Surgery and Healing in the Developing World - Dartmouth-Hitchcock

46
466 Surgery and Healing in the Developing World
tions of the drivers and me) had been before. It was good for a headache and a
hollow hunger in a number of the group who were not again seen until morning,
since they went to bed upon return without getting up for dinner.
We talked about the effects of altitude [and also of attitude,] and what could be
done to relieve AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness.) We talked about the other three
consequences: HACE, HAPE and HAFE. These acronyms stand for High Altitude
Cerebral Edema (most usually lethal) High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (requires
treatment from a Gamoff Bag or immersion in what I figured to be about two to
three meters of water) and High Altitude Flatus Expulsion (remember that all gas
expands as the pressure decreases—including that trapped in spaces such as sinuses
and dental cavities!).
We posed for lots of pictures, and looked over the Pakistani side of the Karakorum
Range and could see K-2 and the three Gasherbrun Peaks. We were at a glacier and
could see the avalanche activities along its margin.
An Editorial Note Appended in Order to Get This Message
Off in the Possible Morning Emailing From “High Life”
and “Cyberia” in Leh
[I will have to send this message off just now, since the power is so irregular that
I cannot depend on it to type from any of the erratic electricity supply I might have
stored in the ThinkPad. The electronic connection by means of the still more erratic
server at “High Life” is only possible first thing in the morning when the phone
lines just might possibly enable connection for email. I am planning to go out for a
high run just now, so I am going to give this incomplete unproofed and un-Spell
Checked disc to Bill Barrett to send along with the title of the subsequent magnificent
day when we had me in a setting of stunning beauty in a storm cloud background
with chortens and gompas in the foreground as a professional photographer
followed me in search of the perfect light—-which came to us as a beneficence never
before experienced by the professional photojournalist’s lifetime attempt to capture
the perfect photograph—-which we hope may now be done. I will explain more of
that when I can get back to whatever may provide a reliable source of power and
message transmission.].
An Addendum Note to the Narrative of this Day at the
Height of the Himalayan Experience in Terms of the
Karakorum Roadway, Before I Go on to Describe the High
Points of Our Experiences in Leh—and a Few “Low Points”
I Did Not Want to Transmit to You by Email Until we Were
Out of Danger
This part did not get transmitted by email, and need not have, since I could
await a time when I could spell check it and also deliver you a few recent facts that
might otherwise have proved quite disquieting if I simply transmitted them by email
without the context in which they were experienced. I did not feel we were in imminent
danger in Leh, although there had been a combination of deaths just preceding
our visit, which had the army, and police on heightened alert and had made for the
imposition of a curfew. I thought I might explain this situation, but only after we
were all safely out of the area. To balance these notes, you must also remember that
it was an experience immediately followed by a set of supreme experiences that a few