Poor girl can’t stop sneezing – and no one knows why
Next time you sneeze, just imagine doing that up to 16 times per minute … FOR WEEKS.
Think that might suck and change your life just a little? That brings us to Lauren Johnson, a 12-year-old Virginia girl whose life is constantly interrupted by sneezing.
The condition, described as “machine gun sneezing,” started about two weeks ago when the sixth-grader caught a cold and ever since then she’s been miserable.
“I know this is terrible for her,” Lauren’s mom, Lynn Johnson said.
Lauren hasn’t been able to go to school and has visited six different doctors since the non-stop sneezing began. Although there’s no clear diagnosis, one neurologist told the family that Lauren’s condition could be “irretractable psychogenic disorder,” which could be triggered by stress, according to the report. Even a hypnotist couldn’t stop the sneezes.
“There’s less than 40 cases ever documented ever in the entire world,” Johnson said. “Nobody really knows how to treat it, what’s going to work, and even in the cases where it might have worked or turned the sneezing off for awhile, a lot of times it comes back again and then you’re right back to where you started.”
Thankfully, there are a few hours when Lauren does not sneeze – only in deep REM sleep. Obviously sleep is hard to come by.
“It’s pretty hard,” she said. “I have to kind of be physically exhausted before I can, because I just sneeze and sneeze until I eventually can hold off for a couple of seconds before I can go to sleep.”
Lauren and her Mom were on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday morning in hope that someone who watches the show may be able to help and give her some advice about how to stop it.
