First a back ground, I have never had a broken bone before in my life. I competed in D1 Baseball as a pitcher, I am 22, so I am pretty much done growing. I just started running seriously after graduating from college and found that one of my legs is shorter than the other. However this descrepancy comes almost intirely, (slighty more than 1 3/4 of an inch) from below my knee on my shorter leg. I have already had the length of the bones in my legs measured, and my tibia in the shorter leg is 17.6 inches, while my other leg is 19.1 inches The fibula in the shorter leg is only 1 inch shorter than my longer leg.
I have seen 3 specialists, and one of them suggested Osteogenesis surgery to correct my shorter leg and allow me to do more mileage. Right now, If I run anymore than 15-20 mpw, my knee, hips, and lower back suffer injuries. I got up to about 40 mpw a year ago, and that is when I became injured and found out about my leg discrepancy. I thought it wasn't a big deal but whenever I started running more than 15 mpw the injuries came back with avengance. In highschool I ran a 5:45 mile, and right now I can run about 6:00 on the little running I've done, so I know I can get faster if I can do more mileage.
What I am unsure of is the surgery. I've read online that you can lose your leg in severe cases, and that many people use this surgery to increase height. I don't want or need to increase my height, I just would like to run road races and marathons and hopefully get up to 50-60 miles a week sometime in the next few years. I've found that I really enjoy running and the entire reason for this is so that I can run more often without injury to my knee, ACL, Hip abductors, and lower back.
The specialist that suggested the surgery said that my height would not substantially increase from the surgery, and the lengthening of the Tibia was feasible. He also said that it would take several months of no activity, and up to a year of using a wheel chair and crutches, but that the amount of lengthening wasn't extreme and that in my case it may be significantly less and easier process. He said most of the people who get the surgery are dwarfs and men below 5'6" and that often they will try to increase their bone length 3-4 inches and that for most of the surgeries where the lengthening is less than 2 inches the chance of success is much higher.
Because of this I did consider the surgery. I've already been approved and the surgery is in early January. I am ready to give up a year of running so that I can for the rest of my life. I am asking this board if anyone else here has had this procedure, specifically so that they can run and what to expect and the effects are. The doctor said that the lengtening of only 2 inches will at first tighten my lower leg muscles but within a year they should be as functional as my longer leg. Anyone's comments are appreciated.