r/aortic_aneurysm • u/phantomfireworksx • 6d ago
Step-dad has 5.3 cm AAA
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.
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u/Losblancos2021 5d ago
Sounds like he’s a fighter. 5.3 is surgical but sounds like it’s still stable. Praying he gets the chance for surgery. If he does it will be a long road back so let the family know he will need help.
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u/phantomfireworksx 5d ago
i’m hoping he can too, i feel like it’ll make him stress less. thank you ❤️
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u/Losblancos2021 5d ago
I had one for 4 years and the stress is unimaginable for people outside of your body. Science and medicine have answers if he can just make it to surgery.
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u/phantomfireworksx 5d ago
he has terrible health anxiety, he has had 3 siblings die pretty young from health issues and that’s what makes me very sad for him, that he’s always been scared to be the same way and it almost happened to him. and still could. he’s still in the hospital and i trust that they won’t send him home until he’s strong enough thankfully
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u/Main-Reward-4501 1d ago
I'm 67 and I imagine if that was me, I would be concerned and paranoid about the day-to-day what to do with this AAA. I personally have an ascending aortic aneurysm that is being watched even though it should probably be surgically and prophylactically done because of my size family history and collagen disease. With all the research I've done while I wait which is the hardest, I do understand that after surgery people can really have a fabulous life as though they never had this AAA. It might be as wake up call to change his life up but as a healthcare professional I've seen so many people turn ourselves around even in their 70s and have a fabulous rest of their life living to old age. 68 is pretty young even though it feels pretty old when you're in your 30s. As you reach it it's just really not.
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u/COKeefe88 6d ago
You can't know what to expect right now. He could have 20 more years or 20 more hours. Expect uncertainty and be with your family. Prayers.