Day 45: the down hill slide

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Happy Birthday to me in a not so happy way. I woke up around midnight feeling hot, cold sweats and like my insides were going to explode. For the rest of the night, I alternated between sleeping for 30 minutes, running to the bathroom, and putting on and taking off clothes as my body temp fluctuated. In the morning I was not top par and my breakfast was runny porridge which was no help to me. After some emergency meds, it was time to take off. It was a painful 30 minute start to the day with it being all uphill essentially Poon Hill minus 200 feet. But by the time, we reach the half way point of the climb, meds were kicking in and I felt like I had some control of my body again. But by 10:30 we had started our descent and the combination of meds wearing off, no food in my body and the jolt of going downhill was enough to make me feel like I was going to die. We broke for lunch at 11 and after eating half a piece of toast and feeling like the smell of any food was going to make me vomit, I just laid on the brick ledge, remedicated and maintained the fetal position for a bit. But we weren‘t staying here so onward we went. The pattern followed again, 30 minutes hiking feel like crap, 90 minute okay, death on the doorstep the remainder of the time. At one point we stopped for this view, but in a translational misunderstanding Raj thought I needed a longer break when I just wanted to run down the hill as FAST as possible because I felt good and knew it wouldn’t last. Twenty minutes of sitting led to some good pictures and a little bravery to try a half a granola bar, but I paid for it later. Coming into Ghandruk, I was never so happy to hear we had made it, but I let my guard down too soon. It was still another 20 minutes, 2 delays due to mule crossings and me on the verge of tears before we made it to the guesthouse. I crashed for the rest of the night as my temp spiked again and my body felt like it was failing in all control it was supposed to have. Welcome to 31!

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