Acute Mountain Sickness

You may say, "Penelope, where have you been?" Well Dear Reader, I've been at a work meeting in Park City. You may say, "Park City, how cool!" I've got 3 words-Acute Mountain Sickness.

I bought cute sweaters. Gloves and a neck gator to go snow mobiling. I wasn't thrilled to see some of the asswipes I work with (that is another blog). 

I got off the plane in Salt Lake City. I noticed my head started to pound while I waited for my bags. I got in the shuttle and I noticed my breathing wasn't so great as we started to climb towards Park City. 

I got to my room and decided to order room service. I ate, popped some Motrin and guzzled water. I went to sleep and slept 12 hours. 

The next morning I woke up and puked. Pounding head, dizzy. I went down to the meeting in a fog. Same thing the next day. About mid day I went up to the medical director of our company. He is an anesthesiologist. I told him about my symptoms and I told him I could tell my blood pressure was really high (pounding in temples). I told him I was doing all the things to deal with the altitude-water, no caffeine or alcohol, lots of carbs. I asked if I should just double up on my blood pressure medicine. He looked at me, felt my pulse and saw the sweat on my face. He calmly said, Penelope, you need to go to the urgent care center around the corner. You need someone to go with you and you need to go now." I followed doctors orders. My oxygen saturation was low and my blood pressure was really high. The doctor was really thorough. She said she sees a lot of this from sea level residents. Ironically, my co-worker from New Orleans ended up at the urgent care clinic a couple of hours after me. 

Short story, long, I got meds--diamox to help with ventilation and vicodin for the headache (yay, more drugs for my end of days stash!). They didn't really help. My boss insisted that I go home. Amazing what being back at sea level will do. I felt much better as soon as we landed.

What I learned--Sleep Low and Climb High. Next time I go that high I will start low and ease up to the high altitude. My friend in Colorado told me that  there are now direct flights to Vail. Apparently people are getting off the plane and falling out right and left. 

Enough about me. I sent myself several emails with blog topics from my hotel bed...