The man in my life, who I will call Bob, had this and had to have surgery for it. What an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm is is a bulge in the artery that runs from the heart down the abdomin. Most people do not know that they have these until they burst and the patient usually bleeds to death in about 1-2 minutes. This condition has an 85 percent mortality rate.
The reason my man found out he had this was he had been going to an orthopedic doctor for back trouble. The doc had been treating him, conservatively I would imagine. That wasn't working, so my guy called his doc and the doc ordered an MRI. Bob had back problems all right (bulging discs) but that aneurysm popped up on that MRI also. In other words, this orthopedic doctor basically saved my man's life.
Well he had to wait a week to get in to see a vascular doc. That was probably one of the worst weeks of our lives. Well, when he went in to see the vascular doc, the doc said that his aneurysm was not big enough for surgery. Their plan was for my guy to come back every six months to see his doc to see if the aneurysm had grown any since last appt, etc,
This was in 2007 when this AAA was diagnosed. So we went from spring of 2007 until spring of 2010 with no problems. When he went for his docs appt in February of last year, his doc told him that the aneurysm had grown by 25 percent and it was time to operate.
I HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN SO SCARED ABOUT ANY ONE THING IN MY WHOLE LIFE.