Ascending Aorta Aneurysm

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Ascending Aorta Aneurysm

I'm Spanish living in Madrid and born in Málaga (like Antonio Banderas, by the way!) 41 years ago. I work as an executive in a large worldwide company. I'm married to the best girl in the world and we are parents of 3 great children of 8, 6 and 4 years old.

24 April 2006

A month ago I was feeling as good as I'm feeling today. The different between now and then is that I will go through surgery in two weeks time.

I'm 41 years old, working as executive in a big company. Haven't had any major health issue in the past and have no family history related with heart or circulatory issues. A month ago I went through the ordinary yearly visit to the docs and find out via an echography that I have a 5,2cm aneurysm in the ascending aorta. Root cause is that the issue is caused by a valve that, although is not problematic now as to require surgery on it, it has created the aneurysm.

Why me? Don't know and after thinking of it, who cares? It doesn't matter much, simply it is that way and I'm sure God has sent this to me for a very good reason (although I cannot get it now).

How do I feel about this? First reaction is that I'm extremely lucky: if this has not been discovered now it will probably end with me in a few months/years time. Secondly, I feel I have a time bomb in my chest, that can explode any moment and although it is not likely, it may even explode right now. This makes me feel worried but not too much (I may be stupid but I consider myself a very lucky guy in all of the aspects of my life, so this bomb is not going to explode now). The third feeling is that my life is on a pause: since I'm going to go through surgery and will spend a couple of months in the bench, there is little I'm doing now and my plans are very short term ones.

Therefore, I'm looking forward to my surgery. I feel I'm in the best hands I can be (the doctor is the best specialist that can be found, with a very good track on this specific part of the aorta and my visits to him have given me all the confidence I need in this situation) and I want to now ASAP how this is going to end, and I will only know it after surgery. The chances of a bad result are low given my condition and my age, still there are chances.

I've prepared myself for whatever it may happen, I've done all the preparation on the personal arena, on the profesional arena and with God. Hopefully by end of May I will be able to provide you news on how this went.

Update: 29 May 2006

I went through my surgery as planned on May 8th. Around 17:00 I was put to sleep and I don't remember anything else until next morning. I woke up around 8:30 and I felt I was tied to bed. Actually I was tied to bed. It seems that when they woke me up during the evening after surgery I was quite out of myself and was trying to get rid of all the tubes and cables they've inserted in my body, so they had to sedate me again and tied me to the bed.

First morning after surgery my only feeling was that I felt terribly tired. It was difficult for me to keep my eyes opened. Still, things were quite good considering I had been 21 minutes with my heart stopped in order to carry the surgery procedure. During afternoon I was allowed to drink a juice and by the end of the day I was out of the ICU and into a room.

I stayed in the hospital till May 11th. Since then, at home, walking around home twice a day (this has helped me a lot since the beggining, since it regulates my breathing, my heart and my body in general) and doing a little more everyday. Still getting tired quite easily but progressing without any big hickup.

All this has made me believe I'm one of the most fortunate person in the world: normally this aneurysm could have continued undetected and burst in a few months or a couple of years and my life would have been over. Instead of that, I've been gifted with the chance of continuing here, with my wife and kids. Nobody can tell how long I am going to be around but what I know is that this chance I have in this good condition deserves a big thank you God, deserves going out and breath every smell out there, listen to every sound out there and deserves feelling everything good and not so good that is around.

Update: 7 May 2007

Tomorrow it will be a year since I went through surgery. So far, everything has gone fantastic from a physical point of view. I went back to work on July 10th 2006, just two months after surgery. I have not noticed anything strange from a physical point of view. I have even come back to horse riding (with a big helmet over my chess and with the sweetest horses!!). So, thanks God, everything is excellent.

I continue my regular visits to doctors, last one was on February with the cardiologist. I went through echo cardio, stress test and regular tests and everything is OK. I have a date with the surgeon in 2 weeks time and I will be back at the cardiologist in September for a CAT scan.

I could say that I am as well as I was before the surgery but it is not 100% true. Now I know that life is short and can stop any minute. This makes me look at things in a different way. I wouldn't say that I live afraid of what is next but it is true that I live with a bigger concern about how and when life will end, my kids are very young (10, 7 and 5) and I cannot leave too early. So I try to protect myself as much as possible but also to live my life as much as possible. I don't want to over react on this aneurysm I've had but it is fair to say that it has changed the way I look at life. Before I knew I had it I knew that life was short from a pure theoretical point of view but now I know this by practice and this changes the life on anyone, or at least mine.

I feel I am the luckiest guy in the world. For whatever reason, I have been gifted with the chance of continuing here, enjoying and living life, and at a very low price (I don't know many people that have known of an aneurism without any pain, since mine was detected in an ordinary medical check), so I need to make sure I leave something as payment for this gift.

Thanks all of you for your support and interest one year ago. God bless you all.

Discussion, comments, or questions: Pedro Gonzalez

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