So I had an emergent dissection at age 50. It was a horrible experience that I would not wish on my worst enemy. If you can control your blood pressure, keep your weight down, stop drinking, and smoking, and follow your Doctor’s advice, I think you’re in a much better place than I was in. 9 1/2 years ago. That said, you know that you’ve got an issue and you have good doctors who are following standard protocol, which says that they generally do not do surgery unless it gets to 5 cm. You’re going to get your regular CT scans so that you can measure the progress of it in case it gets any larger and that will give you an opportunity to try to change the course of it if you can and hopefully avoid surgery altogether. Open-heart surgery for anybody is a major deal and it’s not like your typical coronary bypass. When they do any thing related to the aorta, they essentially have to stop your heart altogether and put you on ECMO and likely deep hypothermic complete circulatory arrest. Google that term so that you can better understand it. If you don’t need to have the surgery, I would not have it. That said, now that you are aware of it, if you do need to have the surgery, you’re going to be much better prepared for it in terms of getting your personal affairs in order, getting your family prepared to support you following surgery, and having an excellent Recovery plan in place with the right doctors and the right cardiovascular care center that specializes in repairing aortic, aneurysms and aortic dissection. You’re going to stick to the big cities and the major surgical centers in your area. Mayo Clinic, Cleveland clinic, UCLA, UCSD, University of Minnesota, etc. You’re gonna be fine. Your doctors know what they’re talking about and the best thing for you to do is to listen to their advice and follow their instructions about reducing your blood pressure and heart rate as well as not doing any exercise exercises that involve of a Valsalva maneuver. Look that term up on Google as well. You’re gonna be fine. Peace and feel free to write to me directly if you want to talk more. No one is going to understand what you’re facing, except someone who’s already faced it. As much as I love my surgeons, and as much as I love the fact that they saved my life, I have learned that unless you have had open-heart surgery like this with DHCA, it is impossible to truly understand. You’re a smart person and that’s why you found this Listserv, but you’re going to be fine.