Now they want men older than 65 who smoked to be screened for aortic aneurysm (a "bubble" in the large artery leaving the heart heading toward the legs).
Like the one that killed my father, who was 67.
Now they tell us. They've long known it's a problem, believe me. My dad's doctors told us so, and for the very reasons that this new guideline uses. In fact, my dad's surgeon told me and my sisters that WE should be tested regularly. And I'm only 42 and my sisters even younger.
My dad's mom had an aortic aneurysm (although they say that's not what killed her, but I'm not so sure since as this article points out a burst aortic aneurysm is often thought to be a heart attack or stroke...and my grandma died of a "heart attack").
And my dad's cousin's husband had an burst aortic aneurysm too. He survived, and was very VERY lucky to do so, as about 75% do not.) And he was DRIVING when this happened. When an aneurysm burst, you basically pass out. NOT what you want to be doing while driving. If my dad's cousin hadn't been with him to grab the wheel and stop the car, he'd have crashed. Talk about lucky people!
Not that this new "guideline" makes things that much safer for the person with the aneurysm. Aside from the fact that you bleed out quickly, it causes lots of other complications. And the surgery to repair it is almost as dangerous as having it burst - to fix it you have to cut off blood flow to the bottom part of your body, which is exactly what the aneurysm does. This causes clotting, possibly loss of blood to organs, even major ones depending on how close to the hear the aneurysm is, etc. Which points out that however "perfect" the creationists think "God's Design" of the human organism is and other parts of nature is, and how it couldn't possibly have come from evolution....it's quite far from perfect! You couldn't ask for more eloquent proof against the creationist and other "intelligent design" loons.)
There are other developments as well. About 2 months after my dad died, my mom and I were flying out to California to visit my sister's new daughter, who was born the month after he died. During this flight to visit a grandbaby who her granddad never got to see, I ran across a small article in the in-flight magazine about a new procedure that helps strengthen the artery by putting a "stent" (sort of a "liner") in the artery and stave off the burst...perhaps even letting them repair it withough cutting off the blood flow to the lowe part of your body.
I recently had a $$$ ultrasound scan for aneurysms, and plan to do so every few years for the rest of my life. My insurance company paid for it, and some stats in this article does make me breathe a little easier...but still, I was around my dad's second hand smoke for many decades, and I wonder how that affects me. I'm trying to be more healthy, eating better and exercising....but with my dad and my grandma both having aneurysms, I have to wonder how much is smoking/lifestyle and how much is genetics.
