Swissdictator:
I know a few of you follow me on facebook so you have already seen this, and that I’ve been inactive lately too. However, I’m going in for some pretty major surgery soon.
I have Pectus Excavatum, and it compresses my heart and left lung. It had begun taking its toll on this last year or two. As an example, my brother (he’s 42) and I (I’m 27) were playing with my oldest nephew in my parent’s back yard. My brother has smoked on and off all his life, but I was the one quickly losing my breath.
The surgery I’m having is the “Ravitch technique”. It’s pretty invasive. Utilizing a horizontal incision, the modified Ravitch technique involves removing small pieces of deformed chest cartilage and repositioning the protruding ribs and sternum. To support the repaired chest architecture, titanium bars are secured to the ribs and sternum
Here are some “before” pictures of my chest Link to pics. Bare chested male, so consider that if at work/school.
If you look closely in the pictures, you might even see the scar from the open heart surgery I had as a child (the pectus excavatum existed before said surgery).
Someone has posted a video blog of what it was like for him, including the first several days starting with the day of the surgery. WARNING… it is not for the faint hearted, even though it’s all post-surgery. http://youtu.be/oYPljV3pgKU
I’ll be in the hospital for a few days, maybe a bit longer. I will then be at my parents place for a week or two while I recover, which I will probably spend painting to relax.
In the meantime I’m also helping out TheCranky Lawyer and the Garagehammer crew raise money for children’s hospitals. I had open heart surgery, like cranly’s kid, as a child. There are also kids facing far scarier things than I am, and I’m nervous about my procedure as an adult! So we’re trying to help a charitable cause as gamers, so please donate (or join Team Cranky) if you can. It’d mean a lot to me and provide some happiness while I’m hurting from the surgery.