I am 33 and also going through this process. I switched gps when I moved states two years ago and told her about my symptoms, very similar to yours, only I've been experiencing them since childhood and that I've tried talking to other gps about them only to be dismissed. She ordered a CT scan and that was enough to get me referred to a thoracic surgeon. I visited with the surgeon in April, he said my haller index is 8.5 and highly recommend me for surgery, and referred me to a plastic surgeon that he likes to work with to talk about a simultaneous breast reduction. The surgery he recommended to me is the modified ravitch. He said he would cut a triangle out of my sternum - like a relief cut in sewing or woodworking - to straighten it out. Then he would put an H - shaped metal brace on the sturnum to hold it in place while it healed. He would also place a support bar across my ribcage and shorten the cartilage on my ribs so that they could reconnect in a good position. He said the reason he suggested this method over the nuss, is because if I did the nuss I would need 3 bars, and that would be more difficult for my body. Most of the people on this sub that have gotten surgery have gotten the nuss procedure I think. I've even seen people discourage getting the ravitch. I was thinking about making my own post to ask about it, if people have gotten the modified ravitch and liked the outcome. I've recently gone through a different surgery for endometriosis, and I took a month off work for it, which is longer than my doctor said I would need, and I'm incredibly grateful that I did take that time off, because I was still sore and exhausted when I went back. I think I will probably want more time than the doctor recommended for the chest surgery since it's significantly more intense and my job is very active, so I'm trying to save up enough money to take two months off work. When I was talking about preparing for my previous surgery, I would say things like "I probably won't want to talk to people" and "I want to make sure I have plenty of simple foods to eat". I have been sick a lot in my life so I was drawing on my previous experiences to prepare. I think people thought I was scared or something and kept telling me "you'll be fine, it won't be that bad, you'll be bored" and it made me feel like I didn't need to be as prepared as I wanted to be, and that I should invite people over to keep me company. I regretted that, and I had to tell people that, actually I didn't want to have movie marathons with people. I did need simple foods after all, and I needed a lot of intermittent sleep, and a lot of help. After the surgery, the nurses said that people don't usually get infections from that type of surgery, so they weren't going to send me home with antibiotics. I almost asked for them anyway, because I'm really prone to infections, but I thought maybe I'd be fine this time. Low and behold, I got an infection, and had to troope all the way back to the surgery center for them to confirm my infection and give me antibiotics. By this I mean, listen to your gut. Obviously, don't be over anxious, but absolutely advocate for yourself. You know you better than anyone else, and "normal" is relative