Do you tick?

[INRtest]

How does the St. Jude Medical mechanical valve noise level compare to other mechanical valves on the market?
In a clinical study of 95 patients with 6 different mechanical valve types, St. Jude Medical mechanical heart valves were the quietest.
BlomeEberwein et al, Impact of mechanical heart valve prosthesis sound on patients' quality of life. Annals of Thoracic Surgery 1996; 61(2):594-602 I found this quote on St.Jude Medical's site.

When I was beginning to recover at the hospital (hosp. stay was 17 days pre-surgery & another 6 wks.post-surgery) I couldn't stand the loud ticking clock in my room. Low and behold, I came home and that same ticking noise followed me.

Guess there were positives & negatives to having a rushed surgery without being mentally prepared for what to expect.

How often do you hear your valve?

 

[Granbonny]

Do I tick..I sure hope so.. I have the St. Judes..Never hear it.. I remember the first few months..maybe in the bathroom..small room, ect....maybe the first few months at night..but, it went away.... 9 months post-op..You should't hear it.. If it's at night..try a fan..those sound machines, ect....I'm sure others will chime in...if they still hear their's....Bonnie

 

[JimL]

When the echo is just right, the sound is quite clear -- and comforting.

 

[ar bee]

the ticker is on..

the ticker is on..

i wouldnt pay too much attention to a study with 95 subjects that is hardly representative. i guess this forum might be the better sample

i do hear mine in a very quiet environment, interestingly enough it actually does not really bother me! Pre-op i was very very worried about the 'clock' in my body, but now 1 month post-op it is developping into a non-event - very much to my positive surprise!


well2u
ar bee

 

[Yaps]

All the time..especially when I get excited

 

[bvdr]

Yes, I can hear it but it only bothers me sometimes at night. A change in position usually takes care of the problem.

 

[Sherry]

I'm going on eight years, and I hear mine all the time. Doesn't bother me though because I know that if it's clicking away, then it is working.

 

[Rich]

My St. Jude is about nine years old and I never hear it nor does anyone else.
If I lay on my chest at night when sleeping, I hear a 'thumping' but no clicking at all.
Are some of the older valves like mine quieter than the more recent ones, I don't know.
Maybe just time will take care of it.
At any rate whether it makes noise or not, just think of it as a good thing.
I'm sure you will get used to it.

 

[hayden]

I have had my "ticker" for 8 months and hear every beat!!

 

[jeffp]

I can hear it when its real quite in the room and I'm in a certain position. Funny though, I seems to originate at the back of my throat. If I'm nervous or active (also at certain "intimate" times) it really gets clicking. When I was at my cardio for a 6 week follow up he gave me a list of certain activities to avoid, one was poker playing. I gave him a puzzled look and before I could ask he said "everyone would know I was bluffing by the rate and loudness of the clicking". First time I heard him crack a joke, was good to see the human side of him as he's always been so serious (but then again I was a real sick puppy last time he saw me).

 

[Dave S]

I will be getting the ATS valve on the 25th. My Doc says that the ATS is much quiter (sp) then the ST Jude, he told me that when most of his patients go back to their cardo post op, he has had some of them call him asking which valve he used.

I hope this will be true in my case as well.

 

[Harpoon]

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!


Ok, well, no, not really, it's not THAT loud!


When I first became "aware" of my valve, it was quite loud and it kept me awake for a few days until I got used to it. There were still times for maybe the first two months that I could hear it that I couldn't sleep because of it, but I've grown accustomed to it. My wife had the same problem when I finally got home form the hospital only in her case, the ticking was alternating with a clock in our room. I beat at 90 bpm, the clock was an even 60 and between the two my wife didn't sleep for a week.

I notice it mostly when I'm being real active, doing physical work or something. I'll also notice it if my nerves are on edge or the adrenalin is flowin'...

The summer after my heart surgery (2003) a group of Tibetan monks were in the area to create a sand mandala. The following summer, they came back to do another one and that time I got to interview them for a story for the newspaper. While I was sitting with the monks and their interpreter one of them started fussing with a wristwatch he was wearing... After a few minutes, I told the interpreter to tell the monk that it was me, not his watch...

These guys came from India, in a region set up by the government for the exiled government of Tibet and refugees. They'd never come into real contact with the western world before the tour around North America they were doing, never seen western medicine. They knew some stuff about it, they weren't totally in the dark, but the encounter was VERY new to them, the idea that there was a piece of metal and plastic inside my chest that was clicking away in a way that they could actually hear, without difficulty or strain, just amazed them...

The beating of my tell-tale heart...


I like it now. It's there, it's a reminder of what I went through and that I'm here, alive, and enjoying my life in a way that I didn't appreciate as much before I had surgery.

Yeah, sometimes it can keep me up at nights, sometimes it's a little annoying and it will NEVER go away, but in the end, the fact that I (and sometimes other people) can hear it means that I'm ALIVE and that's just damn cool, all things considered.

 

[Karlynn]

When it's quiet I can hear it. I find that my family hears it more than I do. I will sometimes thrill my band members by putting the microphone up to my open mouth and let the ticking resonate through the sound system. I'm practicing for David Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks.

 

[Ross]

All the time..especially when I get excited

....and how excited do you get?

 

[Yaps]

lol Ross frequently..doc has said much to me concerning this..lol

 

[terryj]

My husband has the ATS valve and we both hear it at night if he lays on his
right side turned towards me. Its kinda comforting knowing its doing its job. He had a new guy at work ask him why his watch was ticking so loud and my husband said it was his heart. It took a little more explanation for the guy to understand what he meant. Mostly though we've both grown used to it after 3 and a half years.

 

[catwoman]

When it's quiet I can hear it. I find that my family hears it more than I do. I will sometimes thrill my band members by putting the microphone up to my open mouth and let the ticking resonate through the sound system. I'm practicing for David Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks.

Karlynn:
Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In February 2004, I saw a friend from Iowa when I was in Wichita KS. He hadn't seen me since my MVR and asked how I was doing. I told him I could sometimes hear my valve ticking -- especially if I was lying in bed and could feel the vibration resonate through my open mouth. He quipped he'd like to visit John & me and hop into bed with us. That same weekend a roomie & I were in our hotel bathroom and she heard my valve ticking -- kept looking for the "water leak" and was stunned to find out it was my heart valve. "How can you stand it????????????" she asked. I said, "I'd better be able to stand it!"

Now, almost 2 years post-op I seldom hear my valve. It's usually at night, and is a very low, soothing ticking sound. No one else hears it.
This is a big contrast from my MVR hospital stay, when family members could hear it just standing beside my bed.

 

[Emma]

Chloe's On-X mitral ticks away nicely - best sound ever as far as I'm concerned! I listen to it every night while she sleeps to reassure myself - paranoid mother that I can be! lol

Seriously though, I don't think it's that loud - you only hear it if shes sitting on your lap (it feels like its actually ticking in me if shes sitting with her back to my chest - ewww - funny feeling!) and you can hear it if you get close enough to her when shes asleep.

Not as loud as she used to be though - she is getting bigger so I spose that hides some of the noise

Emma
xxx

 

[Gnusgal]

It used to annoy me, but I guess I've gotten used to it. I still hear my heart tick away most of the time, especially when it's quiet. And if I get irregular heart beats or become "excited" I'll hear it big time too. The most annoying is when I'm trying to get to sleep and having a hard time doing so. That's when I start counting my heart rate. It works just as well as counting sheep.

The funniest was when my husband, shortly after I'd gotten my VR, was laying in bed next to me and said "Man, my watch is--- digital!" He'd been about to say that his watch was loud, when he realized it couldn't possibly be his watch making that ticking noise.

However, I ought to be used to loud heart noises. When I was 5 I had a BT shunt put in, which meant that I would hear the "swoosh, swoosh" of my heart all the time. When I was 6 and stayed at my grandmother's house by myself for the first time I went in to her and told her I couldn't get to sleep because my heart was too loud. Another time (I was about 13) a friend was sleeping over and when we finally settled down to go to sleep she stopped and said "What is that noise." We finally figured out that she was hearing my heart! When I was 21 and had my first OHS which included taking down the shunt it was disturbing to not be able to hear my heart after so long!

 

[geebee]

My St. Jude is much quieter than the Bjork-Shiley I used to have. I usually don't hear it. Mostly it is others that mention my loud watch or something similar

If I really concentrate, in a very quiet room, I can just hear the click. Maybe it gets quieter with time or we just get used to it.