Anyone Else With Type B Aortic Aneurysm?
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hello all! I am a pretty healthy 53 year old female and a nurse. I had a sudden Type B aortic dissection on 7/24/2019. TEVAR was my lifesaver. No family history. Occasional hypertension which was dismissed as "white coat syndrome". Just want to hear from anyone else that has this condition. I had severe stabbing mid-scapular pain migrating to my chest with a sudden onset after working my normal 12 hour night shift. This was the scariest time in my life. Let me know your own experience. Thank you!
Kim
0 likes, 5 replies
kim_72234
Posted
I meant 2017..sorry
rod15056 kim_72234
Posted
Hi Kim - Hello from way down in Australia - Ive not had a dissection yet but I was diagnosed with a 5.1cm AAA about 18 months ago and am naturally curious about these conditions. What I will say is that you are lucky - from what Ive read, the survival rate is not great - it also appears that it was somewhat of a surprise - this too is actually a good thing, as you have not had to live with the knowledge of a ticking bomb in your chest 😃
How is everything now? I presume they fixed it and you're back to 100% ? What did they actually do? Are you on medication ? How is your health now ? I am just living life - we are taking lots of overseas trips and I am continuing to exercise every day and scuba dive whenever I can 😃
Cheers
derek76 rod15056
Posted
How do you get travel insurance? My one was found when it was 3.1cm fifteen years ago and is slow growing and now 4.2cm But every travel insurance company has refused me apart from one that wanted two thousand pounds for a month in America or a thousand pounds if I went to Cuba. I just ask them to exclude it from the policy.
rod15056 derek76
Posted
My travel insurance excludes pre-existing conditions - but my other medical insurance does not, so Im covered - but I do need to double check that - thanks for the reminder - the main thing here is that if I do dissect, Im probably dead anyway - so .....................
At what size is your cardiologist telling you that you need to have the op?
timothy40679 kim_72234
Posted
I had a type A and type B dissection two years ago. my ascending aorta had a 5.3cm aneurysm (previously unknown) which dissected in both directions- toward the heart ( but not into it) and then down the descending aorta and into the iliac artery info my right leg. the pain, if you want to call it that, was more like heartburn and ddescended down my breastbone and then went away. it was odd, though, so I went to talk to my spouse about it when my right leg gave out and I couldn't stand or even move my leg. that scared me and we drove to the ER where they eventually, something like 12+ hours later) they correctly diagnosed me and sent me in for emergency open heart surgery. the surgeon replaced part of my ascending aorta with a piece of dacron and tightened up the aorta where it met with my heart because the dissection caused the valve there to leak a lot.
a few months after surgery I had a procedure called a flap fenestration. I had a flap of torn artery sticking out into the artery, slowing down blood flow and making my leg weak. the poked some holes in the flap to allow blood to flow through it. they had talked about stenting it but for some reason decided not to.
two years and dozens of CT scans later, I'm doing ok. I can walk a mile or two without trouble but running, weight lifting, dashing for a bus, mowing the lawn (except with a self-powered mower and, etc. are out. I take a beta blocker and two bp meds daily and they keep my bp very low - around 105/60 on average.
i miss lifting weights at the gym but am glad yo still be, as someone put it, "on the right side of the grass".