Contents
- Choosing Femur Over Tibia
- What the Recovery Actually Felt Like
- Why He Wanted More Height
- Advice for Others Considering This
- Where He Stands Now
Five months ago he was 170 cm. Now he's 178 cm most mornings, dropping to 177 by the time he's done walking around at night. That's 7.3 cm gained through limb lengthening surgery on both femurs. No crutches these days. Sometimes no support at all. His physio team is still working on the gait, but the walking itself is done.
He didn't start out planning femur lengthening at all. When he first arrived, he was leaning toward tibia. It was only after talking to other patients on site and doing his own reading that he switched. Femur gave him more room to lengthen. It felt safer too, and the recovery made more sense to him once he'd looked into it. That's roughly how he explains it now, and his opinion hasn't really shifted five months later.
Choosing Femur Over Tibia
Ask him which segment he'd recommend today and he doesn't hesitate. Femur, he says, mainly because the complications tend to be fewer than with tibia. Tibia recovery can stretch a month or two longer in his experience, and he's heard other patients describe a "ballerina" feeling in the ankle during that stretch. Femur isn't free of downsides though. He was upfront about that: expect more pain during the actual lengthening phase.
Then again, he added, it depends on the person. He'd met patients who found tibia easier and others who struggled more with femur. There's no single answer, just a pattern he noticed after spending months around other people going through the same limb lengthening surgery process.
What the Recovery Actually Felt Like
The first two centimeters were the hardest. He had pain and some muscle spasms early on, though nothing in his right leg specifically. Somewhere around the four centimeter mark, things started easing up. He could have pushed past his eventual 7.3 cm total. In fact, he came close to his original target of 8 cm. He chose to stop earlier than that because he felt his proportions were already where he wanted them.
Holding onto that decision wasn't easy. Pain piles up. Sleep gets rough. It's tempting to just quit, he said, especially on the bad nights. But he kept picturing how he'd feel looking back if he'd stopped short. Regret, mostly. So he stuck it out through the discomfort that comes with limb lengthening surgery, number in mind the whole time.
Why He Wanted More Height
170 cm isn't a bad height in India, and he knows it. But he pointed out that the bar is shifting. Younger guys these days are hitting 6 feet more often, something he chalks up to better nutrition and protein intake. Outside India, 170 cm reads as below average. Average wasn't the goal. He wanted room above it.
And he's run into men well past six feet who still aren't happy with their height, which tells him this was never really about hitting a specific number in the first place. It's personal. Depends entirely on what someone's actually chasing.
Advice for Others Considering This
His biggest piece of advice: your will to go through with it needs to be stronger than your desire for the height itself. Without that, he doesn't think most people make it through. Staying active with physiotherapy matters too, more than people expect going in.
He also pushed back gently on how people usually pick a clinic. Most focus on facilities, nicer rooms, that sort of thing. He'd rather people look at experience, success rates, and safety records before booking height increase surgery anywhere. Those were the things that actually mattered to him once treatment started.
Where He Stands Now
He's still in recovery, with roughly another month of gait training and muscle strengthening ahead. But he's already walking steadily, sometimes without support at all. Looking back, he calls the five months difficult. Also good, in a way he didn't expect. He made real friends along the way. A genuinely good experience, in his own words.
Anyone weighing limb lengthening surgery for themselves should take one thing from his story: the number on the chart is only part of it. The mental side of getting through distraction, and the recovery that follows, matters just as much as the centimetres gained.
If you’re considering limb lengthening surgery and want to understand whether it could be right for you, contact our team to discuss your goals, options, and next steps.