A squeaking heart

[mario_ragucci]

:kiss

Several months ago, I purchased my own sphygmomanometer and stethoscope to practice, when ever and on & whoever would let me take their BP to get good at it.

It's such a cool thing to take Mario's BP, because he sits totally still and doesn't talk when he is listening for all the sounds.

I found it interesting how your BP is way low when you first wake up in the morning, and this jives very clearly, since your sleeping. It's cool to listen to my blood pressure as soon as I wake up. Plus, your pulse rate is very slow, so cool

Yesterday I got shocked when, after I took my BP first thing, and got the normal sounds, I decided to take my axillary pulse with the stethoscope. Until that time, I considered the axillary pulse to be rather boring, and always listened to my pulse via the brachial artery with the BP cuff, if I wanted to listen close.

Yesterday my heart was squeaking when I put the stethoscope on it first thing! It was squeaking! I never heard my heart squeak, and got really scared! Am I dying:confused: "Why is my heart making this squeaking sound with each beat" I wondered with amazement.

So I paniced a little and took deep breaths and stretched my chest out and listened again...and the squeaking stopped. PHEW!!! :imbar I tell you, i just about fainted.

Why does a heart make a squeaking sound when your asleep? I presented this question to one person who said my heart was oxygenating.

Tell me my heart has no oxygen when I sleep. Dear friends, my heart beat IS the one thing I depend on to be consistant (and not squeak). Because I don't feel strange, and I really believe I am healthy (and the squeaking stopped), it's not wigging me out too much, but it certainly is an event, and now I won't be listening to my boring BP anymore, first thing in the morning. Mario will have his stethoscope trained on his axillary pulse and his squeaking heart.

Please, can anyone give me a "punchline" answer/reason why a person's heart will squeak with each beat immediately when they wake up and have not had their first deep breath and stretch?

Thank you.

Sincerely and Respectfully,

Mario Ragucci

[micro, RN]

Originally posted by mattcastens

Some of it is from experience, some of it is from studying, a lot of it is from asking questions. We are all continually learning.

Matt,

Well, said.........know a bit, but learning more everyday.........

micro:D

Was it canoehead that said the body makes all sorts of sounds in all sorts of places.........

Heather.........:chuckle cracked me up.........the baby sounded coorifice.....

Hoolihan, think there are a few songs here.....

Mario, waking up to the day, oxygenatin' more and stretchin.........normal body sounds........

heart has no oxygen during sleep.....hehehehe.....but does need less in healthy person such as yourself.

at most(worst) transient heart murmur.........

nursing school and working is not unbusy.....

working and living is not unbusy.........

but you gotta take time to breathe and think,

good thread and thoughts......

micro:p :p

[SICU Queen]

Okay, let me rephrase.

I wish I could experience my time like Mario does.

:)

[OBNURSEHEATHER]

Originally posted by SICU Queen

Okay, let me rephrase.

I wish I could experience my time like Mario does.

:)

:chuckle :chuckle :chuckle Don't we all!

Heather

[mattsmom81]

You guys are such a hoot! :) Mario you are one wild student nurse!

Seriously, the axillae is not a listening point for your heart in any sense. Your listening points are near your sternum on either side up and down plus the apex to hear all the systolic and diastolic 'noises' , flow and valvular sounds. A friction rub is best heard with your patient leaning forward and sounds just like a squeaky board. You'll learn all about these things soon!

Mario, you are probably just hearing your pulmonary alveoli sqeaking as they stretch to say good morning! Happy squeaking, you are far to alive to be dyin' anytime soon. :)

[mario_ragucci]

Thank you all for helping and acknowledging. Somebody handed Mattsmom and sledgehammer because I never considered this pulmonary alveoli before she nailed it. A small depression, sac, or vesicle, as the socket of a tooth, the air cells of the lungs, the ultimate saccules of glands, etc Hasn't anyone taken their apical pulse with a stethoscope in the morning? It's the coolest sound, especially if you only used to hearing the lup-dup. The squeaking lup-dup is infinately more interesting.

I hope by reading these great posts that you renew your interest in sleeping, as I have. The human body is so intricate, and sleeping is so intricate as well. i stop now.

Thank you for the kind words about my picture, Mario is flattered to max.

1.73 * 10^9 represents Mario's estimated remaining heartbeats

[mario_ragucci]

What i learned about heart sounds and sleep

When you sleep, your laying down horizontal, for me, 6-8 hours. The heart sac then goes vertical and so do all your veins, when you stand up. That could effect the heart valves in such a way as to produce a higher pitched squirting sound.

Your ears are very sensitive in the morning. The fact that you are listening to your heart can create some type of feedback sound.

The lungs relax when you sleep. When you awaken, the increased blood flow into your lungs could create an acoustic sound.

The awakening heart, after sleep, gets to handle the wave of all body systems turning on at once. Lungs, lymph, veins, arteries, muscles, visceral. This initial pull on the heart can create a "backflow pressure" which may be heard as a squirting, or squeak.

[Cubby]

Mario

Why do you always refer to yourself in the the third person? Just curious!

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Ah Mario:

Just be glad for the peace and quiet you enjoy in the morning to listen to your heart. Too many of us have forgotten what down time, alone time is like. Great discovers can be made this way!!

Your well on your way to understanding cardiac assessment.

[CindyCCRN]

Mario, Mario - quite an amusing "gut" interpretation of your heart's newly discovered squeak...

..I do believe you... it's probably your heart...

......I love heart sounds, EKG's, hemodynamics, etc...

...Heart sounds are made by the flow of blood - turbulence -through valves and chambers... pressure gradients...

S1 = Lub = systole = closure of AV valves - mitral and tricuspid

S2 = Dub = diastole = closure of semilunar valves - aortic + pulmonic

...learn where to listen for each valve - it's fun!

Many people have slight abnormalities of their heart or great vessels which yield unusual sounds, but they're perfectly healthy.

As with children, innocent or normal heart murmurs are quite common - most disappear by adulthood - some don't and are intermittently audible..

Great site = http://www.wilkes.med.ucla.edu/intro.html

Have fun with this!

[mario_ragucci]

Cindy....your post and web site reference is the greatest. However, the sounds, and I listened to them all, don't make the sound of my heart first thing in the morning. The sounds on the site sound like an awake heart with problems.

Cindy, I beseech you to place a stethoscope at your apical first thing tomorrow morning and give your heart an ear.

Obviously, i have a great deal to learn about heart sounds, admittedly. I beseech and implore anyone who is curious to experience the sleeping/awakening heart to listen. What EXACTLY causes a normal heart to squeak when awakened !?! Perhaps i am barking up a "sleep physiology" tree here, and as nurses we only deal with awake heart sounds.

Somebody, tomorrow morning, listen to your heart about 45 seconds after you awake. Not the very first thing. I notice the squeak comes on moments after you awake and go vertical, and the squeak will slowly become less and less audable once you have taken deep breaths and stretched your arms out and yawn. There must be a name for this phenomenon !!

Help me, somebody, anybody, assure me I am not crazy here, or having an auditory hallucination. Don't all hearts squeak when they awaken?

[Furball]

:-X