BC - Broken

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m turning the ripe old age of 34 in 2-days time or whether I am well and truly feeling the stereotypical effects of altitude (up until this point I actually thought I was invincible - ha ha..)…
but this morning, my first morning back at Base Camp since my 4-days at 7200m, I am feeling like an old, dilapidated, broken down car…. an old VW similar to one that my Dad used to have on the farm that was in constant need of repair and just wouldn‘t give up even though pieces kept falling off of it. The car had body-parts from about 7 other old cars duct taped and welded to it... When we misbehaved my Dad used to threaten to drive us to school in it which would definitely have destroyed whatever little street-cred that I had left..!

The floor of my tent here at Basecamp now resembles an old mechanics shop trying to breath life back into an old clunker of a car….pills of various shapes, sizes and colors lined up nearly among a collection of disinfectant hand gel, soap, baby wipes, duct tape, a manicure set as well as “The Complete Idiots Guide to High Altitude Medicine”.

Besides the usual effects of altitude on the body which include extreme dry skin (which has been dubbed, ’leg dandruff’ - how sexy - by the boys) as well as itchy scalp etc. I have three main ailments which are causing me some distress… none of which really bothered me at altitude but have since begun to rage with a vengence here at Base Camp.

Ribs
I’m currently ‘on’ the ’wonder drug’ Flamol’ an anti-inflammatory, antipyretic tablet to ease the pain of a bruised, possibly broken (?) rib I managed to get coughing. It hurts when I breathe deeply and pick up heavy objects - including hot water bottles - not ideal…!! I even struggle getting into and out of my tent. Having said that, Flamol is one of Nepal’s best kept secrets - gloriously strong enough to knock you on your backside in one breath and ensure that you don’t feel it in the next.

Cough
I’m also on Amoxycillin to prevent my cough from becoming a full-blown chest infection. Not an ideal drug to be on but hopefully I’ll finish the course in the next day or two…

Tongue
Finally, I am also on a course of a rather interesting oral drug called, “Zytee”. Contrary to initial instincts, the drug is not used as an acne remedy for 16-year olds… Rather, it an oral drug used for “mouth ulcers, teething pain and denture irritation…” I have managed to “acquire” the most unusual side-effect of altitude - a ’burned’ tongue…. So incredibly painful and can only be compared to licking the inside of a freezer and suffering the horrifically painful consequences.

During my walk down from ABC I narrowed down the potential root-causes of the injury to three potential factors….

Possible Root Cause 1: Sunburn - meaning I would have had to have been panting like a dog with my tongue sticking out of my mouth to burn the tip of my tongue… For the sake of my sophisticated mountain fashionista status, I prefer to exclude this option.
 
Possible Root Cause 2: Hot drinks - I may have burned it on a hot drink at the North Col or a boil in the bag meal (possibly the rice pudding breakfast which I managed to make too watery?!)
 
Possible Root Cause 3: Dry mouth………Possible Root Caue 3 is about as unsophisticated as Option 1.… and, unfortunately (at the sake of my sophisticated street cred), I believe that this is the ultimate source of my misery. Some background…
 
One thing that I noticed, particularly at the North Col, was the cold and extremely dry air which is why it‘s recommended that a ‘buff‘ is worn over your mouth at all times to ensure that some moisture is inhaled with each breath. While it is a bit of a snowy, distant blur, I do recall finding myself buff-less one evening, face down in my sleeping bag in a puddle of drool panicking because I seemed to be missing my tongue - possibly even having swallowed it…. Only to find it completely and utterly ‘stuck’ to the roof of my mouth. In my half-asleep state I must have ‘peeled’ it off of the roof of my mouth with a bit less TLC than I would normally have applied to such a delicate action. If it weren’t such an odd an unusual sensation - as well as unexpected - I wouldn’t have thought more of it. The following morning however, as we began to descend the North Col and blood returned to organs of my body, I recalled the incident as my tongue began to swell up like a giant football.
 
And that is how I now have come to develop an extreme addiction to ‘Zytee’ the’Bongella’ of Nepal. While the injury is hardly visible to the naked eye, it is by far one of the most painful injuries I’ve ever sustained… .