Pectus Excavatum Blog

Things are still going well!!!    No complaints here.   I am getting stronger and am not in any pain.  My pectus excavatum is still corrected and my incisions look good.  I don’t want to become too redundant, but I wrote that I wasn’t doing well physically for sooo long, that it’s nice to report that things are good.

Work is going well and crazy busy!  This time of year always is.  I have more art shows to hang and a lot of kids’ art to hang around the school.  But things are good.   I’m glad to not be in pain and able to do my job.

We still love our new rental house.  It’s been so exciting to have more space.  We’ve been working hard at getting unpacked and organized.  It was tough moving in the middle of the school year, but we’ve been so excited about it, so it’s made it worth it.  I’ve been getting into gardening a little.  My tulips and pansies are still alive– that’s a huge feat!  They don’t look perfect, but they’re ok.  We get sooo much wind across the front of our house that blows them soooo hard.  I’m surprised the wind hasn’t ripped them right out of the pots!  But they’re still alive, so that’s cool.  I’m going to be planting a vegetable garden in the backyard in a raised box.  I’m sooo excited!  We’ll see how that turns out!

The Lord has still been teaching me, but it seems to be at a slower pace than when I was in pain.  I don’t know if I just listened better then or maybe he just had more to teach me during that time.  It’s hard to put into words even what I’ve been learning lately.  I’ve been journaling about my journey through these surgeries and seeing again all the Lord pieced together through that.  I’ve also been thinking about how much we get consumed with our “life” and “things” and wondering how to totally get away from that.  Is it possible in our culture to not be consumed by “doing” or “getting”?  While I was in pain and couldn’t “do”, I began to appreciate all the little things I could do and spent more time doing things that are worth while.  Now that I’m better I have to constantly remind myself to slow down and focus on the Lord and I can quickly become consumed to where a week slips by in a flash.

Some friends of mine and I have been talking about other cultures and how they have so little.  It’s almost like “things” can often become a hinderance to real living.  I know this because I experienced some very “rich” times with the Lord and with people and by myself while I was in pain and I even miss that now that I’m fully recovered.  Isn’t that ironic?  It’s almost like it’s harder for me to find the time for those rich times because there is so much going on.

Why do we have so much in America and then think we need something more?  It’s almost like the more we get, the more we need to get.   And the more we do, the more we want to do.  But on the other hand, we shouldn’t be ungrateful for all the blessings the Lord has given us.  Where is the balance,  I wonder?  I’m sure the Lord will show me more with time.

Well, that’s what’s going on with me and what I’ve been pondering.    I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on these questions if you would like to share.  Have any of you wondered the same questions and heard any answers?  Hope all of you are doing well!

I am all stuffy and my lymph nodes are swollen.  I woke up with a sore throat today.  I think I’m under the weather.  I’ve had to cancel some things today and just take it easy.  I can’t risk really getting sick since I only have two sick days left till the end of the school year.

My pansies and tulips seem happy though.   I’ve been so excited to watch them grow.

The pectus excavatum is still corrected and no trouble with that.  My upper chest near my clavicles is starting to deform a little again.  Dr. Harrell had gone up and shaved this area flat because the Nuss Procedure had left me very deformed up there.  (This was caused by the bar moving upwards when it wasn’t supposed to– a rare problem.)  It is coming back a little, but not nearly as bad as before the Ravitch Procedure I had done on October 27th, 2009.  That’s the only update I can think to share.  Everything else is great.

I hope none of you of you reading this have this sinus stuff that’s been going around.  The kids and teachers around me have been coming down with a lot of different things.  Two teachers have developed pneumonia recently and one just got out of the hospital.    Many people have come down with the flu.  Even a stomache bug went around several weeks ago.  I am actually doing well to have made it this long without coming down with something.  There has been constant sickness around me at the elementary school since January.  Well that’s all for now.  Take care everyone!

I actually have a little bit of muscle again.  Yea!  I had lost almost all strength from going through 3 surgeries and not being allowed to lift over 5 pounds for so long.  I can tell that I’m getting some of that muscle back.  I’m still doing a little light exercise 3 times a week, plus my job keeps me on my feet and moving around 8 hours a day.  It’s amazing how much lots of normal movement and a little bit of exercise will do.  I know I used to think that I had to work out vigorously for a long period of time for it to matter.  But that’s not true.  Just moving around consistantly makes a huge different.  It’s the long periods of not doing anything that I noticed I lost strength sooooo quickly– like in the hospital after surgery.  The Nuss Procedure was soooo painful for me the first time that I had to fight to move at all.  Plus, I would get extremely dizzy trying to stand up.  It was sooo hard to do anything.  I remember after I got to my aunt and uncle’s house after a week in the hospital, I couldn’t even pull the nozzle of the sink up and down to get water to wash my hands.  I was sooo weak.  That made me realize how quickly we lose muscle– only one week without moving much!  Our bodies are really amazing!

Life is still very busy, but great.   I planted tulips and pansies on Sunday in the some pots out front!  I was sooooo excited!!!!  The tulips are already sprouting green but haven’t bloomed yet.  They are supposed to be red.   The pansies are going to be a golden color and there are a couple blooms so far.  I don’t really know much about flowers, so I hope I can keep them alive.  Any suggestions?  Will they die in the summer?  I picked these flowers because they are supposed to be hardy with cold weather and we are still getting cold weather off and on.  I don’t know if they would last through our hot, dry summers though.  I’m sooo excited!  I have some beautiful ferns and other green plants inside that I have been keeping alive.   My Mom gave us a beautiful lily in October and it is still alive!  I’m so proud because I’ve tended to have a pretty black thumb in the past.  haha!  They seem to be doing really well, though.

Well, I best get off to work.  Hope all of you are doing well.  I’d love to hear how things are going for all of you!

I can’t believe I’ve passed 100 days since the Ravitch Procedure!  Yea!  I never got to a hundred days after my first two surgeries- the most was 91 days.   I’m still without pain and doing great. : D  I’m really back to normal and just regaining strength through working out a little.  I’m really trying hard not to do too much, but to work up to things slowly.  I’ve learned my lesson on this multiple times.   I’ve started doing my workout videos this 3 times this week and I can actually do it!    I remember after both of my Nuss Procedures I could not do these videos at all.  I was in so much pain and it hurt to move my arms and breathe The Nuss bar was pinching my lung (not a common problem).  It was agonizing.  So, this is a huge difference for me!!

I think that I may have better exercise tolerance now, but I’m not sure.  I’ll have to build up to the higher levels and see if my breathing is heavy or not.  I’ve heard that after having the pectus fixed it’s common to have better exercise tolerance.  It would makes sense since there is more space in there for the heart and lungs.

Things at work have been crazy.  (I’m an Art teacher at an elementary school.)  I think it’s a stressful time of year for everyone for some reason.  Lots going on and TAKS testing around the corner.  I have felt the stress level of the teachers and kids rise lately.  It seems worse this year for some reason, but maybe I was just oblivious to it other years.  But things are going fine and I’m still enjoying doing art with the kids.   I’m so thankful for my job.  What a blessing to do something I enjoy.

Dan and I are SO excited to live in a house now.  We’ve lived in an apartment for 6 years now.  It’s a huge blessing because we’re paying the same amount of rent as we were in an apartment.  The Lord opened the door for us to rent the house of a former professor of mine.  I’m STILL in shock!

We’re about 90% unpacked I’d say.  We need to make some curtains and finish a little painting, too.    I think I’m going to get some flowers this weekend to plant in some pots in the front.  I think I’ll get pansies since we’re still having some cold weather.  YEA!  I’ve never gotten to plant flowers at my own house before.   Dan’s mission lately has been to battle the weeds in the back yard.  He’s getting pretty close to getting the major ones up.  There’s still quite a bit to do, but we’re enjoying it.  It’s fun to see the progress and to feel like we’re in a real home.

Well, that’s about it for now.  I hope all of you are doing well!