Exercise Guidance with Ascending aorta dilation

@organizedchaos04 The first I learned of by aneurysm was when it dissected suddenly in my hotel room in San Diego while I was watching CNN. It was excruciating. It felt like someone was peeling the skin off my back. I was very aware of the fact that I was dying. I assumed in my brain that it was a widow maker heart attack because I could not make sense of it. For probably an hour before it really blew, I had a complete sense of foreboding and fear that I cannot explain. There's a lot of people who describe having a sense of doom before they fully dissect. That's the only sign and it was confusing at best. Anxiety maybe? Then it dissected suddenly. I'm quite certain that Senator Lindsey Graham felt something similar. May he rest in peace, politics aside.

On a lighter note, I am here working every day. I never missed a single hearing and was back doing a federal mediation 42 days after open heart surgery. I am the luckiest guy alive and I never forget that. Peace.

Thank you again for your kind (and intelligent) response. We must use common sense along with medical knowledge when looking at the reality of our lives, especially when dealing with something as serious as an aneurysm. Peace (smile) Professor Karen Harmon

Happy to have found this group. Like many above, I'm 62, healthy, 21% body fat and stay very active playing hockey (yes, I'm Canadian..) gym, mountian biking and up until last year's 46mm AA diagnosis, snowboarding and heavy lifting inversion machine and enjoyed really pushing myself... It's a tough transition and above comments are great. I'm still doing 1-2minute planks and crunches, but apparently these are not good either ?? I wear a garmin to track HR, VO2max, etc but nothing for BP. Yesterday I put a little "extra" into my hockey game and after, saw my HR tracking up around 190 at times and I was definitly driving hard. No more of that. Last month I ordered a wristband called Dodobit that's supposed to measure BP, but to download the app, it felt like they wanted access to "everything" on my phone. Sending it back. Has anyone tried the Garmin "Index Arm Monitor"? Might try that. I have a home BP monitor now, but it's bulky and can't be worn during activities. Staying positive, although feeling like I'm going to have to get used to sitting on the sidelines for a lot of activites..

@moonboy Wow, from what I've read, you ARE a lucky man and most people don't even get a chance to make a phone call for help unless its a slow leak. Big thumbs up on that. The foreboding comment is good insight. I try to worry, but it's good to know there "might" be a pre-emptive warning . Cheers,

@jasonh1965 welcome to the group, just FYI some time ago I asked my cardiologist (Dr Prakash who is a recognized aneurysm authority and has studied the effects of exercising) about ways to measure BP while exercising, and he responded it is not possible. There are gadgets that claim they can but it is still not possible to measure BP while in motion. I also exercise intensely, mine was repaired 6 years ago, but I still have to watch my BP

Thanks for that insight. Lots of gadgets out there claim to read accurate BP, but bad info is worse than no info in my opinion. At rest, I'm typically 115/75, but who knows where it goes during heavy exercise. I guess I need to scale back, make some exercise routine changes and drop the denial. I'll google Dr Prakash.

@jasonh1965 there are several videos of him that have been posted in this forum, especially around exercising, you can search for them or just google him as you said, his name is Dr Siddharth Prakash from UT Health -Houston

@houston13 here’s another video I found useful it is not related to aneurysms but about breathing and strength exercises, it talks about the effects on BP and how high it can get. It is in Dr Andrew Huberman’s YouTube channel, I believe within the first 2-5 minutes they cover the above. I was surprised by the numbers they give, with an aneurysm a spike that high even for a few seconds it’s very dangerous. BP starts to drop as soon as the exertion stops, so measuring BP immediately after would not show the peak.

Thank you. I'm a Huberman occasional follower and like his content. I'll look this up.