Hiccups, Diarrhea, Left Side Abdominal pain, Cervical Cancer, Melanoma

Posted by sunshine61250 @sunshine61250, Oct 15, 2018

I'm hoping someone can help me. We are Americans stationed in Norway (husband is retired USAF currently working for NATO). I've had cancer twice. For the last 6 months I've started to have some pretty violent hiccups. It started out once a day every other week or so. I'm now up to several minutes just about every day. I've had bouts of diarrhea here and there but it's been pretty much all the time since August 27th (when I'm leaving home and taking Imodium I'm okay for maybe 24 hours) with pain in my left lower abdomen that is more and more frequent. Norway has socialized medicine so I'm spending more and more money out of pocket trying to figure out what is going on. I had a colonoscopy last week and the results were diverticular disease (doctor said there were more pockets then he had previously seen). Since I'm paying out of pocket for just about every test, I tell the doctor what I would like for him to do and he says okay. Other things ... my white count, red count, hemoglobin, Hemocrit, Alkaline Phosphatase, Globulin, MCHC, Abs Lymphocytes were low in August and now my T3 is low as well. Does this ring any bells for anyone? Thank you for taking time to respond!

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Hello, @sunshine61250 - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Congratulations on your cancer survivorship.

Since you talked about having violent hiccups, I'd like to introduce you to some other members who've mentioned significant hiccups, like @julius @sueinmn @shilo14 @0629 @mindi. Hoping they may have some input on the hiccups you said are up to several minutes just about every day, and perhaps they may also have some insights on the bouts of diarrhea here and there and the more and more frequent pain in your left lower abdomen, as well as the other levels you mentioned from your testing.

@sunshine61250 - have you found anything makes your hiccups, or any of your other symptoms, better or worse?

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I haven't found any rhyme or reason to the hiccups. Just happens out of the blue. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

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Hello @sunshine61250,

I can certainly understand how such regular hiccuping could be disturbing to your day-to-day activities. I went on Mayo's website and found some information regarding the causes and some of the treatments. Here is the link to that information, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hiccups/symptoms-causes/syc-20352613.

In looking through this article, I see that there can also be some neurological reasons for this problem. If you care to share more, have you had any balance or muscle weakness problems of late? You will also see a list of meds that can be used.

I hope that you and your doctor are able to come to some understanding as to the reasons. I'm sure you would like to have some control over this problem.

I look forward to hearing from you again. Will you post again and let me know how you are doing with this mystery?

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I've had muscle weakness in the past. I had a plate put in my lower back in 2015 and another plate put in my neck about 10 months ago. Both times I had significant weakness that the surgeries seemed to fix. I'll take a look through the article, thanks! If you need more info let me know. I'm an open book!

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@sunshine61250

I've had muscle weakness in the past. I had a plate put in my lower back in 2015 and another plate put in my neck about 10 months ago. Both times I had significant weakness that the surgeries seemed to fix. I'll take a look through the article, thanks! If you need more info let me know. I'm an open book!

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Hello again, @sunshine61250

While I'm not a medical professional, I do have some thoughts: Wondering about the plate put in your neck 10 months ago. Since the hiccuping started 6 months ago and the plate was put in 10 months ago, perhaps a conversation with your neurologist might be a good idea to see if the plate is putting pressure on a nerve that might be causing the hiccuping. Might be worth a conversation with your doctor.

Have you had any EMGs or MRIs since that last surgery ? Any neurological workup at all?

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No EMG's but I did have a MRI this summer. It showed that I have compression of my T 8, 9 & 10 but no nerve impingement at this time. I was told to just work on my core to try to strengthen it. I'm back in the US in Dec. so I can go and have my doctors there take a look at it. Thanks!

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Hello @sunshine61250,

Teresa @hopeful33250 has offered some great insight about the possibility of pressure on a nerve that could likely be causing the hiccups. In this conversation on Connect, "Relationship between Goiter on Thyroid and Intractable Hiccups?"https://mayocl.in/2NYYCLd members @danielad @ginnydee1 have mentioned similar issues; I hope they will return with some more information.

@sunshine61250, have you considered any medications, like muscle relaxants, to get some relief?

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@sunshine61250

No EMG's but I did have a MRI this summer. It showed that I have compression of my T 8, 9 & 10 but no nerve impingement at this time. I was told to just work on my core to try to strengthen it. I'm back in the US in Dec. so I can go and have my doctors there take a look at it. Thanks!

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@sunshine61250 I just found this discussion while searching for something else. I was wondering if your symptoms have been resolved?

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