We arrived in beautiful Leh, in Kashmir, in the Indian Himalayas which sits at an altitude of 3600m - one of the highest inhabited towns in the world.
We spent the first few days resting to acclimatize which we'd anticipated but then both feeling good, we started planning some of the things we wanted to do whilst we were up here.
On day 3 Klas started to get pretty bad headaches and felt extremely tired, he had a sore stomach too. The difficulty in terms of the altitude is that there's no way of really descending from Leh unless you fly out again, to go by road you have to travel over numerous high passes at altitudes above 5000m. We felt pretty stranded and I was worried as Klas's symptoms were getting worse, we were also confused as some symptoms indicated altitude sickness (AMS) but others did not. We didn't want to rule out AMS though incase it was AMS and in which case we needed to do something about it before it got any worse.
Klas was checked over by the doctor who told us that the oxygen level in his blood was too low and we needed to go to the hospital to get oxygen and possibly stay in overnight. We zoomed off in a taxi and then arrived at a rather scary looking hospital. Let's just say the woman cleaning the wards was sweeping dust, syringes, paper, bandages using a witches style broom! Crazy place!
Klas was checked over again and it was confirmed he was suffering from Acute Mountain Sickness and required oxygen but also had a bout of gastroenteritis - double whammy! Poor Klas!
He was put on an oxygen chamber for 6 hours and started to feel much better after just 30 minutes. The worse part for Klas was firstly that I'd forgotten to bring the camera to capture the experience and secondly his concerns over whether we'd manage the treks we'd planned at high altitude in Nepal. I was just relieved he was okay.
The doctor said we'd be okay to stay in Leh (which we were very happy about, otherwise flying out we'd have ended up back in Delhi!) but suggested we start on Diamox if wishing to ascent higher, this is a medication which assists acclimatization. We'd brought some with us but understood that it's use is controversial and can mask the symptoms of AMS. If anyone's got any advice on using Diamox that would be great. Research we've done online makes the decision even more confusing as people give different advice.
The real adventures have definately begun! We're both well and good now and there'll be an update on magical Leh to follow.
