What’s Up, Doc?
…Literally. The answer was US - way too high. Without any claims to being a medical professional, I will say that you should respect elevation. Our lodge last night was right under 10,000 feet in elevation. Carrie had already had a brief run-in with altitude sickness on the Rocky Mountain National Park day. The solution was simple - go back down the mountain. Last night we were nearly that same height, and we were spending the night at that elevation.
Carrie had a really rough night. She was up several times, and was feeling light-headed, dizzy, nauseous, and had some difficulty catching her breath. You know - the poster-child symptoms of altitude sickness.
She made it through the night, and we loaded up the car to go down the mountain to see the Grand Tetons National Park. She felt mildly better, but was still having most of the same symptoms. That was when she actually found out exactly how high our cabin was last night. I told her to keep drinking water, and see how she felt. We stopped on a few of our Shaka Guide tour stops, but she didn’t really improve that much.
So, we detoured to Jackson to visit their Emergency Room. I must say, with a baseline of Mercy in Redding, or Kaiser in Sacramento, I was expecting to spend hours in the waiting room. Instead, the nicest staff I’ve seen got us right in to an examination room. After some tests and monitoring, the doctor said that elevation had kicked her butt, but she didn’t have anything more serious to worry about. He recommended staying at lower elevations, like Jackson, and to take it easy - maybe go shopping. My internal monologue totally disagreed with that prescription - haven’t we shopped enough? 😄
He said that the most important thing about being in high elevation is where you sleep. It’s not so bad to visit, then head down to spend the night, or at least to work your way up to high elevations. We had went straight from Deadwood to Mount Olympus, and being more acclimated to slightly above sea level than high elevations.
We found one of the last remaining rooms in Jackson, dropped Carrie off to rest, and headed back to pack up our cabin and load into the accommodating Super 8 Jackson Hole. Right now, they were able to get an early start on painting, and we’re going to try to avoid the massive crowds that are currently thronging historic downtown Jackson, WY, and find some dinner close by.
Carrie is feeling better, but still not 100%. I hope that will salve any hurt feelings about not having fresh new pictures from yesterday yet. You should see both entries magically appearing. The other big issue last night was that we were in a very rustic setting, and the internet there is different. The data packets are hand-delivered from one computer to another in lovely historic, handmade cedar chests, instead of some new-fangled wireless contraptions. If none of that made any sense - just know it was SLOW.
Tomorrow, we’re going to try to see some of what we missed today on our way to Yellowstone. We are going to insist that Carrie get some extra rest tonight and to take it easy for a bit. I’m sure she’d love to get a remote hug or two from her vast number of followers. Good night.
