Why can I feel hiccups in my left arm?

[RabbitWho]

Also, when I swallow a tablet with a big gulp of water I can feel it in my left arm too. Usually just above the elbow.

I'm guessing, because it's the left side, it has something to do with my heart.

I'm not hypochondriaking, I'm just curious.

 

[Bystander]

Pinching the brachial nerve, perhaps?

 

[Doug Huffman]

Cardiac referred pain is a not well understood phenomena, though long and widely reported. I would not extrapolate from hiccups irritation spasm from IIRC somatic reflex arc to a cardiac phenomena. Your question is best asked a professional.

 

[Doug Huffman]

Pinching the brachial nerve, perhaps?

There are a number of brachial nerves that are continuations of the axilliary nerve and plexus from C4 and C5.

Remember Artie Johnson's opening skit on R&M's Laugh In, where he falls off his tricycle? Five-ish years ago I flipped my performance trike and fell onto my out-streched arm impinging/pinching my Long Thoracic Nerve of Bell and enervating my Rt Anterior Serratus, the muscle that holds the scapula against the trunk. Now when I hold my Rt arm out my scapula sticks out like a bird's clipped wing, hence my Winging Scapula. While the muscle was dissecting the pain was incredible for two sleepless days.

 

[Bystander]

Aren't the anatomical lessons of "maturity" marvelous to experience? C3 is the trigeminal? Plus something down the arm.

 

[Doug Huffman]

Experience is a good teacher. A bad experience is a better teacher.

Not as I recall. It's tri for three branches to the face, mandible and maxilla.

In HS I insulted CN VII with Swimmer's Ear causing Bell's Palsy for six weeks and ending my career as a competitive swimmer (George Haynes, SCHS '64 '65).

 

[Bystander]

three branches to the face, mandible and maxilla

... and I was thinking there was another nerve off C3 that has something to do with sense of touch in the arm. Turn the head to see what the cat knocked over, hear a crunching, grinding noise in the neck and one side of the face and arm on same side go numb simultaneously.

 

[Doug Huffman]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Sobo_1909_702.png

I am a sustaining contributor to The Wikimedia Foundation

 

[Bystander]

"Somewhat simplified." Possibilities for crosstalk in a frayed wiring harness look horrifying.

 

[Doug Huffman]

Oh sure. Anatomy and physiology is not rigidly designed or arranged. That's why MD's get the big bucks for recognizing that "something's different here!"

 

[Khan Svmmt]

Don't forget that the brain's map of sensations to locations on the body has a great deal of plasticity. I recall reading about doctors grafting artificial nerves from a prosthetic limb onto an amputee's body and the brain learning to process those signals.