Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Trying to understand what happened to me

Wow. Puking in the mountains is a bit of a spiritual experience
when done from a kneeling position.
The standard request --'please let it stop'.

My 2 most lasting memories: how much the sharp rocks are hurting my knees and why can't I do stomach crunches this hard when just working out.

Harvey may be in transit.

I was very impressed by a paper I read quite a few years ago on the subject of dehydration in runners. It documented that indeed, there commonly was dehydration.

The most severe dehydration was in the winners.

We have mechanisms that are designed to cope with common abnormalities, such that we deal with them and still function.

So probably a little dehydration is fine. Extremes are not good.

Ken, read "Waterlogged" you will see this exact fact repeated over and over again.

His basic premise is that hunting humans evolved and succeeded because our bodies are designed to manage water and electrolytes so well. The book is full of scientific studies but there is plenty of empirical evidence to make his point.

Yes, I vividly remember the "please make it stop".

Funny the things you remember....

I also remember being so grateful for a rock that I sat on at the junction to Lone Pine Lake. It felt so good to sit down, that I didn't want to get up.

I also remember wondering why (tearfully) I didn't see anyone else. I am still wondering about that. There were plenty of people coming down, as I saw when I looked up after descending, and I can only assume that I was moving slower than everyone else, so it still mystifies me why I didn't run into anyone else.

Very interesting information about the whole dehydration issue. I am definitely going to look into that.

LIVE - from Exped Medicine Conference in DC

World expert Peter Hackett gave the first of four talks. First one was basic physiology and a few clinical stories, many more later. I talked to him briefly beforehand about:

Dharma case - his response... can migraine actually do all of that?

I think it was Karin who wanted to know how long imaging abnormalities last after HACE. (by the way, dharmas normal CT does not exclude HACE, only structural lesions.) answer: MRI usual changes clear in days to weeks, but hemosiderin deposits left behind in those areas last forever. If you know Latin, hemo is blood, siderin is iron, so this is evidence of microscopic hemorrhages, or bruises if you will. Thus endeth the decades long question of whether significant high altitude illness causes lasting brain damage. Easy to say yes, how much is harder.

Other question from this forum or the other: what about intermittent hypoxia training in "PODs" rather than static lower pressure or low O2 tents. answer jury is out

Gotta go back now for more. Harvey

Fascinating Harvey,

My doctor said that the only symptom out of the norm for this specific type of migraine, (basilar) was the hallucinations. He chalked that up to a combination of altitude, going more than 24 hours with no sleep, and possible mild hyponatremia. He did say that basilar type migraine very often produces very bizarre neurological symptoms, including complete loss of consciousness, and he has heard about a few cases of hallucinations. He said all the other symptoms, (the euphoric feeling beforehand, the vomiting, the stumbling, ringing in the ears and the slurred speech) were all completely normal for this type of migraine.

He also mentioned that he read somewhere that this is the type of migraine that reporter had - the one where she was talking gibberish and everyone thought it was a stroke. From what the doctor said, it's not a common type of migraine, but can appear in people who have other types of migraines, and that I may not ever have one again.....let's hope!

In case it is interesting, I found this on a Google search. It seems to be geared more towards medical professionals rather than patients:
http://www.medlink.com/cip.asp?UID=mlt002h9&src=Search&ref=34827207

By the way Harvey -

I think the doctor gave me the CT scan not to rule out HACE, but to rule out a small stroke or tumor. I specifically remember him saying no stroke or tumor. It might also have to do with the CT scan machine being available at the Kaiser facility, whereas I would have to go to another facility for the MRI....just a guess.

I think Harvey's advice and comment above were regarding use of CT scan to rule out structural lesions, not HACE.

His reference to HACE and CT scans was in response to a question that I asked that was unrelated: I was curious if HACE leaves signs that a CT scan can pick up, and if so, for how long. Harvey graciously offered to ask Dr. Hackett that question, and here we have his response.

Thanks, Harvey!

Yes Akichow, you are correct. I was just responding to... "by the way, dharmas normal CT does not exclude HACE"

I am not sure if it was Harvey or Ken who brought up MRI...but I was just responding to that. Sometimes I'm not clear. Sorry about that.

That's cleared up

Dr Hackett also mentioned that his group is working on a paper about 9 cases of hyponatremia/water intoxication

As for HAPE (not dharmas problem) he is Telluride. The incidence of HAPE is 1 in 10,000 visitors and there are 12 million ski visitors yearly in CO so they see many cases. they treat in the ER with high flow O2 for 4 hrs and despite horrible initial chest xray and low 02 sat numbers most patients are released to go back to their condo with a low flow O2 concentrator (rather than a tank that might run out). after 48-72 hrs they can go skiing as they are by then acclimatized and lungs cleared of fluid. Cannot, repeat, cannot say the same for HACE victims at any altitude, or HAPE cases in more extreme heights and conditions than a ski town, like Denali or Everest.

Really good stuff here. Too bad it is not in Telluride

Sounds like you are having fun. Interesting to hear reports from the high altitude medicine frontier.