G
Guest
Hi!
I'm 41, congenital BAV diagnosed age 4, have had yearly echos my entire life. I've researched the "state of the art" of OHS and valve options every few years the last decade, as my numbers creep into range. Now my AS is severe, my ascending aortic aneurysm is 4.7cm, and surgery is near.
I would love to have just one OHS and be done with it, if luck permits. Thanks to the members of this forum, I know I'd be able to self-manage warfarin and my INR if I went mechanical.
The issue is the clicking noise of the mechanical valve. I am someone who, when renting a new apartment, asks six+ noise related questions of the landlord (neighbor noise, road noise, landscaping noise, construction noise, water pipe noise etc.) My work requires silence at a desk (no music, no white noise), and my greatest pleasure is reading in silence.
I would have access to white noise at night, to help get to sleep, but that's about it.
I've experimented by strapping a cheap watch with a strong tick to my wrist. I don't hear it when walking outdoors, or showering, or watching tv, or at restaurants or the cinema.
I also know that for *most* people, "the brain eventually filters it out", and "the ticking can be a comfort", and "your real problem is when it stops ticking". I appreciate these things, and hope they would apply to me.
But during this decision phase, and based on my life experience with ticking noises, I must assume that none of these mental frames will help, and that I will be one of the few who are persistently and deeply disturbed by mech valve noise.
The only thing I can think of which might help in this scenario, is if I could muffle the valve enough to work and read in peace. So I have a few questions in this vein below:
1. Scale of 0 to 10, with Zero being pin-drop silence, and Ten being someone talking to you in a "normal" human voice (which I assume is louder than the valve), what number would you assign to your valve clicking?
2. Is your valve noise comparable to the strong tick of a cheap watch? Or softer, or louder? What number would you assign a cheap watch, on the above scale?
3. Would a small pillow strapped to your chest completely muffle your valve? A rolled up sweater, in a pinch? Or is there a large bone/body conduction element to the noise?
4. How good is your hearing?
5. Do you have a graft repair/replacement of a section of your aorta?
6. How much "natural muffling" do you have? Are you thin, stout, lots of muscle/fat on your chest? Is your heart in a "normal" place? (I ask because mine apparently sits a bit lower than average, and wonder what this means for my own accoustics!)
7. Are you still bothered by the noise, years later? Is the need for silence to work/read I meantion above familiar? If so, how do you manage?
Again, thank you all so much, for this, and for all the knowledge, wisdom, and support I've had, even as a lurker, from this forum.
I'm 41, congenital BAV diagnosed age 4, have had yearly echos my entire life. I've researched the "state of the art" of OHS and valve options every few years the last decade, as my numbers creep into range. Now my AS is severe, my ascending aortic aneurysm is 4.7cm, and surgery is near.
I would love to have just one OHS and be done with it, if luck permits. Thanks to the members of this forum, I know I'd be able to self-manage warfarin and my INR if I went mechanical.
The issue is the clicking noise of the mechanical valve. I am someone who, when renting a new apartment, asks six+ noise related questions of the landlord (neighbor noise, road noise, landscaping noise, construction noise, water pipe noise etc.) My work requires silence at a desk (no music, no white noise), and my greatest pleasure is reading in silence.
I would have access to white noise at night, to help get to sleep, but that's about it.
I've experimented by strapping a cheap watch with a strong tick to my wrist. I don't hear it when walking outdoors, or showering, or watching tv, or at restaurants or the cinema.
I also know that for *most* people, "the brain eventually filters it out", and "the ticking can be a comfort", and "your real problem is when it stops ticking". I appreciate these things, and hope they would apply to me.
But during this decision phase, and based on my life experience with ticking noises, I must assume that none of these mental frames will help, and that I will be one of the few who are persistently and deeply disturbed by mech valve noise.
The only thing I can think of which might help in this scenario, is if I could muffle the valve enough to work and read in peace. So I have a few questions in this vein below:
1. Scale of 0 to 10, with Zero being pin-drop silence, and Ten being someone talking to you in a "normal" human voice (which I assume is louder than the valve), what number would you assign to your valve clicking?
2. Is your valve noise comparable to the strong tick of a cheap watch? Or softer, or louder? What number would you assign a cheap watch, on the above scale?
3. Would a small pillow strapped to your chest completely muffle your valve? A rolled up sweater, in a pinch? Or is there a large bone/body conduction element to the noise?
4. How good is your hearing?
5. Do you have a graft repair/replacement of a section of your aorta?
6. How much "natural muffling" do you have? Are you thin, stout, lots of muscle/fat on your chest? Is your heart in a "normal" place? (I ask because mine apparently sits a bit lower than average, and wonder what this means for my own accoustics!)
7. Are you still bothered by the noise, years later? Is the need for silence to work/read I meantion above familiar? If so, how do you manage?
Again, thank you all so much, for this, and for all the knowledge, wisdom, and support I've had, even as a lurker, from this forum.
