Pectus Excavatum

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Seamus
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:21 pm

Pectus Excavatum

Post by Seamus »

AKA sunken chest, funnel chest, etc. I have a fairly severe case. I don't remember my Haller index, but by inspection it's as bad as the guy in the picture on wikipedia (I'm a little bit more muscular).

I'm terrible at cardio and have long wondered how much of this is due to pectus. I ran track in high school and was by far the slowest long distance runner. I think my best ever mile time was about 6:45. Despite training for sprints daily my 400m dash is about 75 seconds. I hope I don't seem like I'm making an excuse for just sucking, but I can't think of any other logical reason why I'm worse than most guys my age who don't train at all.

Also, Jacob himself has written multiple times about the importance of looking good when the clothes come off and being comfortable at the beach. And I largely agree! But as far as I know, fitness can only do so much in this case (e.g. I have a visible 6-pack, but that's not what people notice when I take my shirt off).

Anybody else here have pectus? Any tips on how to perform best while living with it?

steelerfan
Posts: 127
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:33 pm

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by steelerfan »

My son had this. He also ran track and had difficulty that I now am sure the condition hurt his performance. He had a hard time breaking three minutes for 800M (I was a sub 2 guy in HS). We tried to get him to do the surgery in HS and he predictably did not want to do it. During his freshman year in college he met a guy at the gym that had pectus and recognized what it was and shared his story. He talked my son into considering the surgery. He had the surgery last summer. The Nuss procedure, which involves placing a bar in your chest for 3 years. It is less invasive than the Ravitch procedure which involves a big incision like a heart procedure. The benefit of the Ravitch is you recover faster. The surgery was VERY painful necessitating opioids which was scary. A year later, my son's chest looks totally normal although he has the bar for another 2-3 years. It will be removed then (outpatient procedure). He has to be careful because of the bar but he can lift. I do not know how old you are but the Nuss is only appropriate for younger patients as the bones harden. We had a great doctor at CU medical center.

My son would tell you it was worth it 100 percent - although last summer sucked hard for him. Good luck man!

Seamus
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:21 pm

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by Seamus »

Good to hear that worked for your son, makes me wish I had considered it more strongly earlier. I'm 26 years old and for a number of reasons I'm not really considering surgery at this point, unless there were a pressing health concern. Around age 13 I had a few tests done (I remember jogging up a treadmill at the steepest grade until my legs gave out and exhaling into a tube as hard as I could) which I performed pretty miserably at. The doctor, as I recall, gave no recommendation and said the choice to get surgery was totally up to my parents and I. I decided not to, so now I'm just trying to make the best of it.

steelerfan
Posts: 127
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:33 pm

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by steelerfan »

A lot of people think it is purely cosmetic and body image related - even those that are affected. That is not always the case. My son's doctor was able to sell the procedure to the insurance company as medically necessary on the grounds that his heart was lodged against his sternum during exercise. He argued it was compromising his health at the time and that it could cause more problems down the road. He put my son through a battery of stress tests to justify it on that basis. FWIW I think his energy level today is higher. That said, my mom was describing the procedure to a neighbor couple and the wife said her husband had it and it never bothered him. They were in their eighties. Unless you are looking for endurance performance, there is a bonafide medical concern or it causes you anxiety, maybe it is not worth it. Even the performance issue may not always be there. There were 2 male swimmers on the US team at Rio with pectus.

We were aware of the condition for about 5 years before he decided. No kids are jumping at getting the surgery in HS and sometimes the early Nuss procedures do not take permanently. My son was very self conscious at the time as he was on a swim team and still did not want to do it. People have the procedure at all ages, even into the 50s. Usually the latter procedures are to fix a health problem related to crowding the heart/lungs. Generally though people are fine without electing the surgery. There are some reddit forums on this subject that we looked at prior to doing it. If there is no health concern it is purely optional. This is an article about the dr. that did my son's surgery.

https://www.cuanschutztoday.org/cardiot ... e-athlete/

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Chris
Posts: 773
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:44 pm

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by Chris »

I refer to it as "the dent".

Never really felt self-conscious about it. In fact, it wasn't until the doctor told me that people feel self-conscious about it that I'd considered that possibility. The male chest I look at the most is my own, so I consider it normal. Growing up, I didn't get any comments in the locker room or beach or anything. Maybe one of my college roommates suggested I try using it as a cereal bowl, ha. Most days I don't even consider that I have the dent.

I have always wondered though if it has affected my cardio. The doctor did not recommend surgery, since he considered it mostly cosmetic. Never had an echocardiogram though. I expect that's something that will come up in mid-life when they start poking around for heart problems.

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by Stahlmann »

This where I would put additional 20k EUR money if they come out of the blue :(
Flaring ribs also suck if you are narcissistic as hell.

SustainableHappiness
Posts: 266
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:39 pm

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by SustainableHappiness »

One of my best buddies has this. I didn't know the technical n, but we designated it as good of a shot glass as the real thing in college. Really good for getting whatever sex you're attracted to To do body shots. Pro tip...

ThisDinosaur
Posts: 997
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:31 am

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by ThisDinosaur »

Three of the top ten breast stroke swimmers in the US Olympic team last year had this. It prompted speculation that it gives them a competitive advantage.

Dragline
Posts: 4436
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:50 am

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by Dragline »

Yeah, I have a bit of that and have always sucked at cardio-intensive activities. I never knew that there were any remedies for it.

I have tried to focus on exercises that promote good posture, because the problem is worse if you also have a head/shoulders forward issue. The best ones for that I have found for that (and just in the past year) are part of the "Happy Body" program of Aniela & Jerzy Gregorek, who are former Olympic weightlifters.

Seamus
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:21 pm

Re: Pectus Excavatum

Post by Seamus »

I'm a swimmer too. I managed to be mediocre in high school, which is more than I can say for track! I'm still decent, I can swim 10km in under 3 hours.

If I had a nickel for every cereal/body shot comment I've ever received, I'd be FI by now :). The latter did come in handy pretty often in college. I found out I can pour an entire can of beer into my chest without spilling over the sides.

@Dragline My posture is terrible, I'm a big time huncher. I'll have to check that program, thanks.

The body image/self consciousness/narcissism issue is a little complicated for me. As a kid I was borderline proud of my chest, it was like being able to do a weird trick to make my friends laugh. I still am not embarrassed about it or anything. It's more like when I exercise, the motivation of wanting to look good is lacking, since as I noted above no one notices abs when there's a dent in your chest. So I still exercise because I'm motivated to be fit, but maybe not with the intensity I'm capable of because the narcissism factor is not there. The time it's most an issue is during foreplay, I wonder if girls are distracted by my chest. Even though the logical part of my brain knows they probably aren't, I'm still distracting MYSELF thinking about it! Like when someone tells you to be more confident, and you feel self conscious about the fact that you weren't being confident...

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