Pectus Excavatum: Date Change
8th Feb 2010 02:22amThe feeling of crapping myself that I mentioned in the previous post ended up taking over and a week and a halfs notice was a tad bit too soon for me, so I have re-arranged the operation and stuff for the middle of March 2010, so that gives me a month and a half to sit and chill myself out about it all.
I'd like to personally thank everyone that has been supportive along the way - family, friends and blog readers - for your excellent pieces of feedback, suggestions, questions and comments about the up coming operation.
0 Comment(s) -:- PermalinkTags: pectus excavatum, operation, nuss procedure, birmingham heartlands hospital
Pectus Excavatum: Almost There
1st Feb 2010 16:02pmOn Saturday afternoon, my Mom called to say I had some posted and one was marked "Private & Confidential" and it looked more like it was from the hospital. So I tottered off to my Moms house and opened it... I saw the NHS sign and four pages stapled together ... my arse went 10-pence-5-pence. Reading it over it says that a bed is available for me on Wednesday 10th February 2010. Then it goes on to mention about not having anything to eat or drink from 3am that day (other than clear water till 7am), then it just goes on to say about the "No Smoking" policy that the hospital operates, yadda, yadda, yadda...
Before I do go for this operation, I do have to be tested for MRSA (quick and simple nose swab) and also have my Pre-Op Assessment (including an ECG), which they all take place on Thursday 4th February 2010. Luckily they're in the afternoon so I don't have to worry about waking up early in the morning. :D Then the other two pages just jabble on about visiting times, no under 12s allowed to visit and the stuff I need to take with me.
All in all, it's a bit scary that I've only been given a week-and-a-half notice, but hey-ho... that's life. I'm kinda really crapping it, but will be fine. Also a huge thanks to all those that have been supportive about it all, Thank You! :)
0 Comment(s) -:- PermalinkTags: pectus excavatum, birmingham heartlands hospital, operation, nhs, preop, mrsa
Pectus Excavatum (2)
1st May 2009 22:41pmWell I went to the doctors surgery earlier as it was Open Surgery (so no appointment is needed, just first come, first serve) ... other than having to wait a whole 2 hours to be seen, then once I'd got called in, it only lasted about 5 minutes.
I went in and basically explained to the nurse that I have Pectus Excavatum and that it's recently been starting to give me grief. She asked what stuff is happening and I explained it all to her - about the pains here and there, the discomfort, etc.. etc.. and she then listened to my heartbeat while I was breathing on my chest and on my back while sitting. Then she asked me if I do exercise ... and I told her that I am not physically capable of running or jogging the distance from the surgery to the local HSBC branch without being out of breath and feel discomfort. She then asked the usual question that EVERY doctor in the whole of the United Kingdom seem to ask ... "Do you smoke?" ... I said "Yes" and then she ended up giving me the usual "That's not going to help" type of speech.
She then concluded with saying that there is nothing to worry about with it as your body seems to be fine with it and that it could be something that a physiotherapist can look at. (Right... so... the way you find out that your body seems to be fine with things is when they're causing you discomfort?! It's not like having stomach discomfort where you can just goto the toilet and drop a bomb and feel better! This is discomfort that doesn't seem to stop pestering me... and yes I am slowly going to cut down on the cigarettes.) She then went on to say that she'll call me before she leaves work (at 5pm) as she'll be having a little talk with some other doctors to see what they think about it. So I'm now just waiting on a call.
3 Comment(s) -:- PermalinkTags: pectus excavatum, health, operation, surgery, nurse
Pectus Excavatum
1st May 2009 06:51amFor the past few months my chest has started playing up. Not just a tiny bit, but about 5-6 times a week. The things that keep happening are quick sharp shooting pains (that feel like a fencing sword being stabbed into me) around the pectal area, sharp pain when breathing, lack of breathing, pain in the front of a shoulder with very a painful squeeze feeling after breathing in and also I cannot laugh while lying down as the whole of my heart area feels like it's clenching. Oh and also a horrid "pushed down" feeling in the middle of my chest when I breath. So quite a handful of things... other things happen too, but can't be bothered to write them all down.
Now the main cause of it is a body deformality (yay - I'm deformed... what I've always wanted 
). The deformality is called Pectus Excavatum - or as other people mistakenly call it Pigeon Chest (which is incorrect as a pigeons chest goes outwards, so that would be Pectus Carinatum). So basically my chest dips inwards between my nips and is kinda pushing / crushing my heart and lungs - which also does have some effect on my stamina (as I can't get the full lung capacity of what other people can due to it having not as much space).
I've had Pectus Excavatum for years and years and as you may have guessed, I'm not one for doing stuff that involves my chest being exposed, like swimming. Though after it giving me quite a lot of grief, I'm going to see the doctor in the morning and see what he says - though as it's the UK, he'll probably just turn around and say "Oh, it's fine, there's nothing wrong with it, go home and do whatever you do and forget about it". If however he does say that, then I'm going to tell him that I'm not happy with it - which you cannot blame me as I doubt anyone else would like to be in this type of pain so many times a week - and that I want something sorting out about it. Knowing the doctors in this country, who usually don't have the foggiest about anything other than a cough or cold always seem to check Google when I mention it to them as they don't understand what it means. It's not hard... "pectus" is obviously your pectal region (breast area) and "excavatum", just think of excavating - you dig some kind of pit... so two and two together comes out with a pit in your pectal region, or they could just look at my chest.
Now if the doctor does actually think something should be done... then more than likely he'll refer me over to see someone at a hospital - as surgery is one of the options of getting it sorted, though I'm a tad bit sketchy of the NHS. However I've started feeling giddy over it all after watching someones videos about his operation that took place in October 2008... he was hooked up on everything... and had needles and god knows what here there and everywhere... oh also he had a catheter, a vomit tray and also a pain button - which when pressed gives him some stuff via the epidural. It's all freaky... but oh well... lets see what the doctor says tomorrow.
11 Comment(s) -:- PermalinkTags: pectus excavatum, health, operation, surgery, nurse
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