Hiccups Can Be Bad

As many of us know from experience, our pacemakers can cause hiccups. Tonight I was drinking coffee and had a mouth full when I had the darnedest hiccup I ever want. It caused me to inhale enough coffee that it was down right scary.

I've had my PM for 8+ years and it has caused me to have hiccups since about three weeks after I got the thing. But I've never before had a hiccup when I had a mouth full of food or drink.

I've long had the habit that when I'm alone with my coffee I'll get a mouth full and hold it for few seconds because I truly enjoy the taste of coffee. But tonight my PM broke me of the habit of holding any liquid in my mouth for even a few seconds.

I'm passing this along just as a caution of another risk for which those of us with a PM have to be aware.

8 Comments

Funny!!

by bowlrbob - 2009-01-23 10:01:30

It was wine induced but I won't tell. But I am glad it's not just me Smitty. I get the hiccups from Hell some nights. For me it usually happens at night. Bowlrbob

Hiccups....

by maryanne - 2009-01-23 10:01:33

Ok I am not taking what you say lightly...it's just funny...tonight...I too experienced a hiccup episode...but I was drinking wine...and I thought it was wine induced.....lol...

Hiccups

by Nim Rod - 2009-01-24 06:01:38

Hi Magster,

When the pacemaker sends an electrical impulse to make the heart beat part of that impulse goes astray and stimulates the diaphragm which results in a hiccup. My hiccups usually come in groups of 2 to 4 but fortunately they do not happen very often now. Initially I had them daily. And some are extremely loud. I've asked my EP why and his reply was that it happens to some and not to others and exactly why some and not others they don't know.

NR

ow

by Tracey_E - 2009-01-24 06:01:39

I guess it doesn't taste as good when you inhale it!

I get the hiccups for days at a time, but it started way before I got the pm and my youngest gets them all the time also, so I think it's just us! Best way I've found to get rid of them (even tho they come back an hour later, lol) is drink ten sips of water while holding your breath and bearing down. Works almost every time.

Mary Anne... no comment ... ROFL

gasp

by BillMFl - 2009-01-24 09:01:54

I think I held my breath too long. The room just got dark...... naw, just jkg.

Coffee Pump

by ElectricFrank - 2009-01-24 12:01:22

Smitty,
Are you sure they put a pacemaker in your chest or was it a coffee pump by mistake?

Inhaling coffee isn't a very comfortable thing. Wine is even worse.

frank

ICD for hiccups?

by ElectricFrank - 2009-01-25 12:01:24

They used to say to scare someone to rid them of the hics. A good jolt might do it.

frank

I get them too!

by vbilbrey - 2009-01-28 11:01:22

I've wondered about that b/c it seems I'm the only one I know who hiccups as much as I do. It's not every day or for days at a time, but it will just come on out of no where. Most of the time I'm at work and I work in a cubicle beside other people. It's pretty embarrassing but no matter how I try to hide it they don't go away too easily. Some times I'll have one or two hiccups and other times I can't stop for a few minutes. And they are loud too. I try to hiccup with my mouth closed but people still hear it.

I'll have to ask my doctor about it.

You know you're wired when...

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