I was just rereading your post so sorry I didn't catch this part earlier.
"2: are there any symptoms with a stable 5cm dilated aorta?(im not at work for the moment my employer has advised to me to stay out for now)"
I know you said you will be meeting with the surgeon to discuss things maybe plan schedual surgery in Jan, did he or your cardiologist say you couldn't work? I don't know how it works in Ireland, but does your employer (since you are a mailman is that the government or your immeadiate boss?)want you to not work until you have surgery -even if they want to wait 6 months? IF that is the case unless you are getting paid to stay home, I would consider IF you can afford to not work for the next year or so if they decide you don't need surgery yet. FWIW I've never heard of an employer saying someone can't work for a medical reason, unless a doctor specifically told the person (and wrote a letter) either that they can not continue to work at that job, OR gave so many restrictions that it would be almost impossible to perform your job..for example when I had hand surgery I couldn't lift more than 10 pounds for quite a while, the job I was working involved quite a bit of lifting things about 20 pounds so there was so much I couldn't do they pretty much had to pay another person to work with me..it is was better just to stay on the short term disability until I COULD do my job.
IF for some reason your are not allowed to work until you have surgery, I'm sure that would add alot of stress to your life, so I would be sure to discuss that with the surgeon. I hate to say someone should have surgery earlier than they should, just because of their job, but in your case it makes a difference. IF your doctors don't think you need surgery yet and think you are fine being a mailman, maybe you should ask them if they would write a letter saying you can work. If you are one of the mailmen that walk alot and deliver the mail to people, not work in the post office, I think not working would make it hard to keep in as good shape you are and going into surgery in good shape, helps alot in the recovery process.
Most of us here are not medical personel, just patients or family members of patients, so really can't say why your doctors say the risks outweigh the benefits right now, especially since we don't have much information. BUT maybe we can give you some idea of questions you should be asking your doctors to help you understand and make decisions. For example, the different trigger points are based on the average person, but there are reasons that really each person is different IF the person is pretty small all of their body parts are smaller too, if all of the other measurements of their aorta are about 2cm except one buldge that measure 4.5 would be pretty big for them, so they might need surgery before the average size person. On the other hand, someone large probably has bigger parts, so a 5.0 might not be as big of a buldge compared to the rest of their aorta..if I'm explaining that well enough. Do you know all of your measurements, or just the ascending aorta?
Either way since you are pretty young and do have 5.0 you most likely will need surgery sooner than later. I would ask the surgeon what exactly would make him decide it is time for surgery. Is he waiting for a certain measurement, or symptons etc and IF he still doesn't think it is time for surgery, is there anything you should or should NOT be doing until then. I don't know how old your kids are or if this even matters at their age, but is there any problem lifting or carrying your kids, a mail bag (If he says you can still work) and things like that.
I also would ask what is the average time frame in your hospital between when the surgeons says you need surgery until the date of your surgery, is it usually weeks or a month or so. I don't think you mentioned it, but I would ask how your Aortic valve is, does he plan on replacing that or is it fine? IF you do need a valve there are more questions to ask and decisions to make.
As most others have said, even tho this is a very serious surgery, the success rates are very high, especially in the hands of surgeons who have alot of experience w/ aortic surgery.
PS have you been able to find those post Greg mentioned?
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