Mechanical valve, do you feel it?

[realkarl]

Since my surgery I have noticed that when I breathe fully in and make sure to fill the top of my lungs, I can feel and hear my heart and its beating much stronger than before, and the ticking gets much louder. It's almost as if I can feel it's being squished, and there is a slight discomfort or pain if I breathe in hard enough. The heart also feels harder, almost as if there's something there that wasn't there before (well, there is, both an inflexible valve and a flexible mitral valve ring, but am I imagining it?) I think it's getting better, so pretty soon I will probably forget all about it

Karl.

 

[TXGal]

It will get better! I remember when I had my surgery I felt all of those things too (not to mention I remember a lot of back & side rib pain because I still had some fluid in my lungs for a few weeks after returning home). It's hard to ignore the ticking for quite a while, but you'll eventually rarely ever hear it. I remember going to bed at night so annoyed hearing it tick, but I promise in time you will rarely pay attention to it.. and it sounds like some on the boards don't even hear their's tick!
Your heart will feel a lot different at first, it just went through a lot and needs time to heal completely. Hope you're feeling better soon!

 

[Kathy McCain]

Hi Karl,

I have a porcine valve, but what you are describing sounds very familiar, except of course for the ticking. My heart would beat so strong, loud and hard especially at night, that I thought I might have a heart attack! It took about eight months for my hearT to quiet down.

Hang in there, it absolutely DOES GET BETTER!

 

[Maryka]

Ha ha! I have just started noticing that phenomenon and I am 10 months out from BAV. You know, I have lost some weight and my body is reconfiguring. I figured out what the situation is, I think, with the louder heart sounds!

The answer is that the full lungs push the heart up toward the sternum and some of us with "thin" chests can hear the valve go click, click, click. When the lungs are not filled up with air, the heart recedes back inside and the sound is not so loud. (My chest is the only "thin" part of me, by the way.)

That's what I think, and I'm sticking to it!

 

[buncle]

i am 6 weeks out of valve sparing david procedure.I felt my heart beating very hard.At 3 weeks I had my appontment with the surgeon and I told him about my concern.he listen to my heart in several positions and said it was common and it would settle down later.3 weeks later it has settled down about 50%.

 

[tthompson]

What everyone else has said.

I'm 4 weeks today from getting a Bentall Proceedure and while my heart isn't beeting fast, it is certainly beeting strong. I'm taking 7.5 mg/day of Bosoprolol to calm it down, from 2.5 mg/pre-surgery. The surgeon said it would take time for my heart to figure out that it doesn't need to work so hard from the pre-surgery days when half of the blood would regurgitate back into my heart.

 

[njean]

Yes Karl, it does get better with time.

The day will come when you won't even be aware that you have a mechanical valve & perhaps not even notice it ticking away, keeping you alive!

Hope you continue to do well!

 

[Eva]

For over three months after my surgery, I felt my two new valves rubbing against one another while turning my arms in a certain position!!! Yes, I did!! My surgeon and cardiologist did not believe me and they may have thought I was either crazy or imagining this!! Now, I do not notice this nor anything abnormal...no thump thump, no loud beats....I seldom hear the clicking/ticking noise.