Daniel Clavin began suffering constant hiccups after a night of drinking

Jun 7, 2014 07:25 GMT  ·  By

Daniel Clavin, a software worker from County Roscommon, Ireland, has been hiccuping for two years, and recently he has received the devastating news that there is probably no cure and he would have them for life.

The 38-year-old man makes an annoying hic virtually every seven seconds and he says they have been taking over his life. He began suffering constant hiccups in July 2012 after a night of drinking and they never stopped.

According to the Daily Mirror, the hiccups have had a negative impact on Mr. Clavin's personal and social life, as he is embarrassed about going anywhere in public, struggles to eat normally and even has to sleep in a separate room to his wife Susan so that she can have some rest.

Sometimes, the involuntary contractions get so bad, that he passes out or they keep him awake for hours at a time.

“Some days are bad and I’ll have difficulty eating and keeping my food down. Other times they lock up my diaphragm and I won’t be able to breathe for 30 seconds. I spend most nights in a different room from Susan so she is not disturbed but that’s not ideal and it puts a strain on things,” he says.

Daniel has tried a wide variety of medical treatments that could possibly stop his hiccups, but they were all in vain. He has had multiple endoscopies, a CT scan, has taken tranquillizers and he has even gone to see a chiropractor in his desperate search for a solution to stop the hiccups. He has even tried all the old wives’ cures, but nothing has worked.

Now, he has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a neurological condition that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord, and believes the disease could be the cause of his chronic hiccups. But given that the illness has no cure, he fears he will have hiccups for the rest of his life.

“They’ve taken over my life and I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of them,” he said. “Now I’ve been diagnosed with MS I think that’s the reason for them. The MS Society say they’ve never heard of that happening before, but MS can affect your brain in lots of different ways.”

Mr. Clavin is currently seeing a neurologist who has prescribed him a medicine normally used to treat schizophrenics. The drug is called chlorpromazine and although it didn't completely stop the hiccups, it seems that the new treatment has reduced them to a regular on-off pattern. Now, Daniels says he has hiccups for seven or eight days and then, they suddenly stop for five or six days.