As I have said in earlier posts, I did wait at 5,3 cm and even stupidly convinced the doctors with old MRI comparisons I did on my Mac to show that I was stable. And I was not.
I was completely asymptomatic. Run half marathons a couple of weeks before etc.
The dissection was originally not so easy to detect. It came slowly first with mild fever for a few days, which could have been just about anything. Then I had mild angina one morning and felt "odd", so I went to the ER. But I was as well thinking about taking a boat into the archipelago to check on my cottage there, and I would never have written this.
I think the math is easy. With your age and condition, the surgery risk is definitely not more than a percent or so. You are probably over that in yearly risk for a blow-out already. An OHS is not easy. But after the surgery you will be able to live the life more in full, not being afraid of exercise, sex or being red-faced in the court room (if you are practicing there (not sex, law))...
I learnt the hard way that it is not worth to wait. Emergency surgery is not nice, and even if you survive a dissection, there are always much higher risks for complete or partial failures. And it is a beastly terror on family and friends.
::g
