Aortic Aneurysms – Introduce yourself & meet others

@grandmajeannie...it would be important to establish yourself as a patient with a cardiologist who is very familiar with aortic aneurysms and their treatment. Keep your BP under control and maintain a healthy lifestyle. At the size you mentioned, yearly monitoring with CT or echocardiogram is the norm. Best wishes for your health journey!

@angiecabinfever1 I have no medical training, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. My understanding is that an aneurysm can compress other nearby structures and cause chest discomfort without a dissection. I gather it's very unusual though and I have no idea how big it typically is when that happens. Really, this is a conversation for the person monitoring your aneurysm (and if you're having chest discomfort, better safe by discussing it than sorry you didn't). WRT knowing someone, not really.

@bitsygirl
Thank you for your advice!
Just being able to talk to other people dealing with this helps!

@grandmajeannie At 76 with a 4.1cm AAO I am skipping the cardiologist unless it shows progression on next echo. I have read studies which are beginning to find that the "sag and Bag" phenomenon of aging (I am sure they would not put it that way) also applies to things like AAO size. For my age and BSA at least two recent publications suggest that is to be expected. So I have more than enough medical crap in my life right now and the stress of managing one more doc would likely raise my blood pressure. But if anxiety is gonna raise yours - get the next level of advice. The ACC guidelines do not call this an aneurysm. If mine stays stable or has small increase - I will just monitor. These calls are very individual and you do what is comfortable for you.

@k3b
Thank you for your perspective. Half the time I feel like I just want to live my life and not worry about it. The other half of the time I’m thinking of the worst case scenario!

@k3b. Great attitude. Hope it works out for you 🙂

My donation in assending arortic artery is 4.1. It has not changed for three years. It has actually gotten smaller but my dr says that is just the CT it is the same

In 2021 I was diagnosed with an AAAnuerysm. For several years doctors told me not to lift anything. As time went by, it never grew or caused problems and everyone relaxed and I can now lift light weights. Last October I had a basal ganglia stroke in Costa Rica, where I lived, and was in 3 hospitals in about 15 hours. It was awful. I'll spare the details. I am mostly recovered now but slower in playing pickleball and thinking. And my short term memory banks are pretty bad. Here is my question. Yesterday I was diagnosed with Fibromuscular Dysplasia. (FMD)I am trying to learn alot online as I am now in Panama. My US doc is sending the info to my Panama doc. Looks like it is rare, no cure, but can be managed. I dont have high blood pressure nor high cholesterol although it was getting high right before the stroke. They had me on high bp meds before and after the stroke but my pressure got so low they took me off them. Same with cholesterol meds. It Was getting high right before the stroke. Now everything is fine. I am reading that FMD causes anuerysms and strokes. Could I have had it this whole six years and it caused the aneurysm and stroke? I will ask the doctor when I get the appointment but just wondered about it. I'll post on the stroke page too. I am a very active 69 year old female. I have been very active my whole life. I walk my dogs for 1.5 hours in the a.m. 20 minutes in the p.m. Play pickleball a couple hours a day but not as much or as hard as before. Thanks for listening.

I was diagnosed a year ago with 4cm aorta and my husband was just diagnosed with 4.3 what are the odds of that . His cardiologist has not contacted him yet we just found out from our GP. She said they will contact him.
Another question are hot tubs safe ?

@gladifoundthissite Must be more common than we thought. Husband is at 4.0cm and I'm at 4.5. I too figured the odds were impossibly small. 🙂