I am a 67 year old male and have had the following medical problems: l983: Heart attack. l993: 5 bypass operation. Also Type I (the worst) dissected aortic aneurysm. l995: Operated on for abdominal portion of dissected aneurysm. All surgeons told me that it would be too dangerous to operate on the one in my chest because it was too near my heart.
After a couple of CAT scans since then, and being told again that it would be a life threatening operation, I decided that I would rather die later (much later) than sooner, and said forget the CAT scans. I never had any pain with the dissections, nor with my heart since my bypass operation, and am told by everyone that I look 20 years younger than I am and look as healthy as a horse. I am keeping my blood pressure down as much as possible with beta blocker and calcium channel blocker and have hopes this will keep it from blowing up on me. I now have an incisional hernia from the last operation, and am going to the doctor tomorrow to see about getting yet another cutting.
I have a zipper from my neck to my ankles already! So all of you who are feeling hopeless - never say die! I have made it for sixteen years so far and hope to make it another sixteen years or more!