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Thoughts after the surgery


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[Regular patients] I will take care of inflammation well

관리자
2023-01-30
조회수 92

[Regular patients] I will take care of inflammation well

 

My height before the surgery

Before the surgery, I had a short height of 150cm. I had always been the first when we stood in the order of height, never even been the second. I wasn’t too much worried about height when I was a student, but the problem started when I started university.

I was turned down from part-time job interviews and started doubt if the reason was that I looked too young because of my short height. My face also looked so young that some people even asked me if I was a middle school student. But it started to bother me since I was already conscious of my height.

 

Decision for surgery

After I realized the importance of height and wished I was taller, my mother was the first one who told me about the surgery and suggested to consult a doctor. My mother was always concerned and stressed about the fact that I was shorter than my younger sister, so I followed her to Korea University Guro Hospital.

During the consultation, Professor Song showed us patients who had the surgery and it seemed so scary that we just came back right after the consultation. 2 years passed by after that incident and I was taking a year off from university when my mother asked me once again if I wanted to go to the university. Without even realizing, I was scheduled for a surgery.

 

The surgery process

All the patients who have the surgery have a tough time but there were many times when I was wondering if I was the once suffering the most. I am sure a lot of patients think they are having the toughest time but my bone formation was not good and my leg was filled with inflammation. I had to go through a few more surgeries because of inflammation and the recovery period, which is supposed to take one year, took more than 2 years and I am not still recovered fully.

I don’t have to use crutches but when other people look at me they can sense discomfort in me. Also, I start limping if I don’t pay enough attention while walking. But I don’t regret it. The surgery was in the past, and I look better with a taller height, and I have more confidence in myself now.

When I was going into the operating room, I remember pretending as if nothing was going to happen in front of my worried mother. I was actually nervous, but just went in, not knowing much about anything.

It was the first surgery, and I remember shivering like crazy from cold as soon as I got out of a long surgery of 8 hours. Later, I realized the more surgeries I go through, the harder it becomes to deal with.

I vomited a lot because my body was reacting against the painkiller, and without the painkiller, the pain was too unbearable. I remember making a frowning face because of the horrible appearance when the bandages were being taken out. My leg was already thick as it is, but it became even thicker and the disinfecting drug was all over my leg.

I remember trying to stand up after the 4th day. I was barely able to get on the wheelchair. I just didn’t have any strength in my legs and couldn’t even stand up properly that I just cried secretly by myself. I was also venting out my frustration to my parents, which I feel bad now that I think about it. Until that point, everything was good, and I didn’t have equinus deformity.

 

Inflammation

Until right after the 2nd surgery, I thought I wasn’t going to have any problem. But about a week after the surgery, I was feeling really cold and my temperature went up to 40 degrees. My legs were so painful that even walking to the bathroom made me cry. I lived with my family, but I was mostly by myself since all my family members were busy. For 2~3 days, I didn’t really know what to do by myself. I was covered up in my comforter, but it turned out that I was actually making my condition worse.

I thought I was having the flu, but it was actually inflammation that was getting worse. Even moving my legs a bit was very painful that we called the ambulance to go to the ER. As soon as the professor saw me, he cut the wound open and squeezed out the pus inside. I really thought I was going to faint. They said I couldn’t go into a surgery immediately because of the persimmon I ate earlier that day, which was the only thing I had in the past 3 days.

So I had to wait for the surgery until later that night. When I got out of the surgery, there were 4 hoses coming out of the leg, which were put for cleaning the wound with saline solution. So the saline solution was continuously used to clean out the inflamed area. The condition of the inflammation kept fluctuating despite intake of strong antibiotics. I spent 2 weeks lying on the bed like that with the hoses connected to my leg.

When I was discharged, I started to feel the inflammation again. This time I went to the hospital right away without any hesitation. The professor said that the intramedullary nail was causing inflammation and that it should be removed. I didn’t want to have it removed because it would delay everything, but I had no other choice.

Later, I heard that the pin was completely filled with pus. I thought I should have removed it earlier. 9 months after that, the external fixator on the non-inflamed leg was removed. The doctor told me the external fixator on the leg without the intramedullary nail could not be removed because it was too weak.

 

Re-operation

After 1 year since the 1st surgery, the external fixator was removed and I returned to school. Even though I was wearing leg braces, my legs became bowed, probably owing to the fact that there was no intramedullary nail inside. Bowing was so obvious from outside that I began to worry. I went to the hospital to check it out, and found out that the bone was already deviated from each other. I had no choice but talk to the professor about re-operation. Ilizarov surgeries are also done for bowed legs, so the professor agreed on re-operation.

I had the Ilizarov device only on the right side, which made my walking different. It was a bit painful but there was no big problem. I had small bouts of inflammation every now and then after the re-operation, but luckily there was no serious inflammation.

The process which I thought would take about 2 months took a longer time because of slow bone formation, which required inserting artificial bone and blood graft. I was worried about putting in an artificial bone, but bone formation occurred smoothly after the insertion. The Ilizarov device was removed after 4 months, and at first I was worried and had trouble walking. But now, 2~3 months passed by then, the condition is improving faster than I thought. I don’t limp too much while walking anymore.

I had trouble stretching out my knee because of lack of exercise after the re-operation. But I’ve been going to a rehabilitation clinic in my neighborhood, and it got better as well.

 

In conclusion

It was tough to go through the days with inflammation and I was ready to be regretful. But I am not the type to regret about something in the past, so I am content now. I got taller too. Now I am about 160cm, after lengthening of 9cm. I thought people would notice the difference, but they don’t know unless I tell them. I don’t think they are aware of it at all. I think it’s more for myself than for looking better in others’ eyes. After those hard days, I am content to be able to walk around outside and notice people who are shorter than me. If someone asked me if I would do the surgery again, I would say yes to that question. But that time, I would take care of the inflammation better.

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