I agree, it is a horrible and difficult decision to make. I also struggled with it for 6 months. I was diagnosed with a 4.5 cm ascending aortic aneurysm 10 years ago. It has slowly grown to 5.2 cm. Last year my cardiologist and thoracic surgeon said I should have surgery, but I couldn’t make a decision. There is the real risk of a dissection. But, I feel fine and don’t have any symptoms and was trying to balance that against a very painful surgery recovery and months of disruption in my life, my wife’s life and my family’s life. Add to that the risk of complications from the surgery. Finally something my surgeon said convinced me. He said the aneurysm is not going to go away and will likely continue to grow which will increase my risk of a dissection. He also said the older I get the more difficult the surgery and recovery will be (I am 72 and in reasonably good health for my age). So I am having surgery on April 9th.