Wife diagnosed with asceding aneurysm

[jzinckgra]

My wife, 51, was just diagnosed with a 4.2cm aneurysm. Her parents and siblings all have various forms of heart disease; mostly high cholesterol and BP, stents, so we're not that surprised, but have a lot of questions/concerns. We're both very active. My wife likes to swim a couple miles at a time, we like to ski, snowshoe. From what I've read and what her doc says, a 4.2cm dilation isn't that big, but needs to be monitored. Of course, I start reading stuff online about avoiding heavy lifting, which she doesn't do, but other sites mention avoiding sudden increases in heart rate. Couldn't some of our activities fall into this category? I think I am more worried then she is. She is on BP med (2x/day, 50mg total) and a low dose statin. This just plain stinks and has already emotionally bothered her.

According to one online ref, aneurysms grow ~1mm/year and anything over 5cm should require surgery, so it seems inevitable that she will require surgery at some point. Both her parents have had open heart surgery, but neither had an aneurysm. It just seems like a ticking time bomb. I don't know how concerned I should be about our exercise activities and if there are limits of pushing it too far. She does like to swim hard. Doc said tread mill test was fine, so no restrictions on exercise. He will rescreen in one year.

To top it all off, she scored a 31 in her calcium test for her LAD artery, which equates to likely some blockage, albeit small. This alone would have been enough to deal with, but the aneurysm makes me worried. Heck, I lift weights and am already thinking about whether I could give myself an aneurysm. It's terrible getting older. We were joking about how both our lives were so much better 5-10 years ago. In the end, she did these tests for a reason, but were hoping all was good. How have some of you dealt with this diagnosis?

[skydnsr]

It's part of being over 50, LOL.

[jzinckgra]

Thanks for your response.  

[skydnsr]

I had a root/ascending aneurysm similar to your wife's.  Mine was bigger at the time it was discovered, and I also needed an aortic valve replacement,so I had surgery within a few months after diagnosis.  The valve replacement and aneurysm repair were in 2004, and I've had no further complications.  

IMO, your wife's doctor gave her good, standard advice in this situation:  that it's not a huge aneurysm but that it needs to be monitored, that she should avoid heavy lifting, and that she should control her blood pressure.  I've never read or been told that sudden increases in heart rate can cause an aneurysm to enlarge.  I've never read or been told to restrict any exercise, other than heavy weight-lifting, because of a thoracic aneurysm.  

If your wife's doctor did not give her any activity restrictions other than to avoid heavy weight-lifting, then she probably does not have any such restrictions -- but I would encourage the two of you to check with the doctor to make sure.  I'm pretty sure he is going to tell you that she should keep fit and enjoy her life.  

I know exactly the feeling that this thing is a "ticking time bomb," but it's more like a time bomb that (a) has many years on the ticker, (b) when it gets close to blowing up, it can be turned off in time, and (c) it will give you plenty of warnings before it gets to the critical stage.  

Your wife found out about this thing in time to manage it, and she has a doctor who knows how to help her.  Those are blessings.