【英语时差8，16】痛苦的长高之路

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The details are pretty gruesome. First, the doctor breaks the tibia and fibula--the bones of the lower leg. Then, a device comprised of two metal rings connected by extendable rods--the fixator--is screwed into both ends of the broken bone through the skin. About a week later, the stretching begins. The surgeon lengthens² the fixator in small, two millimeter increments³. This slowly pulls the broken bones apart, allowing new bone to grow and fill in the gap.

If all goes well, the three month bone-lengthening period is followed by another three to six months of bone strengthening. During this phase the patient is confined to a wheelchair and must undergo physical therapy that's typically described on leg lengthening websites as "extremely painful." But, barring complications such as infection where the fixator is attached to the bones and nerve injury, after about a year you can be back up and walking around on newly lengthened⁴ legs.

The surgery was invented in Russia in the early 1950s to help dwarves⁵ and other abnormally short people who wanted to attain⁶ a more normal height. Recently, though, in places like China, leg lengthening surgery has become trendy for people convinced that being taller leads to better jobs and more money

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