OPINION: That didn’t go as planned

I’m back from my week in Yellowstone, and let me tell you, things did not go as planned.

As I made reference to in a previous column, I came down with a cold the week before I was supposed to leave. I didn’t think much of it, simply focusing on getting it out of my system before I left so I could fully enjoy the hikes and time with family. Apparently I should have been a little more focused on that cold.

When I left Creston that first Saturday to meet up with my family, I was feeling a lot better. My sore throat was gone and I felt like my congestion and coughing were on the mend. A few more days of cold meds and I would be fine! Unfortunately not.

On Sunday, I completely lost my voice. This is something that had never happened to me before, so it was kind of a novelty to me. However, it quickly became frustrating, making me feel almost claustrophobic, trapped within myself because no one could hear me. We ended up getting a bear bell, something we planned on getting anyway for safety on hikes, but also something I could use to let my family know I had something to say.

While my voice started to slowly come back throughout the week, other symptoms began coming back much stronger. On a short but steep hike Monday morning, we had to stop every few minutes so I could breathe. While the higher altitude could have been causing some breathing issues, it certainly didn’t make sense with the severity of my issues.

The next day we decided to take it easier - slightly more miles but zero incline. While I was feeling cruddy but could breathe during the hike, it was less than half an hour later that I started panicking because it felt like I couldn’t get a breath in.

I used my dad’s inhaler (I know, naughty, but my parents were worried) and chilled in the car for the next hour while my family went on another short hike. By the time they got back, I was feeling generally better but still weirdly breathless.

By the end of the day, I was still feeling out of breath and quite congested. I slept in a chair in the hotel room because lying down made it worse. We decided that if I felt the same the next morning, I’d need to make my way to one of the medical clinics in the park.

Sure enough, I was just as bad the next morning. I’ll spare some of the grosser details, but I was having a rough time. Between a short staff at the clinic and other emergencies that came in, we were at the clinic for a total of four hours.

At the facility, they eventually told me I had an upper respiratory infection. My lungs sounded mostly OK, but there was still a chance of pneumonia. The antibiotic they gave me would take care of my lungs either way. I also got an inhaler for the more emergent times.

This diagnosis meant the rest of the trip would look a bit different than we originally had planned. We stopped at lookouts around the park, but no more hiking for me. I spent the rest of the trip sleeping in whatever chair was available in our hotel rooms. While I wasn’t officially diagnosed with pneumonia, after listening to me breathe and cough throughout the trip, my mom was convinced I did have it.

For a couple days, I was consistently coughing so hard I’d throw up. My voice was mostly back, but I was still speaking in a whisper because talking would make me cough again. I stopped taking any other cold medications in the hopes that less of a cocktail of meds in my stomach would stop me from throwing up.

Fast forward to this week and I’m definitely starting to feel better. The biggest change I could feel in my recovery was simply leaving the 8,000 feet of altitude of Yellowstone. It was miraculous how much easier it was to breathe after that.

Now, every day, I’m starting to feel a little bit better. I’m still full of coughs and congestion, but not nearly as much as before. I slept lying down for the first time in almost a week last night, so I’m thrilled about that.

With all those issues, our road trip to Yellowstone certainly didn’t go as planned. We had to take it easy and I had to skip out on a couple planned attractions because I wasn’t feeling well in the moment. However, we still got to hang out as a family and see the gorgeous wilderness of Yellowstone National Park. I’m starting to feel better, though certainly not at 100%.

So what did I learn from this? Don’t go to high altitudes when you have a cold or congestion? Try to make the best of all situations? There’s at least one valid excuse to get out of hikes in my family? Who knows, at least I saw a bear!