Worms, germs, and sore knees

After our trek on the Annapurna Circuit, I ended up making a (non-emergency) trip to the hospital because I had something living in my gut that the antibiotics just weren't taking care of. A stool sample revealed I had a parasite and as soon as I started taking the medication prescribed, things cleared right up....and I was literally eating everything in sight since the little bugger seemed to be getting most of my sustenance! About a week into the Everest trek, I finished my 'antiameobic' drugs, and within a few days I was experiencing stomach cramping and sulfur burps that could knock someone out! Of course, this all coincided with the most insane day of trekking. We set out in the morning to cross Cho La pass, which would drop us into the next valley where we would continue towards Everest Base Camp. There was light snow that morning as we started out and hiked across a massive glacier still carving out the valley. We decided that the snow shouldn't deter us as the trail was easy to follow and it would be easy enough to turn back if the snow picked up and we were concerned about our abilities to follow the trail. After a couple of hours of mild climbing, we reach a saddle and could see a series of cairns marking the trail down a rocky field on the other side of the saddle. Although there was a doubt in the back of my head because most of the passes we have encountered have been adorned with prayer flags and rock walls with mantras inscribed on them, I quickly pushed that aside eager to head down the other side...out of the snow and wind. The climb down was a challenge in every sense, we were scrambling down over big boulders that were wet and icy. The further we climbed, the more my stomach cramped and the weather wasn't breaking. Katie's knees were screaming at her and our friend Gary's knee was seizing up too. We were all picturing ourselves curled up in a nice warm dining room of a guesthouse in the next village, which (according to our guidebook) was a short walk down the valley once past the rock scrambling. My posture was becoming more and more doubled as we continued to follow the trail with no sign of a village. Twice we asked direction, inquiring about the village we were headed for. With confused looks, both times we were pointed back in the direction we had just come from. We assumed we had not communicated well and had been misunderstood and continued further down the valley on a trail that obviously got quite a bit of use. The villages we past through were desolate as most people take their yaks up to grazing grounds at higher elevations for the summer. Finally, based on some villages mentioned by an old man Tim had spoken with, we realized that we were actually heading down the opposite side of the same valley that we had originally hiked up....and we still had 2 more hours to hike to the next village that had a lodge. The snow had turned to rain as we dropped in elevation, and we were all damp...physically and in spirits. At some point Tim insisted upon taking my bag. I suppose I did look that pitiful! With his bag on his back, he threw my bag on his front, and still hiked along much stronger than I could. We finally stumbled upon a modest guesthouse run by the most amazing Nepali woman who became our surrogate mother for the next day. As I stumbled into her home, she quickly ushered me to a room and helped me out of my shoes. There was much concern initially about what my problem was...if my head was giving me trouble, it's a sure sign of altitude sickness. A stomach ache isn't as much of a concern... Lots of gesturing eased her mind that I wasn't struggling with altitude sickness and she proceeded to tuck me in with 5 comforters and gingerly tucked a bottle of hot water in next to me under my mountain of blankets. She constantly checked in on me bringing me tea and soup...while we mostly communicated with smiles and gestures. She also kept busy feeding and accomodating the rest of our crew. We have never been so happy on the trail to encounter a guesthouse...and never so fortunate to have the most lovely woman awaiting our arrival as on the day we needed it the most!

As it turned out, we had not quite made it to the actual pass, so we dropped back down into the valley we had started from probably no more than 30 minutes from where we had started out that day. The following day it continued to pour rain at lower elevations...which meant heaps of snow up high. All in all, it worked out well for us that we dropped down further and weren't stuck in the snow. As for my affliction, we determined (based on my symptoms) that I had giardia. Tim ended up hiking 3-4 hours roundtrip to a small local hospital to get the medication that I needed that cleared things up in 24 hours and we were back on the trail with an arsenal of stories under our belts. (Tim can proudly report that the amazed lodge owner commented on his quick trip that he made it faster than "Sherpa time"!) Everyone (except Tim!) got to enjoy a rest day to recover from our big adventure attempting to cross the pass.