I posted this a day or so ago and have seen no responses that a new, or old, mechanical valve stays noisey. There seemingly have been a number of decisions to NOT get a mechanical valve due to the "clicking" noise, yet few mechanical valve owners seem to find it a problem. I am sure that some may have a problem due to body acoustics, but I wonder if the "noise" problem is a very valid reason to shy away from a good long term valve choice....so I'll ask again. As a mechanical valve owner, have you experienced a loud, and prolonged clicking for long after your implant?
Haha, sorry Dick, I was pre-occupied and missed this the first time
I think I must be one of the few that can hear my mechanical valve pretty much all the time. Before surgery, my surgeon told me this particular valve (St. Judes Regent) tends to be a little louder than his second choice (ATS) but the benefits outweigh the noise so we went with it. That may be part of why I hear mine all the time. BUT - I'd stress, even though I CAN hear it all the time, most of the time it's like white noise in an office - I don't pay attention to it. And it has never kept me from falling asleep (and I'm a fairly light sleeper).
Now, keep in mind I'm only 9 wks post-op, so maybe the ticking will get quieter as I heal more. But for now I can hear it pretty much all the time if I stop and think about it. And it's probably even louder than I expected it to be. The only time I couldn't hear it when I was trying to was when I was mowing the other day. I think the reason I can hear it, even when it's loud outside, is because the noise I hear comes from the inside, not the outside. Seems like it comes from inside my throat and up to my ears, on the inside (if that makes any sense). I'd compare the noise to a ticking watch that you put up close to your ear. There are a few people, with very, very good hearing (like my daughter) who can even hear it outside my body. But most can't unless they put their ear to my chest.
As others have said, the position I'm in makes a difference. For me, it gets quietest if I lay on my stomach for some reason (maybe my lungs are muffling it or something). And unlike others, the noise gets a little more noticeable for me when I lay on my right side than on my back. On my left side it becomes quieter than on my back (again maybe because 'stuff' is resting on my heart muffling it).
I was one of the ones that was worried about the noise before surgery, even mentioned in my original post that was one of the main reasons I was leaning towards tissue. But now that I have experienced it first-hand, even though the noise is even more noticeable than I thought it'd be, I'd say it's a relatively minor issue for me. Maybe similar in severity to the scar and the Coumadin, it's just something I've resigned myself to living with. And I would honestly say, for me (at least so far), none of those three things (scar, Coumadin or the ticking) have had much of an impact on me living my life.
