Has anyone had a pectus excavatum(funnel chest) repair?

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My 14 year old son is an Aspie. He also has a severe pectus excavatum deformity. He is having a metal rod placed in his chest in December to correct the deformity. The procedure is called the Nuss procedure. Wanting to know if there is anyone out there who has been through this procedure and how well you coped with having the rod in your chest. My son is hypersensitive. He has had his leg in a cast twice for fractured tibia. He tore the casts apart b/c he couldn't stand the way it made him feel. He also had his appendix out about a year ago. The surgeon used permanent sutures to close him up. He still says that he can feel the sutures inside of him. I am worried that the rod in his chest will drive him crazy. The rod will remain in his chest for 3 years.

why put him through this for cosmetics?

Not doing it for cosmetic reasons. The look of it really doesn't bother him and certainly doesn't bother us. His pectus is very severe. His rib cage/sternum has displaced his heart. He has developed a heart murmur. We were told that the risk of not doing the procedure would be serious health problems in his 40s/50s. The surgeon indicated that due to the displacement of his heart, his heart is not able to beat efficiently. This greatly increases the risk of damage to the valves in his heart down the road. We made it very clear to the surgeon that we would only proceed with the surgery if it was medically necessary...not for cosmetics. Thanks for the concern! Do you have any insight into the procedure?

he's going to be very uncomfortable. how much does he understand? can you show him the discomfort will be worthwhile?

We left the decision for surgery up to him and were very honest with him about how painful it would be. The surgeon told him that it would be much worse than his appendicitis and his two broken legs. He actually coped fairly well with the pain from his broken legs and his appendix. His frustrations with them tended to be more related to the cast and the stitches and his hypersensitivity or awareness of something not right with his body. He also needs a lot of physical activity to help him stay level. The healing period was difficult because he wasn't able to exercise. I fully expect that this will be difficult during the 6 week-3 month recovery. Just worried that he will not adjust to the feeling of the rod in his body. I was hoping maybe there would be someone on here that had been through the same procedure that could tell me how well they coped with a foreign body being inside of them. The surgeon indicated that he had never had to remove a rod early as a result of discomfort and that he did have an Aspie patient that did exceptionally well with the procedure.