My husband Coy fell off a ladder onto a concrete floor. Neighbors performed CPR. He spent 5 weeks in the hospital. The last 4 of those weeks he hiccuped non-stop. He continued to hiccup at home. A psychiatrist was finally able to ease the problem with baclofen. Believe me, no amount of home remedies regarding eating or drinking or breathing in certain ways had any effect.
Coy continued to get hiccups whenever he had a fever. Then gradually he began to get hiccups before other symptoms of an illness appeared. It was kind of an early alert system. Baclafen became less and less effective. We were told that Thioridazine is sometimes used as a last resort, but no one with Lewy Bodies should take that for any reason, and that is what Coy had by then. So he lived with prolonged bouts of hiccups.
Coy's fall was 10 years before his LBD showed up, so altogether he dealt with hiccups periodically for twenty years.
The home remedies are worth trying and they often work with ordinary temporary cases. The prolonged kind that send you to a doctor are a little more stubborn.
Alzheimer's connection? My aunt had hiccups in 2012 and it gradually increased until she died in 2014. I noticed my mom (her sister) started getting hiccups earlier this year. I thought there might be a connection, so I started looking it up and found many interesting articles and observations.
Hiccups? L gets them frequently, he does not have dementia. He does have a mitral valve in his heart. I have started to try to see if the hiccups seem to come on with stress. Sometimes that is the case, but I can't crawl into his head to see what he is thinking about either. For awhile he said he was getting them every time he rolled over in bed. Thank goodness for them both being hard of hearing. Mom can snore to her heart's content (I can hear her throu the ceiling when at its worst), he can hiccup and neither usually wakes up the other! LOL!
I have geard that hiccups are a sign of a swallowing problem when eating or drinking ... My mother gets the hiccups alot when she is eating. I encourage her to drink in between bites of food.
Oh my goodness now your in my neighborhood. I have mentioned before that my husband has chronic and debilitating hiccups. They rule our lives and are almost as distressing as the advanced alz.. For the past two years he has been on Baclofen and additionally lately depokote. Before discovering Baclofen he suffered throat spasms and difficulty breathing. As I sit here responding, he is on the couch hiccuping. I have made the connection with simple carbohydrates and sugars. Consuming these guarantees the hiccups and this morning I fixed him biscuits and sausage gravy. Staying on proteins and vegetables is the key to keeping the "horribles" away. He is a complete puzzle to the medical community and we have done everything short of surgery. My sympathies and I hope the simple swallowing tricks to reset the phrenic nerve work for you. If you need more information I will be happy to help.
I've always been under the impression that hiccups are caused by trapped gas in the upper stomach area. I give mom a dissolvable gas tablet and encourage her to burp which she now forgets to do. This seems to do the trick. Leaning to ones left side also helps gas escape due to the layout of the stomach in the body.
Jeanne, thanks for your story. Interesting so many responses to a problem with hiccups. I have been so desperate at times that I was hours away from packing the car and taking him to Colorado for medical marijuana. In our case the Depakote seemed to make the Baclofen more effective.
Twice in his life my dad got hiccups that lasted for such a long time that he had to go to the doctor and get a prescription. I think it was valium... to relax his hiccuping muscles. I know he was miserable till he got them stopped.
Coy continued to get hiccups whenever he had a fever. Then gradually he began to get hiccups before other symptoms of an illness appeared. It was kind of an early alert system. Baclafen became less and less effective. We were told that Thioridazine is sometimes used as a last resort, but no one with Lewy Bodies should take that for any reason, and that is what Coy had by then. So he lived with prolonged bouts of hiccups.
Coy's fall was 10 years before his LBD showed up, so altogether he dealt with hiccups periodically for twenty years.
The home remedies are worth trying and they often work with ordinary temporary cases. The prolonged kind that send you to a doctor are a little more stubborn.
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