Fleet-foot

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Part 5, a road to recovery: at the end of all of this, I was standing and walking again. I could make strides without the crutches, but considering that my callus was still solidifying, I practiced in crutches and care was taken to avoid any falls or injuries. Often I’d visit the swimming pool and wave my legs back and forth at one corner of the pool. It was good to be outside in the ample Vietnamese sun, the exposure of which helped with calcium absorption, bone health, immune system support, and reducing inflammation. On days I elected to stay in my room, I enjoyed listening to music and just cycling endlessly on the peloton. It was around this time that paracetamol wasn’t necessary and I stopped taking the painkillers. Everyday I was getting a bit faster and my gait more straighter and normal. At the beginning, your pelvic region is sort of bent back, and the rest of you forward from what I assume are the weakness of your muscles after many months of sitting and laying down. Thao would often correct me to keep my back straight as I walked. In the courtyard, I was directed to a pillar and asked to take my first deep squats, as I squated down I sank and I held on to the pillar as I squated upwards, it was a good exercise, and I was advised to try and get 40 squats in a day. The cycle of stretching, walking, wading in water, eating, cycling and adventuring in the courtyard continued until I was able to stand up and make strides in relative confidence, hoping that I would be cleared to go home and get on with life. When the time came that I was cleared, I booked my ticket and spent some time outside, at malls, parks, zoos, it was a lot of freedom that was the culmination of this process, you come out of it with a lot of gratitude to be free from pain or immobility, and I was counting down the days to my flight.

Part 6, Returning home: On the flight back, I didn’t have any issues. I once thought that all the metal still in my legs would create a hassle going through airport security, but nothing ever came of it, which makes sense considering that a lot of people have metal implements embedded in them from other medical conditions. I still travelled with a bit of a limp, I was told early on that the rate of recovery would likely be very different for each leg, and in this case my left leg was noticeably weaker, looking down at the two, I saw it had less muscle mass, and when I twitched or touched my toes, there was sort of this slight electric sensation. Nevertheless, I was moving on it, and the thought of returning home and continuing life gave me much to look forward to. From before my journey to after, I had lost around 20 pounds, and of course stood taller. I got a good haircut and did my final xrays before departing, the final xray showed the callus to still be translucent, it would take time for the bone so solidify to a degree comparable with the rest and in that time the nail and screws are the strength of your legs. Returning home went smoother than expected, I had less leg room than before, but I suppose that was the entire mission here. Friends were mostly interested in catching up. When we walked together and they noticed a limp, I’d brush it off as a recently twisted ankle and it never went beyond that. Of course there was the matter of the difference in height, but before the operation, and in the climate of my region, I took to wearing thick soled boots, now I wore very flat vans, and also elected to hunch a bit as they got used to my new height. It was sort of like a sleight of hand trick. For the matter of recovery, stretches, walks and squats bring life back to your legs, and as you eat and rest the muscle mass returns rather quickly. In time, that electric sensation in my left toes also went away which I was very happy about because my paranoia wanted to label it as permanent nerve damage. I didn’t jump and elected to speed walk instead of run, less so out of medical necessity but out of paranoia that the bone was still calcifying, and the brunt of my legs weight bearing was on this metal nail and screws. The feeling of all the metal in your leg becomes strangely muted. Like you don’t feel the metal running the length of your bone and the screws until specific situations. For me, later down the line, when I started running again, I’d make bursts of speed not unlike my pre-operation performance, but then a burning sensation would occur in what felt like the length of the nail. Other times after heavy exercises like weighted squats or going up and down heavy on stairs, I would feel the screws, usually only at the bottom, and only on one leg at a time. To be honest I had a certain anxiety about the metal, like life would return to normal but you always knew this metal was inside of your legs and you eventually needed to get it out, it was always a small reminder of the operation. The scarring was considerable enough for me to prefer long pants, they’re subtle enough that no stranger would care, a series of dark dots, what looks like a faint bruise at the place of the osteotomy, but the worst of the scars were the screw scars by the knee, they were recessed unlike the other scars, I have yet to know if they’ll become flat and less pronounced after the screw removal, because from what I can assume, that is a fatty area, and the screws may be interfering with that fat placement, I have yet to see. To me scars aren’t necessarily ugly, however the surgical scars from this procedure are so specific and completely symmetrical that they look conclusively surgical, and I don’t really have a good excuse for them. I told my partner it was from an automobile accident growing up, and for friends and family that have seen my legs unscarred, I just usually wear pants, or even swim with leggings, but for many patients I’ve talked to they have no concerns about the scars at all, it just doesn’t register at all to them as something they should be concerned about. My deepest anxiety about them is if someone would cross reference my scars with that of the surgery and come to the conclusion that I had this procedure done, but people don’t tend to care that much. There are options I’m still considering, like possible scar revision, and maybe even getting tattoos, but the scars are largely a non-issue, it is in this case that I imagine femur lengthening patients enjoy less obvious scarring, as they’ll be hidden even with shorts. In due time, I was invited out for hiking trips, a ~3000 step, steep mountain climb. My first excursion was around 6 months after I returned home, and I was ass at it. I hurled part-ways up, but my cardio was simply poor from my lack of running. Most of my strain was in my chest rather than my legs, and eventually I completed the hike with enough energy and strength in my legs to take the path down as well. It was for a seasoned athlete a poor performance, but the journey of fitness is primarily competing with your past self. I caught the bug for it and started getting equipment to really train my sustainment for these mountain hikes. A good pair of goretex trail shoes, A hydration pack to carry water in an easy to sip format, electrolytes on hand so that your exhaustion point will be your muscles and not your energy stores, and trekking poles (you’ll get made fun of for using them as a guy, but their benefits are absolutely real) eventually, became the one taking others up the trail, and they would be the one’s calling for rest stops. I still felt most of my strain was cardiovascular and not in my legs, the glorious leg soreness that signifies muscle building would come heavy a day or two after the hike, but mechanically my legs felt fine. Life and athletics had returned to relative normalcy, and from here I just got busy with work and routines and the surgery became more of a distant memory.

Part 7, Nail removal and then end of my journey: writing this as of now, I am returning for my nail removal. It is a bit surreal visiting the original hospital, greeting and meeting other patients in the middle of their lengthening and being reminded of what was my reality for what felt like so long. But walking up and shaking the hands of patients, none of them realised I’d gone through this until I pulled up my pants to show them the scars. Getting my Xray done, I was happy with the results, the bone of where my osteotomy and distraction took place was as opaque as that of the original bone, the vector of the bone to my eyes also matched the original, a bit thicker in some places, but it’s quite a marvel to see what the human body is capable of in terms of skeletal regeneration. There’s a bit of nervousness to go on to the operating table again, but mostly excitement to be done, to not worry about the complications of having this metal hardware in your legs long term, and utmost a faith that the nail removal is a vastly more simple procedure then inserting it along with the frames and stretching your legs out, the worst part it over, and I’m grateful to close the chapter on this journey, you’re not the same person before and after, I never really visited the limb lengthening forum or watched any of Victor’s videos after I returned home. Your mind goes to different focuses and motivations because you have completed what you set out for. I will post an update on the intricacies of the nail removal, and try my best to answer any further questions, but the Limb Lengthening forum isn’t something I intend to visit again regularly, it is a part of what is quickly becoming the past for me. Images and videos are attached for those curious.

Part 8, post nail removal: I am writing this 4-days post nail removal, all of the metal is out and I am recovering. The hospital I did my removal at was different from all my other surgeries, it was larger, but the process of showering, urine and blood sampling, xrays and fasting were all the same, and Dr. Quynh arrived again after these years to finish his work. The nail removal was combined with scar-revision, so after removing the nail and screws, they actually cut and stitched my scars in a way that minimized the dark scar tissue and formed it into more of a vertical line. I wasn’t too aware that UV-exposure darkened scars for the first 6-12 months, and I totally spent a lot of time in the sun in that swimming pool and walking about. I believe my specific surgery took around upwards of six hours. I was so relieved that this procedure didn’t involve that god-awful spinal anaesthetic, in fact no local anaesthetic was required at all from my understanding. They had an IV running into my arm, and put me out using the mask and general anaesthesia, but that was it. The surgery was completed and after I came too, I was transported to my room and slept awhile. I was then transported to my apartment the same night, and needed to use a wheelchair again, I was totally unable to use my legs, my right leg was much worse off with numbness and tightness around the foot, and the pain is strongest at both your knees, the site of the nail removal. After I was transported to my apartment, I rested the next few days, and recovery went quicker than I thought. I was expecting to be rather bedridden from how I felt in the hospital, but the morning after I found getting around with a crutch manageable, by the third day I didn’t need a crutch to walk around my room, and on the 4th, getting up from a seated position to a standing position became easy and unassisted, I actually was idle mindedly went from sitting on my bed to standing up to grab something and thought “wait, did I just do that without any fuss”. There is still knee pain, and that deep purplish bruising is coming at the knees and around the area where the nail used to be, which from my understanding is a sign of internal healing. During my first few bandage changes, I got a good look at the scarring, and I was pleasantly surprised by how neat and minimal they were compared to beforehand. I did have two completely new scars I would have to get used too, and oddly to me these two were asymmetrical, a vertical scar a few cms long at the front lower right near the screw points, and a similar one on my left but much higher nearer to the knee. I figured this was probably why there were more sensations of tightness and numbness coming from my right leg, either way, I’m not dissatisfied, and the first week of recovery after the nail removal gives way to confidence that things will return to normal, hopefully even better than the physical performance pre-nail removal.

Listed here is Thao’s contact incase you’d like to ask him any questions yourself.

Website: bbonehcm.com

Phone number/Whatsapp: +84987777706