BIKERS TRAVELOGUES

By – Faiyaz Sultan

What happens if you are on a short tour of 25 days and you end up having food poison in the middle of it?

First let me explain you all as what AMS & Dehydration.

Acute Mountain Sickness or Mountain sickness is an illness that ranges from a mild headache and weariness to a life-threatening build-up of fluid in the lungs or brain at high altitudes.

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is common for all those who travel to Ladakh as its higher altitude is ideal for AMS. A more serious form of mountain sickness is high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). But not many could end up in that form as it is usually due to heavy lose of oxygen from the blood either cycling or mountain climbing could cause it. This illness occurs when fluid builds up within the lungs, a condition that can make breathing extremely difficult. Usually, this happens after the second night spent at a high altitude, but it can happen earlier or later. HAPE often comes on quickly. If left untreated, it can progress to respiratory collapse and ultimately to death. HAPE is the number one cause of death from mountain sickness.

Dehydration is a condition that occurs when the loss of body fluids, mostly water, exceeds the amount that is taken in. With dehydration, more water is moving out of our body than the amount of water we take in through drinking. We lose water every day in the form of water vapor in the breath we exhale and as water in our sweat, urine, and stool. Along with the water, small amounts of salts are also lost, but when on long tours you must keep drinking any form of fluids as regularly as possible. When we lose too much water, our bodies may become out of balance or dehydrated. Severe dehydration can lead to death.

When a rider goes through dehydration he is prone to acute mountain sickness and guess what? I suffered all of them at the same time.

It all started off on Day 3 of the Ladakh tour when I, Shalvin, Croc stoped at a Dhaba for a hot cup of tea. Shalvin & Croc had normal tea but stupid me, I tried lemon and mint mix tea. How crappy does it sound? Well not that bad as it tastes I would say, since the Dhaba guys did not have the normal tea they suggested either Lemon tea or Mint tea but I asked for a mix between both. One sip and I knew that I cannot have the entire glass of it but it was really cold out there around 3 degrees and I had to have something hot. I had the whole glass of this mixed flavor and really did not enjoy it. After we finished it, we headed up to Manali and it was late night. The ride was not the issue but just 15 mins down the road and i felt like puking out everything. But I did not, reached Manali and got into a hotel. Once in, I was too tiered and really wanted to crash into bed but the damn tea made me go crazy, I puked all night and next day morning it was to my horror that I felt strange pain in my abdominal area. I thought it was normal pain and ignored it, my poor stomach was indicating to the trouble I was about to go through. Mid noon and we reached RohtangLa Pass, by the time we reached I had sickening feeling inside and I was about blast out but then hold myself and controlled it. By the time we reached Koksar, it was sun down time and I had to relieve myself. Stopped at Koksar and ran inside the police check post, lucky me I found my good old friend Neeraj posted there. I finally relieved myself and got out with a grin on my face; this was the first time that I had to go through such an experience and what timing it had. I do have loads of junk food but never did I have food poison. It’s advisable for anyone to check with doctor but I didn’t. We were running out of time and we had to reach Keylong by night. Spending two days in Keylong with the same problem but I did have loads of water.

Day 6, we left Keylong and my stomach ache had just worsened during the course of time. Medication I had would have no effect. We reached Sarchu and by that time I was out cold. David who was suffering from similar problems was admitted in the Medical facility of Indian Army, I just came out of the facility and I dropped dead on the desert. My body would not take it any more and thanks to Anshuman who helped me get back to the facility and next thing I know, I woke up next to David after few hours of sleep.

The entire group was surrounding us and waited for our recovery, I was in no condition to continue nor was David. We rested at Sarchu and the night passed like a lightning. Next morning I still felt the pain, the army doctor advised me to take as much liquid as I can as I was suffering from Dehydration which also resulted in AMS. Little did the doctor know that I was actually suffering from food poison not AMS. I had no symptoms of AMS but did have problems.

Day 7, we left Sarchu and I was determined to reach Leh by noon. David also wanted to be hold on with me and we both decided to leave the rest and move on to Leh. All sceneries, beautiful landscape & amazing sky but no time for a single photo shot from my side. I was eager to reach Leh and so we did by 4pm. 3 more days of even more suffering and I ended up at a hospital in Leh, my pain was unbearable and doctor immediately reorganized the problem and advised for few days of rest with proper medication.

The most beautiful part of the journey was all missed out by me due to one glass of tea. Some times you learn a lesson from such incidences, no matter how prepared you are or how many times you have been there. You would still have a twist in the story and this time it was this problem that gave me one more memorable experience out of the blue.