Another day of recovery at base camp

April 22nd Thursday
Finally went to bed @ 830 pm on Wed night. I didn’t eat much as the smell of mo mo’s Jim had almost made me throw up. I went to the dinning tent just to try and stretch the day as long as I could to try and regain some strength. I just sat in front of the heater after I went in to help Curly and Larry try and light it. Think about “lost in translation” with me and 2 Sherpa’ s who do not speak any English nor do not have any mechanical skills ( no that it takes much to start a heater) but it was quite comical to a point. I was trying to be nice but really was in the mood to let 3 people with 3 different ideas try to start this heater( although I have been starting it every night so I knew what needed to be done). I was cold, tired and after the few moments of “humor” I told them “thank You” and I could just do it myself. They left the tent in all smiles and I started the tent and then almost collapse in the chair in front of it. That episode just about wore me out at this altitude.
I went to bed with a slight cough and Jim thought that this was more of an exhaustion cough than anything. I think he was right as I did it for about an hour and then fell asleep. I think I did pretty well later in the night as I awoke about the time the sun came up which is about 530 and I would just lay in the bed until it hit my tent about 745am( snoozing on and off) when the warmth of the sun would make my tent feel good. Jim’s tent is only a few feet away and we started discussing the day’s events and the even Sat’s event.
We both thought about my eating and we thought maybe I could eat something every hour instead of trying to force some big massive meal down me 2-3 times a day. We have done that pretty regular today and it seems to have worked some. I have been drinking water pretty good today including cokes and Mt dew just to add to the calorie intake.
We also both thought about taking a “test ride” hike tomorrow back down to Gorashep which is about a 2 hr walk done the mountain, have a hot lemon drink and walk back home just to see how the body does. I thought this was a great idea and look forward to it because I am still a bit shaken mentally after what happen to me on Mon and I want to know I can do this with some sort of certainty, Damn I lost an entire week due to some infection that if I would have had it at home I probably wouldn’t have missed a step but up here took me down to me legs. I have to admit I am mad about what happen but understand “stuff happens” and I will move on from now.
I spent quite a bit of time in the tent today trying to regain my focus. I begin to reorganize my stuff for the next couple of days, while listening to my iPod and generally trying to get back in the game mentally. The weather has been quite nice today with just a little wind. I know there is still a lot of time left to make this thing work out. If some of the guys I saw at the hospital yesterday think they still have a chance to make it then I for sure still have a chance. I saw some very sick people yesterday struggling in and out of that tent and I have seen those faces high on the mountain before so I know what altitude can do to you and I am lucky that that was not me.
Wally came and visited several times today and it was fun catching up with him His guys are heading up to camp 2 today. His main guy had a bad cough early in the week but Wally confirmed he was doing much better. Wally sounded awful with his cough but as I have said everyone at base camp gets sick it is how you minimize it that allows you to win or not.

I laughed at Jim as I heard him try to program the radios He talks to himself a lot so it was funny to hear his expressions which I cannot print in this blog because mine are bad enough but he sure made me chuckle a few times today. He finally got them done and we should be good to go. He also work with the Sherpa’s on the antenna’s which was funny but not a funny as the radios.
My face around my cheeks and the bottom of the chin began to peel today. I got burned on the way down on Monday I applied at 4am but never did again the reflection off the snow can just burn you up. MY nose which is usually the first place I get it was pretty much left unscathed but the other places are peeling deep. I will start the use of 50 SPC on Sat in lieu of the 30 I have been using. I have already seen some horrific faces on the mountain and I do not want to look like I did when I came off Aconcagua 2008. I know my little Leah remembers and it looked bad.
It is 530pm on Thursday and today has been good. I do feel better and I look forward to the walk tomorrow.
Couple of interesting things that did happen today.
There was a collapse in the Ice Fall today in the area called the “popcorn”. According to the information that we have heard no one was injured and we heard the Ice doctors have already got the trail remapped out so it will be interesting to see the differences when we go back in there on Sat.
This was also the first day in the last 3 days that I did not hear the helicopter fly someone out so that is always a good thing.
I am sure soon Jim will be chasing me around trying to shovel food in my mouth and I will be like the child who doesn’t want to eat but I am sure in the end we will come to some compromise.

Have a great day