The Alternative...

Coke that tastes like rotten apricots...

Countless mid snuggly night sleep bathroom breaks....

Metallic water sensations....

Severe tingling in your feet at 2:30 AM that wakes you up and continues for an hour....

Ringing in your ears....

Daytime tingling of the feet, hands, lips, forehead, scalp, cheeks.....

And all of these atrocities are suffered in the name of staving off the other ugly alternative of AMS, otherwise known as altitude sickness. I had never given this nasty little condition much thought until I flew from near sea level to Lhasa and proceeded to run around the city to every monastery and walk every kora imaginable in the firs two days I was there. Then the headaches started. And then came nausea, sleeplessness, and fatigue. Now, I'm not one to let any physical illnesses get in the way of my travelling adventures (reference Wilburt the Campylobacter blog), but these seemingly mild symptoms put me in bed for 14 hours and led me to pull out the medical literature and pills my father had sent me for altitude sickness. I popped the acetazolamide pills, and hoped that their magic would work quickly.

And they did. I felt better, and began to have less AMS symptoms. However, after a few days the side effects of this alternative listed above proved to be too symptomatic themselves, and I gave up my altitude meds.

It's been a give-and-take ever since. Balancing how badly I feel due to altitude (and how scared I am that my AMS will develop into HACE - cerebral edema or HAPE - pulmonary edema) with the annoying lifestyle alterations created by these magic pills.

My problems are quicky resolving, though, now that we've left Everest Base Camp. We've thankfully reached the height of our altitude climbing in Tibet, and it's literally all downhill from here.