re: Random…Who still has all their organs?

quote:

---

Mitral and aortic here. Mine are loud enough to be heard from several feet away, even had a cashier ask if I was carrying a clock...

---

Does it ever drive you crazy? I mean, I’ve had my mechanical valve now for almost seven years. And I hear it literally every second of every day. Because of it, I can’t sit in silence or the ticking will drive me crazy. I have to constantly have some sort of noise to distract me from the ticking. But even then I still notice it in the background.

I have an old electric one. Not sure if it works anymore.

quote:

---

Hear it tick?

---

Sometimes the wife hears it at night. Mine runs fairly quiet. At times I hear it too.

Have a fun time calculating clicks

Mine was installed November 13, 2005 = 6546 days to today.

My heart beat is around 60 beats per minute = 86,400 beats per day

60 X 86,400 X 6546 = 33,900,000,000 openings and closings of the valve leaves.

Among other things in my career, I was an ASQC Certified Reliability Engineer. the 34 billion cycles demonstrates a high mean time to failure rate for the valve, which is nice, because a failure of the valve leads to death. The valve is relatively simple, with two half-moon carbon fiber leaves mounted by a tab on either side of the leaf in a stainless-steel circular body, wrapped in a polymer (?) fiber sheath, so they can stitch it in place in the hole where they cut out the Mitral valve. I thought I was something special when they put it in, then I discovered they sell well over 100,000 of them a year. Result? I ain't even special, just a one of many kind of guy.

That surgery was very expensive. The final bill, which insurance covered was close to a million dollars (Don't know what insurance paid - likely less). Several years later They put in a Midtronics pacemaker at over $200,000. The first pace maker battery died one month less than 13 years after they installed it and that pacemaker was replaced about four months ago for a bit more than the first one cost. That 100 square inch part of my chest is worth close to 2 million dollars in medical device work.

I am 100% certain I am not worth 2,000,000. Happy to still be here though.

If you remember Dave Barry, the Atlanta Journal Humorist Journalist, he had a pig valve and died (infection?) when they went in to replace it.

quote:

---

Hoe much Coumadin do you have to take?

---

I take 2.5 mg Sun, Mon, Tue, Thu, Fr, Sat and 1 mg on Wed.

Mine seems to go up and down. The have to take blood to do the INR, because the finger stick doesn't work on me. My INR seems to go up and down. I have taken as much as 3.5 mg daily, never less than what I am now taking. I have blood drawn as often as weekly, occasionally it stabilizes for a few months and I go to a once a month blood draw.

Eleven years ago, my INR went really high and I developed a deep muscle bleed in y left thigh. The bleed compartmentalized and they did three surgeries in five days on it to stop the bleeding. Have a deep 16 inch scar down that thigh. Almost lost that leg during that adventure.

Have no idea how many days/weeks I have spent in the hospital over the years since the valves replacement. As you mitral guys know, no hospital stay for valve problems is short. CCU and ICU time is tough on your family too since a lot of the time, you seem close ot death.

49 and I am still 100% fully intact.

Most of them are where they were when I left the factory and what ones ain't are in fruit jars in the back of the closet....

quote:

---

Do you ever have people comment on hearing you tick? That happens to me all the time.

---

My wife swears she can hear someone with a mechanical valve as soon as she walks into an exam room. I have never been around anyone with a mechanical heart valve and I know they can hear them but I still think my wife is being hyperbolic. Maybe not?

Wisdom teeth and foreskin are the only things missing from what I entered the world with.

Now I've got a lot more hair, fat, and a couple screws in my arm.