harleygirl528
Well-known member
Okay, my surgery is in 20 days and I will be leaving for California in just two weeks! I am so nervous and I have been spending a lot of time perusing the old posts for information on aneurysms and the criteria for surgery. There is a ton of information out there and I am a little conflicted. My aneurysm is somewhere between 4.8 - 5.0 cm depending on which test you are looking at, CT or MRI. At any rate, the information that I have read says that there is only a 2% risk of dissection with an aneurysm under 5 cm but the risk of surgery is far greater than that? Am I better off just waiting and having surgery after the risk of dissection or rupture of the aneurysm outweighs the risk of the surgery?
I also read that aneurysms that are stable sometimes only grow 0.1 cm per year…if mine is stable at 4.8 cm and my valve is sufficient,(which it is...I only have mild regurgitation) are we rushing into surgery a bit? Could it be possible that I could postpost this for years perhaps without any real danger? Would it be wiser to get a good 64 slice CT scan and a good measurement and just wait a few months and see if there is any growth? Particularly since I am now controlling my bp so well?
I know I am probably just getting really nervous since surgery is just around the corner but I have seen that there are many others on this site that have aneurysms and are in the "waiting room" for literally years and don't seem to have any issues of the anuerysm growing or causing problems, particularly with the blood pressure control. Am I jumping the gun and rushing into surgery? I don't know what the particular statistics are but I know that the risk or surgery is more than 2%.
Please help reassure me...I'm getting so nervous. I sometimes wish that I hadn't done quite so much research into the actual procedure. I think just knowing about the total circulatory arrest, and the fact that I will be laying there literally "dead" for that time period just freaks me out. I guess I don't really have a choice and I am just prolonging the inevitable but I would like to prolong my life as long as possible and if the odds are in my favor to just live with the aneurysm versus the risk of surgery, maybe I should consider that?
Help me decipher this please.....I am confused and nervous!!
Thanks everyone!!
I also read that aneurysms that are stable sometimes only grow 0.1 cm per year…if mine is stable at 4.8 cm and my valve is sufficient,(which it is...I only have mild regurgitation) are we rushing into surgery a bit? Could it be possible that I could postpost this for years perhaps without any real danger? Would it be wiser to get a good 64 slice CT scan and a good measurement and just wait a few months and see if there is any growth? Particularly since I am now controlling my bp so well?
I know I am probably just getting really nervous since surgery is just around the corner but I have seen that there are many others on this site that have aneurysms and are in the "waiting room" for literally years and don't seem to have any issues of the anuerysm growing or causing problems, particularly with the blood pressure control. Am I jumping the gun and rushing into surgery? I don't know what the particular statistics are but I know that the risk or surgery is more than 2%.
Please help reassure me...I'm getting so nervous. I sometimes wish that I hadn't done quite so much research into the actual procedure. I think just knowing about the total circulatory arrest, and the fact that I will be laying there literally "dead" for that time period just freaks me out. I guess I don't really have a choice and I am just prolonging the inevitable but I would like to prolong my life as long as possible and if the odds are in my favor to just live with the aneurysm versus the risk of surgery, maybe I should consider that?
Help me decipher this please.....I am confused and nervous!!
Thanks everyone!!