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Trek to The Boulderfield (Page 3) |
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Question: What causes numb lips? Here I was, at 12,800 ft., tightly zipped into a bivvy sack, with my brain working overtime, reminding me that each breath was exhaling gobs of carbon dioxide into this nylon cocoon. The oxygen is scarce enough at this altitude, anyway. What will this added carbon dioxide do to reduce it further? Will I now get that dreaded case of altitude sickness I'd been worrying about, after all this preparation? I didn't know, but the likelihood seemed too great to ignore, so I worried about it some more. There wasn't much else to do, under the circumstances, and that's too bad. I should have just chilled out, mentally. I was already chilling out physically. It was incredibly uncomfortable in all that wet clothing, wrapped in a sopping wet sleeping bag, zipped into an equally wet nylon bag. A number of choice four-letter words crossed my mind. My still functioning brain, which usually does a good job of getting me out of tight spots, figured the most serious risk I faced now was oxygen deprivation, because I was getting slightly warmer inside the bivvy sack. The only obvious way to mitigate that would be to process a lot of air by taking deep breaths. I was determined not to suffer altitude sickness tonight. So I started breathing hard. Deep, noisy, gasping breaths. In with the good air, out with the bad... Funny thing... Before long the harder I breathed the less it felt like I was getting enough oxygen. After a few minutes of hard breathing, I actually began to panic. Heavy breathing wasn't working! Ordinarily, I could pack up and go down to a lower elevation, but that was out of the question with this bad weather. What if a serious case of altitude sickness took hold, while I was being held captive up here in this stupid bivvy sack? Would it cause my brain to swell, as I had read? Was I witnessing my last few minutes of intellectuality before the swelling in my brain squeezed all the smarts I had left? Anyway, here I was, still making these loud, gasping, breathing sounds, and the whole camp is thinking I'm dying. I found out later from my fellow campers that everybody thought I was dying. Well, at least we were all on the same page. For a while I thought I was dying, too... As the seconds ticked by, and I gasped harder and harder, I found myself feeling more panicky than ever. My lips were even getting numb. Well, that was unexpected! Jumpin' Jehosaphat and Hallelujah! Immediately the cause of my panic became clear, and I stopped breathing. Completely. For as long as I could stand it. Answer: Hyperventilation... (too much oxygen in the bloodstream) As an EMT, I had treated a lot of people who were suffering from hyperventilation. If you breathe too hard and too fast your blood supply becomes oversaturated with oxygen. Too much oxygen screws up your brain and brings on a state of panic. It makes you think that you aren't getting enough air, so you breathe even harder. Which makes you panic even more, and breathe even harder, and the cycle goes on... It's a strange quirk of human physiology. Besides panic, though, there is one other telling symptom of hyperventilation. The nerves in your skin shut down, especially your facial nerves. Your forehead and lips get numb. Numb lips are a very clear sign of hyperventilation. Instead of getting too little oxygen, I was getting too much. As I settled down once more, and began to breathe more slowly, all traces of panic and numbness left. Next: The Boulderfield Page 1... Longs Peak Menu ... Bugsinthenews ... Books About Longs Peak |
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