[Regular patients] I was always too diffident because of my short height
Previously, I watched a TV show “Excellent Physician” on EBS by coincidence. The show showed Professor Song giving hopes and operating people who are suffering from short height. Ever since that time, I began to think that I would definitely have the surgery some time in the future. I was always stressed because of short height and I had no self-confidence when I stood next to tall people. When I think of those times now, I didn’t really have any disadvantages because of short height, but I think it was due to self-dissatisfaction and self-accusation.
After I was discharged from the military service, I decided to have the leg lengthening surgery after discussing with my parents. They were supportive of my idea because they knew all the stress I had got from being short more than anyone else. After the decision, I looked up online for information about the surgery, which rather seemed like a simple surgery and thought that I could get taller soon after a short period of distress. So I consulted with Professor Song at Korea University Guro Hospital, whom I saw on the TV show “Excellent Physician” a while ago. But at the consultation, the professor told me not to have the surgery because my height, which was 167~168 cm, was not extremely short. But my mind was set on increasing my height, so got a date for the surgery.
I was full of anticipation
I was still researching about the surgery even after I got the schedule for surgery. There were online cafes about the surgery and read people’s blogs explaining how their lives changed after the surgery and was full of anticipation. The blogs were generally saying that “your suffering end in 3~4 months.” So I was really looking forward to returning back to school with a few centimeters added onto my height, and start a new life after 3~4 months of suffering. I was admitted to the hospital 2 weeks prior to the surgery. The day before the surgery, my parents were told about the details of the surgery and signed the document of agreement. I was infused with Ringer’s solution and my legs were all shaved because they said that it could cause infection if hair goes into the operated area. I was full with hope, rather than fear..
From the day of surgery till the day of discharge
I don’t remember anything after the nurse said, “Injecting anesthesia”. According to my mom, the surgery went on for 6 hours. The pain right after the surgery was unbelievably great that I can still vividly remember it now, 1 year past from then.
The pain went on after I returned to the ward too. I also had some infusion that would alleviate the pain but it was still very bad. I also had to change the bandage wrapped around the lower right leg where a pin was inserted over night because of too much bleeding. I had blood transfusion twice early in the morning because they said I don’t have enough blood. It was extremely painful and had painkiller injections every few hours. I could not sleep most of the time because of extreme pain. Around the time I took off the bandage, which was 2~3 days later, I was suffering from even more pain. My body temperature went all the way up to 40 degrees because of inflammation around the operation site.
Fever and extreme pain went on despite the antibiotics I got for 2 weeks. The professor found the right antibiotics for me and got the antibiotics by infusion twice a day. After a week or so, the level of inflammation went down to a normal value and the heat around my leg and high body temperature went down as well. I felt a bit lively when most of the pain disappeared. That made me wonder if I would have received the same treatment for the inflammation and pain if I had the surgery in a private hospital. The inflammation, which was not getting better with antibiotics, was even examined by the doctors from infectious disease department. I thought that it was probably a good idea to come to Professor Song for the operation, wondering if a normal private clinic would have been able to deal with such a situation like mine.
Usually people who had the surgery take out the bandage a day after the surgery and go to the sports rehabilitation center to practice walking. But I was able to go there 5 days after removing the bandage because of the inflammation. At the rehabilitation center, I first practiced getting up. It must have been because I have been laying down for a whole week that when I first stepped on the floor, I felt all the blood gushing down my legs and pain as if they were going to explode. I almost wanted to cry. But after 2~3 days, I must have gotten used to the pain, because I was still able to walk well even though it as still painful. The instructors at the rehab center were really nice and made exercising fun. So it became the only time I wasn’t stressed about pain and was looking forward to.
Pain of lengthening after discharge
You have to rotate the dice of the Ilizarov device 4 times and lengthen 1mm each day, and that’s how you grow taller. This is called lengthening, and after you lengthen for a bit, you will start to feel the pain. I had to suffer from extreme pain again after lengthening about 3 centimeters. Not only the lengthening area was hurting, but also my knee and ankle were hurting a lot too.
Starting at this point, I couldn’t even do the little amount of walking exercise I used to do and just laid on the bed almost all day. While the leg is being lengthened, walking exercise is necessary for the leg muscle and skin to grow as well. If not, one of the side effects, equinus deformity occurs, and I had a severe case of equinus deformity too.
I went to the hospital for follow-up once every month. The third time I went to the outpatient clinic, they told me that I have reached the goal amount of lengthening. So I got a date for the 2nd surgery, where the equinus deformity would be corrected and materials centrifuged from my own blood would be inserted to accelerate bone healing.
2nd surgery and afterwards
When I got to the ward after the surgery, it felt uncomfortable, because I couldn’t move my ankle at all with all the pins inserted on my foot. Maybe it’s because I suffered too much from the 1st surgery, but the pain wasn’t too bad and I was actually happy that the process was almost over. The condition of my foot looked pretty good, so I was able to be discharged in less than a week.
In equinus deformity correction, you normalize your foot by rotating the dices on the pins inserted on the foot, as you would rotate the dices on the Ilizarov device.
Usually people say rotating the pins takes two weeks. But because I had a more severe deformity, I had to do it for a month. The pins were removed after 1 month, and 2 months after that, the Ilizarov device was removed.
After the Ilizarov device was removed, I used removable 식인 leg braces to enhance leg strength and safety. It’s been more than 2 years since the surgery now and the bone healing is almost completed now, so I waiting for the surgery for intramedullary nail removal
1 year after the surgery
When I was being operated, there were quite a lot of patients hospitalized for the same surgery. But according to them, they didn’t have extreme pain or fever due to inflammation like I did. Some people do suffer like me, and some people say they didn’t feel any pain after 3 days. Some people even say that they felt no pain at all after the surgery because of painkillers.
I was told that my body is prone for delayed bone healing. Bone formation did occur somewhat because I received a surgery for accelerated bone healing about 1 year after. But because of slow bone healing, I couldn’t walk without using crutches or leg braces. I saw other patients who had the surgery 2 weeks before and 2 months after mine at the outpatient clinic, and they can walk like regular people without leg braces or crutches.
In conclusion, this is a surgery that can change drastically due to personal differences. Generally, the process and the results are good, but some people, including myself, could suffer from severe deformity and delayed bone formation. Of course there are treatment methods for such situations too, but the pain throughout the whole process is indescribable.
I would like to advise the people who are interested in the surgery to not take this surgery too lightly. They should consult with the professor long enough and think deeply before making the decision.
[Regular patients] I was always too diffident because of my short height
Previously, I watched a TV show “Excellent Physician” on EBS by coincidence. The show showed Professor Song giving hopes and operating people who are suffering from short height. Ever since that time, I began to think that I would definitely have the surgery some time in the future. I was always stressed because of short height and I had no self-confidence when I stood next to tall people. When I think of those times now, I didn’t really have any disadvantages because of short height, but I think it was due to self-dissatisfaction and self-accusation.
After I was discharged from the military service, I decided to have the leg lengthening surgery after discussing with my parents. They were supportive of my idea because they knew all the stress I had got from being short more than anyone else. After the decision, I looked up online for information about the surgery, which rather seemed like a simple surgery and thought that I could get taller soon after a short period of distress. So I consulted with Professor Song at Korea University Guro Hospital, whom I saw on the TV show “Excellent Physician” a while ago. But at the consultation, the professor told me not to have the surgery because my height, which was 167~168 cm, was not extremely short. But my mind was set on increasing my height, so got a date for the surgery.
I was full of anticipation
I was still researching about the surgery even after I got the schedule for surgery. There were online cafes about the surgery and read people’s blogs explaining how their lives changed after the surgery and was full of anticipation. The blogs were generally saying that “your suffering end in 3~4 months.” So I was really looking forward to returning back to school with a few centimeters added onto my height, and start a new life after 3~4 months of suffering. I was admitted to the hospital 2 weeks prior to the surgery. The day before the surgery, my parents were told about the details of the surgery and signed the document of agreement. I was infused with Ringer’s solution and my legs were all shaved because they said that it could cause infection if hair goes into the operated area. I was full with hope, rather than fear..
From the day of surgery till the day of discharge
I don’t remember anything after the nurse said, “Injecting anesthesia”. According to my mom, the surgery went on for 6 hours. The pain right after the surgery was unbelievably great that I can still vividly remember it now, 1 year past from then.
The pain went on after I returned to the ward too. I also had some infusion that would alleviate the pain but it was still very bad. I also had to change the bandage wrapped around the lower right leg where a pin was inserted over night because of too much bleeding. I had blood transfusion twice early in the morning because they said I don’t have enough blood. It was extremely painful and had painkiller injections every few hours. I could not sleep most of the time because of extreme pain. Around the time I took off the bandage, which was 2~3 days later, I was suffering from even more pain. My body temperature went all the way up to 40 degrees because of inflammation around the operation site.
Fever and extreme pain went on despite the antibiotics I got for 2 weeks. The professor found the right antibiotics for me and got the antibiotics by infusion twice a day. After a week or so, the level of inflammation went down to a normal value and the heat around my leg and high body temperature went down as well. I felt a bit lively when most of the pain disappeared. That made me wonder if I would have received the same treatment for the inflammation and pain if I had the surgery in a private hospital. The inflammation, which was not getting better with antibiotics, was even examined by the doctors from infectious disease department. I thought that it was probably a good idea to come to Professor Song for the operation, wondering if a normal private clinic would have been able to deal with such a situation like mine.
Usually people who had the surgery take out the bandage a day after the surgery and go to the sports rehabilitation center to practice walking. But I was able to go there 5 days after removing the bandage because of the inflammation. At the rehabilitation center, I first practiced getting up. It must have been because I have been laying down for a whole week that when I first stepped on the floor, I felt all the blood gushing down my legs and pain as if they were going to explode. I almost wanted to cry. But after 2~3 days, I must have gotten used to the pain, because I was still able to walk well even though it as still painful. The instructors at the rehab center were really nice and made exercising fun. So it became the only time I wasn’t stressed about pain and was looking forward to.
Pain of lengthening after discharge
You have to rotate the dice of the Ilizarov device 4 times and lengthen 1mm each day, and that’s how you grow taller. This is called lengthening, and after you lengthen for a bit, you will start to feel the pain. I had to suffer from extreme pain again after lengthening about 3 centimeters. Not only the lengthening area was hurting, but also my knee and ankle were hurting a lot too.
Starting at this point, I couldn’t even do the little amount of walking exercise I used to do and just laid on the bed almost all day. While the leg is being lengthened, walking exercise is necessary for the leg muscle and skin to grow as well. If not, one of the side effects, equinus deformity occurs, and I had a severe case of equinus deformity too.
I went to the hospital for follow-up once every month. The third time I went to the outpatient clinic, they told me that I have reached the goal amount of lengthening. So I got a date for the 2nd surgery, where the equinus deformity would be corrected and materials centrifuged from my own blood would be inserted to accelerate bone healing.
2nd surgery and afterwards
When I got to the ward after the surgery, it felt uncomfortable, because I couldn’t move my ankle at all with all the pins inserted on my foot. Maybe it’s because I suffered too much from the 1st surgery, but the pain wasn’t too bad and I was actually happy that the process was almost over. The condition of my foot looked pretty good, so I was able to be discharged in less than a week.
In equinus deformity correction, you normalize your foot by rotating the dices on the pins inserted on the foot, as you would rotate the dices on the Ilizarov device.
Usually people say rotating the pins takes two weeks. But because I had a more severe deformity, I had to do it for a month. The pins were removed after 1 month, and 2 months after that, the Ilizarov device was removed.
After the Ilizarov device was removed, I used removable 식인 leg braces to enhance leg strength and safety. It’s been more than 2 years since the surgery now and the bone healing is almost completed now, so I waiting for the surgery for intramedullary nail removal
1 year after the surgery
When I was being operated, there were quite a lot of patients hospitalized for the same surgery. But according to them, they didn’t have extreme pain or fever due to inflammation like I did. Some people do suffer like me, and some people say they didn’t feel any pain after 3 days. Some people even say that they felt no pain at all after the surgery because of painkillers.
I was told that my body is prone for delayed bone healing. Bone formation did occur somewhat because I received a surgery for accelerated bone healing about 1 year after. But because of slow bone healing, I couldn’t walk without using crutches or leg braces. I saw other patients who had the surgery 2 weeks before and 2 months after mine at the outpatient clinic, and they can walk like regular people without leg braces or crutches.
In conclusion, this is a surgery that can change drastically due to personal differences. Generally, the process and the results are good, but some people, including myself, could suffer from severe deformity and delayed bone formation. Of course there are treatment methods for such situations too, but the pain throughout the whole process is indescribable.
I would like to advise the people who are interested in the surgery to not take this surgery too lightly. They should consult with the professor long enough and think deeply before making the decision.