First off I want to say that Joe is truly an answer to our prayers! I wish I would have come across him a few years earlier.
My son is 14 years old and a freshman in high school. He has (HAD) a severe case of pectus carinatum. For our son, his chest was never much of an issue until he hit his growth spurt in the last year and a half. He is a baseball player and has been hit in the chest, by the ball, several times. Everytime it has happened, I worry about it causing serious damage to his his chest. My husband and I have asked him if his chest bothered him several times throughout the last 2 years, but his answer was always, “no”.
My son obviously had some insecurities about his chest because he would no longer take off his shirt at the beach or pool, and always declined invites to hang out at the community pool in the summer with his friends, but he never wanted to see a doctor. We had discussed the option of surgery with him, and watched the graphic videos and looked at the photos available online. Obviously this scared him as much as it did us.
As I mentioned before, Joe has been an answered prayer; I had been praying about what to do with our son and whether the 7 day hospital stay was worth it, when I came across a young man’s article about the brace that Joe provides and exercise program.
I did some research and called our doctor to schedule an appointment. They scheduled our appointment and gave us Joe’s information and said he would be calling us. When Joe called, I was so impressed with how friendly and attentive he was regarding our son and his condition. We did not have much time before our son would be meeting Joe and literally having his life changed and was nervous about the appointment and what the brace looked like.
So Joe asked if we would like to do a Facetime or Skype session with us so our son could get to know him a little bit before the brace fitting appointment. Of course we agreed and set up a time to Facetime later that week. Can I just say that I have never met a more professional healthcare provider who has spent such good quality time with anyone in my family. Joe Facetimed with us and our son for almost an hour. During that time I saw a side of my son come out that I had never seen before. Joe was so real and open with him, and had him answering questions honestly and openly, as if they had been friends for years, it was truly amazing to us. By the time their facetime call ended, our son wasn’t afraid to go meet Joe and have the brace done. In fact, he was excited and said he couldn’t wait to meet Joe and have him change his life.
The morning of the appointment our son was nervous, as were we, but the second we met Joe, he put our fears to rest as he walked us, and more importantly our son, through each step. That is the greatest thing about Joe, he put our son first, which was huge for us and for our son. The fitting took about 2 hours and sure beat the heck out of an operation and 7-9 day stay in the hospital, along with a bunch of scars and a long recovery. The first few days were a little rough, his chest was achy but manageable with some meds. Two weeks after my son and husband were back out on the baseball field getting familiar with throwing the ball with his brace and his new moves.
Our son’s confidence in himself has grown an incredible amount and his athletic ability has not been comprimised at all by the brace. He just made his high school baseball team and has had no trouble adjusting with his new brace. We will be going on our annual spring break vacation to the beach next week and our son is so excited to be able to take his brace off and enjoy the beach, instead of worrying about his chest looking different than the other boys that we are with.
Joe has literally changed our son’s life and ours too! He has the most amazing bedside manner and his amazing gift to correct a pectus body without surgery is literally priceless. When he finished with the fitting and my son felt his “new” chest for the first time, I told Joe that he needs to charge more…the service and personal care that he provides aside from the brace is worth more than he charges for all of it.
Joe will be talked about at our Thanksgiving table for years and years to come. Our family has been blessed by him and his amazing gift and I thank God for him everyday! I work in the medical field and I tell every doctor that I meet about Joe and what he offers. No child should ever have to deal with a pectus carinatum when it can so easily be corrected by this wonderful man and his T-Joe Brace ! Thank you Joe!!!!
Please post this on your website for other parents to read.
From … Robs Parent’s