What is it like to die with an aortic Aneurysm?

What if you could get a pendant that connects to a dispatcher. When you push the button they will send first responders. It would up your odds.

I do worry, all the time.
I currently have a sub clavian dissection, vertebral aneurysm, bi laterally. AAA, dissection in my left illiac artery. I'm also living with a hip that needs to be replaced and a broken vertebrae that needs to be replaced. They won't do either until I have gastric sleeve surgery. Apparently, my bmi is too high for any other surgery. Thanks for listening, it's nice to know there are people out here that totally understand.
I think you said you had a second OHS, so did I! 5 months after my first!

Receiving insulin, glucagon, and glucose during and after surgery does not necessarily mean you have diabetes. In the context of open-heart surgery, particularly after an aortic dissection, these medications are typically used to manage blood glucose levels, support metabolic needs, and stabilize the body under surgical stress, regardless of a diabetes diagnosis.

Surgical stress can lead to stress-induced hyperglycemia (temporary high blood sugar), even in individuals without diabetes. This is common in major surgeries, where medications and procedures can affect insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation. Insulin may be administered to keep blood sugar within a controlled range, but this is usually a temporary measure. Peace.

Yes, the worst thing is to be without support from the one who pretends to be a specialist in Fibromusculär dysplasi. Have changed GPs and met her once, she was so calm and knowledgeable and actually questioned the specialist. I'm still glad to have found her after many nonchalant doctors.
Hope you can switch doctors with.
I lost 15 kg in a year with the injection Ozempic (insulin) see if you can try it!! Hugs!

I dissected at midnight on Friday/Saturday. It sounds simple. Like "I watched some TV." But it was anything but simple. Searing pain like being run through with a flaming sword. I cannot forget how instense that pain was.
After my valiant wife getting me to the ED they measured the aneurysm in the ascending aorta. It was 5.8cm. They were getting a surgeon up to the hospital, and I met the two of them, right before surgery. A CT scan then measured the aneurysm at 6.5cm. Another hour and I'd likely be ghost writing this message (pun intended).
Then I was whisked off to Neverland.
I think it was due to my total absence of any contributing issues, that I was in ICU for only five days, and I would have been out of the hospital in a week if it wasn't for liver issues and AFib.
So I don't know how long I was "unlived" - how long I was on the table without a heart beat. I guess I had the same like everyone else, but I never talked about it with my surgeon. I haven't actually seen him since before the operation and I don't even remember meeting him. But I have since met the assisting hospital Senior Registrar who when I asked "how bad was it", she replied "we had considerable concern". Which by the look in her eye (and in that exact moment you know) is doctor-talk for "we didn't think you were going to make it." I knew she was right. Everyone says that. I shouldn't be here. I won the lottery. Etc.
So now I have a super-power...
It is weird having a new perspective - not just "phew that was lucky, I am going to be a good boy from now on". No.
It's like I don't really care about my own life. Doesn't mean I am superman and I can do no wrong. But...
It's like, if that is the worst the universe can do to me then pffft! bring on everything you got, because clearly I am not going anywhere.
I have armor, and a shield, and a wicked scar that is more a badge of courage than a sad reminder, and you tried your best with your flaming sword, but next time around I know what is going to happen and I will be ready.
Yes I have the descending dissection and the rest of it, and it is reaching up now into my neck and down into my leg and across into my kidney. And because of the descending dissection I am on five meds for it.
But all these don't matter when I am still standing and the universe tried its best.
That's it?!
Come at me, universe! I am ready and laughing at you.

@moonboy this kind of support with insulin, glucagon and glucose may have been easier for you than a person with type 1 diabetes. Two major top hospitals have almost killed my kid. Endocrinology admits that hospital doctors and nurses have no idea how to manage it. Hospitals are the scariest places to be with type 1 so I am glad you don't have it! (I am well aware of the hyperglycemia after surgery or other stresses, unfortunately.)

Thanks all for a very good insight on my condition.
I am 79 and I have had a very good life. With 3 successful careers, a 47 year marriage and 2 wonderful children. To highlight a few.
My aneurysm was found through a lung x-ray I had a month ago. Sugary was recommended. I had made up my mind, that if I had lung cancer (depending on the stage it was in) that I would consider euthanasia. This is possible because I live in The Netherlands. One of the reasons I moved here. My wife left us this way when she had terminal bowel cancer. She had a lot of pain leading up to it though.
I am considering doing nothing and go on enjoying life as I have been doing all along.
This seems like a quick and not too painful way of leaving. I really don't want long hospital stays, or chemotherapy, or relying on morphine to keep pain away.

Man, you sound like you have a very interesting life there in Canada. I'm your neighbor to the south in Minneapolis. To address your final comment in your email first, I can assure you the dying from an aortic dissection is not easier than living with it. I had a complete Type A1 aortic dissection in 2015. I now have an artificial aortic graft which is 30 cm long and 30 mm in diameter. Life's good. The surgery is no walk in the park, but if it's planned and scheduled it's imminently survival and you can live a great life thereafter. The recovery is tough but I suspect mine was particularly bad since my aorta burst out of nowhere and obviously completely unexpectedly. I had absolutely no inkling that I had a problem until I had a problem. For you, that's not the case. You know you've got a problem and you know that you can deal with it. The trick is not waiting. If you're at 5 cm or above, you're likely candidate for surgery.

If you're up in the north woods that's a tough call. If I knew then what I know now, I would never be more than five minutes from an emergency cardiac care center that could do a complete aortic thoracic repair procedure on 42 minutes notice. If this dissection happens to you and you are out in the middle of nowhere, it's likely that you would die before medical personnel could figure out what was wrong with you and surgical personnel could get you open to repair it. It is about as complicated as surgery as you're going to get outside of brain surgery. This is not a broken arm. You need cardiac thoracic experts who have all of the necessary, medical equipment and supplies on hand to cool you down, open you up, keep the oxygen levels going to your brain through ECMO, and replace your aorta. The time pressure is extraordinary given the fact that you are exsanguinating. So, if it were me, knowing what I know, (and I know a lot since I survived a dissection by the skin of my teeth) I would opt to have the surgery sooner rather than later. I certainly would not take the position that I'm going to just wait till I dissect to have the surgery. That's akin to getting up to 38,000 feet and saying I'm gonna keep flying this thing until this engine blows out and then figure it all out on my way to the ground. That's not a strategy. It is a plan, I'll give you that. But it is not a plan I'd ever execute.

So let us know what you need on this listserv and come back and update us to tell us where you wound up. Peace.