Aortic Aneurysms – Introduce yourself & meet others

I have an AAA. It's at a 3.7 . I'm scared. I am 59 years old. I don't understand why they won't do surgery until it measure a 5 cm. They told me because the surgery is so risky. Can someone address this issue?

I have read nothing over 30#. Or would it be less? Feed bags for chickens are 40#. It looks like I won't be able to do much of anything. And do the docs make you wait to get surgery until it's almost too late? What about riding the lawn mower? I've read so much on the Internet that my head is spinning, and I feel so hopeless. You are a blessing to respond and encourage everyone! Thank you.

So I had an emergent dissection at age 50. It was a horrible experience that I would not wish on my worst enemy. If you can control your blood pressure, keep your weight down, stop drinking, and smoking, and follow your Doctor’s advice, I think you’re in a much better place than I was in. 9 1/2 years ago. That said, you know that you’ve got an issue and you have good doctors who are following standard protocol, which says that they generally do not do surgery unless it gets to 5 cm. You’re going to get your regular CT scans so that you can measure the progress of it in case it gets any larger and that will give you an opportunity to try to change the course of it if you can and hopefully avoid surgery altogether. Open-heart surgery for anybody is a major deal and it’s not like your typical coronary bypass. When they do any thing related to the aorta, they essentially have to stop your heart altogether and put you on ECMO and likely deep hypothermic complete circulatory arrest. Google that term so that you can better understand it. If you don’t need to have the surgery, I would not have it. That said, now that you are aware of it, if you do need to have the surgery, you’re going to be much better prepared for it in terms of getting your personal affairs in order, getting your family prepared to support you following surgery, and having an excellent Recovery plan in place with the right doctors and the right cardiovascular care center that specializes in repairing aortic, aneurysms and aortic dissection. You’re going to stick to the big cities and the major surgical centers in your area. Mayo Clinic, Cleveland clinic, UCLA, UCSD, University of Minnesota, etc. You’re gonna be fine. Your doctors know what they’re talking about and the best thing for you to do is to listen to their advice and follow their instructions about reducing your blood pressure and heart rate as well as not doing any exercise exercises that involve of a Valsalva maneuver. Look that term up on Google as well. You’re gonna be fine. Peace and feel free to write to me directly if you want to talk more. No one is going to understand what you’re facing, except someone who’s already faced it. As much as I love my surgeons, and as much as I love the fact that they saved my life, I have learned that unless you have had open-heart surgery like this with DHCA, it is impossible to truly understand. You’re a smart person and that’s why you found this Listserv, but you’re going to be fine.

I have an AAA. It's at a 3.7 . I'm scared. I am 59 years old. I don't understand why they won't do surgery until it measure a 5 cm. They told me because the surgery is so risky. Can someone address this issue?

I have read nothing over 30#. Or would it be less? Feed bags for chickens are 40#. It looks like I won't be able to do much of anything. And do the docs make you wait to get surgery until it's almost too late? What about riding the lawn mower? I've read so much on the Internet that my head is spinning, and I feel so hopeless. You are a blessing to respond and encourage everyone! Thank you.

I have several cardiac things going on so I might as well post here. I am 71 yo male and have been a life long serious athlete, runner, swimmer, and the last couple decades cyclist. I had creeping LDL cholesterol due to family history that I somewhat arrogantly believed was not an issue due to my constant exercising. Silly me. It finally got high enough that the doc recommended a statin which I agreed I needed. A few years after starting that we did a calcium scan that came back 1000! So now I am on Crestor and Zetia trying to keep LDL as low as possible. But it all leaves me wondering if I should push to get an angiogram to see exactly how bad my CAD is.

As a side finding an echocardiogram found that I have an aortic root enlargement, I believe 4.0 or 4.1. Doc was initially concerned about my BP but my systolic is consistently 120-133 or so, so that seems OK and he did not prescribe any BP meds. As another side finding, I have a first grade AV block, cause unknown. The doc did a stress test with isotope contrast and said there was "some scarring" visible, possibly from an extended case of Lyme disease I had back in the early 2000s. But who knows.

Meanwhile I continue to do everything same as always with no restrictions... ride my bikes indoors and outdoors, some light weight lifting, pushups, etc., but I am not sure how long that will last. I am due for a follow up echo in a couple of weeks to check the status of my aorta again.

It’s a bad idea to be lifting in heavy. Anything that makes you grunt in order to move. It is too heavy. You should be talking to your doctor about this. The Danger your face when you’re doing things like that is that you could burst the aorta suddenly and once That happens, your ability to survive, it is greatly diminished to say the least.

Thank you, Moonboy, for responding. I am a bundle of nerves right now with upset stomach and stuff. I eat healthy, am active, and blood pressure and weight is good. Only other problem that I know I have is Alpha-gal allergy (caused by Lone Star tick, and I can't have any meat from an animal with a hoof). I have been retired for 12 years from an office job, and since then, my best friend and I have been packing for a moving company, and I also volunteer at our local historical society's consignment shop. I am lifting heavy boxes and moving heavy furniture all the time. Probably lifting more weight than a lot of guys! So, are you limited to what you can lift?