At this point, AAA means more than just road assistance for automobiles

When I hear the acronym "AAA," the first thing that always comes to mind for me is the American Automobile Association. The Triple A has been coming to the assistance of motorists for decades, and when I owned my first car in 1974, one of the first things I did was join Triple A.

Of course, there are other groups using the same acronym. Check Google and you'll find the Amateur Astronomers Association, the Association of Accounting Administrators and the American Academy of Audiology. If you know the right people -- or maybe the wrong ones -- you might know of the Anal Adventurers of Alabama.

It was just today that I learned of something else that uses the acronym AAA, , something that will have an effect on the way I live the rest of my life.

I have been having some health problems recently that required tests, and among the anomalies that showed up on my CT scan was yet another AAA -- an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Aneurysms are scary. Most of the time we hear about them is when someone has one that bursts in the brain. Those have a tendency to be fatal, and in fact, without prompt treatment, nearly any burst aneurysm has a high degree of fatality associated with it.

In a way, I suppose I was unlucky. The biggest group susceptible to abdominal aortic aneurysms is men 65-75, and I'll be 64 in December. Close enough for government work. But the other biggest risk factor is that 90 percent of the people with this problem were smokers at some point in their lives.

I never was.

My doctor says it's not a large aneurysm, so it appears that I'll be taking a watch and wait approach, losing some weight and getting my blood pressure down. It's entirely possible it will never have any real effect on the remaining years of my life.

Just the same, I'm not going to go anywhere near Alabama.