Review Detail

My pectus was pretty bad. I had looked into it when I was 18 but the Ravitch system did not appeal to me at all and even though the aesthetics of my chest weren't great I never suffered greatly in the way of self esteem. At 33 and my chest looking pretty bad, physically not feeling greaet and seeming to have a worsening scoliosis I met up with John Goldblatt for a review. John's just a fantastic guy in general and really the epitome of what a doctor should be. He's very understanding of the physical and mental issues that accompany pectus. He's great at simply but effectively communicating the procedure, the pain and pain relief options, the recovery et al. And of course at the actual practice of performing the procedure. From my scans we learnt there was not a lot of the actual main sternum (3 parts to it - who knew) that was bent so it was a difficult surgery requiring placement in the correct area to get the best effect and bring the xiphoid along for the ride and not damage it. Pictures say a thousand words. I will endeavor to get a few photos up on the forum so you can see how deep and askew my chest was to what it is now. Most people can't tell that I had pectus now. I just have a bit of the knuckling that occured because of the pectus which isn't a big deal to me. The scars are very minimal. The pain was pretty bad the first few days. I'm fairly good with pain but wow, yeah I wont lie it's painful but you get through it. I only had morphine the first day. Then on ketomine for the remaining 9 days in hospital. I was walking with relative ease about a week in. The body recovers quickly. I was on Targin and a few other things for about a month and then one day soon after that the pain disappears entirely. Don't worry about the pain. It shouldn't be a deciding factor for anyone thinking about the surgery. I equate to a long child birth or something which you just have to get through to get the result. Very happy now. Thanks Dr John.