Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2003. Mattie was a year old. He was sitting inside his VERY LARGE playpen. Which sat in our dining room. In theory, the playpen was for Mattie, but for the most part, he was never in there without one of us. As you can see, it was Peter's turn that day. I remember some days being inside there and truly wanting to put my head down to take a nap. It never happened, but I also knew that everything inside this play space was safe for Mattie.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- number of people diagnosed with the virus: 1,893,934
- number of people who died from the virus: 108,920
My dad finally had a hiccup free night. It is my hope that this good trend lasts the entire day. What made the difference? Baclofen! Baclofen is used to treat muscle spasms caused by certain conditions (such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury/disease). It works by helping to relax the muscles. Specifically it can calm the diaphragm and reduce spasm (causing hiccups). I found this drug myself after reading three peer reviewed papers. I even sent the papers to the doctor and requested that Baclofen be tried. As I could hear on that phone that being on thorazine for a week was not only ineffective, but was causing other symptoms like anxiety, agitation, and outbursts.
Last night, one of my favorite students, who is now a pediatric nurse, wrote to me after reading the blog. I am so honored that Ariel continues to follow our journey, and I am always touched when she tells me that Mattie influenced her career choice. Ariel read about my dad's persistent hiccups and wanted me to know that in her experience working with pediatric oncology patients, that chemo sometimes triggers persistent hiccups. When that has happened, her hospital used Baclofen. She wanted to know if we tried it! Ariel's email was a true gift. Because I may have read about the effectiveness of Baclofen with patients in research studies, but Ariel's clinical experience confirmed for me that it can work and that my suggestion wasn't off base!
Thank you Ariel! Hearing from you enabled me to have hope that we were making the right decision to change medications. I haven't taught at a university in over 11 years. Yet the wonderful connections I made with students continues to live on. That brings me great pride.
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