As things returned to normal, I was active, working out, always tinkering with projects around the house, and other than taking Warfarin and regular INR tests, everything else was business-as-usual. It would not be until eight years later, in 2018, that I once again began experiencing a shortness of breath. Going dancing downtown every Friday night with a meetup group of friends, my return home in the wee hours of the morning would include a walk back from the bus stop to my house of approximately quarter mile (or 6-7 blocks). It was a distance I should have traversed with ease at a normal pace, and yet I was out of breath and often sweaty by the time I reached my home.

There were no heart palpitations and no numbness in the arms as I had experienced in 2010, but after six months of gasping for air during these short walks, it was time to get it checked out. On November 2, 2018, I went to emergency at Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) and after multiple stress tests, a MIBI 2-day test, and an echocardiogram, Dr. Sina Alipour, my new Cardiologist, scheduled an Angiogram for February 27, 2019. During the procedure, Dr. Chan inserted 2 stents, but most alarming was the dilated aortic root. Between my On-X valve and ascending aorta graft, the root had ballooned to 5.3cm — more than doubling its average size (see the image and video below showing the enlarged root as dye is injected into the bloodstream). Because of the aneurysm, I now had a few new rules to follow: no lifting of more than 10 pounds, and no straining of any kind, including the bathroom, thereby preventing my blood pressure from elevating.