Hello lovely people,
My grandad has lung cancer and keeps getting a discomfort in his chest. He says it feels as though he has a hiccup trying to come up but gets stuck in his chest. He says it’s not painful but just extremely uncomfortable and sometimes his belly spasms while it is happening. He often lets out a yelping sound when it is happening and we just have to wait for it to subside. You can see him struggling to breathe after, as if he is trying to catch his breath. We can’t predict when it will happen or the intensity that it will happen at. It can happen once or multiple times in succession. It can wake him up at night. The doctors at the hospital had said that it was hiccups that would settle when he resumed his appetite/a better eating pattern. He has started eating better but the problem is still there. The GP has visited and thinks that it might be acid. He has previously been tried on a hiccup medication and his lansoprazole has now been increased to twice daily but neither of these things has helped. We try sitting him up when it happens. It’s hard to say if that helps or not. The pharmacist advised withholding his prescribed calcium carbonate for 10 days but this did not seem to fix the problem. We have tried turmeric and ginger as well as other herbal teas, aloe Vera gel and even CBD oil but there doesn’t seem to be much change with these either.
He is also prescribed medication for hypertension (amlodipine), metformin, asthma inhaler and peptic liquid.
Does anyone know if what I have described has a name or has anyone been through anything similar? Do you have any ideas on what else we could try?
Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Hi thoughtful one. I am sorry to hear about your grandad. This is not something I have come across myself, but wanted to point you in the direction of the Ask a Nurse page in case you don’t get an answer here, you could ask your question there.
Hope this settles down for him soon. X
