Every year 200,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with an enlargement of the body’s largest artery, the aorta. The aorta runs from the chest to your legs, where it branches into two smaller arteries. When the enlargement is within your abdomen (the area from the breastbone to the navel housing most of your internal organs), it’s called an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).

Advance directives are legal documents that allow you to communicate decisions about your medical care if you lose your decision-making abilities because of an accident or serious illness.