New Mexico and Utah took my breath away- in a good and bad way.
You may be wondering where we have been as we haven’t been posting much lately.
I (Breanne) had been struggling to adjust to the altitude of New Mexico and Utah. After 2 weeks of feeling short of breath and progressively feeling worse, Dave convinced me it was time to go to the doctor.
While in the Bryce Canyon area, we decided to head 40mins to the nearest hospital. After so many tests (chest x-rays, EKG, blood work, and more), I was officially told I had mild altitude sickness. I was experiencing headache, diarrhea, exhaustion, shortness of breath and anxiety. The shortness of breath got so bad I was winded just getting out of bed. (Which for Dave was the final straw) The doctors said my body was working hard to adjust by increasing the number of breaths I was taking a minute and that was keeping my oxygen levels within normal limits. But the toll it was taking on my body was not good.
I felt a little stupid for even going to the hospital to hear I’m not accustomed to altitude (which I knew). But the doctor assured me it was the right thing to do because altitude sickness is serious. He informed me that just last week 3 people died from altitude sickness that had been to that very hospital.
What makes altitude sickness so dangerous is people ignore the signs. And just keep trying to push through. It’s what I would have done if Dave hadn’t insisted on the doctor. And when you push through you are at the risk of lung and brain edema which can quickly turn fatal.
The doctor suggested we take some altitude sickness medication and if I didn’t feel better in 2 days, I should leave altitude. However after 2 weeks of feeling like I couldn’t take a deep breath and couldn’t relax because of it, I was ready to leave the altitude to regroup. So Dave and I canceled some reservations and rerouted our trip to Las Vegas, at only 2,000 feet above sea level.
We spent 5 days in Vegas- resting, sleeping, swimming in the pool, making new plans, eating delicious foods, and studying. It was not as restful as we had hoped by the last minute decision for Breanne and Dave to take their license exams needed for their new jobs with only 48-72 hours to study (info about the new jobs for another time). But it was much needed.
It’s pretty upsetting deviating from a plan we so meticulously made. We are grieving the trip we planned, while also remembering to be grateful for this trip at all and that my sickness wasn’t worse. It’s tough when questioning something you want so badly but we communicated all our feelings together and know this is just an unplanned detour; not the end of the trip.
So we created a concrete plan to re-enter altitude VERY slowly, increasing only 400-900 feet every few days trying to make it to a minimum of 4,000 feet above sea level with the hope of making it to 5500 feet above sea level. We also have a plan to use the altitude sickness medication to help me enter higher altitudes with minimal to no symptoms.
We have just started re-entry and hope to have some good news over the next few weeks about adjusting.
So let’s hope that Utah and Colorado take my breath away metaphorically with its amazing views and not literally with its thin, oxygen deprived air.
