Well after all that waiting and pushing on, surgery has suddenly come around so fast! And I've been buzzing around getting as prepared as I can be for my upcoming recovery. I'll have pre-op, followed by surgery the next day, then if all goes well I'll have 4 days in hospital. After this I have to stay close by the hospital for another week, and then I'll be given a final check over before I'm allowed to go home for the rest of the recovery, which I'm expecting to be 3-6 months, although I'm hoping to be able to do some easy, slow stuff and get driving again at 2-3 months.

Here's what I've got ready!

​I've included my amazon affiliate links for these items just as I do with my camping gear, so if you purchase any of these items using these links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to yourself - thank you ❤️

First up, my flumpy new reclining desk chair! Oh I absolutely love this. It's ridiculously comfy, and I wish I had gotten one sooner actually! It leans right back, the arms turn up and down, and a leg rest slides in or out. I won't be able to go camping for quite some time but I'm hoping that with this, I'll be able to get back to editing the content that I've already filmed within a few weeks after surgery. And that's gonna be important for me during the recovery as doing nothing would drive me totally mad. It'll be nice to be able to get on with some projects while I'm stuck at home, and I don't imagine that I'll be able to sit upright at a regular desk chair for long spells at first. This is delivered in bits - I managed to put it together by myself in under an hour, but there was one part that would have been easier with two. I like to chuck a blanket over it and add a pillow too, along with my heat pad (see below).. well snug!

An interesting video of my heart beating against my caved-in chest wall, with the voice of my skilled and brilliant surgeon - Joel Dunning. Thank you Mr Dunning!

​As part of the initial tests to work out why I was having chest pain, I was given a SPECT CT scan. This scan shows increased metabolic activity (the pink & purple hotspots) in my sternum and rib joints. This is due to my hypermobility combined with the pectus, straining and angering my joints and causing bone changes. Other scans have shown degeneration in my lower back and neck, I've also lost a lot of the curvature in my thoracic spine, have developed increased curvature in my lower spine, and my torso is rotated to one side.

​Pain and musculoskeletal problems are not currently taken into consideration when deciding if a patient qualifies for pectus surgery on the NHS, which requires that the patient has severe deformity with heart compression. So far I've not been able to get any help for the pain aside from being put on painkillers, whilst simultaneously being told that I can't stay on said painkillers. I'm hoping that in time, after the pectus has been corrected, my body will fall into better alignment, my posture will improve, the strain on my musculoskeletal system will be reduced and my body can start to heal and become peaceful

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​I had absolutely no idea that I had severe pectus until I was 40 years old! Because.. boobs, and also, I'd just never even heard of it before. Here's how it went..

I'd always been kinda rubbish at cardio. At school I was great at long jump, high jump and 100m sprints, but I sucked at long distance. My chest would burn and I'd feel like I was gonna pass out. Occasionally I did pass out randomly, but I didn't think much of that, it was just how I was and I didn't know any different. I'd always had palpitations, random spells of chest pain and a racing heartbeat. I'd often feel like I didn't have enough room for my food to go down when I swallowed and I would choke sometimes. I had a strange posture that I constantly had to try to correct, developed excessive curvature in my lower spine and loss of curvature in my thoracic spine. As a child of around 8 or 9, it was pointed out to me by a female family member that I had a dip in my chest, but that didn't occur to me to be an issue. Then my breasts came in, and that dip was never given a second thought.. as far as I was concerned, it was just my cleavage and I was a slightly strange shape. My lower back and neck were chronically sore and starting to degenerate. I got injured and tired out a lot, and had to have a lot of injections around my spine over the years as my muscles would go into spasm and pull my head into strange positions, or I'd have sciatica so bad that I'd struggle to walk.