Thanks for this question and the opportunity to hear about other’s experiences! I have not had surgery, but just got a new opinion from a highly experienced and respected vascular surgeon and also his team at UF-Gainesville. My former vascular surgeon measured the largest part of my descending thoracic aorta dilation at 4.2 cm and the new team, three different ones measured and they came up with 3.5-3.6. So, yeah. Go figure. The surgeon said if I was ready to have endo stent graft surgery he would do it, as long as I was fully aware of the “small (~1%) but real risks from the surgery itself.” Then there’s the risk of dissection or rupture, they are guessing maybe 1%? Maybe all this is to say, that “watching waiting” can be a real mind f$*k.” This stuff is scary but 17 years since mine was discovered, I’ve lived a super full life with basically no restrictions. You will get through this too and this group is super helpful. I REALLY appreciate @moonboy again for describing what the dissection pain felt like. For some reason, I’ve never asked anyone! I’ve just sat inside my head this whole time thinking every time I get a muscle spasm, that I’m dissecting—at least the first few years I thought that which led to lots of ED visits and extra scans. No one seemed to ever be able to tell me what I needed to watch out for. So, I’m really glad so joined this forum and am no longer alone with this!