Four months ago I had open heart surgery for an aortic valve replacement. I've been feeling decent but have had issues sleeping since the surgery. At first, I understood losing a lot of sleep while I recovered. Four months in, I still have issues. I fall asleep fine but usually wake up between 3am and 4am and a lot of nights I stay awake until the alarm goes off. Some of it is pain related when I roll over or sleep on my stomach, though that pain isn't bad. I expect to still have some discomfort, they totally cracked me open. Most of it is related to the noise my mechanical valve makes. My kids and wife can hear it click from 5 or so feet away. Most people can hear it by standing close to me and really listening for it. To me, it's **** loud! I'm 38 years old and have a lot more living to do (hopefully!). I was curious if others have had AVR with a mechanical valve and how they've dealt with the clicking. The wife and I sleep with a fan on and melatonin has had no effect. For my wife's sake I don't want to try to drown the sound of the valve out with other noise like the TV, a box fan, etc. Knowing I'm still recovering both mentally and physically from everything gives me hope that the sound will fade away with time.
If you're up for a long read, here's how the whole ordeal came about. I didn't want to tell anyone but I started getting messages on my phone and facebook, along with people posting "we're praying for you Aaron" randomly. I decided to make it facebook official and tell the world. The post below was a few days before my heart surgery.
Long post alert! I guess in this day and age, you have to make things “Facebook Official” (cliffs notes at bottom). A few weeks ago while we were camping, I was dealing with left leg pain and numbness in my left foot. I first noticed it the Saturday of our camping trip, 3/23. I powered through but knew something was up after feeling how much colder my left foot felt when comparing to my right. On Monday (3/25), Joslin made me go to the doctor and after examining my foot and leg, my primary care doctor sent me to the ER. After hanging out in the waiting room with what felt like every person with the flu in Fort Bend County, they called me in and ran some tests. Poking, prodding, an ultrasound, and a lot of waiting resulted in “you have diminished flow in your left leg, we’re admitting you and doing a CT scan”. I cussed. They did the CT scan and it showed a blood clot in the popliteal artery (behind my knee) in my left leg. They did surgery to remove the clot early Wednesday morning and with the clot, they found some calcification. With that discovery, they did a transesophageal echo (TEE) while I was still under and it showed quite a bit of calcification on my aortic valve (which is bicuspid). The theory is that either the clot formed and broke off some calcification on its way through the valve or that some calcification broke off the valve and formed a clot. In either case, we’re lucky it went to my left leg and not my brain or lungs. I’m now sitting in the hospital with a 5-6” cut from surgery on my left calf, facing the news that I’ll need an aortic valve replacement (full on rib splitting open heart surgery!). The focus was both on getting me on the road to recovery with my leg and more tests confirming the need for the valve replacement. I got out of the hospital Saturday, 3/30. On Monday 4/1, I went to see my normal cardiologist and he did another echo and confirmed the need of the valve replacement but also suggested septal myectomy (you know, “while they’re in there”). We didn’t have a warm fuzzy feeling about the Cardiovascular Surgeon during my original hospital visit so I went to one who specializes in valves and was recommended by my normal cardiologist. After visiting with him, he agreed with the other recommendations and we were all set for surgery. They’re going to give me a mechanical valve since I’m still pretty young (too young for this crap if you ask me!). I had a few more tests and appointments earlier this week and have pre-op tomorrow to finalize everything. I’m still limping around from my surgery 2 weeks ago proudly showing off the gnarly scar on my left leg along with my super swollen ankle, getting 2 injections of blood thinner a day (thank you Joslin!), and taking things a day at a time. Surgery is set for 4/16 and I’ll be on the long road to recovery. I’m hoping for the best. It has been a weird few weeks. I’ve been scared, stressed, angry, happy, tired, sad, and everything above, below, beyond and in between. I have awesome family, friends, and co-workers who are offering more support than they should. For that, I can add thankful to the list of emotions above.
Cliffs Notes: Had a blood clot in my left leg. Blood clot led to the discovery of my aortic valve that needs replacing. Open heart surgery on the 16th.
If you're up for a long read, here's how the whole ordeal came about. I didn't want to tell anyone but I started getting messages on my phone and facebook, along with people posting "we're praying for you Aaron" randomly. I decided to make it facebook official and tell the world. The post below was a few days before my heart surgery.
Long post alert! I guess in this day and age, you have to make things “Facebook Official” (cliffs notes at bottom). A few weeks ago while we were camping, I was dealing with left leg pain and numbness in my left foot. I first noticed it the Saturday of our camping trip, 3/23. I powered through but knew something was up after feeling how much colder my left foot felt when comparing to my right. On Monday (3/25), Joslin made me go to the doctor and after examining my foot and leg, my primary care doctor sent me to the ER. After hanging out in the waiting room with what felt like every person with the flu in Fort Bend County, they called me in and ran some tests. Poking, prodding, an ultrasound, and a lot of waiting resulted in “you have diminished flow in your left leg, we’re admitting you and doing a CT scan”. I cussed. They did the CT scan and it showed a blood clot in the popliteal artery (behind my knee) in my left leg. They did surgery to remove the clot early Wednesday morning and with the clot, they found some calcification. With that discovery, they did a transesophageal echo (TEE) while I was still under and it showed quite a bit of calcification on my aortic valve (which is bicuspid). The theory is that either the clot formed and broke off some calcification on its way through the valve or that some calcification broke off the valve and formed a clot. In either case, we’re lucky it went to my left leg and not my brain or lungs. I’m now sitting in the hospital with a 5-6” cut from surgery on my left calf, facing the news that I’ll need an aortic valve replacement (full on rib splitting open heart surgery!). The focus was both on getting me on the road to recovery with my leg and more tests confirming the need for the valve replacement. I got out of the hospital Saturday, 3/30. On Monday 4/1, I went to see my normal cardiologist and he did another echo and confirmed the need of the valve replacement but also suggested septal myectomy (you know, “while they’re in there”). We didn’t have a warm fuzzy feeling about the Cardiovascular Surgeon during my original hospital visit so I went to one who specializes in valves and was recommended by my normal cardiologist. After visiting with him, he agreed with the other recommendations and we were all set for surgery. They’re going to give me a mechanical valve since I’m still pretty young (too young for this crap if you ask me!). I had a few more tests and appointments earlier this week and have pre-op tomorrow to finalize everything. I’m still limping around from my surgery 2 weeks ago proudly showing off the gnarly scar on my left leg along with my super swollen ankle, getting 2 injections of blood thinner a day (thank you Joslin!), and taking things a day at a time. Surgery is set for 4/16 and I’ll be on the long road to recovery. I’m hoping for the best. It has been a weird few weeks. I’ve been scared, stressed, angry, happy, tired, sad, and everything above, below, beyond and in between. I have awesome family, friends, and co-workers who are offering more support than they should. For that, I can add thankful to the list of emotions above.
Cliffs Notes: Had a blood clot in my left leg. Blood clot led to the discovery of my aortic valve that needs replacing. Open heart surgery on the 16th.
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