The next 3 yrs...

The next three years weren't that bad once I got past the first few months of pain and soreness. It took me probably 5 months to feel 100 percent back to my normal self. Which, if you read my previous posts you will realize that I had my wedding and honeymoon during those few months of discomfort. being on my honeymoon was not fun with the Nuss bar.

Wedding Day Photo

My husband and I went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for our honeymoon. With both of us being adventurous people, it was hard for us to find activities that we could do together that were okay for me to do with the bar. For example, we really wanted to do an ocean floor walk where they put those helmets on your head and you walk across the bottom of the ocean. However, that would have been too much pressure on my rib cage and it would have collapsed, so instead we had to do snorkeling up top, which was still fun. We ended up being the only people on the tour that morning so we had our own private guide who got in the water and swam with us, grabbing fish out of coral reefs and handing them to us, it was pretty sweet!

Snorkeling in Cabo

We also had to be careful when doing that thing everyone loves to do on their honeymoon, have sex. I was able to sit myself up if I was propped up with some pillows, but if I was flat on my back someone had to help me sit up.You can't hold yourself up on your arms for very long and also, there wasn't a lot of rolling around, because that too takes muscles that you don't quite have yet after such an intense surgery. Just make sure that you know what you can and can't do while you have the bar in your chest. Sorry if that was too much information, I just want to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before you go through with it. I probably would have waited till after my wedding or done it several months prior if I would have known exactly what to expect.

This is the only picture I could find where if you look close you notice that there are really no scars from the procedure

For the most part, once I felt good enough to do everything I used to, everything was normal. I did have to be careful on certain activities like playing sports, and definitely had to work up to doing push-ups again, but the bar never hinder me from doing the majority of the things I wanted to do. I was able to feel the bar and each of my sides where they inserted it, but I don't think that is with everyone, it was a fun party trick to show people though. If you do decide to do this procedure, just know that the older you get the harder and longer it is for your body to recover, so the younger you are the better. If you are older, just know that the first few months are miserable, but after that it is pretty much smooth sailing and hopefully you will be glad you did it.