She was on the Today show this morning, so maybe you already know this story:

She has tried holding her breath. Drinking water from the far side of the glass. Putting sugar under her tongue. Sipping pickle juice. Breathing into a paper bag.

But none of those home remedies has helped 15-year-old Jennifer Mee, who started hiccupping three weeks ago and hasn’t stopped.

Something like 50 times a minute, she hiccups, a staccato sensation that resembles a smoke alarm with a dying battery. Her mother, Rachel Robidoux, thinks Jennifer sounds like a barking chihuahua.

***

Jennifer, a ninth-grader at Northeast High School, was in first-period science class when the spasms began.
After about 15 nonstop minutes, she went to the campus medical clinic. The staff there worked with her for five hours, and still she hiccuped.

That was Jan. 23.

In the weeks since, she has seen a pediatrician, a cardiologist and a neurologist. She has had blood tests, a CT scan and an MRI. She had an allergic reaction to one medication, which triggered hives.

One doctor surmised that Jennifer has a tic disorder, perhaps even Tourette’s  syndrome, but Robidoux said her daughter does not twitch or have inappropriate outbursts, two common symptoms of the condition.

The accompanying photograph shows Jennifer with a variety of hiccup cures.  I note that she also has a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter, which is being recalled for salmonella.  Oh, poor Jennifer.