July 18th, 2023
On July 7th I hitched up the trailer and drove to I-70, where I turned and headed west for Leadville. As expected, my Ranger pulled uphill quite well and after a quick stop in Dillon, I arrived in Leadville shortly after noon. I camped in my friend Don’s parking area down the hill from his cabin.
Temperatures at this elevation, 10,600 feet, have been in the low seventies during the day and close to forty each night, making for excellent sleeping weather. Every other day, I have gone for morning hikes to such places as the Leadville Fish Hatchery, Windsor Lake, and Tennessee Pass. The hike up to Windsor Lake was the most challenging. It was only a 2.5 mile round trip hike, but I climbed close to 1000 feet in that short distance. The trail was very rugged, being rocks and boulders covered with loose sand and gravel. The footing was treacherous. I did not notice so much going up hill, but should have glanced behind me, as the downhill was going to be more difficult. Fortunately, I had my trekking poles which help lent a little stability on the steep downward hike. It took me 1.5 hours to go up and 2.5 to come down.
On Saturday, Don and I went to “High Mountain Pies” for dinner. It is a backyard pizza restaurant and had a live band. The pizza was pretty good. We did get asked to dance by a few ladies, but begged off, as being to old and arthritic.
Today, the 18th, is my oldest son, Zach’s birthday. He is now 29 years old. It is a bit of a miracle that he ever made it to birth. Seven months before he was due, I sat in the emergency room one night in Illinois, while a nurse educated me on “placental tears” and D&Cs. My wife appeared to have miscarried. But, at the end of the long wait, they informed me that they had found a tiny heartbeat using ultra-sound. She needed to observe strict bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. No sitting up, no stairs, and as little movement as possible where necessary. As we lived in a townhouse, this meant she stayed on the second floor, while I did all cooking and cleaning, delivering an ice chest with food and drinks each morning before I left for work. The doctor believed that if the fetus survived until the 26th week, there was a chance it could be saved. Nearby Loyola University had a pretty good record for preemies. It was “touch and go” and we had a standing appointment every 2 weeks until at least that point, to re-check for a heartbeat. The little guy held on and now is a great young man. He makes me very proud.
Normal sinus rhythm (NSR) is the characteristic rhythm of a healthy human heart. It is a regular heart beat and I don’t have it. I probably haven’t since a year ago when in Leadville. At least that is the earliest I had any symptoms. While camped near Leadville in late August, I experienced a few random nights of breathlessness. I was fine during the day and while hiking, even at the high elevation. But when I laid down in the evenings, I would feel as though I was slowly suffocating. Each time I drifted off to sleep, I would wake up with a feeling of panic. I assumed I was just getting run down and the low oxygen pressure was affecting me. As I was soon to go to lower elevations in western Colorado and Utah, I did nothing about it. All through the weeks of camping in Utah and Arizona, I did not notice the problem any longer.
My schedule in the desert, was to hike 3.5 to 4 miles per day for 3 days followed by a rest day. I did not notice anything until the end of January, when I suddenly experienced 3 straight nights of breathlessness. On the 4th day, I was scheduled to drive into Phoenix for a flight to Minneapolis to XC ski the trails along the north shore of Lake Superior. I figured that I had better make sure this was not some symptom of Covid. So I drove across the border of California to the town of Blythe, which had an emergency room. It was not Covid, but Atrial Fibrillation (A-fib), a non-normal heart rhythm as well as a possible slight heart attack. I was whisked to Palm Springs by helicopter and spent 4 days there while they got things under control.
I received 3 stents, given 6 medications, and told to find a cardiologist to see twice a year for monitoring. I made an appointment with one in Lafayette, Colorado near where my son lives. I saw him in early May, only to discover that I still had A-fib, but had never had a heart attack. While tests were run and analyzed, I could not make the loop up into Montana and Idaho that I had planned for this summer. I would need to stay close by the doctors office, and the hospital. I again started to experience an occasional nights of breathlessness, though not as bad as previously (due to a medication that slowed my heart). Last Thursday I was scheduled for a procedure, taking place tomorrow, in which they will apply an electrical shock to my heart in an attempt to coax it into NSR. The risk of the procedure is pretty low, but there is a possibility that the shock could dislodge a blood clot, resulting in a stroke. Nothing is ever easy!
If all goes well, I will have about 5 weeks to loop around Colorado, after which I may visit the Black Hills on my way across the country to visit my mother, Minneapolis friends, Detroit friends, and Zachary in Michigan. It is not a trip that was in the plan, but given the circumstances, feels like the right thing to do.
"And it used to be for a while That the river flowed right to my door Making me just a little too free But now the river doesn't seem to stop here anymore" The Right Thing to Do - Carly Simon
Starting All Over 