I noticed the pounding of my heart while in the hospital and it’s the same now. Doctors haven’t been concerned about me having this sensation and often remark that “it’s loud” when they listen to my chest. I’m on the thin side and feel my heart beat intensely, in addition to hearing it beat and the clicking of the valve. All of these sensations have been difficult to deal with and to feel calm while experiencing. I’ve found it can take me 15 minutes or longer to quiet my body and put these sensations in the background enough so that I can meditate. Falling asleep has been hard, am still sleeping mostly upright. The only way I can fall asleep is with white noise–I use an ocean waves sounds app on my smartphone which works well.

For most people, taking a deep breath is a relaxing thing and calming, but since my surgery taking a deep breath triggered two sensations–sternal pain and an increased heart rate. The sternal pain is lingering but has continued to subside. But getting used to heart rate rapidly increasing when I take a deep breath is bizarre and not so comforting. I hope this sensation eases as I heal more.

I had aflutter and afib episodes about a month after surgery which didn’t respond well to rhythm control drugs so had to be cardioverted in the hospital. That procedure worked well (though a bit scary to go through). Skipped beat sensations which I understand to be PVCs are something I experience almost daily, usually when my heart rate goes below 80 bpm. It’s an unnerving sensation and sometimes can make me gasp a little if the beat following the skipped beat is particularly forceful. Doctors are not concerned about these skipped beats and continue to tell me my heart is working well (YAY!) I was also told that most likely my heart had learned to work harder than it needed to to pump blood through the calcified valve. Now that the valve has no obstructions, the heart muscles may still be squeezing harder than they need to and need to adapt to needing to work less hard, which it should do, in time. I’ll have a follow-up echocardiagram in a few months so will get a full assessment of how well the valves are working then.

My heartbeat is most certainly louder at night, and more so than normally. It beats so loud I can’t sleep at first and its most disturbing. However, I have the comfort of knowing that it’s working!

I tend to do things to distract my thoughts, or literally I will tap or scratch the pillow, so it’s louder than the beat, crazy I know. And yes, I too feel and hear it more when I breath in.

I try to remember last time, I try to compare the two. But I remember having these worries and fears last time, and that one by one they got better. So although you feel it now, it will get less and soon you’ll not notice the difference!

Thanks R

I am 48 and had a porcine aortic tissue valve replacement with dacron replacement of portion of ascending aorta. I am 3 weeks out from surgery and also note a very strong heart beat in my upper chest and also can hear it in my ears. I read somewhere that some nerve endings that had never been sensitized to the heartbeat are, for the first time due to minute changes in your heart placement due to surgery, now attuned to this beating and after months these nerves become sensitized to the rhythm. Not to worry! Why porcine at my age? I’ve been vegetarian for 20 years and very active, couldn’t go the mechanical route with blood thinners. Green leafy veggies and coumadin don’t mix well. My Emory surgeon is convinced that by 2022 or whenever I need a new valve, non-invasive methods, including robotic will be standard and routine. Anyway, doing great, no pain meds now, though still a bit sore in the sternum area. Take care amigos!