my nuss surgery experience days after surgery bar removal experience photos insurance links contact	WELCOME TO FIXPECTUS.COM My name is Tim Coburn. I am 23 and I have had Pectus Excavatum since I was born; a grade of 4.3 according to Dr. Nuss. For as long as I can remember I would have trouble taking off my shirt anywhere, even in private as it would hurt me to look in the mirror and see this sort of defect (as I saw it). Swimming at the pool for me was a nightmare. It wasn't until recently that I was finally able to put it past myself and live a normal life and not worry about this silly little thing. I am no longer ashamed of my PE and find it kind of funny that I was so concerned about it. But then something else happened. I started to have problems exercising I noticed that I wasn't able to run or bike as long or as fast as my peers could. Now, being 23 and in good shape I figured I just needed to push myself harder to get where I wanted to be physically. But nothing worked. The harder I pushed myself and the more I tried the more I got disappointed, not to mention the chest pain. Every time I try and go running I get this unexplainable pain in my chest that sometimes brings me to the ground. And at times I get it even when I am just watching TV. Plus I get out of breath so quickly compared to my buddies that I run with. I decided one night about a year ago to look up information on the web about my pain and could find nothing that made any sense. Then I decided to look up something about my chest (I typed in sunken chest in yahoo) to see if I could find any link between the two and a world of information was opened up to me. Finally there was an answer to my strange hole in my chest and I found out that many OTHER people had it too and best of all. . . it could be fixed. I immediately made an appointment with Dr. Nuss (since I live in Washington, DC it's only about 3 hours away) to get an expert opinion and started getting cardio and pulmonary tests done and not to my suprise I did have much limitation with my breathing because of my chest pushing on my lungs and heart. On November, 8 2001 I had the Nuss Procedure by Dr Nuss himself at the Childrens Hospital of the Kings Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia. This website documents my experience during the surgery and the years following.