Altitude

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog post that here in Ft. Collins we are at a much higher elevation than back home. “A mile high” they like to say. And boy, did I feel it! Within just a couple hours of arriving and walking around campus, I was dizzy, lightheaded, and couldn’t walk straight. I felt like I was drunk, except that I hadn’t had anything but water to drink and I’ve never actually been drunk, so I have no idea what that feels like. My partner was feeling the same and as we walked back to our room in the dark the first night, we kept bumping into each other! We knew it was probably the altitude affecting us, so we were laughing and just hoping and praying that the next morning we would wake up feeling all right. I think for the most part we have adjusted, but at the Saturday morning mass meeting, the conference nurse got up to explain the symptoms of altitude sickness and the treatments and she said, “You’ll feel dizzy, lightheaded, and maybe like you have a hangover!” Oh, we laughed so hard! We knew exactly what she was talking about and have been continuing to combat the altitude with LOTS of water. Unfortunately, that means LOTS of trips to the bathroom. Thankfully, the men’s restrooms in the areas we have meetings have been remarked to read “GEMS Women’s Restrooms”! They knew us 500 women would need lots of stalls, I guess.