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A mom of two who started hiccupping when she was pregnant has revealed she still hasn’t stopped – 12 years later!
After she fell pregnant in 2008, Lisa Graves from Lincoln in England was baffled when she couldn’t stop hiccupping.
After extensive tests, doctors concluded that the nail technician had suffered a stroke during pregnancy and the hiccups were a side-effect.
Her baby was born healthy, but Lisa had hiccups that just wouldn’t stop.
The 31-year-old has grown used to her unusual condition, but her hiccups – which are so loud they’ve been likened to the sound of a dog being stepped on and even a chicken – are a constant surprise to her colleagues.
While her engineer husband, Matthew (35), barely bats an eyelid, and her two daughters, Sophie (7) and Emily (11), take the loud hiccups in their stride, Lisa can find the condition hard to manage, often feeling the need to explain and warn people.
Lisa can hiccup more than 100 times a day but made the decision to learn to live with the condition rather than trying various medications to cure them.
“I’m lucky – I own my salon and the majority of the girls I work with have grown used to it,” Lisa said.
“But I can still make them jump, and there’s been plenty of mishaps when we’re working on nails, with a wild stroke of the brush here and there.
“I initially tried every hiccup remedy in the book: people making me jump, sucking on a lemon, literally everything.
“But nothing worked, and when the neurologists thought they’d cracked it, I decided not to go down the medicated route.
“There was no guarantee it would work, and it was manageable.
“Sometimes I do go on work courses and meals out with the family, things like that, and they can be hard.
“I feel like I have to let people know what might happen. It’s a loud noise, and it can be embarrassing.
“I think I’m likely to be hiccupping till my grave but it’s become part of me now.”
The longest period of hiccupping on record is 68 years, according to The British Society of Gastroenterology.
Lisa’s case is considered rare. The involuntary contraction of her diaphragm now happens most when she’s comfortable and relaxed, she says.
“For everyone who knows me know, it’s just a way of life, just who I am,” she said.
“I can hiccup in the middle of a conversation, and it can be loud.
“I’ve grown used to it.
“There was a time when I’d feel quite embarrassed about it, and would put off going out in public, but now I just get on with it.
“For my daughters, I’ve hiccupped their entire lives so it doesn’t bother them.
“It can wake me up in the night, and sometimes my husband too, but it’s only a minor inconvenience.
“Knowing what happened to me during my pregnancy for no reason, I’m lucky.
“It could have been a lot worse.”
Source: Magazine Features
