Thoracic aortic aneurysm: Anyone had surgery?

The Mayo hospital sends all bills to Medicare and your supplement. With the Clinic, you pay the bill and Medicare and AARP reimburses you. I have had no problems with Mayo billing. I don’t think you will either as long as you know that the clinic does not get reimbursement from Medicare or AARP. If you cannot afford to pay the clinic for tests, talk to Mayo. The clinic will work out something.

@michellr Call Humana, and ask to talk to THEIR nurse/counselor. Humana has been very helpful to me in these matters.

@axels I believe you do. What you should do is simple. First, make sure that Mayo (or the others) send the bill to both Medicare and AARP. They will send you the money, as much as they will pay, especially if you have plan F or G. Now, this is incredible important. Put that money in your bank account, and pay the bill with your plastic. DO NOT sign the check and send it to the clinic or whatever, especially MAYO. They will lose it in their incredibly old fashioned system, and tell you that you did not pay the bill yet. So just make sure that you have a VERY transparent process of getting the bill paid. Se came close to going to court over this one.

My dissecting aneurysm was measured 6.1 cm last September. I live in Palm Desert , Ca. and the doctor told me they
cannot do it at the Eisenhower hospital. Either Mayo, UCLA or Cedars. Do I qualify with Medicare and AARP at Mayo?
I don,t want to wait too long.

I second morningglory’s post. I had the same surgery with the same doctor on 5/10/2016. I had zero problems after the surgery. Mayo is a great clinic for heart problems. Recovery was swift and no particular problem in the hospital. Cannot say enough good about the hospital. The hospital has plenty of help and on the open heart floor, there is 1 very competent nurse for every two patients. Every nurse I had was extremely competent and kind.

I had surgery for aortic aneurysm 7/29/16 and am a very senior citizen (old) and it went very well and recovery also went smoothly. Had a great surgeon at Mayo, Dr. Pochettino. This was done at the Rochester Clinic, cannot find enough praise for the doc and all his assistants and all the nursing staff.

Thank you Kanaaz. I did as my doctor about the supplement he said it could cause more damage, but made light of it. I am 73 years old, that may be the reason. I was diagnosed on November 17, 2017. I am borderline diabetic, never smoked, never drank, so other than discovering the aneurism I am in fairly good health. I have taken Norvasc 5mg for more than 20 years, and Pravastatin for about 15 years. These are the only 2 prescription drugs I have taken on a regular basis up till now. The testosterone supplements made me more energetic, seemed to be more mentally alert. New medication seems to make me weak, can't sleep, depressed, lack of motivation.

Have not had surgery. My aneurysm is only 4.7 cm my cardiologist operates at 5.5 cm.Just doing a CT every 2 months.

interesting. I also was born with intraventricular hole in my heart and just had tricuspid valve surgery Dec. 2016. Had open heart surgery when I was 10 and now again at 65. How did you do with the valve surgery?

Hello @redskin39,

I apologize for not responding earlier, but somehow I missed getting a notification about your post! I'm quite sure it's a tech glitch because I see that Connect Mentors, whose fluency in responding to new members is beyond helpful, probably did not get notified either.
Thanks for the followup, @colleenyoung.

You may also notice that I moved your discussion and combined it with this existing discussion on thoracic aortic aneurysm, because I thought it might be beneficial for you to be introduced to the many members who have discussed the same.
If you are replying by email, you could click on VIEW & REPLY so that you can read through some of the earlier messages and meet some of our other members talking about their or their or their loved ones' experiences.

Here’s a great article from Mayo Clinic that might help your search for answers:
– What are the heart risks associated with testosterone therapy? https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/mens-health/expert-answers/testosterone-therapy-side-effects/faq-20090015

I also encourage you to view these discussions on Connect:
– https://connect.mayoclinic.org/webinar/facebook-live-the-truth-about-testosterone-and-mens-health-with-dr/
– https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/low-testosterone/ (although this is an older discussion, @roush writes about Androgen and heart issues, and I'm hoping he will return with more insight).

While we wait for others to join in, I'd like to invite Mentors @predictable and @hopeful33250 to see if they have any thoughts or suggestions as well.

@redskin39, we look forward to getting to know you; may I ask if you could share a few more details? When were you diagnosed with thoracic aortic aneurysm? Have you asked your doctor about taking testosterone supplements?