My husband is receiving Folfirinox chemotherapy post Whipple surgery for pancreatic cancer. At their worst, his loud, jarring hiccups continued almost 24/7 for 7 days, beginning a couple days after each chemo. In addition, several times a day he would have a throat spasm at the end of a hiccup, almost as if the hiccup became stuck, when he wouldn’t be able to breathe for anywhere from 10-30 seconds. This alarming situation led the oncologist to try several remedies and ultimately even ask him if he wanted to continue this chemo. Ultimately, after the 6th cycle of chemo and the following changes, he had no hiccups: the first thing that was tried was to start Omeprazole once a day and reduce the pre-chemo steroid Dexamethasone from 12mg to 8mg. This seemed to help for the next two cycles. But then the following cycle was worse than ever. At that point it was noted that his Potassium and Magnesium levels were lower than they had been after previous cycles and replacement therapy was implemented as it had been previously. In addition Omeprazole was changed to twice a day. And his Dexamethasone was reduced once again, now from 8mg to 4mg. For the first time, he had no hiccups after The sixth cycle of chemo. These hiccups are not a little thing. People experiencing them need answers and solutions.

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