Tying to decide when I should have surgery?

@houston13
No, my height is 57 INCHES., or 4'- 9" 🙂

@jtmoore hi I was 54 when I had mine repaired, I also have a BAV that was left in place during surgery as the surgeon’s opinion was that it was in good shape and highly functional, he told me my natural BAV in good shape would be better than any artificial valve. All things being equal the younger you have the surgery the easier to recover, but it really all comes down to your physical fitness and other illnesses that you may have, your cardiologist and surgeon would be able to assess your general health and risks and give you probabilities and recommendations. In my case I was in very good shape as I exercised all my life and my surgeon gave me >99% chance I would have no issues, and that’s what happened. I was in the hospital 5 days and back to work in 3 weeks, in 6 months I was working out with certain intensity, in a year at full pace. I live a normal life with the only restriction to control and maintain my BP within acceptable range. My cardiologist checks me every year to monitor my valve and the repair. My valve will have to be replaced at some point but now that the aneurysm is repaired it can be done endovascularly.

Again depending on your general health, you want to have the repair when your body is at its best and age has a lot to do with it. The reason why most people have it at an older age is because for most of them it takes that long to grow to critical size. Yours happens to have reached 5.0 at a younger age, which honestly I see it as a blessing.

5.0 is already a large aneurysm and if your Drs consider it is time for repair you should listen, evaluate your odds, ask a lot of questions and make a decision. You have the opportunity to plan and do something, a lot of people don’t get that chance. Read the stories of people in this forum that survived dissections, the lucky ones, it is not something you want to go through if you can prevent it.

If you want any more info feel free to ask, take care of yourself and wish you all the best.

@ewei6911 😄 misread your description, well even more relevant. I’m not a Dr but having dealt with this, I kind of prefer the approach of surgeon 1 (he is also suggesting more frequent checks)

@houston13
The contrasting opinions of the 2 very experienced thoracic surgeons had me somewhat depressed. A follow up meeting with my cardiologist (who recommended surgeon #2) left me feeling more positive. My cardiologist suggests getting a CT scan immediately, then followed by another one in 3 months, then another one in 6 months. Hopefully, any questions about my height will be clarified with the CT scans since we know what to look for. But my age concerns for any surgery remains and other posts in this group also does not favor surgery for someone in their 80s.