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They're baa-a-a-ack: Hiccups torment teen

By MARY JANE PARK
Published March 16, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - The thrill lasted only a day.

Thursday, her second day back at school since her intractable hiccups began Jan. 23, Jennifer Mee had to leave campus again.

Around 8:15 a.m., during her earth sciences class, her nose bled. Then, the hiccups from which she has suffered off and on for more than seven weeks returned.

At home later, she suffered yet another more severe nose bleed.

"I'm at my wit's end," said Rachel Robidoux, Jennifer's mother. Her daughter is upset, discouraged and in pain.

Jennifer returned to St. Petersburg's Northeast High School on Wednesday, excited to get back to normal. Her classmates hugged and cheered her on.

That day, the 15-year-old ninth-grader hiccuped only twice.

But on Thursday, the staccato spasms recurred 37-41 times a minute, almost as frequently as they had at the onset. They sound more intense than before.

Jennifer has tried a number of approaches to ease her symptoms, from folk remedies to conventional medicine. Worldwide, people have followed her story with concern and suggestions for curing the disorder.

Feb. 28, a full 37 days after they began, her hiccups stopped as she came out of a trance in a hypnotist's office. The cessation was short-lived. The next day, she had a few, and several days later she went to the emergency room with more nonstop spasms.

Then they subsided again, enough to allow Jennifer to go back to school - until Thursday.

Jennifer has had allergic reactions to three prescriptions; this week her doctor recommended still another.

"I hate her being on all that medication," Robidoux said. "She's just not herself."

During the nearly two months she was away from school, Jennifer enrolled in the Pinellas County homebound school program. Robidoux said she expects to do so again.

She has been talking with a family in Arizona whose son's hiccups stopped after a gastroenterologist treated him for a stomach infection. The families connected after news reports about Jennifer attracted international attention.

[Last modified March 15, 2007, 23:10:46]