As many of you know I was born with a dented in chest that doctors call Pectus Excavatum. We all called it Lake Charlie. When I was younger, I would hide cookies in my chest. As I entered adulthood, I could drink a beer out of Lake Charlie with a straw. I never felt any ill affects from Lake Charlie, although now I understand that my huge distain for long distance running (and why I chose to be a goalie in soccer) came from my body's inability to expand my lungs when exercising. Therefore; I was at a disadvantage when running long distances.
As I matured (have gotten older), I began to struggle more with activities in high altitude. This has progressed to the point where I can no longer fly to go snow skiing. Instead I have to drive, and I still feel out of breath. I drive, rent an oxygen machine and am on oxygen 75 percent of the time we are in Colorado. When I told my doctors about this, they said it was time that I looked into getting Lake Charlie fixed.
After much research, we have decided that Dr. Dawn Jaroszewski (known as Dr J) at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ is the best specialist to do the surgery. She will be performing the Nuss procedure on April 6th. If all goes well, I'll be back home on April 15th.
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