1. I knew it was dissecting because it felt like someone was tearing the skin off my back. It was excruciating pain. The worst thing I have ever felt.
2. I don't have any idea how big it was because I had no idea I had the aortic aneurysm.
3. I was at a hotel in San Diego when it happened. I must have sensed something was very wrong before it fully dissected. The year after the dissection happened I went back to San Diego and stopped by to see the hotel clerk who saved my life by calling 911. He told me the following: First, I called the front desk and asked him to bring me some antacid. Very weird. I would never expect a hotel clerk to leave the desk and bring something (I travel a lot). He said I was very agitated when he refused to leave the front desk alone and then I hung up on him. (Again, I cannot imagine what I was thinking when I asked him this. I would never make a request like this--ever.) Second, a few minutes later I called the front desk person again and asked him to come up to my room and sit with me. (Again, this is the most bizzare request I have ever made and I cannot remember anything or any reason I would have done this. I am sure by that point I was in sheer panic and thought I was going to die.) He said that when he refused this request, I hung up on him. Third, he said I called the front desk again and told them I was having a heart attack. Then I ran out of my room in bare feet and sat down in the hotel shuttle drop off area. I remember that because I made the decision to leave that hotel with no phone, keys, wallet or shoes because I knew I was dying and did not want to die in that hotel room. My thought was that my best shot at survival was outside where someone could find me. The next thing I knew it was three weeks later and I was spiraling up from a coma in the UCSD Cardiac ICU.

Moral of the story? Aortic dissections impact blood flow to every area of your body, including your brain. Do not ignore this condition if you have it. Have planned surgery because you likely will not survive a full blown dissection if it happens. If a thoracic surgeon (or two) tells you that you need to have surgery, LISTEN. They want to save your life because they know how lethal this is. If I knew then what I know now, I would have had the surgery 100 times out of 100. Peace.