karenulijohn

“No need to have it operated on.”  Those were the first and most wonderful words out of the vascular surgeon’s mouth this morning.  You will recall from the last blog that Harvey had been told by the oncologist that he had an aneurysm of the aorta.  I must correct a mistake that I made in that it is not on the descending aorta, but the ascending aorta just above the  apex of the two atrial heart chambers.  Also, the 4.8mm refers to the diameter of the aorta, not the length of the aneurysm.

We were not able to get an appointment with Dr. Cardozza in Roseville, so we were referred to Dr. Michael Ingram in Sacramento.  We were greeted by a very nice young man named Chris, a PA working with Dr. Ingram.  He asked all of the usual questions and did a cursory examination and made sure that he had all of the copies of tests and ECG’s that Harvey had had done.  When Dr. Ingram finally made his appearance, I thought it was the reincarnation of Walther Mattheau.  He was hairy and disheveled and shuffled into the room just the way Mattheau did in “Grumpy Old Men.”  But after his first words, we didn’t care what he looked like; we loved him!  He explained that a man of Harvey’s size generally has an aorta of approximately 3.5mm in diameter.  When there is tension on the wall of the aorta, it balloons and as the tension increases, there is the chance that the aorta will dissect or “burst.”  However, not everyone is exactly the same inside, and it could be that this is the normal size of Harvey’s aorta, or that it could have been 4.8mm for 40+ years.  The fact that Harvey is asymptomatic for any heart issues means there is less than a 5% risk of a rupture.  Dr. Ingram went on to say that if it was his mother, he would tell her to leave it alone.  At this stage, there is more risk involved in the surgery to repair the artery than risk of it popping.  Since Harvey will be having regular CAT scans every 3-6 months, the doctor just said to keep an eye on it.  If, in the next year, it grows to 5.5mm, then maybe he should think about having it repaired.  The repair, by the way, entails removing the affected area and replacing it with a Dacron sleeve.  For more information go to the following URL: http://health.usnews.com/health-conditions/heart-health/aortic-aneurysm/treatment

When we left the office, we just stood outside and hugged.  We were so relieved.  I asked Harvey how he felt and he said, “I feel like crying!”  He looks very cool and calm, but he is human too, and I know he was worried, though more about having to have another surgery than anything else.  We decided to celebrate at Habit Burger with a big, juicy cheeseburger and fries.  No milk shakes, however.  We didn’t want to push our luck!