Aortic Aneurysms – Introduce yourself & meet others

I had no clue I had one. I had a routine echocardiogram because I told my dr I didn’t feel right. So glad I had it. It was 7.5 cm, had not dissected but they kept me in hospital and scheduled me for surgery. I am what they call their miracle superstar. I have had a great recovery process. May 13 makes me 8 weeks post surgery. I had no other complications and feel blessed that my team at IU Health Ball was so proactive.

It depends on your level of risk. My aorta dissected in 2015 at 50 years old. I was in the hospital cardiac ICU for about three weeks with two weeks in a coma. Your chance of surviving skyrockets if they do a scheduled, non-emergent, surgery. Most people who have a sudden AA dissection don't survive it. John Ritter, Alan Thicke, Lucille Ball. Knowing what I now know, I would elect to have the surgery if its an option. That way, you can prepare all of your estate documents, organize things for your spouse, arrange work leave, etc. Basically, it's the difference between scheduled a tire replacement when you see the bulge, versus having it blow out at 75-mph on a busy freeway. I'll take the former. Having survived the latter, I can tell you I would never risk it again (not that I'm going to get the chance). The dissection pain itself was so excruciating that I cannot describe really. It was like someone was tearing the skin off my back. Moreover, it happened on a San Diego business trip 1,600 miles from Minneapolis. It caused great trauma to my wife and family. It was expensive and I barely survived. I had blood clots, memory loss, damage to my vocal chords from emergency intubation, and a $1.4 million hospital bill (all but $13K paid by my medical insurance).

So, if I had it to do all over again I would elect to have the scheduled surgery in my hometown, on my schedule, after I had completely prepared my wife, kids, and clients for what was to come. Talk with your doctor.

I was 54 when i had my surgery 4 years ago, I was in very good shape and exercised frequently (not as extreme as you), never smoked, they actually found my 5.2 Ascending AA after I broke my leg after falling from my MTB. Based on my body size (aneurysm was considred too large) and physical shape (minimum risk duing surgey) my surgeon encouraged me to have it fixed as soon as possible, had to wait unil my leg healed from surgery a bit since they want you walking right after. I actually wanted it done immediately, couldn't handle the stress of knowing I had a ticking bomb. The main thing you have to watch is your BP, they never said anything to me about Heart Rate, and they limited my weight lifting mainly because when you push we tend to hold our breath and during heavy exertion while holding your breath BP spikes puntually to very high levels (I shared a video in this forum, different discussion, of an expert explaining the reason and how high your BP can get to at that moment). of course I was also limited on my exercise due to my broken leg. The surgeon gave me >99% probability of no complications, I was out of the hospital in about 5 days, back to work in 3 weeks. I am back at exercising everyday with annual check ups (I have a bicuspid valve which contributed to the AAA) to check on my valve.

Hope everything goes well for you

Hello. New to forum. Male 57. In generally good health: competitive marathoner (ran Boston a couple of times) and rower for many years but with borderline blood pressure and cholesterol. Recently diagnosed with an enlarged ascending aorta (5.0 cm) as part of a precautionary calcium CT scan done as part of my annual physical. The news came as a bit of shock since I was without symptoms. Doctor says I can have a procedure now or monitor it every six months and wait until it reaches 5.5. I'd prefer the latter. Trying to figure out permissible physical activity ranges (heart rate limits and weight lifting limits). I saw some fairly recent research in JAMA (Association of Ascending Aortic Dilatation and Long-term Endurance Exercise Among Older Masters-Level Athletes) indicating my situation is not that unusual for competitive older athletes (i.e., 45% of Head of the Charles rowers who were screened had a similar condition). Would be curious to hear from others in a similar situation and what they have done.

I’m in exactly the same boat as you, and it looks like we have Pittsburgh roots in common also. I’m a couple years older than you and my AAA is also at 5.0cm. Mayo advised be to continue to monitor right now since it seems to have been stable for several years. I don’t lift anything over 25 pounds but have been encouraged to continue other physical activity. Are you being monitored by Mayo?

Hello to all. I'm five years out from my valve sparing aortic root replacement. I was dilated to 52cm. My was partially due to I have marfan syndrome.

Hi, my name is Heather. About 9 months ago during a scan for another issue my doctors found I have an abdominal aortic aneurysm (up to 3cm) and a right common iliac aneurysm ( up to 2.2cm). Apparently it is very rare for someone my age, sex and health and the shape of them is also very strange apparently. I’m 47, female and otherwise in good health. I am an ex smoker however. And my grandfather died of a ruptured aneurysm in his 50’s. My aneurysms are both the saccular and apparently even stranger that they have a very odd shape to them both. Almost like a tube. I’ve read saccular aneurysms and being female are both circumstances that make them more likely to rupture. About 5 months ago I had a full body MRI to check the rest of my arteries and it came back ok, thankfully. I had to ring the vascular specialist’s office this month (January)to ask when I’d be sent for another scan and after a few days they told me it would be May- over a year after the first scan. I presume the MRI would have been used to also check any growth development in the two they’d found already? I may also have a small umbilical hernia. In the last couple months I’ve been getting a dull intermittent pain around and to the right of my belly button. Should I be worried about this? I mentioned it to the receptionist when I called the vascular specialist to ask about getting a scan. So I’m guessing they aren’t worried, although she never directly spoke of it to me, but it’s making me very nervous. Any suggestions as to what, if anything, I should do? At what point should someone go to the emergency room if they have pain in the area where their aneurysms are? Thank you.