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I am currently 15 years old. I had my Pectus Carinatum repaired by Dr. Fonkulsrud in LA. I did not start to get any symptoms of my condition until 3 years ago. My doctor told me it was just cosmetic so I didn't worry about it. After researching further, I found Dr. Fonkulsrud and scheduled a surgery for Winter, 2002.
I was operated on December 18, 2002. I drove down to LA the night before and stayed at a Holiday Inn nearby the UCLA Medical Center. I woke up at 5:00 AM and went to the hospital. I answered questions from the anesthesiologist and then went was taken to A pre-op room where i changed into a hospital gown and where they gave me the IV. One of my biggest fears was the IV because I hate needles. It ended up not being so bad and I barley felt a thing. They gave me local anesthesia and then put in the IV. They took my temperature and blood pressure etc. then they moved me to the operating room, then put me on the operating table. The last thing i remember before falling asleep was them giving me a mask to breath through. I woke up in immense pain. They were moving me onto the X-Ray table which hurt very bad. I did not expect the pain to be nearly this bad even though I had a pain killer button when i woke up. I also had a chest tube in me which did not hurt and a catheter. I thought I would wake up pain free in bed. They increased the dose of my pain medication. After that I would push the button whenever I was awake. It would almost put me to sleep after every time i pushed it. The second day they took away the button control and gave me oral pain medication (vicodin) which i did not respond to well. They changed the medication to "Propoxyphene/APAP" which relieved me alot. I remember experiencing immense pain the second day and they gave me a shot through the IV which put me to sleep in less than 20 seconds. I did not have any appetite at all. I had a spoon of pudding then vomited. The doctors said it was because of the Anesthesia. I later was able to eat solid foods with no problem. I started walking the second day with help. I was given a breathing exercising machine that I took breathes out of to help expand my lungs. I left the third day with my pain medication. The drive back home was very fast and I slept the whole way. I had a pillow behind me and a pillow between me and the seatbelt in case it locked and it hit my chest. I reclined the chair and slept fine the whole way. I had immense pain the first week. I took pain killers oraly very often. I was not able to get out of bed on my own and I did not eat that much. I got dizzy and nauseated when I stood up or sat down in a chair. Christmas eve I woke up short of breath and had trouble breathing. I thought the chest tube had got in the way of my right lung. I tried contacting Dr. Fonkulsrud but I couldn't reached him so i talked to Dr. Shadid who worked with Dr. Fonkulsrud in the surgery. He wanted to make sure my lung had not collapsed so I went to my local radiology which happened to be open and got a chest xray. My lungs were perfectly fine which relieved me a lot because i did not want to spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with a tube in my lung to re inflate it . The day after Christmas I went back to UCLA where Dr. F removed the chest tube. It barley hurt but made me very dizzy because i was curious and watched while he pulled a tube out of me. Its been almost 2 weeks now and I just stopped taking pain medicine. It hurts like CRAZY to cough, and I have tried avoided sneezing which I know would hurt terribly. It even hurts to laugh. I am eating normally now. The incision looks to be doing great and swelling is at a minimum. I am happy with the results. I will be going back to LA in 5 weeks or so for another check up and in 6 months to get the metal bar removed from my chest. I cant wait till i can go back to my normal exercise and weight lifiting routines. For those considering the surgery, it will be very painful. Probably more than you are expecting it to be. |
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