Four nights of hiccups
Yes. You read that title correctly. I had hiccups for four nights while I was in Chicago and it was terrible. It was so bad that I stopped attending the Adaptive Path User Experience Intensive conference and had to go the emergency room.
Like any reasonable person I started with the usual regimen of home remedies. Sandy recommended that I stand with my heels and back against a wall with my head upright as he poured water into my mouth. I felt like a cornered animal trying this one so moved on to other methods.
Eventually I got them to subside with a breath-holding technique but the relief was short lives.
Hiccuping puts you in a weird social position. You want to apologize for the random noises you are making. People look at you like you are a nuisance but you just can't help it. All you can do is look back and shrug.
As for what's actually going on in your body, I learned that hiccups are a neurological condition. The diaphragm spasms involuntary, often several times a minute. The "hic" noise is caused by the sudden rush of air into the lungs.
Most cases of hiccups resolve themselves but they do occasionally require medical attention.
On the third night I couldn't take it and went to the emergency room with Sandy. I was anxious about using my insurance out of state but couldn't stand to keep hiccuping so went in the hopes that the insurance would sort itself out. But that's another post about unhelpful customer service.
Doctor's can't actually cure hiccups, per se. Instead, they simply treat the symptoms and hope that the cause corrects itself. In rare cases, prolonged hiccups can be caused by a tumor pressing against the diaphragm. A chest X-Ray determined that this wasn't my problems so the doctor started explaining the treatment options to me.
Oddly, the treatment options are almost all anti-psychotic drugs. Yeah. You read that right, and some serious ones too. Haldol and thorazine both list hiccups as secondary uses.
I was a skeptical of this. I can be a pretty aggressive patient. I try to ask as many questions as possible. I like doctors to explain their reasoning to me before putting drugs in my body or cutting me open. Giving me an anti-psychotic seemed odd enough that a small voice in my head wondered if the drugs were in part being suggested to shut me up. I persisted in asking about the options and was convinced to give it a try.
The ER doctor recommended Thorazine and I consented to an injection. Let me tell you, that stuff takes effect quickly. It essentially numbs your entire nervous system. In my case, however, that numbness didn't cure my hiccups. At this point I was pretty out of it. The doctor wrote a prescription for Reglen, a gastrointestinal stimulant that is supposed to be less effective than the anti-psychotics, and sent me home.
The next morning I woke up still feeling like a zombie. I got on IM and while typing could barely feel my fingers. I was still hiccuping and felt terrible. I took the Reglen and waited.
Eventually the hiccups subsided. My chest was terribly sore and I was just worn out. I tried to get some work done to pass the time and went out for dinner in an attempt to have a normal evening.
Sadly, the hiccups started again. I was terrified at this point. The chest X-Ray hadn't revealed anything but I had been given some serious drugs and they were of no help. I hate taking medicine for exactly this reason. Doctors are not magicians. Often, their prescriptions are shots in the dark. The drug might treat the symptom of an unknown cause. In this case, they ran me out as soon as their technique didn't work and I was too drugged up to resist.
I went to bed on the fourth night very distraught and still hiccuping. That night they were worse than ever. They kept me from sleeping until late in the night.
When I woke up in the morning I looked at my watch and realized that I had overslept. I stared at the ceiling for a bit as my consciousness returned to me and realized that I wasn't hiccuping. Cautiously, I got out of bed and was still fine. My chest was sore and I was exhausted but I wasn't hiccuping.
I had a reasonably normal day trying to get work done. I was to return LA the following day and wanted to recuperate as much as possible before heading home.
Around three o'clock that afternoon I hiccuped once. I was terrified that they would return but focussed on my breathing and relaxed as much as I could.
They didn't return.
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Who is this guy?
Wow, that is crazy. I've had hicups for several hours in a row before and that nearly drove me to insanity--I can't imagine four days. Glad everything is back to normal.
Thanks Dan. It was definitely an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone.