Ascending Aortic Aneurysm and Exercise

Here is the link to the guidelines @hsminc mentioned above. https://www.acc.org/About-ACC/Press-Releases/2022/11/02/18/18/ACC-AHA-Issue-Aortic-Disease-Guideline

Here is a link to the whole article.

Joanne, thank you so much for your reply and for sending me the link...I am reading through it right now and thankfully am meeting with surgeon tomorrow because I'm beside myself with anxiety right now over this, especially considering the updated guidelines you have clued me in to. My surgeon was using the 5.5 cm guideline, but again since being discovered just a little over a year ago it has grown, from what I am learning significantly. I will be extremely careful now and thank you again!

THANK YOU. The article is quite overwhelming but I'm able to get some useful info that I can talk with my surgeon about at my upcoming appointment. I appreciate your response and hel with this.

I agree -- one has to read any part you are interested in multiple times -- at least I did. I found pretty much everything I needed in the first chapter. You may also.

Thank you so much for sharing this update.

uPDATE: I can’t say thank you enough… you helped me save my own life… those are my surgeons words. Since reading the update on size qualification dropping from 5.5 to 5, I saw my surgeon shortly after this, expressed how nervous and anxious I was about this ticking time bomb in my chest ( recent measurement 5.17) and that I was finding it difficult to go day by day with this worry, so he consented that yes in fact he would
Proceed with surgery. So, as part of the pre- surgical testing, I had a heart cath, which found a significant blockage (87 %)…therefore my aortic aneurysm repair surgery added a by pass procedure as well. I had open heart Surgery on 1/11/23, I was in the hospital a full week, and am now home recovering. THANK YOU AND THANK GOD for giving me that article and guidance. I saved my own life. I’m am 54, 128 pounds and in relative good shape, having regularly worked out 3-4 days a week. Then I worried about working out and stopped all together because I was too afraid. I hope this can help someone else advocate for themselves. If you are living every day in panic and anxiety like I was, please advocate for yourself- be pushy- do what you have to do. I’m so thankful for this article and being armed with it to advocate for myself , because I saved my own life.

I am a 60 yr old male, who had aorta heart valve replaced, 20 years ago. Have been monitored for an ascending aortic aneurysm, and have been at 4.6 cm for the past 4 years...Was told the number 5 cm is when its time to operate. I am a bow hunter, and now told, NO more bow hunting....I do not want to hunt with a cross bow, and I do not want to give up hunting...I understand, that lifting weights, and that jerking motion is a problem. When I tell my dr its a 60 pound pull on my bow and its not like lifting weights, she just doesn't get it...Anyone help me on this one, or where to go to do the research ????

Very happy for you and your personal intervention. Where did you have the surgery done and how did you choose the right surgeon?

St. Joseph’s Hospital, Syracuse NY. My cardiologist referred me to a cardio- thoracic surgeon there and then I researched the surgeon online who had high marks…. This hospital is known to have high marks for cardiac surgeries.