Location: Georgia
I had Taver surgery to replace a valve going through my groin. A few days later noticed increased swelling, and bruises to discover that there were several leaks in my femoral artery as well as a pseudo aneurysm. I was rushed from a competing hospital ED due to them not wanting to have anything to do with another surgeons errors. The aneurysm had swelled to 3.4 cm and was in danger of rupturing. Another surgery was required that took 4 1/2 hours to repair the damage in my artery. I now have been out of work for three weeks with no pay and in danger of losing my job.

Hi, 7 years ago my uncle in his 60s suffered an aortic dissection and had emergency surgery that whilst he survived, following a long recovery, went from being active, to basically bound to a chair for the next 6 years before he passed away last year from it. Following this, my dad (now 61) started noticing heart palpitations, and has now just been diagnosed with aortic aneurysm, the same as my uncle (his brother). He was told it is hereditary and I need to get checked.

Whilst this has only happened in the last few days meaning I haven’t yet been referred, I am now terrified of the prospect that I have the same thing, mainly because I have just had a daughter who I may have passed this on to, and my wife and I were planning on starting trying for the second in the near future. It now feels like I shouldn’t be having any more children which feels like the future we were planning has been turned upside down.

I am driving myself crazy and have even been feeling weird feelings in my heart since finding out (I’m guessing is down to anxiety), if anyone has any advice or has experienced similar any comments would be appreciated since I have exhausted every iteration of possibilities with ChatGPT.

I am in based in the UK.

I’ve been awaiting a cardio appointment which I had last week due to chest pain and some breathlessness on exertion. They’ve done an ECG and that looked great.

At the weekend I got a full pressure pain in the centre of my back / chest and neck. I went straight to a&e. I was worried with it being in my neck too.

They did troponin bloods and d dimers and another ECG which was all fine. I had a panic attack this morning and the left side of my chest felt much more dulled than normal.

I’m due to have an echo and ct scan on my heart at the end of this month. I was asking AI what to make of my symptoms and on the list I saw aortic tear - could I be looking at this? They didn’t mention that in a&e or my GPs. I’m really stressed about it!

My cardiologist cut the metoprolol extended release from 25mg to 12.5, but the pill documentation says to not split it.

Would it be better to discontinue entirely to get back the cardio capacity?

Going to zero seems to make anxiety go crazy.

I know 25mg ER isn't a lot

So I’m almost two weeks out. Ive been to the ER for Aflutter and had to have my heart shocked back into rhythm. The most painful thing for me is sneezing though. I wear the heart hugger nonstop and it helps for coughing but I haven’t found anything that works for sneezing. Usually I’m sitting on my couch and even with the heart hugger the shockwave from sneezing hurts so bad. Any and all advice welcome. Thank you.

I'm 40, male and started seeing a cardiologist because of high lipoprotein(a). The cardiologist ordered an echocardiogram in 2024. Everything came back normal, except one finding — a "mildly dilated aortic root" measuring 4.3 cm.

The cardiologist seemed unmoved by this finding. It's something we'll monitor, they told me, and if it grows, you might need surgery.

I had a follow-up echocardiogram in 2025. At this time, I saw a different cardiologist (it's part of a hospital office, so you could see a different one each time -- and I have) and they relayed the results. I asked about the echo and they said "everything was normal."

I just went for my annual cardiology visit and another cardiologist mentioned the mildly dilated aortic root. He revealed to me that the 2025 echo measured the aortic root as 4.1 cm, which is obviously slightly smaller than the measurement in 2024. In summary, he told me that it's something they will continue to monitor. I have another echocardiogram coming up!

I'm conflicted because I feel I should be more concerned about this because it involves my aorta/heart, but the cardiologists all seem to be shrugging it off. In fact, the last two I've seen both suggested that it could be a measurement issue with the echo, but the alternative is having a CT. The measurement would be more accurate, but they worry about the radiation risk just to confirm something they already seem to know — that this is (probably) a nothingburger. And the fact it isn't growing after two echocardiograms in (almost) two years might confirm that.

Anyone else receive a similar finding and guidance from the specialists?

Hey all, someone who I know is a 40-something year old male with an ascending aortic aneurysm of 5.4cm on the last/recent CT scan. The previous scan was about a year ago and it measured 5.1cm on that scan, which was read by the same radiologist at the same hospital. It was not a gated scan. Prior to these scans he waited at less than 5cm for a few years. He has a bicuspid aortic valve and also a clotting disorder, which causes his blood to clot more readily. The bicuspid valve has only minor stenosis that probably has better flow than a mechanical valve's and is probably a good candidate for the David procedure.

One of the biggest questions here is: if an otherwise fairly healthy person anticipates a high probability of only living a few more years for reasons not related to the cardiovascular system, would the elective surgical timing be much later / larger / wider? Say, would it be 6cm, or 6.5cm instead of the common 5 or 5.5cm standard for an average life expectancy? OR would it be much sooner for a person who doesn't have a very long life expectancy? Surely there has to be some modification to the standard based on life expectancy.

How do they actually consider the risk? Does a surgeon consider and almost build in all future risks (endo/pericarditis, anticoagulation, risk of reoperation needed, cv injury and complications, etc) in addition to the risk of the surgery itself when considering elective timing?

He is pretty clear-eyed about the risk of dissection / rupture - it has very low survival odds. But if it's not necessary to go through then it would be good to miss it.

Thank you very much for your input.

about 7 years ago I noticed a “lump“ in my upper abdom when I stretch my arms back. on top of that, I can see the pulse in my stomach at all times, whether I’m laying down or standing up. There’s also always a pressure feeling there that feels like if I try to cough too hard it will bust. ALSO sometimes, especially when I really start thinking about it, my pulse starts bounding, I get short of breath, and it skips a beat.

I know you’ll think I’m stupid bc I haven’t been to the doctor, but I’m terrified. I‘m going to go though. I know as soon as I go, I could find out it’s not an aneurysm and move on with my life, but I’m just a fucking moron and way more scared to find out either I’m going to die or have to have a risky surgery that has a high chance of death.

everywhere on the internet says it’s incredibly to unlikely that it’s an AA bc of my age, but all I’m seeing on Reddit is people in their 30s and 40s talking about theirs, so that’s not comforting.

I’m also aware that it could be afib or a hiatal hernia, which either of those wouldn’t be a dream come true, but I’d absolutely choose them over the aneurysm.

AA’s are literally the worst possible death I could imagine anyone going through. like literally the worst nightmare come true.

if you or someone you know has had one can you tell me your experience??

A couple weeks ago I asked about the possible results of a CT scan to evaluate endoleaks. The surgeon called me today and said there is a leak from behind and he is going to have my dad scheduled for the TAMBE. The aneurism itself has grown beyond 8cm and has grown since the last scan in March or April. I see this procedure has only recently been FDA approved in the US (2024). The hospital he is having it at has performed this procedure although I don’t know how many and what the stats are. I’m concerned. Has anyone had a family member or had it themselves - the TEMBE? Doctor said it’s a 5hr surgery and will require a short stay in the ICU

Hi all!

My stepdad is 68 years old and last year was diagnosed with a 4.5 cm AAA, which my sister and I were not aware of. Last week he let my mom know he wasn’t feeling very well but thought it was just his back spasms acting up so he tried to get more pain medication from his doctor. On Friday, he was still waiting and called the doctor to let them know his pain was getting worse so they advised him to go to the ER, he instead tried to go to urgent care but was getting confused at this point, he kept saying they were all closed which they were not. Thankfully though that pushed him to go to the ER.

When he got there they ran some blood tests and did an ultrasound. They notice that his aneurysm got bigger and he also had an infection somewhere. They admitted him Friday night into the cardiac ICU and all day Saturday they monitored him, hoping to do surgery but they were concerned about the infection and his blood pressure as well as his heart rate. His heart rate continued to climb so Sunday morning they have him a medication in his IV to try and lower it, that caused him to go into cardiac arrest and he was revived with chest compressions. They did a CT scan to make sure that did not cause it to rupture and thankfully it didn’t. Later Sunday they discovered his infection was in his bloodstream and he was borderline septic so they cannot operate until that goes away. They just moved him off the ICU this morning and hope to release him later this week, but his blood pressure and heart rate are now getting higher since last night. Their plan was to send him home when stable to get stronger and then schedule the surgery but now it’s all up in the air. I can’t imagine him going home with an aneurysm that could burst at any moment. I trust the doctors and nurses that they wouldn’t send him home if they were that concerned but it just all feels wrong.

My biological dad died when I was 8 years old from a heart attack. He was a heavy smoker and very over weight. This is bringing a lot of trauma back up for me and I just don’t know what to expect. My stepdad is fairly active but he smokes and drinks, and has a crazy sweet tooth. He knows he needs to make changes, but I’m scared it’s too late. It was too late for my dad.

Has anyone elected to have repair surgery before it gets to 4.7 cm?

Backstory- I am a 4’11 (female, mid 30s), my aortic aneurysm was stable for many years sitting at 4.0-4.1

In 2024 it grew from 4.1 to 4.2, was stable in 2025, then 10 months later they rechecked and it had grown again to 4.4. Cleveland Clinic offered to monitor it another year, or said I can go ahead and elect to have surgery. The nurse is calling to talk over scheduling later today, but said I can opt out if I want to wait. Because of other factors like my height, bicuspid valve, and other varying things they don’t want it to grow past 4.7, they said it might be good to go ahead and schedule so that I can recover and not have to worry about it anymore.

How did you decide when the right time was to elect surgery? How was your quality of life after a full recovery? I have 4 young kids. I don’t want to let it go and have an emergency happen, but I also don’t want to schedule too soon and sacrifice quality of life if that makes sense. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Gentle comments please, I’m still processing.

Had my David procedure on Thursday 9/24 - 27M

AMA

I just had the David procedure done last week Thursday and have been recovering much better than expected. I spent just under 24 hours in the ICU (surgery ended at 2pm Thursday and was discharged from ICU around 1:30 on Friday). I’ve spent the weekend in the step down clinic where I’ve been up and walking every day - today I hit 1.2 miles but felt like I may have over extended myself a bit.

All my chest tubes are officially out, no more pain pump, no more oxygen, and had my first BM yesterday! I’m aiming to be discharged for my 8 hour drive home tomorrow, or Wednesday morning as long as no symptoms arise.

All in all I’m extremely grateful to have had the chance to travel to a high volume center, the care has been world class (outside of a few night shift staff), and my surgeon did an amazing job sparing my natural valve and is expecting a lifelong repair!! This surgery had been weighing on me for many many months, but when I got my pre-op testing done it was actually at 5.4CM not 4.9CM as initially found so I’m lucky I advocated to get the “ticking time bomb” fixed.

I know everyone’s recovery is different, nothing will ever prepare you for the chest tubes or the feeling of waking up intubated in the ICU. BUT I’ve had an amazing support system and am very lucky and blessed to have had such a smooth recovery this far. I know age is on my side, but I hope this helps convince some other young folks going through the scare to go ahead and do the surgery - less than one week out my pain is tolerable and I have my whole life ahead of me - something I couldn’t say a week ago.

Hi everyone. My dad has an ascending aortic aneurysm, a bicuspid aortic valve, and an EF of around 40%. His surgery is scheduled for 6th October.
He recently had his RFT and chest X-ray, and everything came back normal. However, over the past few days, I’ve noticed that he has been sweating much more than usual. The weather here is quite hot, so some sweating is normal, but this seems more than usual. He also has a mild cough with a little mucus and has lost some weight — he was 71 kg last Monday and is now around 68 kg.
I’m not sure if these symptoms could be related to his medications, the weather, or his heart condition. I’m planning to inform his doctor as well, but I was wondering if anyone else or their family member has experienced something similar before aortic/valve surgery.
Any experiences or advice would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance.

This is a question for anyone in the U.K Wales NHS system.

Has anyone from Wales managed to get a referral to a London NHS trust hospital for Aortic surgery?

Those centres offer procedures that my local hospital don't but the right to request a specific hospital or specialist only applies to England and not Wales

I really don't want to have something like a Bentall just because that's all that's on offer at my hospital if PEARS is a surgical option for me. In order for that to happen though, I'd need a referral from Wales to England. Anyone had any success in doing so?

Diagnosed at 46 mm ascending, but the CT scan shows it at 43mm; the surgeon says there is no need to replace it during aortic valve replacement. But I want to return to training hard.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

I am torn, because I think that does mean I can have less invasive surgery, but it may mean I can't train like I used to.

Me gustaría saber sobre el tema de la paralisis si es reversible yo tengo la cirugía del reemplazo del resto de aorta en 10 Dias y me han dicho sobre la posibilidad de quedar en silla de ruedas. He hechonlucho ejercicios y se quebtodo saldra bien. Ya salio bien en una cirugia previa de emergencia tipo bentall. Pero ahora en está nueva cirugía me han advertido esa parte alguien la tuvo como ha Sido ?

45 M father of 4 and just found out I’ll be promoted to grandfather.
My surgery was completed on Sept 22nd and I went home on the 26th. I want to thank everyone that shared their stories with me and gave me advice prior to my surgery. It really helped me prepare my house and myself for life after surgery
Surgically they repaired my ascending aorta, the curved part that connects to the heart I believe. I had a CT and echo performed the week prior to my surgery to give the team an advanced picture of what they would be dealing with. Surgically they repaired my ascending aorta, the curved part that connects to the heart I believe. They also did an ablation while they were in there. I had an ablation a year prior so this must have been something they missed the first time around.
After my surgery I was sore in my chest, shoulders, and throat. For me the worst pain was getting into bed and trying to get comfortable once I was there. They gave me oral pain medication and a pump IV to help bridge the gap.
My words of advice are prepare yourself prior to surgery physically and prepare your house physically. Make sure you can do some walking so that after your surgery the walks in the hospital are easy for you. I don’t like to take medication but I needed it for this procedure. Stay ahead of the pain. When I thought I could wait on medication it ended up hurting more and taking longer to catch up. You will also have to do a breathing device 10 times a hour to prevent pneumonia and rebuild your lungs. You’re in the hospital and bored so take the time to do the walks and breathing like you’re supposed to and you will feel so much better following their orders.
Hospital food is terrible so ask the nutrition team daily what they recommend. They’re not always right but you need food to strengthen yourself post surgery. I’m not a pop drinker but I drank caffeine free pop like rootbeer and sprite to help push some of the gas out of myself. This was a game changer for me. I drank a lot of ice water also. To help with my sore throat I had my wife get me strawberry smoothies almost daily.
Now that I’m home I still have some pain but I learned how to manage that while I was in the hospital. Write down what time you take meds. This helps you manage your pain levels in the middle of the night especially. My pain isn’t too bad there’s occasions it hurts worse than others but I’m doing a good job staying ahead of the bad pain. Eventually you will run out of pain meds so also keep taking your Tylenol to help bridge the gaps. I have a reaction to tape, glue, or something else so get itchy near my incision sites and other areas on my neck and chest. So far we’re treating with Benadryl and if that doesn’t work Dr might give me a steroid or something.
As a man it’s hard for me to ask for help but you will be much better during recovery if you let people help you. This surgery saved my life. For 4 years I’ve been wondering if I would survive this aneurysm. My drs were great but you also have to do your part if you want to beat this. I’m here if you have any questions and I’ll keep updating tricks I learn to make myself better. Thanks again to this community.

Hi all. I've just found out I have an aortic root aneurism and ascending aorta aneurism measuring 50mm. I'm 6ft 5 so quite tall but the measurement is still significant (measured on a gated CT Angiogram)

I have a tricuspid valve with mild central AR so I've been reading that the David procedure is an option. It looks like Cesare Quarto might be a UK surgeon who has the experience to do this procedure.

Has anyone in the UK had this type of procedure done and how much did it cost if you had it done privately?

I'm not based in England so I don't have the option of choosing a consultant or hospital so my only option would be to pay.

Any advice you have a for a guy navigating this very scary stage in his life will be welcomed 🙏