Aortic Dissection at 55yo

Hi Everyone-I am the spouse of a patient who suffered an aortic dissection at the aortic root and ascending aorta this past Thanksgiving weekend. During intimate relations, my husband complained of a cramping chest pain. He walked to the kitchen and drank pickle juice. When he returned to the bedroom, he stated once again of his cramping chest pain and had a look of doom on his face. We immediately jetted to the nearest emergency department where his initial EKG and cardiac levels were normal. His ED physician asked if he had a cardiologist which my husband had been seeing a rural cardiologist who was monitoring an enlarged aorta. (The word aneurysm was never spoken). My husband's ascending aorta measured at 4.8 so the cardiologist was scheduling my husband for periodic CT scans. The CT scan in the ED revealed two tears in his aortic root and ascending aorta with a dissection to his iliac arteries. He was airlifted to a facility 3 1/2 hours away where he had an 8 hour open heart surgery to repair the two tears. We live in Corpus Christi, Texas and was sent to a hospital north of Austin. After reading all these comments, I wonder why we weren't sent to Houston where you guys mention aortic specialists. My husband spent 7 days in the hospital. He is currently seeing a new cardiologist but we are limited with aortic specialists in our area. My concern is-he still has the dissection to his iliac arteries that they will monitor with periodic CT scans. Anyone have or heard of a dissection like this? My husband was 55 years old when his dissection occurred. He did not have the instant classic sharp tearing pain to his chest and back. I am grateful for the care he received and that he survived. This is a great forum where I/we have learned quite a bit. I am writing this because he asked me too rather that he write it himself. I am a RN and it was a scary time for us. He did not realize how critical he was and I believe that was a blessing. One of the most frustrating times was waiting in the Emergency department for a hospital that had a cardiothoracic surgeon and a hospital bed available. First, we were told to drive to San Antonio, Texas but then the surgeon did not accept him there as he was already in an open heart. Then we were told to drive to Austin, but they did not have any ICU beds available. So we ended up in a northern Austin Hospital (Round Rock, Texas) for his care. Initially, the ED doctor told my husband he would more than likely have stents placed which eased my husband's mind. When we arrived in Round Rock, we were told open heart surgery with possible valve replacement would be performed. This is when my husband realized the severity of his condition. He is currently attending rehab three days a week, is learning to reduce his stress, walks daily, attempting to keep his blood pressure around 120's. We are having to adjust his medications periodically. For exercise, he doesn't weight train, but he does like to swing a sledgehammer and chop firewood. He has been told to halt these types of activities so that is a big adjustment for him to not lift anything heavier than 20 pounds. HIs grandfather died in the 1950's from a sudden heart attack in his 50's and we wonder if he perhaps had an aneurysm also. Anyway, just thought I's share our personal journey with this new diagnosis. Cheers to all.