Karl,
Glad someone suggested that you have the pectus repair done at 22. It gets tougher after the bones get harder. They like to do it in the teens after growth is about over, but the bones are soft.
My son is one of the older pectus patients in the Dallas area. He turned 21 lst week. Surgery at 19. He is fine. I appreciate your concern. There are very few surgeons that know and perform the Nuss Procedure. My wife found out about it in a magazine and called Dr. Nuss's office (east coast) to get the name of the doctor in Dallas (only one) that does the Nuss. Dr Cohn. He's getting on in years and wears 2 hearing aids, but is excellent.
Dr Cohn's pectus patients are all young and everything is set up and decorated for kids. Even the cardiologist that he uses is a pediatric cardio. It was a little comical because my son is 6'-5" and 250 lbs.
We got a second opinion from my cardio who also called my surgeon for a third opinion. Frankly, there was disagreement about the cardio necessity of the Nuss for my son. In the end, he opted to repair it while he could (and under my insurance), because if he had problems later, it might not be repairable.
The sternum was placing pressure on the heart very slightly causing concern aobut the hearts ability to perform now and in the future. The pectus bar is custom-shaped for each patient. It slides in convex under the rib cage. Then the bar is rotated to be concave and spring out the sternum. While that sounds painful (and it is), it pales in comparison to what you had to go through.
His chest is not totally symetric, but a vast improvment. He has had no restriction of activity, where prior to repair he was told to avoid collision sports. He has zero discomfort except that the bar resticts him from taking deep breaths, and his sneezes are comical. I'm guessing that once the pain of the removal is over, he will take a bigger deep breath and be able to let loose a sneeze like never before.
Again, I expect and hope that your pectus repair in no way complicated your AVR.
Glad someone suggested that you have the pectus repair done at 22. It gets tougher after the bones get harder. They like to do it in the teens after growth is about over, but the bones are soft.
My son is one of the older pectus patients in the Dallas area. He turned 21 lst week. Surgery at 19. He is fine. I appreciate your concern. There are very few surgeons that know and perform the Nuss Procedure. My wife found out about it in a magazine and called Dr. Nuss's office (east coast) to get the name of the doctor in Dallas (only one) that does the Nuss. Dr Cohn. He's getting on in years and wears 2 hearing aids, but is excellent.
Dr Cohn's pectus patients are all young and everything is set up and decorated for kids. Even the cardiologist that he uses is a pediatric cardio. It was a little comical because my son is 6'-5" and 250 lbs.
We got a second opinion from my cardio who also called my surgeon for a third opinion. Frankly, there was disagreement about the cardio necessity of the Nuss for my son. In the end, he opted to repair it while he could (and under my insurance), because if he had problems later, it might not be repairable.
The sternum was placing pressure on the heart very slightly causing concern aobut the hearts ability to perform now and in the future. The pectus bar is custom-shaped for each patient. It slides in convex under the rib cage. Then the bar is rotated to be concave and spring out the sternum. While that sounds painful (and it is), it pales in comparison to what you had to go through.
His chest is not totally symetric, but a vast improvment. He has had no restriction of activity, where prior to repair he was told to avoid collision sports. He has zero discomfort except that the bar resticts him from taking deep breaths, and his sneezes are comical. I'm guessing that once the pain of the removal is over, he will take a bigger deep breath and be able to let loose a sneeze like never before.
Again, I expect and hope that your pectus repair in no way complicated your AVR.
