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Catwoman, like your dad, also have right-bundle branch block and have had them for 40+ years, starting in my mid-20s. Don’t know why but I remember exactly where I was when I had the first one! 😬 I’ve typically had them several times a year; in recent months, multiple times a week. Since the...

I'm right behind you, John. Just had my latest MRI a week ago and the Sinus /Valsalvas has expanded to 4.9cm for 4.6cm/ascending aorta is 4.9cm (per the reports, not read by a surgeon) and my left ventricle has been borderline dilating. I'm also bicuspid, asymptomatic, exercise regularly 67 yo...

Nurse, I love this theory. The only quibble I would have in this is that my valve is not seriously stenotic and based not the echos there isn't a ton of calcium (not to say you need a lot for your theory to work) but mine started in my 20s, when I probably had none and now I'm 67. My frequency...

John, seems like you drew the short straw! 😉Actually, all of us did, in one way or the other. On the other hand, we're winners b/c there are no surprises like folks who didn't know they had an aneurism or heart-damaging valve issue until it was too late!

Hi. I am 67 and have been getting auras since my mid-20s, roughly about the time I was diagnosed with "murmur," which years later was identified as a bicuspid valve. I have not yet had surgery, am generally asymptomatic, but with my ascending aorta having expanded to 4.8 - 4.9 cm (MRA vs echo)...

Hi, I'm on the every 3-month scan plan for echos/CT or MRI - alternating each every 6 months. I had the same concerns and so did my cardiologist so we switched to MRIs. At Scripps in San Diego there is ONE MRI with the software that gives a good picture of the aorta WITHOUT using dye. That's...

Interesting, Dr. Svensson insists I do a special trip out and meet in person before we finalize things and prepare for The Big Trip.

Thanks for your responses. Best luck on your continued recovery.

Were you awake when the neck catheter was put in? That's what the links suggests. Also, how has your fatigue been?

Love that. Were the ICU folks cool with it? And how was taking out the neck tube?

What was that you just said?* *I've been telling my friends/colleagues to remember my current brain fog when they try to compare my thought process AFTER surgery. ;)

Early on my biggest fear was waking up with the breathing tube. Since then, and after reading everybody's comments, that is the least of my concerns. That has been replaced by 1) the drainage tubes 2) fears of liquid around the lungs that requires some sort of needle intervention. :eek: I'm glad...

I like to think that would be me. I'm 66, now on the 3-month scan-plan and have my own business. I'm asymptomatic and I've been living with the BAV issue for 40+ years and the known aneurysm for at least 5. The aneurysm is closing in on 5, which is CC's magic size, but we are now keeping a very...

Hi Keith, I'm in San Diego and Cleveland is my choice, as well, for eventual ascending aorta/BV. I've gone back and forth with Dr. Svensson several times. I was connected with him through one of my consulting cardiologists, who used to be at CC. Dr. Svensson's requirement is that I make a trip...

Gordo, thanks for that. I was talking front planks. As an alternative, my trainer showed me a front walk out over an exercise ball - gives some of the plank experience, but you ARE always moving. Much appreciated.

Bob, thanks for the feedback and link. The one piece of advice – no, make that order – I have consistently received is NO isometric exercises. That's why planks are so confusing, because you breathe during them but you are also pushing on a lot of weight. Until I get clarity, as good as they...

My ascending aorta at last check was 4.8-4.9. While still in the waiting room, a slight change in my left ventricle (the first enlargement in the 41 years I have been monitoring this) has accelerated my scans to 3 months from 6. Cleveland, where I would have the surgery, recommends surgery at...

I was diagnosed, but just with a "murmur," when I was you age. I'm now 65. Over the years echo techniques improved and I was diagnosed with aortic insufficiency and "probable" – and, later confirmed by more sophisticated imaging – BAV. Over all of these years I've made sure I had an echo once a...