On-X Valve update

Well, almost at the end of week 10 with the new valve, and things are going pretty well. Had a few setbacks early on, which all resolved pretty well (I'm still alive, aren't I? :) and the valve seems to work as advertised. One of the "benefits" of the On-X was it's reported lack of noise on beats relative to other valves. Initially, it was fairly quiet, but there were several situations where I could hear the 'clicking' fairly clearly; in bed before sleep, in a quiet room, after climbing the stairs etc. Even then it was fairly quiet, to where I wouldn't have minded if it made that level of noise perpetually, it's been a pleasant surprise to hear the valve get even more silent: within the last week, I've rarely heard it at all. I'm not expecting silence, but I can't complain with how little noise it's making these days. Pretty impressive compared to how much noise a lot of the older valves made. As one of my nurses put it "I used to be able to hear patient's valves standing outside their rooms in the hallway." Now, not so much.

My valve is the best valve in the world, all the other valves are for little girls!

Actually, I do think my valve is the best one for me, but that isn't quite the point of this post, although it does play a big role. If you have done any type of lurking/research/joined a forum, you tend to run into a couple of issues. Well, I call them problems, but lets be all PC and call them "issues". One of the major ones would be the fact that most valve performance information, graphs, comparisons, etc, showing how good each individual valve is, is found on the website for the manufacturer of the valve that you are researching. Not to say the information isn't good, but it would be shocking if the information presented isn't done in such a way as to make that particular valve look the best. Take my valve, the ON-X valve. Tons of great information, very impressive features, however, none of it is presented independently. Probably a little bias there, but who would blame them really; it is their valve after all. Same goes for ATS, St. Jude, and whoever else makes the little buggers. Then you have all the tissue valves, and their sites with impressive patient testimonials, so you can see where the confusion in picking a valve would lie. You want a cow valve? Right-mouse-click-link-cow is the awesomest! Uh-oh. So let's head to the forums! Surely we can get unbiased information there.