[NYRes]

Thank you SO MUCH for your reply. I've read volumes of papers about limb lengthening, tissue expansion, Brava expansion, and just about every tidbit about the scientific process. But it is just DIFFERENT when you get right down to the nuts and bolts! I feel a bit helpless without a support group to share their own experiences --especially now that Brava has shut down. So I am grateful for hearing about your news. Wow. Fascinating.

One thing I can share immediately is a scientific paper by Schlenz and Kaider 2006 that did document various successes of 40 women.(Perhaps you already have the paper?) You can see from the article that women with no children did just as well as women WITH children. Perhaps one aspect that was relevant to success was Body Mass Index (BMI). The authors state that those that had BMI below 18 did NOT do well with growth, so nutrition does play a key role. So in your second round, you can take heart that you don't have to worry about the child bearing factor!

Wow. 26 weeks. That is tremendous. I hope I can get near that. But isn't it the case that our vacation life does rule us : ). My husband has been a gem for supporting me in this adventure. Still, its hard to lug the domes up in the mountains --the mid summer will be my stop time.

It sounds as though you too achieved some growth. So it will be VERY interesting to see if you can make it work for you again.

Please confirm that the paper I attached came your way. Thank you EVER so much for sharing your experience.

It will be equally interesting to learn how you might have done, after reading the paper and comparing your experiences with those of the 40 women in the paper. I have always tried to keep a bit too trim (my undoing, in general, I think). So I'm going to make sure I eat nutritiously well, and build my collagen up --perhaps using SurferJoe's recipes, and focus on Isometric work outs rather than aerobic work outs .

Thanks again, and Good wishes, Zoie

Hey there,

Thanks so much for such a scientific discussion again The paper did come through, and I read it I'm also a researcher but in a quite different field, so I read papers in my field on a daily basis, but it's always so refreshing to read a paper in a different field that I can even understand, surprisingly It is a fun read, thanks for sharing it I'm not too worried about the baby factor anymore, that really helps, thanks!

I'm pretty impressed by your determination to not only do it, but also do it well. I guess I was a bit lazy to do more than complying the wearing part during my first treatment, and even now several weeks into my second treatment. I work out about 3 times a week usually, mainly Yoga and strength training, and there was a time I called a brava coach asking about any constraints on my workout, she said as long as I don't do any exercise that grows chest muscle, I should be fine. It sounded a bit counterintuitive, but I followed her advice anyway. So in terms of exercise, I don't think I can squeeze in some isometric workout into my current schedule, but your words do remind me that maybe I should pay more attention to nutrition. I'm a foodie and like eating almost all sorts of food, from fine one to junk food , maybe it's time to make sure that at least I could try to eat a bit healthier. Thanks for sharing again, and if I make any noticeable progress, I will keep you posted

Best luck!