Recovery

The South Pole marker outside of my medical bed window.

I’ve always been a good sleeper and love my naps, but this is getting ridiculous. I slept approximately 18 out of 24 hours on Tuesday, the day after we arrived back at McMurdo. The first day of recovery I was very dizzy and winded. Today I am much better and able to stay awake for longer periods of time. My lungs are all cleared up; Medical is just waiting for the rest of me to recover. Eli was released from Medical the next morning.

It’s very strange being back here at McMurdo. First, it seems like I’ve been gone for a month. Second, I know very few people here anymore. And third, it seems Eli and I have a sort of minor celebrity status. There are a few friends here who were with me in Denver who were never going to work at the Pole. They are all surprised to see us back and had many questions. Then there are complete strangers who keep coming up to us and asking us how we feel. The best I can figure is they were on the plane and we just don’t recognize them. The few people we did know on the plane keep smothering us with attention. I ran into a fellow Denver trainee, Stan, and he said we were the talk of the town. The galley in McMurdo had to send someone to help replace us until we get better and now the galley is calling for volunteers to help out. Seriously, I’m very uncomfortable with all the attention!

I received an email from my galley crew at the Pole. They said word got out in the 200 person community there that we were sick and so volunteers are flocking to help out as much as possible. (Awwww, that’s so North Dakotan of them! I’m very touched.)

Medical at the Pole has a plan for transitioning me back to altitude once I get better. Immediately when I get there, they will house me in the main station and put me on O2 for 48 hours with little or no activity. They will put me on Diamox. They will then limit the O2 and monitor how I adjust and adapt. If everything goes ok, they will then slowly transition me back to work with only a few hours on and then a few hours off. They will slowly increase out workload until we are full time and healthy.

I am bummed I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures during my 5 days at Pole to post for everyone to see. I was just too tired. The ones I did take were from my Medical bed window. I had a great view of the actual South Pole and the horizon! I’ll post pictures of Pole as soon as I can. They are reluctant to say when they plan on sending us back.