I thought that possibly Six weeks in a rehab facility might be a welcome option since you said you don’t have family support. Certainly going home is another option if you have competent medical providers at home to follow you. That may or may not be the case in a smaller community: Sometimes you can find fantastic competent providers and other times you won’t.
There is also the issue of provider willingness to care for patients “done elsewhere.”
However, if you live that close to Stanford, Stanford probably has a “stable” of people they routinely work with. You won’t be the first patient in this situation - CV surgery done at Stanford with outpatient follow up care at home. Some commercial insurers demand it!
My mother in law had giant cell arteritis. She hated prednisone cause it made her so nervous. She was switched to methotrexate but her liver could not deal with methotrexate cause of an alcohol problem when she was younger - she had damage.
My husband’s fantastic rheumatologist ordered a PET scan on him because of his aches and pains, the family history, etc.. The PET scan fortunately showed no vasculitis.
Hopefully, that will be the case with you also but be prepared for a more intensive prednisone or other regimen before surgery. You will not want to have surgery on an inflamed aorta.
You might want to see a rheumatologist at Stanford.
Best wishes. I hope that Inhave been helpful. There is a lot of help and resources available. Social workers and navigators should be able to help you access them. Also there are funds to help with financial needs. Ask about those also.