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May 25, 2004

This is *so* embarrassing

I felt really bad when I arrived here in the Denver area on Sunday night. I thought it was because I had to sit next to a young lady with unbelievable body odor on the flight here. I had a headache, and was a little dizzy and just didn't feel right.

I only had a few hours of sleep on Sunday night - I kept waking up, gasping for air, and thirsty, thirsty, thirsty.

Yesterday, I felt a little better, but nauseous all day long. Last night, another night of little sleep. Went to work this morning and I felt horrible. Around 10:30 am, S and decided to go for a break and take a walk - we took about a 20 minute walk, then when I got back, I felt like death warmed over. So, I got all the installation stuff done and trained S on as much as I could, then I had her drive me back to the hotel, as I was afraid I was going to pass out.

I woke up a couple of hours ago, went down to the hotel bar for some appetizers and a coke and felt a little better. The very kind bartendress explained to me that I probably had altitude sickness. 20 to 30 % of all visitors to Colorado experience this, but usually not until they are about 1,000 feet higher than I am.

I have been to Colorado several times before, but always drove- so I guess I acclimated better. This it the first time I have flown to Denver, and I am really suffering for it. I'm sure part of it is because I am so out of shape and overweight. I had altitude sickness once before, but we were camping out at about 9,000 ft, and I'm not nearly that high up now.

I still love the mountains, though I wish the air was just a little thicker!

Update: I don't think it is altitude sickness. I have a fever. Yuch.

Posted by Beth at May 25, 2004 9:37 PM

Comments

Hey it happens!

When I first moved to Colorado, I swear, I wanted to sleep for three weeks straight! I'd visited there and felt fine....but for some reason....certain locations made me feel absolutely exhausted! And then it dawned on me. It WAS the altitude. Your body adjusts differently to it at different times.

Just go nap when you get the urge. You'll be out of there soon.

Posted by: Da Goddess at May 26, 2004 2:35 AM

I used to get ill when I traveled, I don't so much any more - not sure why. It would come on me suddenly when I'd travel within about 24hrs of my arrival and hit me like a train with flu-like symptoms. Then it would go away in a day or so.

I took my daughter on a ski trip to Ruidosa NM when she was about 5 and when we first got there we went up on the mountain to check it out. On the way back down the poor thing started to actually turn green and I pulled over to check her out. Before I could get stopped she just spewed all over the inside of my then brand new BMW 525. She just had a bad reaction to the altitude. Within 4 days the poor thing had chicken-pox and I had to cancel out (it was a sort of church group thing, there were other kids) and we came home for the rest of our vacation. Heh...on the way through town at the resort I stopped at a clinic to get her looked at and the nurse came out to the car to see her - they had warned me on the phone not to bring her inside.

I don't know why you're embarrassed about it Beth, not your fault.

Posted by: Calliope at May 27, 2004 5:57 PM