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Have you ever had hiccups with or after chemotherapy?
We all know what hiccups are, right? They are involuntary contractions of the diaphragm — the muscle that separates your chest from your abdomen and plays an important role in breathing. Each contraction is followed by a sudden closure of your vocal cords, which produces the characteristic "hic" sound.
Mayo Clinic investigators want to learn more about hiccups in people who are receiving cancer treatment and, if you have experienced hiccups, how they may have affected your quality of life.
So, whether you’ve had hiccups or not, we asked Connect members to take part in a survey. Responses in the survey remain anonymous and are kept completely confidential. The survey is now closed. I will share the results of survey after analysis.
In the meantime, feel free to take part in this discussion about hiccups, if you want to share.
Have you had hiccups after chemotherapy? If yes, were they different than you’ve experienced before? Did they bother you or affect your daily living?
+++Study Results+++
Frequency and Symptomatology of Hiccups in Patients With Cancer: Using an On-Line Medical Community to Better Understand the Patient Experience
By C Ehret, C Young, C Ellefson, L Aase, A Jatoi
Published April 1, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1177/10499091211006923
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I just started having them last week after 2nd chemo treatment.
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1 ReactionMy husband just began chemo, has had two cycles of mFolfirinox, and has had hiccups for the first several days after both infusions. They are uncomfortable for him and irritating for me. They think the cause is the Dexamethasone pre-med. He’s hiccuping right now as I type this!
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2 ReactionsWelcome to the club, I am sorry about the hiccups.
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2 ReactionsThank goodness I'm not crazy!
I've never been much of a hiccup person so I've been baffled at the numerous times I've been getting them in the last few months. Alas! This could be the answer. I ended chemo at the end of August and I still have bad hiccups. Sometimes multiple times a day. One of my boys mentioned it the other day, and I told him I have no idea where they're coming from, that I guess it's just my new normal. Like so many other things.
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3 Reactions@richcolleen, can you explain what you mean by "my timer"? I think it might be a typo, but I'm not what the word should be.
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2 ReactionsMy hiccups come when I lay down also. My timer is in right lung and back and breast give me problems also.
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3 ReactionsWe are doing research here at Mayo Clinic on this topic. We would like to get more survey responses and will be posting the survey again in early September. I will certainly keep you posted @susu2 and everyone participating in this discussion.
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2 ReactionsI have been wondering what happened to this topic. Is anyone doing research? I get them occasionally and seem to connect them to the fact that whatever I have just eaten has not gone through the digestive process because my stomach is off center due to a hernia following hysterectomy. See my comment about not taking Lynparza underoveraiancancer discussions.
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2 Reactions@colleenyoung I finally saw this post and thought, I’m not a cancer patient but I do get a biologic, rituximab. And I’ve had hiccups ever since I first started! Mine seem to come around a mealtime or when drinking water. They never interfere with anything, but are a pain in the neck!
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2 ReactionsNo, I used to look it up all the time, but there just didn’t seem to be many answers. I have seen all of these on the list and tried to figure if one could be the problem. Hahaha, searching for that easy fix. I eventually just quit looking, I had not even really thought of it as more than annoying in a long time, until that survey popped up. Then I got really curious all over again. Then the question about 6 ft. Made me curious too!