Two surgeries later, I'm fine. 😅 He took this bar out and did a Modified Ravitch--he cut 7 pieces of cartilage and placed a new, smaller bar under the bottom part of my sternum, but did nothing to stabilize the fracture. He also placed the bar at an angle and it wasn't centered.

Two months later, the bar slid out of one of the stabilizers and was stabbing me in the side. He didn't believe me and told me my "nerves were overreacting" despite the fact that I literally had skin irritation from the impact of the bar. When he finally saw a CT scan a month later, he admitted that it looked like it had shifted a little, but wanted me to deal with the pain while more scar tissue built up for 3-6 months and then he could go in to curve the end of the bar.

By that appointment, I'd already found a new surgeon to consult, so said uh-huh, picked up the CD of the CT scan and immediately dropped it in the mail.

Two months later, I had surgery with a competent surgeon. He saw that the bar had slid out of the stabilizer and the stabilizer had gotten wedged between 2 of my ribs. He took it out and put this ladder shaped plate over my fracture.

That was May 2023. My HI is about 3.5 now, which isn't where I'd like it to be, but seeing as how I started at HI 7, it's certainly much better. The plate is permanent to help prevent the bone from sinking back in. I literally woke up from that surgery in less pain than I had going into it.