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Browsing Category Everest Base Camp Trek

Team Annapurna

April 11, 2013 · by Julie

Kiwi Steve, Jake, Ruth, Nancy, Lisa, Bill, Tamy, Julie, Russ, Steve, Barry, Frank, Nort, Lou Anne, Mitch, D.K., Random Cute Kid, Gokul

April 11, 2013
Thursday

So. Everest kicked my ass. I didn’t get there, didn’t even get to try. The closest I got to that mountain was a fly-by on my way to Bhutan. Two months later I came home from Nepal and faced an even higher mountain: a career in shambles. An important client – THE important client – gone. Poof. Like that. Rebuilding my business has been slow and challenging, and may ultimately be impossible. I’m in my office, yet part of me is still sitting in Kathmandu, nowhere near the summit with supplies dwindling fast.

Everest and the Real Girl took a back seat for a while, but I still have a lot to share. After all, we made it to Annapurna Base Camp – not Everest, but not too shabby either! Today, though, I’m not going to tell you what we did on the way up that mountain because that’s not where my mind goes first. I’m going to tell you about Team Annapurna – the best team that I have ever had the honor to travel with, hands down!

My disappointment in being “strongly encouraged” to join the Annapurna team rather than the Everest team, due to the mysterious high pressure in the right side of my heart, began to ease at our welcome dinner in Kathmandu when I first met our Active Himalayas guide, our local guide, and my 15 fellow trekkers. We would meet our fantastic team of super-strong porters later. These guys were always a high point of our day, hauling our gear up the mountain then running back to guide us into the next teahouse, high-fiving us as we crawled up the inevitable last flight of stone steps before collapsing in a heap somewhere near the lemon-ginger tea.

Photo: Barry and Jake

But that first night, it was all shiny and new as we ate dinner on a rooftop in Kathmandu, eyeing each other warily and wondering who we would be tempted to throw off a cliff by the end of the journey. Five minutes in, we knew. Nobody was going off a cliff without the rest of us diving to save them. We clicked. Like Fred and Ginger. Like Gilligan and the Skipper. Like Barry and his Fanta. We were all seasoned travelers, most of us on a repeat trip with Active Adventures. We shared stories about our favorite places on the planet. Jake worried us a bit when he said Disneyland, but when the table went silent and all heads turned, he changed his answer to Switzerland. I’m still not sure if he was really joking. 😉

Then we were off.

Our mascot Trev. He likes beer.

Even though it wasn’t Everest Base Camp, this trek wasn’t easy. In fact, it was quite a challenge. We lived in close quarters in uncomfortable and unfamiliar conditions for days on end. As Lisa noted, we knew each other by smell after a while. Things went wrong: the hot shower we’d been looking forward to for a couple of days was glacier cold, the teahouse gave away our rooms, hiking poles broke, our water froze. We were tired, sore, and at times frustrated. Yet we laughed about it all, supported one another through the rough spots, and lifted our collective spirits by building human pyramids, doing jumping jacks to burn just four more calories to make an even 1000, counting the Chomrong Steps (Tamy says 2037), or dancing around a fire making total fools of ourselves and loving every second. We shared our precious toilet paper and gave up our hand warmers. We drank with Trev, who let Kiwi Steve drag him all the way from New Zealand to be our unofficial mascot. We were blissfully free of negativity. I love these people.

I give credit to each and every one of us for the success of this trek. We were all very different people but it was the perfect mix of personalities. I also give credit to Active Adventures, our guides D.K. and Gokul, and to our team of porters who made it easy to laugh and enjoy the ride. Active Adventures attracts a certain type of traveler, those who want to walk to dinner and become part of the chaos of the streets rather than pile into a van to watch life pass us by. Travelers who don’t want our gear to just magically appear in our teahouse rooms delivered by unseen hands, but who want to have some fun with the people who work so hard to make sure we’re safe, healthy, and as comfortable as possible. We want to be in touch with our experience, to be fully alive in each moment along the way, even when we have to put hot hard-boiled eggs down our shirts to stay warm.

Ultimately, this was the best trip of my life because of Team Annapurna! The Annapurna Range was a breathtaking backdrop, but the real beauty was found in the people I met along the way. To all of you – thank you! I would travel with any of you again, any time. You made the Post-Traumatic Step Disorder worthwhile.

Photo: Barry and Jake

This isn’t the end though, it’s just the beginning of the next adventure. I have a new Everest to climb, one even more challenging than the mountain in Nepal. I’ve always had a strange career – one that made a list of the 20 oddest jobs on the planet a few years back. Now the industry is changing, shifting, adapting, morphing into a patchwork of skills that are barely recognizable as the career path that I chose. I have the opportunity to redefine myself, or to redefine the field in which I work. I’m not entirely certain which path I’ll choose to take.

I am sure of one thing though: The lessons Everest taught me will guide me into the future. Initial disappointment turned into absolute joy. Redefining my goal led to a more rewarding outcome. The relationships I built along the trail lasted much longer than the view from our summit. And the journey…the journey is what still makes me smile. Every day.

I’m going to keep trekking.

Namaste.

Leaving Tomorrow!

October 5, 2012 · by Julie

October 5, 2012
Friday

The Journey is the Destination

The Changing Path

It came up so fast – tomorrow I board a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, then on to Kathmandu to begin the adventure! Thing is, it’s not the adventure I’ve been sharing with you for the last several months. At all. I stopped sharing because, quite frankly, I had no idea what to say. I’m still coming to terms with my feelings about how this trip has evolved, and I swing from hating every second and wanting to cancel it to knowing that once I get there, it will be overwhelmingly, jaw-dropping amazing and I will forget that it’s not the trip I planned.

Expectations are dangerous. And painful. They truly are the cause of our suffering. I expected to go to Everest. I expected to see Nepal, Bhutan, and maybe even Tibet with a friend. I expected to be perfectly healthy and in great shape by now.

Expectations suck. They can be shattered.

Here are the highlights, the pieces I can put together and make some sort of sense of at this point.

The Trek

I wanted to go to Everest Base Camp. I’ve always wanted to go. Wade Davis, my first inspiration to become an ethnographer, recently wrote a book about Everest. Talking with him about his experiences at a lecture at the Bowers Museum back in March just sparked the fire. I was going to do it!

I psyched myself up for it, told all my friends and family, and even blogged about it. I trained hard – but wait. Something was wrong. I was getting short of breath, light-headed, and even passing out on training hikes that were a bit challenging, but should have been easy for me. They weren’t easy. I thought my asthma was acting up again. So I went to my primary care doctor, who sent me on to a cardiologist.

The good news is, I don’t have asthma! The bad? Asthma was a misdiagnosis from way back when. What I do have is two different congenital heart defects. They’re minor, but for some reason that we still don’t understand I also have mild pulmonary hypertension which is causing my symptoms and is likely related. My western doctors have been great at doing tests, and more tests, and more tests, and fine-tuning the diagnosis. We are still in that process, and I still need more tests when I get home. However, they have done NOTHING to address the shortness of breath and dizziness while exercising. Zero.

I did find a wonderful acupuncturist and specialist in Chinese Medicine, Michael Vercos at Pacific Bay Integrative Health Center in Santa Monica. Between the herbs and the acupuncture, my cardio world has changed. I never realized how it really felt to run – I never knew I shouldn’t be gasping for air, feeling faint, and getting a migraine a few hours later like clockwork. With his treatment, I am improving. However, I am still far from normal.

Because of this, I know I will be slower than the rest of the group at high altitude – and maybe even at lower altitude. I thought it was best to be honest with the trekking company, and perhaps hire an extra porter/guide to stay with me if I ended up being too slow, so I didn’t hold up the group. Nobody wants to be That Person, but since I knew there was a chance, I thought I’d be prepared.

Big mistake. Huge. Ethics suck.

Although they were very polite about it, the trekking agency made it clear that they really didn’t want me on the Everest Base Camp trek. They gave me the choice, but the tone was clear – if I chose to go, they would consider me a liability from Second One. I felt like I wasn’t wanted. I was devastated. I don’t feel like it would have been fun to go where I’m not wanted, and where everyone immediately considers me a pain in the ass. Hiring an extra porter wasn’t an option they really wanted to offer. Instead, they offered to switch me to another trek – Annapurna Sanctuary – which is lower altitude, and well within an altitude I have successfully tackled before. I switched. I want to hike with people who want me hiking with them. So. Annapurna Sanctuary, it is.

Another issue with the switch is that it’s a shorter trek. This has pros and cons. The main pro is that China is not issuing Tibet Permits in October. The shorter trek leaves me a potential window if they begin issuing them again in November, so it’s possible I can still make that work. We’ll see. The cons are numerous, from the disappointment to having to pay for an extra week’s lodging in Kathmandu at the end, which was still cheaper than changing my flight date. In the end, what should have been the less expensive trek ended up costing me more. I’m hoping to make good use of that time though, trying to get a Tibet Permit, or perhaps traveling to the south, or even just to Bhaktapur or some such place. I’ll make the best of it. But dealing with logistical changes and even a slightly different gear list has left me scrambling and stressed out rather than truly excited.

The Solo Travel

Then there was another change in plans. Although she didn’t plan to trek with me, a friend was supposed to join me for the first part of my trip. We were going to travel to Nepal together, then on to either Tibet or Bhutan, then I would return for the trek. A few weeks ago, she learned she was unable to go and she had to cancel. So here I am, traveling solo yet again. Now, for the record, I’m used to traveling alone. I enjoy it to an extent, and there are definite benefits. But this time, I was looking forward to company for at least part of the trip. I was still able to go to Bhutan, but as most of you reading this are probably aware, single supplements are the solo traveler’s punishment. For what, I’m not sure. For being too much of a loser to have a travel partner? Whatever. What it means is that Bhutan cost me twice as much as it would have in a group of two. Not a surprise, just yet another disappointment.

I was excited again when it seemed I might be able to connect with another friend who is traveling solo in Asia right now, but it turned out she’s arriving in Kathmandu the day after I leave for Bhutan, and she’ll be moving on before I return. I won’t see her either.

So. Solo it is. Story of my life.

At this point, with the flight tomorrow morning, I’m trying to get back in the game and remind myself that this is the beauty of travel. It always changes. The path you take is never the path you expected to take, and those detours are what make the memories. Like taking the Lares Trail when the Inca Trail permits were sold out, and meeting only locals along the way – no other trekking groups for days! Instead, we met farmers and herders who shared their lives, stories, and homes with us. Or driving from Victoria Falls back to Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, and running into a random guesthouse on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, where we ate the best french fries in the world as a local reggae band started an impromptu party that mesmerized us into dancing for hours. Or taking a standard wine tasting tour in Stellenbosch, South Africa that unexpectedly ended with Mark Bilton of Bilton Wines inviting all of us back to his home for a tasting in his private cellar. Fabulous wines, by the way! Get your hands on them if you can!

It’s the moments you DON’T plan that are the best moments. The real moments. Life.

I’m off to live mine. xoxo

Day 91 – Vegan Goodies!

August 2, 2012 · by Julie

August 2, 2012
Thursday

The Training

Look! It’s Vegan Bodybuilder Me! 🙂

Okay, so I have a long way to go to lift that kind of weight, but way back at the beginning I promised you some tips and tricks about training as a vegetarian. To be honest, I’m not vegan – but I’m getting there and I keep a vegan kitchen at home. I still find it challenging when I travel and yes, my Barney Boots are leather, but I do what I can, when I can to live as cruelty-free as possible. I don’t preach, I just hope to set an example that others might want to follow, even if it’s one step at a time. (Like climbing that mountain, you know?)

It helps that I am in LOVE with Vega products. I found Vega about six months ago when I first started my journey to Everest-land. I was searching for a way to get more vegan protein and there it was – fabulous stuff! Since then, Brendan Brazier has taken off like a rocket with his Thrive books and Vega and Vega Sport line of vegan yummies. For two months I had Thrive Direct vegan meals delivered to my house and/or my hotel, but when my expensive transmission failed, I had to take a break. It sure beats the hotel food I’m stuck with now though, let me tell ya! I could starve to death eating vegan on the road. Hello? Room service? MORE VEGAN OPTIONS PLEASE! But I digress…back to the point.

I can find a few Vega products at my local Whole Foods, but come on now – chocolate coconut vegan protein bars?! Who wouldn’t want to give those a nibble? Whole Foods doesn’t carry them, so when I got a tweet about Vegan Proteins, I clicked on over. If you know me, you know that I am also a huge supporter of small businesses whenever possible. I love what these guys (and a girl) are doing! They’re vegan bodybuilders raising funds for a documentary and competitions, to get the word out that you can, in fact, be healthy and (super) fit, AND vegan!

But wait! There’s more! They’re also SUPER friendly, fun, and have incredible customer service. My FedEx guy dropped off a box (with that cute picture of me drawn on it) just a little while ago. I needed that chocolate coconut bar to have enough energy to dig through it all! Of course, what I ordered was inside and it was all perfect. Plus there were samples of a bunch of goodies I’d considered ordering (did they read my mind?) and handwritten, personal thank-you notes! Despite a long, frustrating day, I’ve had a huge smile all evening – this is the kind of small gesture that makes me happy, and makes me want to tell the world about a great business!

So – where do you get your protein? Give Vegan Proteins a shot. You’ll probably even get a great drawing of yourself and a good laugh! How can you beat that?

(And no, they had NO idea that I would be blogging about this. They didn’t know me from any other random California vegan protein fiend. Like I promised at the beginning, I don’t take free stuff and I write honestly about what I actually use and know.)

Now, I’m off to finish that chocolate coconut bar…but not before I take care of The Details. It’s off to the post office to send my final balance for the trek off to ACTIVE New Zealand. (Yes I’m going to the Himalayas, but they run fantastic trips in New Zealand and South America too!)

Whew! All that’s left is to keep training and then get on a plane! Yay! Kathmandu, I’m on my way! 🙂

Day 89 – A Pretty Flower!

July 31, 2012 · by Julie

July 31, 2012
Tuesday

The Gear

The UPS Fairy dropped off my Deuter ACT Trail 28 backpack today – two days early! While I was in a shopping mood, I also ordered a whole expedition-sized case of Grabber Hand/Toe/Body warmers. I love these! They’re kind of a pain on the trail since you have to pack them back out, but I really can’t live without them in cold weather. I saved a marriage once by whipping hand warmers out on a jeep safari on Catalina Island on a freezing December evening. No joke. They rock. But back to the backpack.

I unloaded my gear from the Gregory Jade and re-loaded it all directly into the new pack. My first surprise was how well everything fit! I piled in everything I’ll be taking with me on the Active Himalayas EBC Trek, and then some. For now let’s assume I’ll be taking my Canon DSLR and the 300mm lens, even though I’m pretty sure the lens will be staying home. It’s the heaviest item that could possibly end up on my back though, so I threw it in. Just in case I change my mind. (I’ve been known to do that.) There’s plenty of room with space left over. Okay, what’s up? These packs are supposed to be the same size, right? Um, well, as it turns out…sort of. They’re both labeled “28” which makes you think they’re both 28 liters, but looking at the actual specs it depends on what size you buy. The small Gregory Jade is actually listed at 26.5 liters and 1,617 cubic inches. I know I should have thought about that, but it didn’t even cross my mind that a small torso would mean a smaller capacity. Duh. The Deuter is a true 28 liters and 1710 cubic inches. So it’s not my imagination, it is a bit bigger.

The capacity also seems better because of the way that it loads. From that perspective, this new pack is a dream. It stands up on its own. It’s not crescent shaped, which means it also doesn’t have a suspended mesh back, but I can live with that. It won’t roll over and try to get away from me on the edge of a cliff. A whole lot of stuff fits inside, and when it’s stuffed to the max it doesn’t stick way out from my back and make me look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And better yet? When it’s time to dig for my down jacket and I’m gasping for air at the end of a long, hard, high altitude day on the trail, it’s super easy to get to my gear. Check this out. Front zip. It’s all right there. Nice!

So how does it fit? Hmm. Well. It’s fine. It doesn’t feel like I’m carrying air, like the Gregory did. The shoulder straps don’t fit around my rather ample chest as well as the others did, so they’ll rub on my bare arms just a little if I wear a tank top. (Which I definitely will not be wearing in Nepal, so I’m not too worried about that.) The buckles and zippers are a bit harder to work and they just don’t have the sleek, smooth, quality feel of the Jade. I get a vibe that it’s not quite as well-designed and might not last beyond this trip. It sits close to my back though, and despite the trend toward fancy suspended mesh ventilation, this is what I’m used to carrying. It feels a little bit more stable. And it has a pretty flower. 😉

So as of today, it’s a toss-up in my head. It looks like it might be a compromise between perfect comfort and perfect capacity/access to gear. The real test will come on the trail this weekend. So far, I’ve learned that backpacks are like men. A little of this one is great. A little of that one is awesome. But the whole package is really tough to find!

Day 87 – Loading Up!

July 30, 2012 · by Julie

July 29, 2012
Sunday

The Training and The Gear

After a week of weights, yoga, and indoor workouts I was ready to hit the trail again today with my friend Marian. We decided to do the same trail we did last week, since it has a lot of rolling hills and is a good interval workout with a lot of options.

I still wasn’t entirely sold on the Gregory Jade 28 pack, so I loaded it up and took it out on the trail. I’m happy to say that it held up really well! Very comfortable and the weight distribution was really nice – I hardly felt like I was carrying a load! During the hike I didn’t feel a thing, but there’s a slight problem a few hours later. My shoulders are aching a bit, which isn’t normal. I’m sure I had the pack adjusted properly, so all I can figure is that the ventilated suspension puts a little more weight on my shoulders than I’m used to carrying there. Perhaps I’ll adapt to the difference after a few hikes?

My biggest concern is still about my camera. I didn’t include it in today’s test load and I’m worried that with extra pressure on my shoulders from the pack itself, shoving a DSLR on top for easy access won’t work. I’m afraid the weight distribution will be totally wrong. I’ve ordered a backup plan – the Deuter ACT Trail 28. I’ll give it a try too and pick the better of the candidates. At this point, I know that I have at least one that will be fine, although not perfect. I’m convinced the perfect backpack simply does not exist.

Aside from the backpack, we had some extra fun today too! Somewhere along this journey, I bought a really cool toy – a Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS watch. I may have to exchange this one, as the pins in the band keep falling out. The original plastic band dangled like a bangle on my tiny wrist. This is definitely a toy designed for boys. I ordered the fabric wristband, but it hasn’t helped. The device itself is loosely attached to the fabric strap in a way that it still moves around when you run or hike. The curve of the device is so large that if you have a small wrist, you’re just kind of screwed. The worst part is that the movement works out the pins in the band and the watch disconnects on one end and starts flopping around on your arm. Not cool.

What is cool is the data that you get from the Forerunner. Anything you could possibly want to know, it’ll tell you. Heart rate? Check. Route map? Check. Speed, both moving and including the times you stopped to rest? Check. Elevation. Um, check. It’s disheartening to realize that the best hill hike within an hour drive takes me to a whopping 681 feet above sea level. Ignorance is bliss.

It’s fun to race against yourself and compare hikes though. Today we beat last week’s pace even while carrying significantly more weight. Awesome! Can’t wait to see how we do next week – assuming the whole thing doesn’t fall off my wrist before then, anyway.

Day 81 – Back to the Pack

July 24, 2012 · by Julie

July 23, 2012
Sunday

The Gear

The biggest unanswered question about the trek (aside from whether or not the Tibet border will open) is which backpack will ultimately join me on the trail. I’ve been debating this since Day 2 and have researched packs to death. My ancient, beloved CamelBak has been all over the world with me, but ultimately I think it’s a bit too small for a trek of this length and intensity. Although I managed with it just fine in Peru, I would have liked a bit more space and a more comfortable hip belt. Like the old, comfy boots, it’s time for a new pack.

My LowePro Photo Sport 200 turned out to be far too small and much too wimpy. It sagged and bent and twisted after a two hour hike here in Los Angeles, so I can’t imagine it would last more than ten minutes on the EBC Trek.

As a backup plan, I ordered the Clik Elite Obscura. The reviews were great and it seemed like it would solve a key problem – what to do with my camera. To be honest, I’m still debating whether or not I should take my DSLR with the 300mm lens. On the one hand, it’s super heavy and I can’t imagine lugging it up a mountain. On the other hand, it’s NEPAL! I can’t imagine not having it handy when an amazing shot presents itself, like this one I took of a Hadzabe boy in Tanzania. I’m truly torn. In any case, the Obscura arrived and…sat in my living room for a couple of months while I traveled and worked and went to doctors and got distracted by the life of a real girl.

This week, I finally took it out of the bag and tried it on. Have I mentioned that I hate online shopping? Detest it. With a passion. I miss brick and mortar stores where I can touch a backpack and stuff things in it and try it on and walk around with it for a while. This one just doesn’t fit my torso. It’s not comfortable at all. The camera is still really hard to get to, even with the special zippered compartment in the bottom of the pack. Good reviews or not, I can tell immediately that this one is not going to work for me. Of course, I’ve passed the 30 days where I can return it. Anyone want an Obscura? Looks like I have one for sale.

So today I headed out to REI in Huntington Beach, which is just about the only place on the planet left to actually try on backpacks. I can’t believe I didn’t get the name of the employee who helped me because he was FABULOUS! He suggested a few different options, loaded them up with weights, and patiently watched me galumph around the store, moving, twisting, and debating. For over an hour. One problem is that the 28 liter packs are just a *tad* too small, but the next size up in the models that fit me well were 36 liters – a tad too big. Another issue is that, well, how can I put this? I’ve learned that I really need a backpack designed specifically for women. I have, um, parts of my torso that get in the way if the straps aren’t cut just right. So that limited my options too.

With his help, I narrowed it down to the Gregory Jade 28 or the Deuter ACT Trail 28. I left the store with the Gregory Jade (in purple to match my Barney Boots), but I’m still not convinced it’s the right one. It fits like a glove. I hardly feel like I’m carrying any weight. I have never in my life worn such a comfortable backpack. It has one downfall though – it’s top-loading only and because of the fancy suspension in the back, it has sort of a crescent shape. It doesn’t stand up on its own and it’s a bit tricky to pack. There’s no full-length zipper, so you really have to dig for whatever you stash in the very bottom and the crescent shape makes getting to the bottom challenging. It doesn’t stand up – it tilts and rolls and fights you all the way. I can see this being a problem when it comes to my camera. My choices are to either pack it in the bottom and just know that I’ll only be able to use it when we stop at a tea house for the day, or I can ignore every bit of advice about proper weight distribution in a backpack and put it on the very top. It’ll still be hard to get to – I’ll need to at least slide the backpack off one shoulder – but that could work if it doesn’t throw the weight off completely. I decide to take it home, pack it up, and try it out.

On my way out the door, Awesome Employee (dang, I REALLY wish I remembered to ask his name!) reminded me that REI has a generous 100% guarantee policy – the one I used when I returned the Boots of Doom. That made me feel a lot better, as I don’t want to end up in the same situation that I’m in with the brand new, un-returnable Clik Elite bag.

I have a vision of myself collecting “not really used” gear like stray puppies. I suppose I could open a used gear shop, right? Hmm…it’s a thought! 😉

Day 80 – On the Trail Again!

July 23, 2012 · by Julie

July 22, 2012
Sunday

The Training

Back in the saddle!!!

I still have to see one more specialist, but I am good to go to Everest Base Camp! It looks like I probably do, in fact, have a minor congenital heart defect after all. However, as far as heart problems go it’s pretty much a Best Case Scenario. It’s not going to kill me and it certainly explains a lot of issues I’ve had over the years that I wrongly attributed to various minor ailments: Climbing out of the Batoka Gorge in Zimbabwe? Asthma. (Nope.) Falling behind while trekking the Lares Trail in Peru? Altitude sickness. (Wrong.) Struggling on a climb in Malibu Creek? Allergies. (Definitely not.)

The good news is that with a couple of minor precautions – heart rate monitor, paying attention to my body’s signals – I can still climb to dizzying heights. I just have to be sure to slow down when my heart rate hits a certain point so I don’t actually get dizzy. I’ll never summit Everest (not that I was going to try,) and I’ll have to set my ego aside and accept that I’ll likely be the slowest person on the trek. But that’s okay. I CAN GO!!!!!!

So today, my friend Marian joined me for my first hike since this whole convoluted mess began. I’ll admit that I was a little scared. I didn’t really know what to expect, and I was glad I had a friend with me. In the end though, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. In fact, in the process of figuring out what was wrong I had a lot of tests – fitness tests included. As I was climbing up Water Tower Hill, I was thinking about my fabulous VO2 max and the fact that I am actually much healthier than most people my age. Between the positive focus and the rest step that another friend taught me as a way to increase my oxygen efficiency on climbs, I was literally jumping up and down doing the Happy Dance at the top of the hill – not even out of breath at all!

I have had this all my life. I have accomplished challenging climbs before, without even knowing I had any limitations. Why let the mere knowledge of something that’s always existed limit me now? Never!

See you on the trail! 😀

Day 70 – Wired Up!

July 12, 2012 · by Julie

July 12, 2012
Thursday

The Training

“Where’s your med list?”

I must have been asked this question five separate times within a couple of hours. Apparently, I’m one of the rare few who shows up in the cardiology department of a hospital with NO daily medications. That’s okay – I get my “medicine” the old-fashioned way and I intend to keep it that way, if at all possible. They don’t see vegetarians much here either, so I’ve learned to politely tolerate the mini-lectures on not eating cheeseburgers every day. Best to just smile and nod.

I spent a good chunk of today wired up, running on a treadmill (bras not allowed – a man designed this test, for sure!), checking out my heart on monitors, and laughing and joking with an amazing (and dare I say fun?) cardiology team at St. Mary Medical Center. I still need to wait for my cardiologist to read the results, but somehow I’m not too worried. My heart rate and blood pressure were exactly where they were supposed to be during the entire test, and they did exactly what they were supposed to do in different stages. My EKG was perfectly normal. My V02 Max surprised even me – it’s fabulous!

Of course, the cardiologist wasn’t actually there and without his interpretation of the results, I have no idea if the echocardiogram showed any abnormalities. I do know that it was really cool to see my own heart! It’s all there, and it’s beating. That’s good, right?

In any case, I’ll have a definitive answer next week. My money is still on allergies or asthma. Or maybe a cold I didn’t realize I had. Or a random carrot allergy, as one of my friends has put out into the universe.

But my heart? I bet it’s perfectly fine and ready to take me to Everest Base Camp!

Day 68 – Just Keep Moving

July 10, 2012 · by Julie

July 10, 2012
Tuesday

The Training

After a couple of really good runs on Friday and Sunday, I had almost forgotten that I have more tests at the cardiologist’s office coming up on Thursday. Today, however, my run on the treadmill at the gym wasn’t that great. In fact, it was awful. My heart rate spiked to 90% of my maximum just three minutes into a slow jog. I slowed down to a walk and brought my heart rate down again, then was able to run for ten minutes at an even slower pace before hitting a wall and watching my heart rate spike again. After that, I slowed to a walk, cranked the incline up to 10% and walked out the rest of the hour. Clearly, something is still very wrong.

Right now, I’m facing my appointment on Thursday with mixed emotions. I’m both terrified and hopeful. I want an answer, but I’m hoping for a simple problem with an easy fix.

In the meantime, I’m just going to keep moving. One foot in front of the other, even if it has to be super slow. Just keep moving. After all, that’s how everyone gets to Everest Base Camp, right? And I’m still determined to get there.

Day 60 – The Heart of the Matter

July 3, 2012 · by Julie

July 2, 2012
Monday

“You’re way too healthy to be in my office.”

Well, yes. I think so too. But here I am. I’m consulting with a cardiologist, while the trip to Everest Base Camp weighs heavily on my mind. How did I get here?

It all started about a month ago, on a group hike, when I became dizzy and extremely short of breath on an uphill segment and just couldn’t keep up. Or maybe before that, even, when my ankles started swelling up like balloons after relatively short flights. The pollen count was really high the day of the hike, and since 2004 I’ve been diagnosed/undiagnosed with asthma a couple of times. Whether it’s actually asthma or just allergies seems to remain an open question. In any case, despite running and hiking and all that, I’ve been having trouble increasing my cardio fitness significantly. In fact, I sort of appear to be going backwards, able to increase my endurance but only at slower jogging speeds.

So I thought it might be a good idea to see my doctor. I figured I’d walk out with a new inhaler and maybe another prescription for Singulair. Instead, she took about 10 seconds to tell me that she was sending me to a cardiologist. Granted, I showed her these photos taken of my feet after a four hour flight. Plus there are other risk factors as well – I had rheumatic fever as a child – so I understand her concern. And I wasn’t exactly thrilled with elephant cankles either. (Compare this to the photo of my feet on Day 7.) Still, I didn’t expect the next words that came out of her mouth, “symptoms of congestive heart failure.”

WHAAAT?????

I’m sure she saw the look on my face, and she quickly tried to reassure me by telling me that yes, it’s usually an old person’s problem, but she had a seemingly healthy 30 year old die in front of her from it once so young people can get it too. Um. Okay. That doesn’t exactly make me feel better. Now, I do medical sociology and conversation analysis for a living. Doctor/patient interaction is something I’m extremely familiar with from a research perspective. And let me tell you, that was just about the worst bad news delivery I’ve ever heard.

But there it was.

Later that day, I went to the lab, became a human pin cushion, dialed back the intensity of my training for now and…waited.

Today, the news is good. It is NOT congestive heart failure or any other obvious horrible heart condition rearing its ugly head. Still, there is a murmur and more tests next week should give us a much better idea of where things stand. In the meantime, I have not been exercising outdoors. I’ve been sticking to the treadmill at the gym, and to a nice, slow jog. My ankles are fine. Most days my breathing is fine. I still wonder if it’s just allergies or asthma, and if that ends up being the verdict I will be really upset that our medical system put me through this stress. The first day, I was in shock. The second, I cried. Now after hearing that all my labs are perfectly normal, I’m getting angry – at myself. I wonder if I should have even bothered to go to the doctor at all. I wonder why when I was a bit younger, similar symptoms were diagnosed as asthma and a low resting heart rate was considered a sign of fitness, not illness. I marvel at the lack of communication between my doctors and the lab and the insurance company. It seems like this process is taking so loooong and for the first time ever I feel like a collection of disconnected symptoms rather than a person. I wonder if a more holistic approach would feel any different, or have a different result. I wonder if something one doctor or another didn’t bother to ask could be important. I spent maybe 10 minutes with each of them, max.

All I can do now is wait, and hope that this was all for nothing. Hope that they freaked me out and caused a couple of weeks of stress for absolutely no reason at all. Because really, once the wheels of Western medicine are in motion, that’s the best case scenario. That I stressed out, took tons of time away from work, got pricked by phlebotomists who left week-long bruises, spent a lot of money, and in the end I come out the other side with all the tests negative and nothing objectively wrong, even though my ankles still swell and I can’t run faster than 4mph anymore. That’s the BEST thing that could happen. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

For now? Everest Base Camp is still ON! My cardiologist didn’t bat an eye, tell me to stop training, or give me any lectures on high altitude trekking. We’ll see what happens next week, but for now it’s a go and I intend to keep moving forward – even if it’s just at a slow jog!

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