Wow. What an epic 36 hours we have just been
through! Very, very stressful. The good
news is that all seems to be in order and everyone is OK. The compelling details:
We reported earlier on how
idyllic we found Salento to be.
Fantastic mountain biking, hiking, and horseback riding. Also a sublime and relaxed atmosphere at La
Serrana eco hostel made the stay memorable.
Fantastic. 5 stars. It was with
some sadness that we departed Salento around 4 days ago for new sites in Colombia.
Our first stop was Villa
Maria, which is a suburb of Manizales.
Still in the coffee region. Our
objective was to hire a guide service to take us up high into Los Nevados
National Park. The park has some of the
highest concentration of peaks in the Colombian Andes. They top out at just under 6000m - nearly 20,000 feet!
We had no illusions about
getting up any of the peaks. We simply wanted to see the high country and do
some trekking.
The guide service came by our
hostel in Villa Maria and gave us a briefing the night prior to our
departure. One of the things that caused
my Spidey Senses to go on full alert was the plan itself. It involved a 3 hour
Jeep ride up a rough hardscrabble road, not too dissimilar from the same type
we have in the San Juans. This would
deliver us to 4000m (13,200 feet) whereupon we would go for a 4 hour hike. We would set up camp that night at 4200m and
then go to 4500m the next morning to the toe of the glacier. This seemed to me like a very aggressive gain
in altitude in a short period of time.
Things like Acute Mountain Sickness and HAPE were certainly something
that Joanie and I discussed.
The drive up was beautiful
and uneventful. Our hike was hard due to
the thin air. I had a low-grade headache.
Rock was suffering the most. No headache, but really dragging his
feet. After the hike, we told the guide
that we wanted to camp near the car just in case. He suggested we could do one better and drop down
300m to a nearby ranch and camp there at 3700m.
We agreed that would be the best plan.
We erected tents, etc and
everyone was pretty well knackered so we passed on dinner and just rested in
the tents. Essentially, we went to bed at around 17:30. At around 19:30 that
night, Rock developed a cough. This progressed for the next couple of hours. It
got wetter and wetter. At 21:30, I went
into his tent, listened to his cough and distressed breathing and decided to
pull the plug. I am not an MD, but felt
that it was classic signs/symptoms for early onset of HAPE (high altitude
pulmonary edema). The wet lung sounds indicate fluid building in the lungs and
if left untreated can lead to rapid loss of conscious and eventually death. He
had to go down. Right now.
We broke camp in the dark,
waking people up, disassembling tents, etc.
We loaded the truck and down we went those same rough 3 hours down the
mountain road. We made the hostel in Villa Maria (1800m) at 1:00 AM. Whew!
His breathing improved significantly during the descent. He had only a dry cough in Villa Maria and
slept well the rest of that night.
We were satisfied to have
made the right call and made it quickly and decisively. You don’t mess around with that stuff, at
all.
After a healthy dose of
coffee and relaxing, we eventually got a cab and made our way south to Santa
Rosa de Cabal. It has a fantastic hot
springs. Really cool. We will post some images later. Well worth the visit.
Rock was 100%. We were
patting ourselves on the back.
After a lovely visit to the
hot springs and a nice dinner, we retired to our hostel. I stayed up late doing our first machine wash
laundry since Paris, 30 days ago. It had
been hand washing in the sink that entire time. We needed it. I went to bed at around 2:00 am and Rock was
coughing badly. Not a wet cough, but a bad cough.
The cough persisted ALL NIGHT
LONG. None of us slept, Rock especially.
His breathing was labored and rapid. At
6:00 am we decided we needed to get him to a hospital. I had plugged in some
signs/symptoms on www.webmd.com and one of
the possibilities that matched his presentation was Acute Respiratory Distress
Syndrome. Whether he had it or not does
not matter. What mattered is he was having a very, very difficult time
breathing. I counted his reps at 50-60+ inspirations per minute and very
shallow. He was like a Cheetah
recovering from a chase. Almost panting.
Rock and I grabbed a taxi to
the hospital 15 blocks away. English was just about bereft at this hospital and
my Spanish is only just passable for getting food, lodging, and directions, but
not for describing medical conditions. Let’s just say that the hospital desktop
computer with Google translator was invaluable.
The doctor's initial
diagnosis was larynx. I was calm, but
firm. I said no way. He was 100% yesterday. No ill effects. He does not cite pain in the throat. We think
he likely has a secondary infection and needs antibiotics (which we carry and
which we would have administered if needed).
I basically was not going to leave the office without a blood workup.
Period.
His saturated O’s measured on
the pulse Ox were 78. Yuck. They got him on O’s and also some antihistamines in
the form of pills and the inhaler. Then
they took the blood sample. The care was
prompt and professional. And clean. I
checked on the computer each item they wished to administer. It was all in Spanish, of course.
About an hour later, the
blood work came back with elevated white blood cell count. Possible bacterial
infection. Big surprise. The last thing they gave him was a load dose
of dexamethasone. A steroid to reduce inflammation. His breathing was improving, but was still
30-40 per minute.
We got the antibiotic script
as well as some other anti-inflammatories and cough medicine. His saturated O’s
were at 91 when we left the hospital. Mine were 98-99.
He responded vey well to the
steroids and his breathing continued to improve. When we got back to the hostel, we were
thrown into full-blown Chinese fire drill mode. The day prior we had arranged
for a cab driver -that we had been using for the past 10 days -to come pick us
up and take us back to Salento at 12 noon.
We missed the activities and relaxing atmosphere. This is a 1 and ½ hour cab ride. On July 20, Colombian Independence Day no less. We tried to cancel the ride, but he was not
happy with that idea. Can’t blame him. He was nearly in Santa Rosa and had
passed up on other business. I was all for just eating the fare, but we decided
that we could rally and stay on our plan. So we scrambled to pack up the gear,
gave Rock some food to help his tummy with the steroids, hustled to the
pharmacy for the script, administered the meds, paid the hostel in Santa Rosa, yadda,
yadda, etc etc. It was CRAZY.
We arrived in Salento at
13:00 (4 hours ago). Rock is still doing well.
We unpacked back into our favorite hostel in Colombia and I made some
coffee and I had my first food in a long time.
Rock seemed to be A-OK.
Our concern, of course, is
when the steroids wear off. He is sleeping now and has been for the past 2-3
hours. His respirations are still 30+ but no coughing, etc. The antibiotics should chase out this
infection pronto and we are confident that we have dodged our second bullet in
36 hours.
8 ½ months on the road and
nary a common cold or diarrhea for just about the whole group. I had a cold the
first few days in Thailand that I probably caught on the flight over from
Hawai’i. Joanie got over one a week or
two ago. We have been super healthy with
no burglaries or car accidents to report. Knock on wood. This episode dished it
out to us in spades. Wow.
Please be patient with us on
individual emails. Things are busy. We will post blog updates on Rock's condition as we
have news to report. Remember, no news is good news. Bad news always travels
fast.
Thanks.
