Dr. Dawn Jaroszewski

I can’t begin to thank Dr. J enough for her expertise, kindness, devotion to my care plan and overall commitment to my deformity. I’ve met an astronomical amount of physicians, surgeons and specialists, but I have yet to find one so diligent and so empathetic. She is truly one of a kind.

For the first time in my life, I have the self-confidence that I was lacking when I was growing up. I'm a married 58-year-old man with a 17 year old son. When he was born, I cut the umbilical cord and then made sure he did not have a pectus excavatum. How happy was I to see that my newborn was a healthy baby with a normal chest!

Dr. Jaroszewski by far is the BEST surgeon in the world, in my humble opinion. She made my chest look like a normal man's chest. My heart and lung function has been restored to normal. (In January I was about to die as my heart was in atrial fibrillation and was functioning only at 30%. ) HAH! I am going to have to live another 40 years just to enjoy the darn thing!!!

Thank you so much Dr. Jaroszewski. You've changed my life forever. Thank you too PA Michelle Peterson. You were on top of things and made sure everything ran smoothly. And YES, I am sending baklava for Christmas!

Dr. J is in a word amazing. She was super nice to all of my family and made them feel very comfortable throughout the entire process. I'm a physician in Florida and her approach to me was spot on and very helpful and making me feel more comfortable about going through with the procedure. The entire Mayo system was amazing at coordinating everything--went off without a hitch. I'm happy with the results and I think once I can start doing some gym stuff I'll be even happier. But I'm definitely still recovering, so the things I can add in terms of what to expect or what I have experienced beyond what I was expecting..

The genital swelling was crazy. It lasted about a week or so and slowly got better and is gone now but definitely wasn't expecting it to that degree. I don't think I really noticed it quite as much because of all the pain meds...

My procedure was a bit more complicated because I needed a rib plate/screws due to a displaced rib fracture (which I was expecting) and had part of my right middle lung removed and stapled due to a bullae (which was unexpected but necessary). So I may have had more post-op pain than the average procedure. I did the cryoablation of the thoracic nerves which I can't imagine having done this without it. Super helpful. But the idea of then making it through on Tramadol and Ibuprofen for me was a complete pipe dream -- it hurt, I needed oxys in fairly high doses. When I got back to Florida I had to go to a pain management doc to get even more. Overall I was probably taking 50-100 mg of oxycodone a day for a week and a half. Then it took me another week to get off of it with some withdrawal symptoms, and for the last month plus I have just been taking 800mg of ibuprofen every day three times a day around the clock. Now about 8 weeks post-op I'm just on the ibuprofen and the gabapentin and am definitely feeling more normal, but it has been a bit of a rough ride.

Post-op communication has been almost exclusively through Michelle (Dr. J's awesome NP) and Meagan... so I haven't talked to Dr. J but haven't really needed to. When I get my post-op XRs I can tell the bars are still in place so I haven't had anything to really worry about. She did her part which was to be extremely open and personable with my whole family and then do an awesome job on the surgery.

I still wake up feeling like there's a weird horror movie metal cage inside of me (which I wasn't expecting). It's there all the time and is something that has gotten less noticeable but is definitely still there. The feeling of 50 pound weights on my sternum pulling me down has definitely lessened. I still can't really jog but I feel like I'm getting close.. hopefully by week 10-12 I'll be able to start doing some light half miles just to start building back up.

Either from the change in posture or the change in rib angles on the upper spine I recently herniated a disc and now can barely walk due to severe nerve pain in my left leg so now I have to get over that too... I didn't do the physical therapy evaluation during my pre-op visit and I regret it. I recommend not skipping it.

Overall I would do it again and wouldn't have done it anywhere else or with anyone else. Highly recommended Dr. J to anyone who is seriously going to go through with it, and the Mayo system for pectus patients is impressively well coordinated. Just some above things to think about and realize that it's a long recovery and can be a bit rougher than you're expecting depending on what happens.

If you are looking for a surgeon for the Nuss Procedure and are able to go to Dr. J DO IT! I can't describe how passionate and educated she is on what she does. She has every single detail down to a science and everything runs so smooth. I have no other words other than she is amazing and I am so thankful and lucky I was able to go to her and her team. Thank you Dr. J!

I never thought I would see a day where my "dip" in my chest was gone. I honestly, can't believe it. I'm so thankful Dr. Jaroszewski takes people seriously with this. Before surgery, my heart function was down to 40%. I was extremely fatigued, depressed, and down. My chest always hurt and burned when doing any kind of physical activity and it just kept getting worse. I am glad I did some google research and found Dr. J and made the trip to see her!

My consult with her was long and thorough. My regular doc of 15 years never even knew I had PE. Crazy huh? Even though I have complained of extreme fatigue my whole life to him. Dr. J explains everything so well and she knows EXACTLY what tests to run to show your cardiac output. Im so thankful someone thinks PE is interesting enough to study it and help others who have it.

My surgery was successful. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but its amazing what our bodies can tolerate. Dr. J and her team were so good. They are always a phone call and email away and ALWAYS get back to you in a timely matter.

This surgery isn't easy, but I wouldn't hesitate to let Dr. J do it again if I needed too.

My only complication after surgery was a paralyzed vocal cord. Not sure the total cause but Dr. J helped me find a qualified ENT to check it out and it eventually started moving again on its own about 9 weeks after surgery! So after some speech rehab and strengthening for a couple months. I'm back to teaching and singing and I can't thank her and her team enough.

I am looking forward to taking the bars out in 2.5 years with Dr. J. I know I am in good hands with her.

If you are considering having this done, look no further than Dr. Jaroszweski! Don't waste your time on someone who doesn't know what they are doing.

Thank you Phoenix Mayo, Dr. J and team from the bottom of my now, unsquished heart. :)