My wife is unusually sensitive to altitude which we have known for years. She got hammered by altitude sickness last week on the 8th day of a trip we took to higher elevation parks such as Bryce Canyon. It is not consistent and usually she is fine at higher elevation. Last year the same places did not bother her.
We were driving from Rock Springs WY to Jackson when she almost fainted. She recovered but didn't feel good. Her arms felt heavy, but she had no headache which is usually her main symptom of altitude sickness. Elevation was about 6500 feet and climbing slightly toward a pass into Jackson Hole. She hadn't had any trouble up to 9,900 feet at Bryce so we didn't know whether it was altitude or if she just didn't feel well.
Then she told me that the upper and lower part of her vision was black, as if she were looking though a slot between boards. That sounded like oxygen deprivation, in this case it had to be from altitude. By then we were above 7200 feet north of Pinedale WY. We pulled over, checked the map to find the shortest route to lower elevation and canceled our reservation in Jackson. Then we hurried for the Snake River, which I knew would be the lowest elevation within hundreds of miles.
We had to go up a bit more and then went down steeply to the Snake at 3300 feet elevation. Her vision gradually cleared and she felt better by the minute as we descended. From there on we went downhill all the way to the coast except for the short cut hump near Pendlteton, OR, about 4000 feet high.
During the worst of it, her pulse was slightly fast but otherwise fine. Later, by comparison after she had recovered, we both realized that her vision had been blurry and that she had been slightly confused during the time that she had the partially blacked out vision.
The first time she had altitude sickness was in Quito, Ecuador, which is 10,000 feet elevation. Her friends took her to Emergency, where local doctors said, “Another tourist with altitude sickness.†They gave her something that helped a lot till she could get on the plane home. Her most sensitive time was on a trip we took when I watched a GPS unit without telling her and like clockwork, she had a headache at 3000 feet elevation and higher, and no headache below that. Sometimes it causes a rapid heart fibrillation, which is scary.
She has had a heart murmur all of her life, leaky heart valves and inefficient pumping, which is probably a factor. On this latest trip, I think that after several days of meandering around high elevation in dry climate, she got dehydrated, which triggered altitude sickness.
Posted FWIW in case anyone else runs into similar.
Wow! That is some scary stuff. Altitude changes can cause some severe reactions. Gases that are in solution in the blood at lower elevations can come out at higher elevations and affect the body in strange ways. That is one of the reasons scuba divers are advised not to fly within several hours of diving due to the potential of nitrogen bubble formation (sometimes called the "bends"). Dehydration exacerbates the problem.
I'm glad your wife is recovering well. Consider West Kentucky for your next vacation. We don't have much over several hundred feet in elevation and it would be a good excuse to visit the LBL hunt too. :biggrin:
I can definitely understand your concern. Hope all goes well for her and you from now on.
That's some good info to have. Glad she's feeling better.
WOW, scary stuff for sure. Never had a problem with either and from what you have posted hope I never do. The Arizona high desert is not a place you would want to take her. Glad all is well.
Glad she is better, but would be a good idea to have her checked out by a doctor. Many folks go into high elevation and get dehydrated without realizing it, especially out west with low humidity.
Yikes :holdon:
I dont know if I could handle that. I get that way just thinking about getting on a plane :sad3:
Glad to hear things are beginning to turn.
She loves the big red rocks of the Four Corners area and she instigated this trip. But I think this is likely our last trip there. Not sure I want to risk taking her there again. She also loves the Tetons, and skipping Jackson where we had planned to spend two days, was a loss.
We can drive up to about 5100 feet within an hour of our house, on Mt. Baker where Coulter and I went last summer. One trouble with altitude sickness is how erratic it is, so that she can be fine one day and in great pain the next at the same elevation.
The darkening vision, usually all around the peripheral vision, is a new one to me. It is not a common symptom of altitude sickness, but happens once in awhile to some people. Headache is the most usual symptom for most people.
She had heart fillibrations in Canmore, Alberta one night about ten years ago when we were staying there, in the Alberta Rockies. We got to know their nice night staff of ER team at the clinic. She had one of those episodes while hooked up to their heart monitor. They were concerned for her comfort and pain but indicated that there wasn't much that they could do about it and that it probably wasn't life threatening. Nothing since and she has successfully made several trips into higher elevations so we thought that she was OK for this trip. My bad judgement.
remrogers: on our to do right away list is to have her eyes checked for retinal bleeding. That is a possible long term effect from the darkening edges/tunnel vision, though her eyes/vision seems totally fine now.
Know a fellow who lived outside Salida, Colorado with his family at around 7000 ft elevation. When he got to be about fifty, he started having troubles that was caused by the altitude. Moved to south central Nebraska and has been fine since then.
That's some serious stuff. Glad she's feeling better and hope all checks out ok. I've suffered similarly several times in the Colorado rockies brought on by over excertion and dehydration, but never had the vision problem. How's her blood pressure and regular heart rate? Just curious because mine are both pretty low and I think that may have affected me.
Keep us posted
Wow glad stuff didn't get any worse! Sure hope she's feeling better and gets checked out, that sounds like it was very scary.
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Thanks everyone for the good wishes. She recovered rapidly and apparently totally. She slept 13 hours the night following the sickness.
Dave: Her normal pulse is quite slow compared to most people (48-52 for the past 40 years) and her normal blood pressure is lower than average.