Oddly enough, the sickest I’ve been was heading to the Galápagos Islands! Landed in Quito, went to the hotel and an hour later, got horrific altitude sickness. I couldn’t even crawl to the phone to call the front desk for an ambulance. It rapidly progressed to HACE (high-altitude cerebral edema), which can be deadly. I always travel with dexamethasone in the mountains, and I was able to reach it in my bag from the floor and take some. It saved my life. Never had altitude issues before, or since. But it was truly awful.
One of my professional passions is Travel Medicine which is the study of Tropical Diseases like Malaria, causes of travelers diarrhea and, ailments like altitude sickness. Anything that can happen when you travel.
I belong to the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) which is a terrific resource for clinicians who practice internationally.
I was fascinated by the litany of problems, although it gave me flashbacks of an exam I took several years ago where they presented someone with you symptoms and the question was, what was the cause(s).
The Galapagos Islands and Antarctica are on my must visit list!
I'm just back from a tour of Argentina and Chile myself. I'm fortunate in not tending to get sick on trips despite my age, and had really good luck on health this time. I took my latest Covid booster the day before setting out for Buenos Aires and, although we traveled through places in both countries where people were masking for the latest variant, had no problems. The southernmost part of our trip was through the Magellanic islands off the Chilean coast in the same sort of expedition ship described in the podcast, with an assortment of dry and wet landings by Zodiac on several of the islands, including Cape Horn itself, and with heavy wave action at times when we edged out into the Pacific and the Drake Passage. Fortunately, no seasickness either.
My husband and I took a trip to Alaska in 2017, land and cruise. We took the last cruise of the season, big mistake. Prior to the inside passage, seas were very rough. At one port our whale watching tour was cancelled due to high seas. I got seasick and spent two days in the cabin getting sick and being nauseous. Nothing would stay down and nothing tasted good. I drank water and ginger ale, ate white rice and chicken broth, 🤢. Now, I always wear the patch on cruises.
Flying home BWI to Fairbanks about 10+ years ago. I felt a tad queasy in BWI, but it seemed to pass. Not remembering the route now, but probably BWI to Anchorage to Fairbanks. On the short flight (~50 minutes or so) Anchorage to Fairbanks I vomited five times. Cabin crew were very helpful and thankful flight was half empty. Got home and vomited once more - very dizzy as I looked up at the ceiling. (No dizziness while flying) Next day and the following weeks I was fine. Awoke on Thanksgiving with no hearing (at all!) in one ear. It’s called Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss. It should be treated as a medical emergency -like losing vision in one eye. (Most internal medicine doctors encounter one or two cases in decades of practice. Also not age or gender related) Fortunately an open minded ENT doc treated me with steroids injected into the inner ear and I recovered 99% of my hearing. SSNHL should not be treated as an ‘infection’. Failure to treat soon after onset = permanent hearing loss. Most likely a virus that peaked while flying and then recurred.
My husband got horrible Montezuma’s revenge in Cozumel. We were on a scuba lunch on the beach adventure. I warned him about eating the salads. He learned
Here's a story much closer to home: in 1983 my future husband and I flew to Minneapolis for a long weekend and tickets for the Guthrie Theater. That first afternoon we ate lunch at a deli - I had a corn beef sandwich. Four hours later, and while we were at a restaurant prior to the performance at the Guthrie, I came down with a sudden attack of food poisoning - I swear from that corn beef sandwich! No Guthrie, no wandering around Minneapolis, no fun. Just a reminder that you don't have to be in a different country to eat something you shouldn't!
I’ve been in over 65 countries but the sickest I was once in Spitzkoppe, Namibia, while we were camping there — yes, you read right, camping. All of a sudden I felt so sick and powerless and I vomited for almost two days in a row. It was hard to stay hydrated enough in the +37C or so heat that the Namibian desert has… But somehow I managed. But I may never forget this occasion. A few times I vomited straight out from our rooftop tent because I didn’t have time to get out of the tent to the ground. Just tried *not* to hit the side of the car. It was so gross... 🤢 And there were lots of Tok-tokkies (a BIG crawling bug, you can look it up from the web ;) and they ate my vomit from the ground…🤣🤣 What a highlight of our travels was this occasion..🤣
I think I got sick because of the water they had there, they said that it was potable from a borehole, but we usually still always filter our drinking water. That time, we didn’t and this happened. At that time we had already been touring around Africa for almost four years already and my stomach could take a lot. But it couldn't take that.
I was in the Galapagos in 1980 on a sort of yacht with 14 passengers and i have so many fond memories. I don't feel i want to go back now because the larger ships don't appeal to me. It is better to just enjoy my great memories.
As for getting sick, given my nearly 60 years of traveling to more than 160 countries, I'm fortunate to have only gotten really sick about five times. I must have a very strong constitution because I even had to drink the water in a private home in Bangkok in 1968 and did not get sick.
I get sick there as well! I had breakfast at the Guayaquil Hilton then went to the airport to fly to Santa Cruz Island. I'm pretty sure my illness was food poisoning. Uhhh.
The sickest I’ve ever been was the ferry boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef. Forty minutes from mainland Australia of tortuous wind, high waves and mist made me sea sick beyond any previous time. Nothing helped. Of course once on the Reef, had to make return trip to mainland. So sick. Awful.
Worst case of travelers sickness in Puerto Vallarta 1986 was my claim to fame. We were in a “safe water” resort but they neglected to tell us when the water main broke and all the water was mixed with the “unfiltered” water. When the Evian bottles showed up in the restaurant, I should have taken the hint (and the hotel should have been more forthcoming!). All I can say is that I while the fever was causing hallucinations, I managed to get a bus to the pharmacy (along with the chickens and locals) and got what they said were antibiotics which did nothing. Alaska Airlines managed to get me on a flight the next day but it had a 9 hour delay. The only comfort I had was the cold tile floor! I slept there during the long delay. I was too sick to care if it was dirty. By the time we got on the plane, I felt halfway human. I still remember that floor fondly today.
I got trichinosis in Central America. I was young and luckiky recovered quickly but was living in a rural community and had a rough few days. The doc basically said to stay closer to the city and, of course, not eat anything else with pork, a staple in local Christmas cooking.
I had a grand mal seizure in the middle of a casino in Tahoe. The paramedics attributed it to altitude sickness. Oddly, they just sent me on my way once they got a pulse back and I came to.
Oddly enough, the sickest I’ve been was heading to the Galápagos Islands! Landed in Quito, went to the hotel and an hour later, got horrific altitude sickness. I couldn’t even crawl to the phone to call the front desk for an ambulance. It rapidly progressed to HACE (high-altitude cerebral edema), which can be deadly. I always travel with dexamethasone in the mountains, and I was able to reach it in my bag from the floor and take some. It saved my life. Never had altitude issues before, or since. But it was truly awful.
One of my professional passions is Travel Medicine which is the study of Tropical Diseases like Malaria, causes of travelers diarrhea and, ailments like altitude sickness. Anything that can happen when you travel.
I belong to the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) which is a terrific resource for clinicians who practice internationally.
I was fascinated by the litany of problems, although it gave me flashbacks of an exam I took several years ago where they presented someone with you symptoms and the question was, what was the cause(s).
The Galapagos Islands and Antarctica are on my must visit list!
I'm just back from a tour of Argentina and Chile myself. I'm fortunate in not tending to get sick on trips despite my age, and had really good luck on health this time. I took my latest Covid booster the day before setting out for Buenos Aires and, although we traveled through places in both countries where people were masking for the latest variant, had no problems. The southernmost part of our trip was through the Magellanic islands off the Chilean coast in the same sort of expedition ship described in the podcast, with an assortment of dry and wet landings by Zodiac on several of the islands, including Cape Horn itself, and with heavy wave action at times when we edged out into the Pacific and the Drake Passage. Fortunately, no seasickness either.
My husband and I took a trip to Alaska in 2017, land and cruise. We took the last cruise of the season, big mistake. Prior to the inside passage, seas were very rough. At one port our whale watching tour was cancelled due to high seas. I got seasick and spent two days in the cabin getting sick and being nauseous. Nothing would stay down and nothing tasted good. I drank water and ginger ale, ate white rice and chicken broth, 🤢. Now, I always wear the patch on cruises.
Flying home BWI to Fairbanks about 10+ years ago. I felt a tad queasy in BWI, but it seemed to pass. Not remembering the route now, but probably BWI to Anchorage to Fairbanks. On the short flight (~50 minutes or so) Anchorage to Fairbanks I vomited five times. Cabin crew were very helpful and thankful flight was half empty. Got home and vomited once more - very dizzy as I looked up at the ceiling. (No dizziness while flying) Next day and the following weeks I was fine. Awoke on Thanksgiving with no hearing (at all!) in one ear. It’s called Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss. It should be treated as a medical emergency -like losing vision in one eye. (Most internal medicine doctors encounter one or two cases in decades of practice. Also not age or gender related) Fortunately an open minded ENT doc treated me with steroids injected into the inner ear and I recovered 99% of my hearing. SSNHL should not be treated as an ‘infection’. Failure to treat soon after onset = permanent hearing loss. Most likely a virus that peaked while flying and then recurred.
Covid on a Viking River cruise. All good at the start. I’d say by the end of the cruise, 90% of passengers had Covid. One taken off ship in ambulance.
My husband got horrible Montezuma’s revenge in Cozumel. We were on a scuba lunch on the beach adventure. I warned him about eating the salads. He learned
Here's a story much closer to home: in 1983 my future husband and I flew to Minneapolis for a long weekend and tickets for the Guthrie Theater. That first afternoon we ate lunch at a deli - I had a corn beef sandwich. Four hours later, and while we were at a restaurant prior to the performance at the Guthrie, I came down with a sudden attack of food poisoning - I swear from that corn beef sandwich! No Guthrie, no wandering around Minneapolis, no fun. Just a reminder that you don't have to be in a different country to eat something you shouldn't!
I’ve been in over 65 countries but the sickest I was once in Spitzkoppe, Namibia, while we were camping there — yes, you read right, camping. All of a sudden I felt so sick and powerless and I vomited for almost two days in a row. It was hard to stay hydrated enough in the +37C or so heat that the Namibian desert has… But somehow I managed. But I may never forget this occasion. A few times I vomited straight out from our rooftop tent because I didn’t have time to get out of the tent to the ground. Just tried *not* to hit the side of the car. It was so gross... 🤢 And there were lots of Tok-tokkies (a BIG crawling bug, you can look it up from the web ;) and they ate my vomit from the ground…🤣🤣 What a highlight of our travels was this occasion..🤣
I think I got sick because of the water they had there, they said that it was potable from a borehole, but we usually still always filter our drinking water. That time, we didn’t and this happened. At that time we had already been touring around Africa for almost four years already and my stomach could take a lot. But it couldn't take that.
I was in the Galapagos in 1980 on a sort of yacht with 14 passengers and i have so many fond memories. I don't feel i want to go back now because the larger ships don't appeal to me. It is better to just enjoy my great memories.
As for getting sick, given my nearly 60 years of traveling to more than 160 countries, I'm fortunate to have only gotten really sick about five times. I must have a very strong constitution because I even had to drink the water in a private home in Bangkok in 1968 and did not get sick.
stay well.
I get sick there as well! I had breakfast at the Guayaquil Hilton then went to the airport to fly to Santa Cruz Island. I'm pretty sure my illness was food poisoning. Uhhh.
The sickest I’ve ever been was the ferry boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef. Forty minutes from mainland Australia of tortuous wind, high waves and mist made me sea sick beyond any previous time. Nothing helped. Of course once on the Reef, had to make return trip to mainland. So sick. Awful.
Worst case of travelers sickness in Puerto Vallarta 1986 was my claim to fame. We were in a “safe water” resort but they neglected to tell us when the water main broke and all the water was mixed with the “unfiltered” water. When the Evian bottles showed up in the restaurant, I should have taken the hint (and the hotel should have been more forthcoming!). All I can say is that I while the fever was causing hallucinations, I managed to get a bus to the pharmacy (along with the chickens and locals) and got what they said were antibiotics which did nothing. Alaska Airlines managed to get me on a flight the next day but it had a 9 hour delay. The only comfort I had was the cold tile floor! I slept there during the long delay. I was too sick to care if it was dirty. By the time we got on the plane, I felt halfway human. I still remember that floor fondly today.
I got trichinosis in Central America. I was young and luckiky recovered quickly but was living in a rural community and had a rough few days. The doc basically said to stay closer to the city and, of course, not eat anything else with pork, a staple in local Christmas cooking.
I had a grand mal seizure in the middle of a casino in Tahoe. The paramedics attributed it to altitude sickness. Oddly, they just sent me on my way once they got a pulse back and I came to.
I was stung by a scorpion in Thailand. Got a trip to the hospital in Chang Mai.