Mar 16, 2007 9:30 am US/Eastern
Hiccups Return For Teen Who Had Them For 5 Weeks
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (CBS) ―
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Mee had started hiccuping Jan. 23 close to 50 times a minute and said it only stopped when she was sleeping.
CBS
The hiccups are back.
A Florida teen who had been plagued with constant hiccups - up to 50 per mintue - for five weeks, is suffering once more.
During her second day back at school since her hiccups began in January, Jennifer Mee had to leave class. Her nose started to bleed Thursday morning and then the hiccups returned.
Mee's mother, Rachel Robidoux, said her daughter is upset, discouraged and in pain.
"I'm at my wit's end," Robidoux said.
Mee returned to St. Petersburg's Northeast High School on Wednesday, and the 15-year-old ninth-grader hiccuped only twice.
But on Thursday, the hiccups returned with almost the same intensity they had several weeks earlier.
Mee had started hiccuping Jan. 23 close to 50 times a minute and said it only stopped when she was sleeping. The hiccups seemed to stop for good on Feb. 28. No one was certain exactly why she was able to breathe freely again, CBS station WFOR-TV correspondent Robb Hanrahan reported.
She was taken to the emergency room several days later when the spasms returned. When the hiccups stopped again Mee felt it was safe to go back to school.
During her first bout of hiccups Mee saw an infectious disease specialist, a neurologist, a chiropractor, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist. She tried a patented device that is designed to stop hiccups, plus all the old remedies.
According to the National Institutes of Health hiccups can be triggered by anything from spicy foods to stress and they can start for no reason at all. They're caused by involuntary contractions of the diaphragm which causes the vocal cords to close briefly and make that distinctive sound.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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