ANGLETON, Texas (FOX 26) - Only on FOX, a 12-year-old girl in Angleton is desperate for help. Doctors are baffled as to why she's sneezing up to 12,000 times each day. Katelyn Thornley is a seventh grade student whose life should revolve around family and playing the clarinet. Instead, it is often interrupted by sneezing -- at a rate of 20 times per minute.
I'm constantly in pain with my abdomen, my legs are weak, I can barely eat," says Thornley. She can't go to school either. Her parents say it started more than three weeks ago.
"I just started in little spurts, sneezing," adds Thornley.
After Katelyn returns home from a clarinet lesson, she tells FOX 26 News, "I thought it was like, "I'm allergic to something or didn't wash out my mouthpiece the right way."
"It's hard to watch," says Thornley's father. "Yeah. It's hard. Yeah.
"It's just not fun at all," says Thornley.
Listening to music from The Beatles helps Thornley relax. The only time she doesn't sneeze is when she falls asleep after taking Benadryl.
"Sometimes I wish I could leave my body for a little while so i could watch myself sleep and be at peace because even in my dreams, I sneeze," says Thornley. Her doctors and parents are stumped.
"We'd love for this to lead to something," says Thornley's mother regarding the Only On FOX report about the suffering girl. "I mean it's just so rare and difficult."
The family has consulted with six physicians which have ruled out viruses and allergies as causes for the sneezing. No medication has worked for Thornley. Experts believe it could be a stress-related reaction.
"Anything you talk to her about that irritates her -- you can see it spike and continuous sneezing," says Thornley's father. "It's easy to trigger."
"I don't care what they do, I just want it to stop going on for too long," says Thornley. She says she's trying to stay positive and keep up her sense of humor.
Thornley hopes to have a cure soon and be able to look back at the ordeal with a smile and say, "You know, I was on TV once for sneezing."