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Aortic Aneurysms – When do you go to the ER?
Aortic Aneurysms | Last Active: Jun 8 7:13am | Replies (12)Comment receiving replies
I would think that your cardiologist should give you the best guidance. Mine told me to find my new normal. I have small vessel disease in addition to a 4.7 cm thoracic AA, which gives me almost constant angina of varying levels. do what you can to get your BP down when you are having problems. I have been instructed to take an extra blood pressure pill and let the doctors nurse know what is going on. Bottom line work closely with your doc.
Replies to "I would think that your cardiologist should give you the best guidance. Mine told me to..."
Many cardiologists put you into the watchful waiting mode and only see you once a year. If something happens, they tell you to go to the ER.
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Hi @benjones, welcome to our support community. My ascending aortic aneurysm is the same size as yours. I struggled a lot with this question and brought it up to my cardiologist. He recommended I consult with the surgeon who would actually do the surgery in the event of an impending dissection. The surgeon's guidance was very clear: When you have severe crushing/squeezing pain in your chest and back that doesn't go away.
Fast forward to last September when I got that exact kind of pain. I called 911, they arrived within about 5-10 min and we were enroute to the ER. After ~15 min in the ambulance I began to feel much better, asked to be taken home but they continued to the ER to get checked out. After 7 hrs and many cardiac tests, they released me, finding nothing consequential.
Over the next 3 1/2 months I had several recurrences but not as severe until I was awakened @3am with same kind of pain. So I asked myself, when in the past have I felt anything similar to this? Answer: 3 years earlier when I was hospitalized for what turned out to be a large stone blocking my common bile duct. Long story short: That was removed in mid-December and I've been well ever since. A 4 month road to learning that if I have the kind of pain the cardiac surgeon told me about, I need to go to the ER but keep in mind it might be GI related. Dr.'s say the blockage can def. come back but hopefully I'll be alerted to it and get it resolved sooner.