For All You "Mechanicals" Out There...

[Rush20]

...I'm curious as to when you "hear" your valve and how you "hear" you're valve.

I remember last year one-day post-op, lying in my hospital bed after being moved out of urgent care and into the general cardiac population. The drugs and pain meds were beginning to wear off and I "heard" my new valve for the first time. I could "hear" it "inside" my right ear and it sounded like a Timex watch. Once I came home I could hear it through my chest especially when I was prepared to go to sleep. I remember my first night home, I felt like my repaired heart was going to pound out of my chest. I guess it was mostly anxiety at the time, however I was pretty freaked out.

Now days I'm back to the routine of an average 41-year old man. Career, family, exercise, sports, etc. don't give me too much time to think about it or actually "hear" the valve. The only time I regularly "hear" it is when I'm lying in bed ready to fall asleep. It reminds me of what I went through and too be honest it still freaks me out at times.

I know many people tend to have bedtime revalations when the mind just won't "shut-off", however adding the mechanical ticking only adds to the moment.

Anyone else experience this? Sometimes when I'm over-tired or I have physically pushed it too hard, I can still feel the tingle in my throat and I can only imagine this has something to do with the valve pumping blood into the aorta. I know blood-pressure, etc. plays into this as well as stress and anxiety. I had a strategic, career-effecting meeting with my boss last week during lunch and it was the first time I "heard" my valve during the day in a long time!

 

[geebee]

Still hear it too.

Still hear it too.

Allen,

It has been 24 years since my first OHS and I still hear my valve occasionally. I tend to not hear it most of the time unless it is very quiet (think bedtime or theaters). I only hear it through my chest, no longer in my ears.

The oddest times are when someone else hears it. I was sitting in an office in Los Angeles working with my boss side by side at my desk. She said to me "boy your watch is loud". I started laughing and told her the valve story. She thought the whole thing was pretty cool. I have also had someone request I "put my watch away" during a very quiet concert piece. I just smiled and obviously put it in my purse.

I don't really find it annoying anymore unless I am really suffering from insomnia because that it when it seems to be the loudest but, at those times, everything is loud and irritating. I agree that, occasionally, the tick reminds me of the fact that I am have a mechanical valve and I still have the momentary panic when I try to figure out how it works. I don't think people with normal valves give their hearts much thought but I still associate mechanical valves with "how do jets fly". I KNOW the physics of it all but it still seems unbelievable. I guess that will never change.

"Takes a licking and keeps on ticking".
Smiles,
Gina

 

[Ross]

I heard mine loud and clear when I first woke up from anesthesia. I thought to myself, "No, I can't put up with this" but in a short time (Well short as in when I was next with the world a month and a half later) I didn't notice it at all. I still don't hear it unless I'm excited or in a dead silent room.

 

[Nan]

I hear mine at night before I go to sleep (before I put my cpap on) and if I am reading quietly. The only other time I will notice it is if I am very upset...ie after we just missed having a car/motorcycle accident I thought my heart and the valve were going to come right out of my chest. I tend to hear it more if I lie on my left side. And yes, it really bothered me right after the surgery, now it is just background noise.

Good luck with getting used to it.

 

[Rich]

Allen,
The only time I hear mine is at night when I crawl in bed.
Other than that I never hear it at all.
Funny thing is a lot of people describe it as a 'ticking' noise.
Iv'e never heard any ticking sounds but rather a 'thumping' sound at night.
Took a while to get used to it but that 'thumping' is a sound that says I'm still here.

 

[Raverlaw]

I hear mine every night when I lay down in bed. It ticks softly and regularly, and the sound is comforting, I think. I also hear it when I'm sitting on the can in our tiled bathroom, when I'm leaning over the kitchen counter and it's quiet in the room, and sometimes when I'm sitting in my leather recliner reading and no one else is around.

Even when I can hear it the loudest, my wife can't hear it at all. My kids can hear it from across the room. I've gotten some funny looks in church during prayers, too.

It is the sound of life, and I love it.

 

[medtronic of borg]

Mechanical valves

Mechanical valves

I don't hear mine at all, never did either, not even at first. Mine is a carbomedics valve not st. jude.

Med

 

[Harpoon]

Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick....


I hear mine a lot when things are kinda quite. I'm listening to it right now actually, reading the messages in this thread kinda made me "conscious" of it.

And that's how it is most of the time. I know it's always going but most of the time I'm not really "aware" of it. It's only when I take a moment to focus on it that I start hearing the clicking.

When I first started to come out of the drug induced haze I was under in the hospital the damn thing seemed like it was the loudest noise in the room, even worse than all the monitors and gear I was still hooked up to at the time. After a few days I kinda got used to it, but it was one of the more annoying things that kept me awake almost all the time.

Once I wasn't "sleeping" anymore...

Now mostly it's a reminder of what I've been through, a positive thing really that says I'm still alive and enjoying myself (most of the time) and that I went through all KINDS of knarly s$%t to get here. It provides for a few chuckles when someone else can hear it and starts making puzzled expressions. I think the best one to date is when I interviewed a few Tibetan monks for a story and one of the monks started checking his watch, wondering why it louder than usual, until I asked the translator to tell him he was hearing me, not the watch...

I hear it mostly as if it's coming from some point in the right side of my head...

Sometimes it comes from my chest...

 

[Emma]

I hear Chloe's (On-X) valve quite clearly most of the time but maybe thats because she's only 4 and doesn't have much on her chest to muffle the sound yet?? (high hopes that she'll be just like her mummy and have lots of erm...flesh? on her chest when she grows up!! lol)

Incidently, she has never mentioned hearing it herself. Perhaps she doesnt know the difference as it was done when she was 18 months. Bless her - she probably thinks everyone ticks like that as they go about!

Emma
xxx

 

[Granbonny]

The only time I hear mine is when I jump up to run and catch the telephone..Then sit down to talk..I wonder sometimes if the person on the other end can hear it. But, after a minute it quiets down....We have a rice bed (high off the floor) and sometimes..after I climb into bed..can hear it..I think that's old age and over-weight. Bonnie

 

[Karlynn]

Fun With Mechanical Hearts

I hear mine at night. When I can't sleep I find myself singing songs in my head to the ticking. It's kind of annoying, but also kind of funny.

Every now and than at band rehearsal, I'll put the mic up to my mouth when it's quiet and we can hear the ticking through the sound system. Everyone thinks that's pretty cool, and it's a large sanctuary so it is pretty loud!

Every now and then one of my kids' friends would ask to hear it ticking, so I'd put my open mouth up to their ear and not breath for a bit. They also thought it was cool. My son thought I should have gone on Dave Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks.

 

[Harpoon]

Fun With Mechanical Hearts

My son thought I should have gone on Dave Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks.

Heeheehee.... Maybe a bunch of us should do that!


"The Mechanical Heart Valve Drum Corps"

Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.....

 

[Rush20]

It's good to know I'm not alone in hearing my valve. Still scary to thing about how many times our Bionic Valves are going to open and close in our lifetime....

....so I have that going for me. "Which Is Nice".

(Bill Murray as Carl the Assitant Groundskeeper in CaddyShack)