am I exercising too much with a 4.3 ascending aortic aneurysm?

My aortic dilation is 4.0 cm. I exercise a lot hiking and climbing mountains. Often my heart rate gets into the 140s-150s. I never know though if that bad or not. My doc told me no restrictions on exercise. Thanks for posting this thread.

Yeah you’re right. When you explain to your PCP what happened and he doesn’t respond then I should dump him. My laughing cardiovascular surgeon should go next. Especially when I asked him if it could burst and he nonchalantly said that it could. Then practically running out of the exam room. He wasn’t taking me seriously. I had questions I couldn’t ask because he blew me off.

The first hospital I went to said that they found a torn aneurysm and was being transferred to a specialized hospital for emergency surgery.
The second hospital, the cardiovascular surgeon agreed but said that since it wasn’t bleeding at that time I should call my jerky cardiovascular surgeon ASAP and he blew me off. That’s a ratio of 2 vs 1 dingbat.
I googled “Cardiovascular surgeons near me “and at least a dozen showed up with most having doctors hospital privileges at some of the best hospitals including a heart hospital. My cardiovascular surgeon never told me the size of it. Even if it was small I still want to know what size it is so I don’t get a surprise.

I poured over the trauma hospital’s portal which I downloaded years ago and there I found it tucked away in a doctor’s notes “History of aortic aneurysm, and it said 3cm.
You know how long I’ve been dying to find out and I finally found it? A year ago I began to wonder and I just forgot to ask him. That shouldn’t have to be my responsibility in order to find out He should have told me instead of “see you next year!”

I have a torn aortic aneurysm in my abdomen. It only measures 3 cm but it is torn. I went to a hospital emergency department for an unrelated issue and the doctor walks into my exam room and said “we are going to transfer you to a trauma hospital for emergency surgery”

I asked why and he said that a CT scan showed that I had a torn aortic aneurysm. I said ok then was transferred to a trauma hospital. While in the trauma hospital a cardiovascular surgeon said that I would have to come back into the hospital but right now it isn’t bleeding so we feel that you are stable enough to be discharged. I felt uncomfortable with that but I accepted it.

The cardiovascular doctor said for me to see my cardiovascular surgeon ASAP. I made the appointment with him for the next day and he laughed and said “I don’t see anything through a sonogram.”

He was obviously Annoyed that I dare visit him and he was quick to attend to the patients that had appointments that day.
He poo pood the whole appointment and he walked out saying “all hospitals say ASAP and we have ways to take care of these things!”

What if I’m briskly taking a walk and I collapse? Most people would think I had a heart attack and push on my chest. That would do nothing and I could die as burst aneurysms are usually fatal. As he was walking out of the exam room I asked him if could burst and he said “it could!” Then said “see you next year!” I made an appointment for a year from now.

I happen to have a replacement aortic mechanical heart valve and am on blood thinners which could cause me to bleed out. Should I seek a second opinion.
I messaged my PCP last week and he has failed to respond. I feel like a walk-in time bomb!

Thank you so much for your feed back.. and yes I am trying to pin point the chest pain. It drives me crazy, trying to figure out what is causing it. the Doctors don't want to do more testing because I am a very healthy 60 year old ... expect and aortic aneurysm, that could be life threatening. I am new to this all and still trying to come to grips with it.. it doesn't help when the doc's and nurses give you the standard "don't lift more than 50 lbs" Im 5'2" and 125lbs how is that the same as a 6'2" man of 250 lbs.. doesn't make sense to me.. As does the as much cardio as you are use to guideline.. I am used to Marathons - is that much blood going thru the aorta good for the aneurysm ? no one seems to know.. Any helo is great.

Thank you for this reply. I find it helpful because I haven't been monitoring HR or BP on my own, so your comments give me something that I can notice for trends. That data could help me have better conversation with my doctors...whenever I hear from them...!

At 3.8 your aneurysm is very small, far from any concern in my mind. The main issue with any exercise is if it raises your BP, we know from many experts that holding your breath while exerting heavily raises your BP , in your case you are talking about breathing rhythm in an aerobic exercise, my reasoning tells me it should not rise significantly, if at all, but someone that has done studies with aerobic exercises would know the answer. I can tell you that after swimming or biking regularly my BP actually lowers (not immediately but when I take it in the evenings), but of course I don't know what happens during.

My aneurysm is already repaired (5.2 cm repaired in 2020, at 54 years old) , but I do get checked every year as I have a bicuspid aortic valve and they deteriorate with age. I exercise regularly and that includes high intensity 1 hr spinning classes, I get my HR to 160. During my check ups my cardiologist has told me whatever I'm doing is slowing down the valve deterioration, and he has done studies on exercise and aneurysms (the cardiologist in the video I have posted). He also told me though that although already repaired, controlling BP is important as in some cases dilations may occur at the point where the graft and the aorta were joined, or in my case anywhere else as I seem to have a genetic propensity.

On the other hand, being so active and maintaining your body in great shape will pay dividends if you ever need to have your aneurysm repaired, but at the size it is right now, that may never happen. I am sure your Drs are monitoring the growth rate, and that in my mind would be a point of reference.

Sorry I couldn't give you a straight answer, if I find more info I will post it

Hi, I just found this site after receiving test results of 3.8 aneurysm in my med portal with zero interpretation from anyone. 56 yo woman. I mostly swim for exercise; a bit of walking sometimes. My question is about the breathing set in my 1.5 mile (2700 yds) swim: I do a 500yd pulling set, breathing every 5 strokes. From reading the posts here, it sounds like I maybe shouldn't do that? I also do 4 x 200 IM, so now I'm worried about swimming butterfly too. But I'm not going very fast. I'm averaging roughly 2 mins per 100 across the whole workout, with a lot of stretching between sets. Do I need to decrease my swimming and do more walking? In the summer I've been doing every weekday; during the schoolyear it's more like 3 days.