Mechanical Valves-Loudness Poll

[Ross]

Just to get some sort of idea how loud our valves are, Granbonny wanted a poll. I think it might be interesting so we'll try it.

I consider mine quiet, though my wife and son say they can hear it a few feet away when I'm excited or trying to catch one of them.

 

[JimL]

I regularly time intervals by listening to my valve.

 

[dick0236]

I remember it seemed VERY loud in the beginning but I haven't heard it for a long, long time. I just had to take my pulse to make sure it was working.

 

[catwoman]

When I had my annual physical yesterday, my PCP listened to my heart, then asked his "scriber," who records everything for him, if she had ever heard a mechanical valve.
Next question: Do I ever hear or feel the valve ticking?

I said sometimes, especially when I'm in a ceramic tiled room.

He said he has another patient or a friend with a mechanical whose wife said she finds the sound very comforting.
I said, yep, it's actually very soothing, so quiet that it lulls me to sleep when I'm in bed at night. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Nan]

Hi, I voted for "semi-loud" ....but in reality it is basically my doctors who tell me they can hear my valve from several feet away. No one else has told me that. I guess that begs the question...."do they hear it and are too polite to say so"?

I can hear it (them) if I think about it, but most of the time it has just become a normal thing and I don't pay any attention to them.

 

[Cooker]

I dont know if I hear it or "feel" it. Does that make sense to anybody?

tom

 

[Susan BAV]

I can't vote but...

I can't vote but...

...this is one of many reasons why I chose a tissue valve... (edit - and it's plenty loud)

 

[Cork]

I've been told by many people that I tick very loud to the point where people have heard it across a semi-quiet room. But then again there are two of them ticking. I was test driving a car one time and the salesman told me that the car I was testing had to go in for service and assured me that they don't make clicking sounds.

 

[Philip]

I am "semi-loud" I always hear in in quite environments and sometimes in spaces that are not so quite and like Cooker I feel it as well. Several people have noticed, both those who knew I had a valve replacement and those who didn't.
After almost a year of clicking the only time it has ever annoyed me was when trying to sleep in a room with a ticking clock.
Philip

 

[Rich]

I never hear my St. Jude at all.
The only thing I have ever noticed is a 'thumping' at night when laying in bed.

 

[Granbonny]

Like Rich .never hear mine..only when I jump up and run to answer phone..(thumping)......or when my old cat sneaks outside and I have to chase her.. ..Bonnie

 

[Lisa in Katy]

I said semi-loud, but that's only in a quiet environment or if I am facing a window, elevator door, or other glass type contraption where it bounces back.

 

[twinmaker]

I voted "mild". I can hear it when I'm moving fast like walking upstairs or chasing after my two year old grandson. And at night laying in bed, I can hear it if I listen for it. Most of the time I just don't pay any attention to it therefore I don't hear it. Does that make any sense? LINDA

 

[HeartDawg]

I can hear mine (St. Jude's) ... but I'm only two months into this and it no longer bugs me at all. That's VERY positive, because during the first couple weeks it did bug me!

My wife tells me she knows if my mouth is open at night when we are in bed because the ticking is louder!

 

[sue943]

I would have plumped for quiet in that I virtually never hear them but the other week when I had a nasty fright when someone banged on my window after dark my heart went crazy and I could hear them then.

 

[kbheart]

I dont know if I hear it or "feel" it. Does that make sense to anybody?

tom

That makes sense to me! I can feel it more than hear it, but I do hear it. In a noisy room I feel it but don't hear it. While exercising I can take my pulse without feeling my wrist or neck for a pulse.

 

[hensylee]

Ross when you go after Lyn and Chris, you better watch out and not made sudden moves with the cat where you said it is.

 

[aussigal]

Mine seems to change alot...I can almost always feel it thumping away from my chest & up my neck to my ears...others can hear it in a reasonably quiet room like in the docs waiting room or in the queue at the bank...

My Cardio says I have a thin chest wall which doesnt insulate the sound well. The ticking & thumping doesnt bother me at all. I will often lie on my right-side so its noisier to get to sleep at night. Its also much louder when I am excited or nervous etc.

 

[Gnusgal]

I voted for loud. I've had others ask what that "ticking" noise is and they are convinced it's a loud watch. As a matter of fact, the echo tech on Wednesday commented that his watch was ticking particularly loud and appologized. I told him, "It's not your watch, it's my heart. I have a mechanical valve." He was surprised that he could hear it from where he was.

Another time I was in a car that was driving down the highway with the radio playing. I was in the back seat and my friend was in the front seat. In mid sentence she stopped and said, "Is that your watch?" I said no, that it was my heart and she would not believe me. I was only able to convince her when I showed her that my watch did not have a second hand!

Also, my cardiologist has commented that it sounds even louder now than it did before. Particularly after my bi-v AICD was placed. Not sure why it was louder, but I completely agree! I think it may have something to do with both ventricals beating at the same time? At least, they were when I first got it, but now that the LV lead isn't capturing, it's not quite as loud as when it was (though it's still loud). Once it's fixed I'm sure I'll be super loud again...

 

[baradonai]

Voted Loud

Voted Loud

I was standing within 30 feet of a busy highway. I was talking to a fellow behind his car when he stopped and asked if I had an artificial valve. His father had one. I was amazed with all the other noise, he could hear my valve.

One time I had a fellow ask me on an elevator why my digital watch ticked.

I also like to mess with the nurse-trainees while they're taking my blood pressure. I ask them "isn't it amazing that my watch keeps time with my pulse?"