly or at 10 seconds max!
Also, I can walk (always with stepper) much better than yesterday and the last week when I needed someone to push me from my back for the first 2-3 steps.

However, I started to have some pains between my upper pins when I stand up.
Of course this is normal because this is from the bone gap which is now big enough (and I hope it will be 3cm bigger  ).

Finally, today I've taken new X rays. The consolidation is pretty fast, but my doctor said I don't face any serious danger of premature healing and generally, everything is ok.
I hope he is right.

I'll post my X rays in the next few days.
Everything until now is under control and much easier than I have expected.
I wish I'll continue to be in a good condition until I finish lengthening and then everything will be easier.

To every LL'er, stay strong!

Awesome post regarding the pros of the monorails man;)

And look at me, where are my manners? CONGRATULATIONS on reaching 4cm! *thumbs up!*

From your posts, you seem to exercise a lot which is good man, I see you're dedicated as fuc* haha.

Best of luck BB, God speed on your recovery (and lengthening lol)

May the force be with you

[Body Builder]

Awesome post regarding the pros of the monorails man;)

And look at me, where are my manners? CONGRATULATIONS on reaching 4cm! *thumbs up!*

From your posts, you seem to exercise a lot which is good man, I see you're dedicated as **** haha.

Best of luck BB, God speed on your recovery (and lengthening lol)

May the force be with you

I hope the dark side of LL (lengthening phase) will soon end master Vader.
hahahaha

Thank you mate, I am doing my best to achieve my target (7+cm).
I hope I'll go there without major problems.

Stay strong!
Best wishes from master Qui Gon Jinn 

[around7]

Hi man.
Does your doctor measure the size of the gap in your bones? If yes, is it exactly like the amount you lengthened?

[Body Builder]

Hi man.
Does your doctor measure the size of the gap in your bones? If yes, is it exactly like the amount you lengthened?

Yes, my doctor measures the gap of my bones.
However, I don't know how much I lengthened because I can't measure myself in a different way.

I have a height meter on my home but I can't get precise measurements because my legs are not completely straight and also I can't keep my body straight enough.
With the height meter I lack about 1 cm from the gap measurement, but as I said this 1cm can easily return when I have full control of my feet and stay completely straight.

Bone gap and the height I gain should be exactly the same, because I'm doing tibias.
Am I right?

[yungchih69]

I am 4 days post LL (tibias, external only monorail devices) and I have exactly the same experiences that Roc has had.

Pain the next day after surgery is really really bad because the strong painkillers used in the firts day are going away abd the real pain comes. However, I never used narcotic  painkillers like morphine, not even tramal because it caused me stomachaches, I only used lonalgal  (about 3 per day for day 2 and 1 for day 3).
In the third day although, the big pains suddenly went away and I today saturday and sunday I only used 1 lonarid before I go to sleep).

I try to use as less painkillers as I can because I don't want to have illusions about pain and also I don't want to harm my health with strong medicines.

However, I really hoped that the first week would be the worst and I became really sad when you said that the begining of distraction phase is worse. I hope I could handle the pain without narcotic painkillers but if I can't, I'll use.

A question for veterans of external tibia lengthening: did you walk (with walker of course) in the first 10 days (before ectraction)? And if yes, how much? I did 3-4 steps in the second day and I terribly regret it because I had awful pains since the other day.
My doctor told me to simply stand for the next 4 days  and then try to walk just 1-2 steps. He also said that orthofix monorails are less stable than Illizarov and I should be more patient and careful with walking, especially the first days.
What happened in your case? When did you done your first steps?

LL is really hard and you can't do a lot before LL to prevent pain, discomfort etc. Be strong and determined because you won't go till the end. Mental and physical problems  are huge and only the tough and brave ones could handle it.

Did any of the veterans have a fever after their surgery? I have every night about 37,4-37,6 celcium degrees and the day between 36,6-37. My doctor says it is normal.

Where are you doing this surgery?

[Lucero02]

I think he said he couldnt disclose the doctor,,,what a shame.

[Body Builder]

I think he said he couldnt disclose the doctor,,,what a shame.

You are right.

As I've said before, for personal reasons and because my doctor don't want to do cosmetic LL frequently (he is doing LL especially for people with disabilities, I am one of the few exceptions), I can't say more about my doctor.

I'm writing only to tell my experiences of this tough but precious journey and answer some questions, If I can of course.

About my last X rays, I've already sent them to Sysop and I wait for the link of photobucket to post them.

[SysOp]

Here are Body Builder's latest x-rays. First is his right leg:



...and then his left leg:



That's some strong consolidation while still lengthening. Congrats on your progress.

[Sweden]

I wish you the best of luck all the way from Sweden.

What do you eat during the day, or night when you´re awake? Any diet chart you could share?

Du you take supplements or extra calcium, iron, multivitamins etc.

What about the Exogen 4000? Any interest in that?

Merry X-mas dude 

[Body Builder]

I wish you the best of luck all the way from Sweden.

What do you eat during the day, or night when you´re awake? Any diet chart you could share?

Du you take supplements or extra calcium, iron, multivitamins etc.

What about the Exogen 4000? Any interest in that?

Merry X-mas dude 

Sysop thank you for posting my X rays and for your kind words.

Sweden, first of all thank you a lot my friend.

Now, about my diet, I simply don't eat anything special, I eat exactly what I did before LL. But I'll try to write some things because you asked me.

morning: 1 glass of milk

lunch: everything that my mom cooks (I live with my parents). From spaghetti to beans etc usually with chicken or beef meat. Also, tomato or lettuce salad and usually some piece of cheese.

afternoon: 1 glass of orange juice most of the times, or apples/kiwis (more rarely)

night: my dinner is the same as my lunch. I have a big variety in food.

I also eat 1-2 times per week junk food (burgers and pizza) and day by day (sometimes 2-3 days in a row) chocolates or other deserts.

Finally, no I don't take any supplement.
I used to take some protein sometimes (3-4 times per week for about 6months, then I stopped) when I went to gym, but now nothing.
And I'd like to inform everyone who want to start working out that supplements help very little, so don't throw your money. Good food is the most important, and with hard exercise the body will transform.

As you can see, my diet is very normal and my fast bone consolidation is rather due to genes-lack than good food.
Of course, I don't eat so bad, but I don't eat anything extraordinary that I wouldn't eat if I hadn't done LL.

Now, about exogen I know that it fatens bone consolidation a lot.
But I don't think I need it. I don't believe it would help that much because I already have good consolidation.
I am not 100% sure, but I think I won't give any money about such a machine. For people with slow consolidation rate however, it is really important.

I hope I helped.
Greetings to the cold Sweden!

[5f6]

Oh wow! This is EXACTLY what I want 

Did your Doctor use a local anaesthetic or a general one? Also roughly how much did it cost? Do you know any other good LL clinics/hospitals that use the monorail method seem as you dont want to disclose your doctors information.

Thanks

[Body Builder]

Oh wow! This is EXACTLY what I want 

Did your Doctor use a local anaesthetic or a general one? Also roughly how much did it cost? Do you know any other good LL clinics/hospitals that use the monorail method seem as you dont want to disclose your doctors information.

Thanks

My doctor usually does general anaesthesia.
I think you can choose local also, but I am not sure.

The cost (doctors fee+2-3days in hospital+cost of monorails) was about 16.000 dollars.
However, the monorails alone cost more than the half, so if you don't want new machines like me, but used, you can avoid about 5.000 dollars.

I am sorry but I can't tell something more about my doctor.
Also, I think that dr Sarin does monorails in tibias.
I don't know if they are from orthofix company however, but from what I've seen from Crazy 6 they seem to be very good.