1 Week Down

Monday March 21, 2011

4:51PM

Really, not a lot to report for the last 48 hours, although yesterday was interesting. We had enough sunshine to warm up the water tank, and I started to get the idea of a shower in my head. With the recent weather patterns leaving us with limited hot water, you really have to jump at the opportunity to bathe unless you just like submersing yourself in direct snow melt. Ang Rita had been here the least amount of time and so hadn’t gotten his shower turn yet, so I deferred to him figuring there would be enough for two if not three showers. After what seemed like an exorbitant amount of time, I poked my head in to the bathroom and found a clean and, luckily, clothed sherpa smiling and laughing his trademark cackle through the thick the steam while stirring his dirty laundry in the bottom of the shower with a mop handle. He seemed to have had so much fun it was hard to be angry when we discovered that he had used up not only all of the hot water but also all of the cold water as well. Oh well, have to be dirty for another day. The event got me thinking about some of the other odd behaviors I’ve noticed in our clinic caretaker but I’m still trying to decide whether they are due to cultural differences or just wierdness. I’ll have to save my analyses for the current time as I think I need to gain more insight, but at some point expect some elaboration on the personality of Ang Rita.

Whatever is going on in my stomach seems to be settling out, although I still am not entirely sure why, as nothing has really changed. My suspicion is that it is likely the rapid dietary change from my usual fruit, veggies, etc to the strict rice, pasta, potatoes menu here in high Nepal. I’m going to see if there is some altitude-related explanation, but I’m not aware of such from my previous studies.

Unfortunately, Alun has passed along his cold to Lauren and I, and we’ve been rapidly depleting the stores of tissue in the aid post. Hydration is really difficult when the air is this dry and your nose won’t quit running, so my water bottle has been even more attached to my hip than it is normally. I was finally able to have a successful Skype session with Mom and Dad this morning, and if I recall correctly, Mom’s comment was something like “You look bad.” Thanks. 

Despite the constant stream from my eyes and nose, today was the previously determined date for getting back on a running schedule. We’ve been here a week and upping the level of exertion really shouldn’t put us at much risk for developing altitude illness, at least if we stay near this elevation. Lauren was feeling pretty bad so she took a nap and Alun had already made arrangements to go hiking, so I was left manning the clinic solo for the morning. After the rush of 3 patients just before lunch, during which time I realized that we have only used ECG stickers that no longer stick to anything, I was finally able to go out for a little exercise. 

The day was nice and warm, 45 or so outside and 34 inside, with a little breeze that was helpful in running up-valley and not too much hinderance when coming back down. The dusting of snow we received overnight was long since melted off and it was easy to to follow the trail due to the deep ruts cut from the yak trains. I ran up to the next village and felt like I was working really hard to keep a pace slightly better than Parkinsonian. The way back down was much easier, even though the angle of the valley is hardly steep. It took a solid 15 minutes to fully catch my breath once I got back to the post, and after consulting my map it appears that I covered a whopping 2-3 km. I double checked the time on my watch and realized that I could probably walk that fast at sea level. We’ve been questioning the accuracy of the local maps, but I suspect that if I really want to quit deflating the ego I should probably stick to running downhill or, worse yet, just not running at all. 

Even with all of this activity, I still managed to complete book #4 for the week, and at this rate will read every book in the village by April. Tomorrow morning I’m planning to hike up to the top of the ridge to our east, the summit of which I have not been able to reach yet. From camp it doesn’t look all that high or far, but yesterday I turned around at 16,000 ft, 1800 higher than Pheriche, and still had a significant height to gain.