Four days off!

We just finished a three day stint that included two heli evacuations for High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. Now Lexi and I are heading out for a few days of R&R. More like endless uphill hiking. The snow is sticking above 4000m so we've got all our winter gear packed. My task before we leave is to integrate the photovoltaic charge controllers with the variable (crappy) performance of the local hydroelectric power. Our oxygen concentrator uses a lot of power. By the time our latest patient left, our batteries were down to 11.8 volts.


Martin had a great 39th birthday. He's deciding which pair of new skis he wants when we get back. We went for a 24km hike and then came back to a Big Brown Birthday Cake. I'm calling it brown because it was, and because there was absolutely no flavor of chocolate in the whole thing. It did look impressive, though. Steven and Misty whipped up some gnocchi with a mushroom wine sauce which was awesome after so many nights of lentils.

We had our 2nd helicopter evacuation, and my first case of actual High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. A Spanish woman stumbled into the clinic after becoming sick the night before in a town about 2500ft lower than Manang. Her Peruvian guide decided the best thing to do was load her on a horse and bring her UP 2500ft to Manang (unfortunately for her, the primary treatment of altitude problems is DESCENT). When she got here, her O2 saturation was 58% (normal is 95%!) and she was literally dying: pale, diaphoretic, not talking. Luckily, we were able to stabilize her with O2 and medications. (Kim you would be proud of my RN skills!) We flew her out the next morning to Kathmandu, and we're glad to hear she is doing much better.

We are now out of whiskey. The situation is grim. Coffee is holding on, and I've got 5 swiss chocolate bars left. Tough times ahead. We also had more goat. This time not so shocking, I mean, what's a little cashmere hair in your stew?

To the Sun Valley Ladies Contingent: So glad you're ripping it up, hope you get to ride Chocolate Gulch and Oregon Gulch, eat sushi and Mexican food, have smoothies, oogle sweet bikes, etc. I'm jealous and haven't even seen a bike in 3 weeks. Jessica, Hold your Line Kona Girl has gotten me through many cold evenings, loud Hindi music filled bus rides, and I would love a reprise!

Erica, what can I say, Bailey is (like me) an only child! Sharing is hard! Sounds like you've got her figured out. Hope you cabinets and canning projects are both going well. I've been thinking about the accordian offer, but Martin is against it.