Prayers

[korgul]

I just found out today that my younger brother will be going in for surgery on Monday for a condition known as Pectus Excavatum or "Funnel Chest". It is a 5 - 6 hour operation where they will cut his chest open, cut away the cartillage, cut his sternum, reposition the bone and muscles, they will also have to cut his ab and pectoral muscles, insert a rod behind his sternum and attach it to his lower ribs. The rod will stay there for about a year while everything ( sternum, muscles, and cartillage ) regrow and form.

He said that he has half of the lung capacity of a normal 27 year old male.

Here is a link to a Pectus Excavatum website.

Here is one with pics. These pics are a mild case and do not show the severity of my brothers. Link here

A google search

Thanks all
korgul

Pretty major reconstruction there, Korgul.

Best wishes and prayers to your brother and all your family.

Good thing is he is young. And hopefully, this is a routine operation and not involving heart/brain. Nonetheless, any major surgery involving general anasthesia has some attendant risk.

But you know very well your pals here will all wish you the very best and hopefully it'll turn out fine.

Keep updating regularly.

[maface]

Best wishes and Good Luck

oh my gosh! You're poor brother. He's in for a rough road ahead!
Please let him know I am thinking of him and will keep him in my thoughts and prayers! Keep us posted how the surgery goes.

[daveleau]

Wow. I'm amazed they waited until he was 27 to do this. I hope he comes out of surgery and recovers well. What is your brother's first name, so I can use it in my prayers? I will remember him in my prayers while he is in surgery and while he recovers.
Best wishes
Dave

[Mortis]

Ouch!!!

I wish him the Best and He is in my Thoughts. Tell him GoodLuck!

Let me know if ya need anything.

Regards,
Brian

Yes! PE can be surgically corrected, with a high degree of success and patient satisfaction, including dramatic improvement to heart and lung function.

Focusing on the good.

Best wishes and thoughts from me to your brother during and post-surgery that his goals are more than met!

[korgul]

Thanks guys/ gals. What scares me the most is this

Unfortunately, the heart and lung symptoms experienced by so many with PE are hard to measure using present tests for cardio-pulmonary function. That does not make them less "real"! Among effects doctors do recognise are that pressure on the pulmonary artery (carrying blood from heart to lungs) may cause a heart murmur. The depressed breastbone can compress the heart itself, causing a decrease in ventricular volume or distortion of the aorta's root diameter, in proportion to the severity of the PE depression. This leads to mitral valve prolapse (MVP), common in PE as the patient gets older; and also mitral regurgitation (MR). Adult patients with severe PE especially can experience tachycardia, or abnormally fast heartbeat, worsening in response to exercise

Heart disease runs in the family and with him already with strikes against him he gets another from this.

Dave my brother is Korey.

What makes it even worse is that we are unable to be there with him. He lives in Colorado Springs, CO. I can only wait for someone to call one of the family members here in PA.
Gonna be a rough day monday.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Best wishes, hope everything goes well.

[SPEEDO]

Best wishes to your brother, Think good thoughts..............