Does Leg Lengthening Surgery Hurt?
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Ouch! Looks painful...
At the age of 11 I underwent leg lengthening surgery. The aim was to provide me with an additional 3 inches in height to make up for the deficit caused by a growth disorder I was suspected of having.
I've got to say, one of the most common questions I am ever asked when talking about my experiences, is: "Did it hurt?"
To answer a fairly obvious question, I'm going to point out the situation I was in and let you work it out for yourself:
- I had rods stuck in my bones
- I had my legs snapped in half
- I had to force the break apart every day
Having said this though, it wasn't as painful as it might seem. I'll break it down for you.
Leg Lengthening Surgery: A brief breakdown of pain
There are a lot of aspects to leg lengthening surgery, and so I'm going to break it down into different sections so you can understand the pain level of each one.
The Surgery Itself
This is an easy one. Unless you count the injection I was given to send me to sleep, then the pain level here was zero. I was fast asleep throughout the entire process, and didn't wake up until it was over.
Once I was awake, I'd been given a spinal anesthetic numbing me from the waist down. Unfortunately, despite this meaning no pain, it also meant I needed help using the toilet...
The early stages
Ok, this bit was a little more painful. When the dressings were still fresh, my legs still unsure what had happened to them, and the spinal anesthetic (epidural) taken out... yes. It twinged a bit. But that didn't last too long, and regular pain killers kept it at bay. The worst pain coming from having the rods in my legs was if they were knocked. That was agony.
Turning the key
This is the part which I guess makes most people bring up their lunch. The turning of the key in order to pull my broken bones further apart.
Sometimes, if things were a bit tender, this was sore and ached. However, most of the time it just caused a slightly odd pulling sensation and nothing more.
Cleaning the pinsites
This is the part of leg lengthening surgery which could be classed as the 'Mr Un-Obvious' - as it's certainly not the first thing that comes to mind. But let me tell you, it was the most painful part of the entire experience.
In the early stages of having the contraption fitted, nurses had to actually bring me laughing gas to calm me down just to clean the pinsites.
On a normal day, it isn't bad... but if they were infected? They would swell up around the pins, inflamed, red and raw. Yet still I would have to dive in with a sterilized cotton bud dipped in boiling salt water to keep the sites clean and tidy. Agony.
My conclusion, is that all in all the entire experience is not nearly as painful as you might imagine. It's the unexpected part which caused the most pain.
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