Topic: Moving to Colorado Mnts. Freaking. Will elevation make me worse? (less oxygen)
IckyTicky
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 21466
posted
So.. it's been decided that we are moving to the mountains in CO. We can no longer afford our home with all 5 of us sick and needing treatment.
I have a friend who is going to let us live with her for several months if we'd like (husband has to stay here in Tx until our house sells and keep working for a few months trying to pay off some of our debt)
Well my friend lives in the mountains.. a pretty high elevation. I know that I've read things about oxygen... but I don't remember what they were about.
Will moving to the mountains and being at a high elevation make us sicker? From the list I have... the only LLMDs are about 4 to 5 hours away and I have no idea if any of them are taking new patients. Or if any of them would be willing to treat my children. Flying out of state for treatment would be impossible unless it was only like twice a year max. We are just too broke now. We will probably need one that will either take insurance or will throw us a bone and treat some of us very very cheaply.
I don't know what to do! I'm at a loss and anxiety is setting in. I am desparetely hoping my LLMD will give us at least a few months worth of abx but I don't know for sure that he will. We see him on Friday and it will be our last time... we are leaving in two weeks (this was a sudden decision, as you can tell)
It is so unfair that I have to not only worry about bills..but about my family not getting treatment because of the stupid controversy surrounding their disease.
I'm rambling now. If anyone lives in CO or sees an LLMD there, would you please tell me what you think, what their approach is, if they take insurance or new patients etc?
Thanks
-------------------- IGM: 18+, 23+, 30+, 31+++, 34+, 39IND, 41++, 58+++, 66+, 83-93IND IGG: 31+, 39IND, 41+ Also positive for Mycoplasma Pneumoniae and RMSF. Whole family of 5 dx with Lyme. Posts: 1014 | From Texas | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
sixgoofykids
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11141
posted
Why don't you go visit your friend for a couple days? I was extremely sensitive to altitude and felt it pretty immediately. Based on that, if you were there for just a day or two, you would know how it was going to affect you. I'm sure everyone is different in this regard.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
| IP: Logged |
IckyTicky
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 21466
posted
I don't have a choice in this matter. We will have nowhere else to go. I know that my friend and her family had altitude sickness for a week or so when they moved there but now they are acclimated to it.
But they don't have Lyme and co. I'm wondering if this will affect the Lyme, affect our ability to get well etc.
-------------------- IGM: 18+, 23+, 30+, 31+++, 34+, 39IND, 41++, 58+++, 66+, 83-93IND IGG: 31+, 39IND, 41+ Also positive for Mycoplasma Pneumoniae and RMSF. Whole family of 5 dx with Lyme. Posts: 1014 | From Texas | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
Where are you moving to? I live in CO in the winter.
If you have babesiosis you will have a problem for a while. The low O2 at altitude will make everything more difficult than usual, but should go away.
James
Posts: 872 | From New York City | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged |
IckyTicky
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 21466
posted
Thanks James. So far none of us have tested positive for Babs..but that doesn't mean anything. I do suspect my teenager might have it.
PMing you
-------------------- IGM: 18+, 23+, 30+, 31+++, 34+, 39IND, 41++, 58+++, 66+, 83-93IND IGG: 31+, 39IND, 41+ Also positive for Mycoplasma Pneumoniae and RMSF. Whole family of 5 dx with Lyme. Posts: 1014 | From Texas | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
Abxnomore
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 18936
posted
IckyTicky,
So sorry about your situation. I PMed you the Colorado LLMD list. Hope it helps you some.
Posts: 5191 | From Lyme Zone | Registered: Jan 2009
| IP: Logged |
tick battler
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 21113
posted
Hi IckyTicky -
Sorry to hear you have having so much stress right now.
One thought...is it possible to somehow spend a day or two at a slightly lower elevation so that your body can adjust to the elevation change? I am no expert on this but I think that is part of the key to avoiding altitude sickness. Maybe even staying at a campsite for a couple days which would be at a higher elevation than you are used to, but not as high as your friend's house?
Also - Perhaps don't let anyone exert themselves for a the first few days. Even a walk or hike might be taxing.
You might want to research this online to see what the best approach would be to minimize symptoms.
I'm sure there are LLMD's in CO. You will find one somewhere. Mabye send PM's to our colorado members and try to find a support group to talk to before you get there. They should have some answers for you.
Also, there are some herbs you might be able to take to keep the symptoms at bay if your abx run out and until your find a new LLMD. There is the Cowden protocol and Buhner (Healing Lyme).
Good luck to you and your family. It sounds like you are doing the right thing to save some $$$ and get back on your feet.
tickbattler
Posts: 1763 | From Malvern, PA | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
tick battler
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 21113
posted
Oh- I forgot - it's almost winter...camping might not be feasible right now in the CO mountains, so I guess a hotel would be another option for a night or two to let your bodies adjust.
tickbattler
Posts: 1763 | From Malvern, PA | Registered: Jul 2009
| IP: Logged |
timaca
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6911
posted
I live at 7000 ft. It doesn't really make much of a difference.
Best, Timaca
Posts: 2872 | From above 7,000 ft in a pine forest | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
She'll be driving to CO, I believe. That will make the adjustment very easy.
Posts: 872 | From New York City | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged |
Truthfinder
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 8512
posted
Not necessarily, James. My brother lives in the Arizona dessert in winter, and in the mountains of Colorado during summers (about 7,700 feet). He drives back and forth and still has trouble with `altitude sickness' every single trip. He doesn't have Lyme or TBIs but he does have some emphysema.
The good news is that he got something from his doctor that helps him make the transition. I'm not sure that he ever told me exactly what it was.
Icky, maybe you could ask you current doc if there's something he/she recommends in case you have a problem.
I don't live in the mountains; I'm at about 6,300 feet. I have no idea if Babs is in the picture for me.
-------------------- Tracy .... Prayers for the Lyme Community - every day at 6 p.m. Pacific Time and 9 p.m. Eastern Time � just take a few moments to say a prayer wherever you are�. Posts: 2966 | From Colorado | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
randibear
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11290
posted
i'm sorry to say that i get shortness of breath when at upper altitudes. i've stayed several weeks at the ranch in wyoming, i think the altitude is around 6,000 and it doesn't get any better for me.
i don't start breathing better until i get down to raton, over the pass.
but i'm sure with you staying longer, you'll adjust.
i'll be thinking of you.
-------------------- do not look back when the only course is forward Posts: 12262 | From texas | Registered: Mar 2007
| IP: Logged |
Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 5829
posted
Wishing you luck on your trip and your new quest.
cactus
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7347
posted
Give yourself time to adjust to the elevation - everyone needs that. Even the healthy people.
With Lyme and co, you'll probably need a bit longer.
Here's some hope for you: I've been infected and in that sort of relapsing/remitting cycle for most of my life (till the last few years when I was finally dianosed)... Living at high elevation always helped me feel better!
In fact, it wasn't until I moved to that area (NM/CO) that I felt able to live a somewhat normal life - despite having no treatment for TBDs. Most of the time I lived there, I stayed in remission.
But once I moved back east - bam! - back to being sick all the time.
So - I think, and hope, it will be okay for you and your family.
Glad you have a place to go, and hoping that it will be the beginning of many good things for all of you.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I live in the Denver/Boulder area and am seeing a LLMD in Boulder. PM me if you want more information.
Posts: 27 | From Boulder, CO | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
canbravelyme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9785
posted
You can get access out of [or in] state flights for medical purposes through a number of charitable organizations:
-------------------- For medical advice related to Lyme disease, please see an ILADS physician. Posts: 1494 | From Getting there... | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Orn,
That doctor has since moved, pretty sure his office closed there. The lyme support groups in Colo. should know of options. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
How high we talking about here? How is your hemoglobin in you and your childrens blood?
Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen.
Your hemoglobin will increase. At high altitudes the air is much thinner than at sea level.
As a result, a person inhales fewer oxygen molecules with each breath.
Symptoms of hypoxia, sometimes known as mountain sickness, include headaches, vomiting, sleeplessness, impaired thinking, and an inability to sustain long periods of physical activity.
At elevations above 25,000 feet (7,600 meters), hypoxia can kill.
The body counters having less oxygen in every breath by having higher hemoglobin concentrations in their blood.
Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that ferries oxygen through the blood system.
Having more hemoglobin to carry oxygen through the blood system than people at sea level counterbalances the effects of hypoxia.
Some individuals lose their ventilatory acclimatization to hypoxia after a decades-long residence at high altitude.
They cease to hyperventilate, suffer central depression of respiration particularly at night, and develop severe hypoxemia, which over time stimulates excessive polycythemia.
Now the scary stuff.
With hemoglobin concentrations usually above 23 g/100 ml, these individuals develop a potentially fatal syndrome called chronic mountain sickness.
The combined effects of hypoxemia and impaired microcirculatory perfusion result in organ malfunction, particularly of the brain and lung.
Dizziness, mental confusion, and even cerebral infarction occur.
Pulmonary hypertension and impaired ventilation-perfusion relationships, leading to degradation of pulmonary gas exchange and further hypoxemia, also occur.
The hypoxemia-polycythemia cycle can be interrupted by lowering the hemoglobin concentration.
Decreasing the degree of polycythemia, causing the patients to feel better, the arterial oxygen saturation to increase, and the pulmonary and systemic oxygen transport to improve at rest and during exercise.
This is done by blood letting or phlebotomy sessions, until the hemoglobin is under control.
There is primary polycythemia, and secondary PV which people who live in high altitudes, Pilots, athletes training at high altitude.
Some of these athletes have an advantage in competition because they have more oxygen in there blood.
Three blood tests you might want to get before you go.
Hemoglobin, Hematocrit (Hematocrit is a measure of how much space red blood cells take up in your blood),Erythropoietin level ( This blood test measures the level of EPO in your blood.
EPO is a hormone that stimulates bone marrow to make new blood cells.
People who have PV have very low levels of EPO. People who have secondary polycythemia usually have normal or high levels of EPO).
I know a lot about this as my Hg,Hct are high and I live in Michigan, but my EPO is normal. So I have been monitoring my blood because if things change I will be doing the blood letting.
If you get the blood tests now, then when you move and have been there for awhile, if you start getting sicker or new symptoms you can have these tests results to compare to.
Not trying to scare you just looking out for you and family. This is good stuff to know.
Karl A
-------------------- HERX is a Four Letter Word! Posts: 716 | From If you're going through hell, keep going......Winston Churchill | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic