Christine Weaver - Heart Valve Journal

My Journal

3210 days ago

My husband had an aortic aneurism and a bicuspid aortic valve. He had his open heart surgery on April 11, 2016 and the surgeon opted for the mechanical valve. ...Read more

My husband had an aortic aneurism and a bicuspid aortic valve. He had his open heart surgery on April 11, 2016 and the surgeon opted for the mechanical valve. The past 6 months have been so hard. He is dealing with the constant ticking of the valve, the anxiety, and depression. He just keeps telling me this was supposed to be easier but it isn't. I know everyone says it will get better, he will get use to it but he hates hearing that. I guess I am just trying to talk to someone who knows what he is going through, what we are going through.

Elaine Cutri Was this his first open heart surgery? What kind of valve did they put in? Mechanical? What brand? Is ... Read more

Elaine Cutri Was this his first open heart surgery? What kind of valve did they put in? Mechanical? What brand? Is he going to Cardio Rehab? My CR has a social worker that checks in with us to see if we need any extra support, including depression issues. You might want to let his cardiologist know as well, be a squeaky wheel.
I have On-X and aorta Dacron graphs. I complained about the noise, I had a St Jude mechanical valve before this mechanical valve. My surgeon thinks with all the plumbing changes occurring in one day, it is instantly new and different sounds for the patient. We all have lots of time to get use to our body's sounds when they start from the womb, but this is thrust upon us overnight. It's been 17 months since, my surgery, the sound is much less noticeable now, but it's still there. I'm doing my best to deal with the new noise - good days, bad days. I think it will get better over time. Best wishes to you and your husband.

Corey Sines I know some mechanical valve patients sleep with a fan on to drown out the noise. Others don't have ... Read more

Corey Sines I know some mechanical valve patients sleep with a fan on to drown out the noise. Others don't have any / hardly any issue with the noise, I understand it based on valve positioning, the valve, and acoustics of chest / chest wall, etc.

The On-X valve is supposed to have a 'softer close' feature to make the noise a little less intense. I'm hoping I only will notice it when in a quite place. With such a big family as I have, It will only be quiet when I lay down to go to sleep, for which I will use a fan if needed.

I have heard of situations with repairs also causing loud heart beats, see this young ladies experience:
https://defectiveheartgirlproblems.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/heart-wars-trilogy-part-1-the-bionic-heartbeat/

Heart Wars Trilogy Part 1: The Bionic Heartbeat

https://defectiveheartgirlproblems.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/heart-wars-trilogy-part-1-the-bionic-heartbeat/

Many of you have probably heard me refer to my post-surgery heartbeat as “bionic”. While I don’t, in fact, have any bionic parts, I stand by my description because the strength of…

Christine Weaver It is his first open heart surgery, he has the St. Jude mechanical valve, and he did do cardiac rehab ... Read more

Christine Weaver It is his first open heart surgery, he has the St. Jude mechanical valve, and he did do cardiac rehab. His cardiologist is very aware of his emotional state and reassures him the heart is doing great and put him on anxiety meds. He even told my husband That he is driving himself crazy after several trips to the doctors office.
How many open heart surgeries have you had? Was your your St. Jude valve removed due to the noise? I am happy to hear that you are doing well and I am hopeful my husband will be soon.

Christine Weaver Corey it is loud because I also hear it. My husband is 45 and a bigger guy so they told him he should ... Read more

Christine Weaver Corey it is loud because I also hear it. My husband is 45 and a bigger guy so they told him he shouldn't hear it and if he did it wouldn't be as loud as it might be on a thinner person which now we know is not true. The best way for me to describe it to our friends and family is tape a wrist watch to your ear and leave it there forever. That is what he is dealing with.
We have always had a fan on at night and now we have music as well. Thank you, I will check out the this article.
Did you already have surgery? Either way I hope that everything goes well for you. My heart goes out to everyone on here either as a patient or a family member. It's a lot to go through and live with.

Meredith Bray I've been using a white noise machine to help me sleep. I dealt with insomnia for close to a year aft ... Read more

Meredith Bray I've been using a white noise machine to help me sleep. I dealt with insomnia for close to a year after surgery. My ticker isn't awfully loud, but when I'm trying to sleep...it's there. And I start counting. And once i start counting, I can't stop. So it seems like I always have some noise to distract me. Honest truth: I sold my car because the angle of the windshield reflected my ticking in such a way that even the loudest Metallica didn't cover up the tick. I've learned to love to listen to my tick. It's proof that God wants me here for a little longer.
Also, it's fun to watch people's faces when they try to figure out where the ticking is coming from.

Your husband is not alone, please make sure he knows that!

-Meredith

Sanya PHILLIPS I feel for your husband and am thankful he has you. I am just 6 weeks out and while I am not a huge ... Read more

Sanya PHILLIPS I feel for your husband and am thankful he has you. I am just 6 weeks out and while I am not a huge fan of the noise, we try to have fun with it, attack of human heart, Peter pan references, etc. Regarding the anxiety, it bums me out that more cardiologists aren't better about understanding the correlation between OHS and major depression and anxiety. I too am struggling with these and it is intense and real without psyching myself out. I hope he finds relief and soon. 🤗 and 🙏

Elaine Cutri Hi Christine, I have had 4 OHS over 50 years. My first mechanical valve was a St Jude, implanted in 1 ... Read more

Elaine Cutri Hi Christine, I have had 4 OHS over 50 years. My first mechanical valve was a St Jude, implanted in 1993. It was fine, but I developed an aortic aneurysm that needed repair in May 2015. Since the repair required access through my sternum, the surgeon, Dr Roselli, recommended a new and larger On-X aortic valve. This valve seems louder than the St. Jude, but Dr Roselli thinks the increased volume is partially related to the new Dacron aorta graph. He thinks with the "over-night" plumbing changes, my body will take a while to get use to the new sounds. I'm getting there with the valve noise, I have my strength an energy back, and I feel much less mental stress now that the aneurysm is repaired. I hope your husband can feel like himself in his own body as soon as possible. Best wishes to you both!