The Hiccup Miracle

Before I go into my story, I have to recognize my blogging milestone. I reached 100 followers!!! Thank you to everyone who is following and reading my blog posts. I greatly appreciate it. 

In other blogging news, I will be taking part in a HUGE giveaway later this week so be on the lookout for that as well as I will be hosting my own double giveaway next month. I also will be kicking off a new project that I am very excited about next month. So, there's lots going on and I hope you will participate in all of it.

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Last night, I had the misfortune of getting the hiccups. I HATE, no LOATHE, getting the hiccups. Because I have such a paranoid mind, I'm always thinking What if they never go away? What if they stay for days, weeks, months and I end up being one of those people in the Guinness Book of World Records?  I try to start concentating on my breathing. Breathing in slowly, holding it for while, then exhaling. 

That's not working and it's only making me more frustrated. So, I try to just go on with my life and forget I have them. I focus on watching TV and reading and replying to emails. But they're still there and I know it because my lovely husband is laughing every time I hiccup. 

Speaking of my husband and laughing, he's the reason I had the hiccups in the first place! He did something that made me laugh, then I got choked up and my laugh became a cough. Then, I had that dreadful feeling. I could tell I had swallowed too much air. I could feel them coming on....and sure enough there they were...hiccups.

As the minutes are passing by,I still haven't gotten rid of my hiccups. My lovely husband then tells me that he has class early in the morning so if I don't get rid of my hiccups, I can sleep on the couch so I don't keep him awake. I'm glad he's concerned about me. He makes me realize, though, that time is ticking away. It is getting late. I am on my break from school, but I'm still not a night person. I don't stay up late. I was going to be ready for bed soon. And if there's one thing more frustrating than getting the hiccups, it's having the hiccups when you're trying to sleep.

I try to breathe slowly and hold my breath again. It's still not working. I tried drinking some water. Sometimes that has worked for me in the past. That wasn't working either. Lee went to bed. I was getting a little desperate. It had been over an hour since they started. I turned to the only thing I know to do in a crisis situation-Google search.

I searched 'how to get rid of hiccups.' Many of the standard things I had tried already were there. I looked at some of the others: swallow a spoonful of sugar (no thanks!), massage the roof of your mouth with a cotton swab (I have a terrible gag reflex!), swallow a spoonful of vinegar (ew...no!), stick out your tongue and pull on it a little (weird, but I can try that.......nope didn't work),eat a spoonful of peanut butter (I love peanut butter...this I can do!).

I went to our kitchen to retrieve a spoon and the peanut butter. Our peanut butter jar was nearly empty, but luckily there was just enough for me to get a spoonful. I began to eat it and instantly I could feel a difference. I tried not to get my hopes up in case I was wrong. I continued to slowly eat the peanut butter while trying to keep my breathing nice and even. When I finished eating the peanut butter, I waited to see if they were truly gone or if they'd be back. 

After a few minutes, I determined that the peanut butter had worked! The hiccups were gone! I was cured! I would not be setting any world records!

Why does this work? Well according to my Google research, sticky food like peanut butter stimulates the vagus nerve causing your diaphragm to constrict. Yea...I don't know what all that means either, but it worked!!!

Peanut butter is the hiccup miracle cure! At least it was for me last night...