I woke up pretty sick today. My common, dry Khumbu cough is no longer dry and my phlegm is a yellowish-green. We managed to get ahold of the other group and found that Irene was sick, too. That's why they kept heading down and didn't wait. Krista had two cipro pills that the travel doc gave her and I was told to take that. I felt like death warmed over, but we headed to Phortse (12,508 ft) where there's a health post. The day was sunny and warm, but really hard for me. I kept stopping and coughing up my lungs. I did try to keep the coughs shallow because I didn't want to become one of those trekkers that crack ribs from coughing -- pretty common up here.
After we arrived, we had a quick lunch and then Kopil and Kumar took me to see the "nurse". So we walked to the school and pulled her out of the classroom. She took us into a room that had an old desk, a couple of chairs, and a cot. There was a bookshelf with a couple of boxes of drugs and a white nurses uniform hanging on the wall. She took my temperature (normal), blood pressure (100/70 - not bad considering the altitude) and listened to my lungs. She told me that I most likely had a respiratory infection. She gave me enough amoxicillin to get me to the pharmacy in Namche tomorrow and made me promise to check in with the Red Cross post there.
Back at the lodge, we found that we were the only guests. We were given the room right next to the dining room (nice) and we given all the blankets and pillows that we wanted. We lounged around reading and writing while the family running the place listened to the news on the radio and kept bringing me herbal tea. After the news, there was some Nepali music playing which was really nice. But then I heard "Kung Fu Fighting" in Nepali. Seriously. Someone did a cover of that old 70's tune in Nepali. I hope I can get that tune out of my head sometime soon.
While dinner was cooking, we had a nice chat with the family. They are Sherpa and the man of the family climbed Everest in the mid '90s. He had been invited to the US by some of the climbers that he had met that year and so came for a visit. He went first to Seattle and stayed with Scott Fischer, then down to Berkeley to go to the North Face outlet. He then went down to LA to visit another climber and on to Las Vegas. I can't imagine living your entire life here where your feet and yaks are your only form of transportation and then going to Vegas. I get culture shock enough going there! From Vegas, he went to the Grand Canyon and then on to Colorado where his wife joined him and they did some trekking in the Rockies. I loved talking with them both and trading stories. And I also loved it when he was sitting there with his prayer beads meditating right in front of us. I don't know why, but it was very calming.
After dinner, I took another amoxicillin and went to sleep. I seriously need to feel better tomorrow.
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| Phortse |
Back at the lodge, we found that we were the only guests. We were given the room right next to the dining room (nice) and we given all the blankets and pillows that we wanted. We lounged around reading and writing while the family running the place listened to the news on the radio and kept bringing me herbal tea. After the news, there was some Nepali music playing which was really nice. But then I heard "Kung Fu Fighting" in Nepali. Seriously. Someone did a cover of that old 70's tune in Nepali. I hope I can get that tune out of my head sometime soon.
While dinner was cooking, we had a nice chat with the family. They are Sherpa and the man of the family climbed Everest in the mid '90s. He had been invited to the US by some of the climbers that he had met that year and so came for a visit. He went first to Seattle and stayed with Scott Fischer, then down to Berkeley to go to the North Face outlet. He then went down to LA to visit another climber and on to Las Vegas. I can't imagine living your entire life here where your feet and yaks are your only form of transportation and then going to Vegas. I get culture shock enough going there! From Vegas, he went to the Grand Canyon and then on to Colorado where his wife joined him and they did some trekking in the Rockies. I loved talking with them both and trading stories. And I also loved it when he was sitting there with his prayer beads meditating right in front of us. I don't know why, but it was very calming.
After dinner, I took another amoxicillin and went to sleep. I seriously need to feel better tomorrow.
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