The Silent Killer
On Wednesday I Met a Woman-
I had arrived for my morning appointment on the island of Kauai where I now live a bit early. The neighborhood seemed ideal for property I had in mind to buy, a home for me with rental income property attached to offset my monthly nut. As I was admiring the colorful tropical landscaping a woman appeared. She introduced herself as the tenant.
She appeared a bit drawn but said she didn’t mind company and was willing to talk a little. She lived alone in the rural studio cottage, which contained the essentials. I noticed a car with a cover in the small yard. Judging from the layer of leaves and dust, it had been there for a while.
I could tell the main house where I would live was just what I wanted. We chatted about her rent and I could see this property would suit my needs. When I asked about the car, she said it had belonged to her husband who died recently. She couldn’t have imagined the nerve she touched when she told me her husband had been afflicted with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, known as a “Triple A,” a bubble in the arterial wall that had failed. Her husband had died three weeks earlier.
I too suffer from a “Triple A.” I knew exactly what she was describing, a time bomb with few symptoms. Triple As are often discovered by accident, or, as is often the case when they fail, when death results in seconds.
Many years ago, I visited my doctor with a complaint of stomach distress. My doctor ordered an abdominal ultrasound procedure seeking to determine the cause of my complaint. In reviewing the results, he recalled that my mother had died from a dissected aneurysm when I was young.
He asked me to return for a follow up visit and advised me to not allow anyone to punch me in the stomach. Why, I asked, not that I was looking for a fight with anyone.
Then he explained the unique danger a blow could cause me.
The normal adult aorta at the abdominal site is about 2 cm (just under an inch). When my aneurysm was discovered, it was almost five centimeters, or one and a half times larger than designed. Once an aneurysm gets that large, continued survival for the patient becomes a day to day existence. The arterial wall is stretched to its maximum capacity and is close to failure.
What is an aneurysm? How does it happen?
A rupture or dissection in medical parlance is the failure of the organ. If a person happened to be in an operating theater awaiting surgery and the aorta failed, conventional life would typically end within minutes, even with modern medical assistance at hand.
Genes are the most common indication of a potential problem.
Other known causes could be the result of an increase in blood pressure or chronic situations like atherosclerosis, arterial plaque buildup, or excessive overweight. They also strike those in poor health or who practice bad health habits.
Fixing the Problem
I lived near Albany, NY, where the vascular group Albany Vascular Institute had been doing landmark work for many years. My doctor referred me to the institute and they then scheduled me for a clinical trial procedure called an endograft process. They inserted an “aortic liner” through incisions into both of my femoral arteries at the groin.
As long as an aneurysm is in a location that physicians can repair, a patient can qualify to become a candidate for endograft repair. Most people qualify.
There Are Choices
Compared with an open surgical procedure requiring a lengthy hospital stay and a long recovery period, recovery time for an endograft procedure typically is two weeks. Normally, patients can return to unlimited activity after that.
While my procedure was a clinical trial procedure endograft forms of surgery are now commonplace.
The Follow--up
I needed to return for some ‘fine tuning’ of the repair in the following years. My surgeons repaired a leak at the site and finally inserted an entire additional endograft sleeve within the original as migration of the original sleeve had taken place. I had no ill effects following this procedure.
I continue to review my status every six months with ultrasound evaluations.
The size of my bubble is now less than four centimeters and stable.
Aortic aneurysms usually occur at age 50 or older with likelihood of occurrence increasing with age.
If your physician suspects an aneurysm or you discover one through self-evaluation because of the symptoms listed below, you must visit a vascular medical practitioner as soon as possible for an ultrasound evaluation. If you know you have the disease, you should advise other family members of their risk as the illness is congenital in nature.
Unfortunately, the husband of the woman I met had absolutely no knowledge that he was in any kind of danger.
Symptoms
Symptoms of a Triple A are rare if present at all. The aorta doesn’t experience pain. However, since the abdominal aorta basically sits against the spine, extreme back pain may occur just prior to the aorta failing.
If someone has a family history of the disease, or is suffering from the rare symptom of extreme back pain, a visit to a doctor is strongly advised. Your life may be at stake.
Thank you for reading.
-End-
