Nik Volpe had been following all the rules, eating well and exercising, so his aneurysm took him by complete surprise. Nik explains how a check up alerted him to the problem – before it turned into an emergency.
"About ten years ago, I went to see a doctor because I was suffering from headaches. I was 29 years old, healthy, reasonably fit, not overweight and not a smoker. My blood pressure was really high, so he thought that was causing the headaches. My parents both have high blood pressure, so I figured it was genetic.
"Not long later, I went to another doctor, a cardiologist who said I had a distended aortic route – basically the bit right as the aorta leaves the heart had gotten bigger – but he never described it as an aneurysm and told me not to worry.
"A regular man’s aorta should be about 3cm in diameter at the most, but at the time mine was 4 to 4.5cm. I started taking blood pressure medicine and kept an eye on it for the next five years. I’m like every regular guy and when the doctor said not to worry, I didn’t.
"About the start of July 2010, for no real reason, I thought that since it had been about four years, I should get it checked again so I went to the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre (ICLDC). They did an ultrasound and my aorta measured at 5.4 cm – with aneurysm that size, you’ve got something like a 14 percent chance of dropping dead on the spot.
"The doctor at ICLDC was the first to say that I did, in fact, have an aneurysm and that I would need surgery in the next 12 months. I was about to go on holiday, so he told me to come back to him as soon as I returned and in the mean time, he wanted me to collect all past data concerning the problem.
"I could have waited, but since I was in the UK on holiday, I went for a second opinion. I took my medical history to a cardiologist – and he sent me to a surgeon around the corner immediately. After I’d spoken with the surgeon for 45 minutes, he got out his diary and said, “We need to take care of this now.” Less than ten days later, I was in surgery.
"I don’t know what made me go for the second opinion. Most guys really don’t want to get bad news, but if I’d waited, I might not be here.
"After the surgery, the doctor told my wife that the aneurysm was so big and the wall of the aorta was so thin I probably wouldn’t have seen out the rest of this year. My aorta was eventually measured at 5.6 cm – I can’t even imagine that inside my chest, and I had zero symptoms.
"The good news is that my blood pressure is now back to normal. It seems that rather than the blood pressure causing the aneurysm, the aneurysm was causing my blood pressure to go up because my heart had to work harder to pump blood though the enlarged aorta.
"It’s only been five months since my surgery and I’m feeling fantastic – I’m already back in the gym five times a week and pretty much back to normal, but I really encourage people to get checked out. You can’t put a cost on your life."
