My friend "Runs Like a Chicken" decided it would be a great idea to create a blog for the both of us to read about our progress after the Pectus Repair surgery. She had surgery July 16th and my surgery was July 17th. She's several years younger than I am but I have enjoyed her friendship and getting to know her as we sit back and talk to each other about what's going on in our lives and how we are feeling these days. It's very interesting to hear how she's progressing and how far she has come. I'm an old lady so I'm healing much slower. Ash - I'm totally looking forward to doing this. It was a great idea and I can't wait to look back on our journals and read about all that we have been through.
So, here goes with my first post.

As stated above my surgery was July 17th. I spent 1 week in the hospital and then spent 2 months off work healing. The whole time off work Ash and I would talk every day about how we were doing and how it was so nice having each other so we would not go insane with bordom.
I am now about 6 months post op. I still have a lot of pain/burning at night and stiffness/soreness during the day.

It's hard to describe how it feels but here goes:
Days: During the day most of my soreness is with my back. I truly believe it's because I am not able to arch my back like I used to. Also, with us older folks I read that since our posture has been corrected that our backs start to ache. The pain is very minimal throughout the day. It's mainly just sore. Every now and then when bending or twisting a certain way I feel a pinch. The pinch isn't bad at all, just reminds me that I have a steel bar inside my chest. Maybe I get this pinch because my incisions are right under my boobs. Good thing they are not that big. :-)
Nights: I spent about 2-3 months in a recliner. I then graduated to our bed. I spent about 3 months in bed. Every now and then I would have slight pain and would move to the recliner. Starting about 1 week ago I started having a burning sensation on my right side. My right side has always been my problem side. The burning sensation feels like someone has a torch on my insides. It's a little below my incisions. The first night I had the burning sensation I tried laying in bed. I didn't get up right away because I wanted to see if it would go away. I laid in bed for about 1 hour with the fire feeling on my chest and decided I could not lay in bed any longer. I needed to get some sleep. So, I moved out to the recliner. The second night, same thing. I laid in bed this time for only 30 minutes before I went back to the recliner. Third night was a good night. I had slight pain on my right side. When I would start to feel the burning I would roll over on my left side and the pain would go away. Once my left side started to hurt because of the bar I would roll back over on my back. Laying on my back and then rolling over on my side continued for most of the night. I didn't get much sleep. The next night I had a good nights sleep. No pain at all and I laid on my back the whole night. The last 2 nights have been very bad. I tried the bed first, like usual, and then moved to the recliner. Now the recliner was becoming uncomfortable. So, I would then move to the couch. I laid in the couch for a hour or two and then started to hurt so I moved back to the recliner. I don't know how many times I moved from the couch to the recliner. I can feel myself becoming very tired and cranky from lack of sleep. Last night I took some of my valium hoping that would help and it didn't. Normally it knocks me out since I take 2. Tonight, who knows. I have been sore all day today. I will try the bed first and see what happens.

I was in such a bad mood last night when talking to my mom she asked me for the first time if I regret having the surgery. Although I'm annoyed that I am not 100% better I never regret having it. Before my surgery I had heart problems. I couldn't stay up late and had to have close to 10 hours of sleep each night so my heart would not hurt. Since my surgery I have not had problems with my heart at all. I will take the pain and discomfort knowing that my heart is in it's proper place and not hurting anymore. As for my breathing, I can tell a slight difference in my endurance level however I cannot tell a different in my breathing. My poor lungs have been squished for 29 years. I can't expect them to start working properly after 6 months. I just need to keep exercising my lungs and my capacity will increase.

What I wish I could do now that I can't:
1. I wish I could play basketball. I'm not very good at shooting but I love to play defense. Right now if I was to get hit or knocked around a bit that would be aweful. Jason plays with a bunch of guys on Mondays and Wednesday. I go to all the games. I sit and watch wishing I could be out their playing.
2. I wish more than anything I could finally lay in bed without any pain or discomfort.
3. I wish I knew what was going on inside of me. I sent an email to my doc and she said that I should be feeling back to normal now since I'm an active person. I do aerobics twice a week, sometimes 3 times a week. I hike on the weekends and hardly ever sit down. I'm anxious to hear what she has to say tomorrow.

Well, that's it for my first post. If you are curious about my condition and want to know more about it Ash and I are members of a Pectus forum. Warning....most people on the forum are young males and all they care about is how they want to build up their muscles again. Every now and then though you get into some interesting conversations. I am also going to publish a video I found from youtube of the pectus surgery. (pretty cool.)

http://www.pectusinfo.com/board/index.php